Posts by admin
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Nasim-e Tarab Ensemble will tour Europe and the UK in Autumn 2024
Nasim-e Tarab Ensemble, led by Saeid Kordmafi, will tour Europe and the UK in Autumn 2024. This will be the first of the border-crossing creative projects supported by Maqām Beyond Nation. The five-member Nasim-e Tarab Ensemble is part of a dynamic aesthetic movement in contemporary Middle Eastern classical music which challenges the rigid (and heavily political) boundaries between national traditions, in favour of a cross-cultural approach to the musics of […]
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Strand 1: Maqām across the Soviet-Chinese divide
Rachel Harris, Eugene Leung, Mukaddas Mijit. This strand aims at “unbordering” Central Asian maqām repertoires across the former Soviet-Chinese divide. It focuses on repertoires canonised in the twentieth century as the separate Uzbek and Tajik Shashmaqām, and the Uyghur Twelve Muqam, and also less recognised regional maqām traditions from Khorezm, Ferghana and Turpan. Since the mid-twentieth century these repertoires have been extensively nationalised, and the overwhelming thrust of scholarship, training […]
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Strand 2: Migrant memories, migrant creativities
Rachel Harris, Mukaddas Mijit, Aziz Isa Elkun This strand attends to human mobilities impelled by political violence and repression, the experience of migrants and the role of music-making in precarious lives; how music-making meets everyday needs for intimacy and belonging across borders, and the intersections of artistic and activist projects undertaken by migrants. Working with a transnational network of exile Uyghur Sufi devotees, we will document their cross-border histories, and […]
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Strand 3: Neo-Ottomanism and maqām revival
Giovanni De Zorzi This strand concerns the revival of Ottoman art music and Sufi-inspired forms of spirituality in contemporary Turkey. Under the Turkish Republic, Ottoman art music underwent a long period of neglect, Sufi lodges were closed, and their musical ceremonies prohibited. Since the 1980s, the revival of Ottoman culture has become a major transnational trend. In the sphere of music, the revival process has involved the rediscovery of repertoires […]
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Strand 4: Pre-national links across Iran and the Caucasus
Polina Dessiatnitchenko, Saeid Kordmafi This strand comprises a comparative study of maqām-based dastghī repertoires which were spread over Iran and Caucasus in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing on archival and ethnographic research, we explore shared networks of exchange and patronage among Iranian and Azerbaijani musicians, the presence of Iranian religious singers (ta‘ziyya khâns) in urban centres in Azerbaijan, and the majlis gatherings which hosted Iranian musicians and nurtured these […]
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Strand 5: Post-Soviet Muslim transnational musical subjectivities
Polina Dessiatnitchenko This strand focuses on how mugham is part of the current increasing ties between Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey and other regions in the Muslim world, and the emergence of post-Soviet Muslim transnational musical subjectivities. Significant aspects of the revival in Azerbaijan include the reintroduction of neutral tones, efforts to rediscover lost repertoire, new discourses around Divine love (ishq); emphasis on the prosodic meters (‘arūḍ) and spiritual meanings of the ghazal […]
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Strand 6: New Creativities in Iranian Classical Music
Saeid Kordmafi This strand explores the potentials for incorporating into contemporary Iranian classical music performance musical materials, techniques and structures drawn from three neighbouring music cultures: Arab, Tajik and Azerbaijani classical traditions. One of the key issues of concern to Iranian musicians over the last few decades has been a perception of the stagnancy of creativity in contemporary Iranian classical music. One response has come from a group of revivalist […]
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Creative research in Iran / Oct 2024
Dr. Saeid Kordmafi recently concluded an extensive two-month research in Iran, from October to December 2023. This constituted part of the practice-based strand of the “Maqam Beyond Nation” project. The primary objective of this undertaking was to finalise the composition, arrangement, and refinement of a classical Iranian music suite by Dr. Kordmafi, partly through rehearsing the repertoire with a select ensemble of accomplished Iranian musicians. Composed based on a cross-cultural and […]
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A Lecture/workshop in the Yunus Rajabi Institute, Tashkent
On 13 October 2023, Dr Saeid Kordmafi gave a talk at the Uzbek National Institute of Musical Art named after Yunus Rajabi. Delivered to the teaching staff and students of the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan in Tashkent (Uzbek maqam masters and apprentices), this talk gave an introduction to classical Iranian music and briefly explored historical interconnectedness among maqam-based traditions across the Islamic world. The session was chaired by the great performer, composer and […]
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Field trip in Uzbekistan / Sept 2024
Dr. Saeid Kordmafi conducted one-month fieldwork from September to October 2023 in Uzbekistan, as an integral component of his engagement in the “Maqam Beyond Nation” project. Delving into the rich musical culture of Central Asia, Dr. Kordmafi travelled to various cities across Uzbekistan, including Bukhara, Samarkand, Fergana, and Tashkent, engaging with esteemed music institutes and master musicians of the venerable traditions of maqam. This field trip was underpinned by a […]