Browsing by Author "Ghavi Helm, Kami"

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    When Persian Traditional Music meets Western Violin Tradition
    (2023-04-21) Ghavi Helm, Kami; Loewen, Peter
    While many cultures around the globe have a musical heritage that is both rich and unique, educational systems in the Western World rarely provide students with the tools needed to understand them, let alone perform them. In an attempt to remedy this problem, I shed light on the oral tradition of Persian Music and its Dastgâh modal system. The tuning, intervals, and performance practice found in this repertoire are unlike anything found in Western Art Music, which makes Persian traditional music seem foreign and inaccessible. With this study, my goal is to make Persian traditional music more accessible to Western violinists, by creating compositions that blend elements from Persian and Western music. This study begins with an ethnomusicological examination of the origins and evolution of the modern Dastgâh, including its forms of monophony, improvised melodic formulas and tetrachords, Pythagorean tuning, and microtonal features. Then follows a detailed study of performance practices among Persian masters on traditional instruments, noting their doubling and ornamentations, and more meditative style when compared to Western Art Music. To discover the methods of ornamentation and improvisation in the Dastgâh system, the thesis includes my analysis of two interpretations of the same mode. There follows a composition of my own making based on the Dastgâh-e Chahârgâh, informed by the elements I discovered in my study, alongside preparatory exercises designed to help the performer play the piece convincingly.