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Dear Annie,
Cuatro Puntos' mission is to amplify silenced, persecuted, and underrepresented musicians and genres. In April we held a series of live concerts titled Sounds of Persia, where we featured compositions by Iranian women composers. Since our 2023-24 artist in residence, Ameen Mokdad, had just arrived, we also took the opportunity to include an improvisation on "rast".
Rast is a mode (scale) in the muqaam system, popular in both Persian and Arab music. Compared with the standard Western tonality of major and minor scales based on a 12-note division on the octave, rast sounds very different. It uses notes that lie between the standard Western notes. We often call these "quarter tones", even though they aren't always exactly one quarter between each whole tone. Additionally, in the muqaam system music is constructed with melody and rhythm. Unlike in Western music, where harmony is central to the structure, in Muqaam harmony is secondary and often accidental.
The music you hear in this video is entirely improvised by the musicians. The only agreement in advance was that the musicians would use the rast mode. The musicians are: Ameen Mokdad (violin); Aaron Packard (violin); Kevin Bishop (viola); & Allan Ballinger (cello). It was recorded in a live concert at Christ Church Cathedral on April 16, 2023.
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