Reza Vali Funèbre from Four Movements for String Quartet and String Orchestra

Vesa-Matti Leppänen Violin
Fawzi Haimor Conductor

Reza Vali’s Funèbre for Violin and String Orchestra sounds deeply sombre. It’s also perhaps the most obvious example thus far of the folding together of Eastern classical and Western classical music. Set deep within the soundworld of a Western orchestra, we can hear in the solo violin the sounds of Persian improvisatory melisma in the melodic lines. You may also be able to hear notes and harmonies that sound unusual to Western-trained ears. In Western terminology, you might call them microtones; in Persian terms, they are just the normal notes you might find in the Dastgâh-maghâm system, a musical system of modes that can be said to date back to the eighth century.