The Night Sky – From Stars to Constellations (2017)

In early 2017, the ACIMC Association and the Aftab Cultural and Artistic Institute issued a composition call titled “SIMF Composition Competition.” SIMF stood for Shiraz International Music Festival. All composers residing in Iran, regardless of age, were eligible to participate. The program required applicants to submit three scores of their existing works. The jury would then review them and select 12 composers to write new pieces. These new works were to be performed by two ensembles, Alternance and KNM-Berlin, at a festival scheduled to take place from November 21st to 25th of the same year. Unfortunately, the festival was never held due to administrative issues. In the end, the completed works were performed at a different event organized by the ACIMC group in France.

I was accepted into the competition, and I wrote my piece, “The Night Sky, from Stars to Constellations”, for the second round of the SIMF competition. It was ultimately performed by the KNM-Berlin Ensemble at the ACIMC Festival in Paris. I dedicated this piece to the KNM-Berlin Ensemble. The members of the jury for this competition were: Jean-Luc Hervé, Rebecca Saunders, Jean-Luc Monnet, Ali Gorji, Sara Abazari, Mehdi Kazerouni, Alireza Farhang, Mehdi Khayami, Arvin Sedaghatkish, and Arsalan Abedian.

The central idea of the piece is the contrast between the opposing concepts of point and line. I was fascinated by the fact that the fundamental element of painting is the point, and this concept also exists in music and language. Staccato notes in music or the articulation of letters in language are examples of points. However, the most interesting aspect, and the one from which the piece’s title is derived, is a mental phenomenon. Early humans, looking at the starry night sky, initially saw only a collection of bright points. But eventually, more creative individuals realized they could connect these points in their minds to visualize images. This is how constellations gradually took shape. It seems this process has also occurred, to some extent, in language and music. The current piece is an attempt to contemplate and visualize the journey from the concept of a point to a line.

I wrote this piece for flute, oboe, and bass clarinet, and it was performed by Rebecca Lenton (flute), Gudrun Reschke (oboe), and Theo Nabicht (bass clarinet).

Information about the performance of this piece, along with the works of the other composers, can be found in the KNM-Berlin Ensemble’s archive for the year 2018.