Stay Close…but to what?

A project such as Stay Close must invariably engage with the notion of musical Orientalism; the processes by which a Western gaze selectively promotes and displays key aspects of Eastern musics with the effect of exoticising and  caricaturing a complex map of individuals involved in the production and reception of this art form. In many ways, this conflict has particular relevance in relation to my own role in this project; as a British-Iranian, born and educated in the UK I remain unsure as to where I stand in this debate or even whether it is relevant to a study of the contemporary art music in Tehran. While Western-owned record companies clearly hold the balance of power in economic terms and Iranian musicians experience greater creative constraints than their British counterparts (a result both of domestic censorship laws and international restrictions on visas for Iranian passport holders), the Orientalist paradigm too easily erases Iranian creativity and characterises all cultural crossover as colonialism. Social theory constructed in Western nations has too long struggled with the concept of creative expression in the context of Iran, and political changes since the 1979  Revolution have only complicated the debate further.

However, I do not want to become bogged down in debates on the exotic. Stay Close is a creative project culminating in a new 15-minute composition rather than a dissertation on the shortcomings of the Orientalist paradigm. I am interested in meeting musicians, listening to music and attending concerts with the aim of understanding how musical elements derived from traditional Iranian classical music and those that are more commonly associated with Western classical music styles are  intertwined in contemporary Iran. Furthermore, through composing a new piece, I hope to say something about the musicians I have met, the music scene I have discovered, the creative experiences I have enjoyed and perhaps my own complex feelings about my ethnic identity stretching across two cultures. Fundamentally, Stay Close is not about constructing a new framework for understanding how music operates within and across cultures, but rather an exploration of how this artform can function as a means of expressing the multiple identities – be they ethnic, national, religious and creative – occupied by individuals across countries and political contexts.