Taher Aavā: Representations of Halgheh Mysticism For Mezzo-Soprano, Baritone and Orchestra

The subject of this dissertation is a series of movements for mezzo-soprano, baritone and orchestra that can be performed either as a whole or individually. The text is my original poems inspired by Halgheh mysticism (mysticism of the Ring), founded by Master Mohammad Ali Taheri. Halgheh mysticism conforms with the framework of Iran's native mysticism (Erfan) and is based on the connection to the Divine Consciousness (or the network of Inter-universal Consciousness). The poems are arranged in order to provide a sequence of poetical themes and musically feature alternating full orchestral settings with subsections. The structure of the poems themselves informs the structure of the individual movements, but the use of thematic repetition within instrumental movements is used to ensure thematic unity, much in the manner of a ritornello in the Western European classical tradition.

The central tenets of Halgheh mysticism are firstly, that things that may seem superficially diverse are in fact joined by a deeper unity; and secondly, that the whole of an entity is reflected in its parts. Therefore, the pieces feature a juxtaposition of Iranian and Western musical traditions. In the first case Iranian and Western musical traditions are juxtaposed, especially Western scales and harmony with Iranian modes. In the second case the technique of composition around the bass line, a concept explained in the dissertation, is used, to reflect the concept of unity in the pieces.

The musical language is a blend of Iranian classical music with European vocal and orchestral techniques, offering an alternative type of composition that not only marries Eastern and Western techniques but also reflects the concept of Iranian mysticism. Thus, the use of quarter tones is informed by classical Iranian music and its traditional modes, though some modifications have been made to the quarter tone scales to facilitate performance by Western orchestras and accommodate the harmonic system used in the work.