Wednesday (7/6) on the New York Times Opinionator blog, Arab-American composer Mohammed Fairouz writes about “the increasing cosmopolitanism of the musical world in which we find ourselves. … There is a concern among many of the world’s cultures (the Arab culture perhaps most prominent among them) about losing one’s identity in a globalizing world. In a contrapuntal passage of music, each line, even when woven together with other lines to form a cohesive tapestry, retains its own beauty. In this musical technique I see a lesson for the cultures of the world: to exist in counterpoint with one another, with each retaining its individual cultural traits, but enriching the whole. I have used contrapuntal devices as symbolic of this larger meaning throughout my work. … I discovered a profound counterpoint between klezmer and Arabic music when I gave David Krakauer the part to my ‘Tahrir for Clarinet and Orchestra.’ … The work is largely driven by the Arabic modes (maqam) and by the complex layering of rhythmic patterns that we find so often in the music of the Arab World. But David brought with him an additional layer of counterpoint to the work in the textures and accents of Jewish klezmer bands. … The millennia old Jewish and Arabic musical idioms share very much in common and run fire in our veins today.” Click here to view SymphonyNOW’s text and video feature on Fairouz.
July 7, 2011
