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Hooshyar Khayam

Hooshyar Khayam

Hooshyar Khayam is a pianist and composer whose 2007 album Tatari was the first classical piano CD released in Iran since the 1979 revolution. He is part of a new generation of Iranian composers who problematise the link between tradition and identity in Iranian music, rejecting the idea that in order to project ‘Iranian-ness’ he must make use of the radif. Much of his work is written for the piano, an instrument which precludes the microtones that are characteristic of music based on this system, and in any case he notes that the radif itself is only a 150-year old teaching method and thus not as ‘traditional’ as it might seem.

And yet, Hooshyar’s work has a clear contemporary Iranian identity drawing on a whole host of influences from within Iranian society. His work regularly makes use of alternating meters in groups of twos and threes, recalling not only the rhythmic structures of melody types found in Persian classical music but also the cadences of the Iranian language. He also draws on the sonic landscape of contemporary Tehran in his work, making use of the patterns of football chants in the work Stained Glass for piano and string orchestra. Moreover his shifting relationship with improvisation and notation draws on his dual background in kamanche and piano.

Meeting with Hooshyar was fascinating, bringing up a whole host of questions about how composers use a wide variety of musical forms in order to explore what it means to be Iranian in the world today.

Below is the piece ‘Stained Glass’ featured on the 2012 album ‘Strings‘ published by Hermes Records.

And ‘Jonubi’ from the 2007 album ‘Tatari‘ also published by Hermes Records



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