Lullaby - Sahba Aminikia
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- Опубликовано: 21 сен 2024
- [Music starts at 4:15]
Just a few months ago, I thought it might be time to sunset my #respite playlist, if not my #unknowncomposersworthhearing playlist.That was back in those sunny days when it seemed that the jaws of the COVID dragon were at last off our collective necks, and before Putin launched his attack on Ukraine. “Not so fast, dear boy, not so fast”. Now, on top of the ongoing political divisiveness here in the USA, the COVID dragon seems to have caught its breath and begun chewing on us again, and Putin is working daily to outdo Hitler. I also got news earlier this week that my grown son, working in a foreign country as a teacher, had come down with a breakthrough case of COVID despite being vaccinated last summer with J&J and boosted more recently with Moderna.
I needed some Respite, and today’s piece “Lullaby”, by the distinguished Iranian-American composer, Sahba Aminikia provided it. I’d gotten the music for it a couple of months ago and shelved it until I would have time to work on it. (There are some sticky bits in the middle that are quite difficult to play…). Metaphorically dusting off the score, I imported it into my tablet, did some intense work on it, and… recorded it last night. Today, I added the introductory remarks and spliced everything together.
Lullaby is slow, hypnotic. The tempo mark, “Adagio con abbandono”, and the first expression mark, “malinconico”, set the tone for the piece. The pace at quarter note=46bpm is slower than the normal heartbeat for most people at rest at 60bpm. Aminikia wants the pianist never to go above a whisper. The entire piece is marked at p, pp, and ppp - soft, softer, and soft as possible, for those unfamiliar with musical notation. My goal in playing it was to eliminate any percussiveness or edge to the “attack” of the notes. It is playing these varying shades of “soft” while ensuring that all the notes sound that is, in my opinion, the primary technical challenge in this piece.
In an effort to make listening to the recording as close as possible to being in the room with me, I have purposely kept the recording levels set at my “usual ones”. With the very low noise floor provided by digital equipment I think I was fairly successful in meeting that goal. This is not a piece to listen to in the car - you won’t hear it. Find a quiet spot and listen with good headphones or through good speakers.
Aminikia is a member of the Baha’i faith, something that was safely possible during more progressive times in his home country, Iran. When the Ayotollah Khomeini and his followers took over, religious intolerance and persecution forced Aminikia to flee his homeland. From what I have read, like many involuntary exiled artists, (Korngold and Rachmaninoff being some of the musicians of note among them), he still “has feelings” for the country where he was born and raised, and he remains pained at what is happening there.
Aminikia’s musical background is an extraordinary one. He turned to western “classical music” after studying with Boris Ivanovich Tischenko, himself a former student of Dmitri Shostokovich, at the famed St. Petersburg State Conservatory. According to an article in “The World” dated 3/26/21, “Aminikia believes that suffering can inspire true art” and says “…It's a natural, organic response that our body has to this pain. The music that speaks to the soul comes from the soul. And the soul that is full of pain, it would always sound better. And we know that deep down as musicians."
To my ears, Aminikia’s “Lullaby” is trance music. Playing the piece altered my state of mind, calmed my emotions, slowed by breath and heartbeat. For the time I was engaged in playing and recording the piece, I had respite from my concerns about the state of the world. I hope you benefit equally from listening to it.
As always, I hope you find this piece and my playing of it worth hearing.
Share, if so moved.
More to come as I discover more music that fits the #respite or #unknowncomposersworthhearing profiles.
PLEASE help support me with these projects - my #Respite and #UnknownComposersWorthHearing work by clicking on the paypal.me link, or using the @AndrewKrausPiano id on Venmo. No contracts, no pledges, no ongoing commitments, just a request to help me keep the music coming. Thanks for listening.
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Photo Credit: CC BY-SA 4.0 Aminikia
It was mesmerizing to watch you play with crossed hands so much. I appreciate hearing the piano played softly and less like the percussion instrument it sounds like to me so often. Thank you for giving a context to the piece. The dissonance was made integral in context.
Thank you watching, listening, and appreciating.
Yes, Peter would have liked this very much. Heavily influenced by minamalism. I like your pedalling.
*minimalism
Glad you liked it! No praise so sweet as from a fellow pianist and Feuchtwangerian.