Hâfez and Betinis: A Conductor’s Approach to Ancient .../67531/metadc822732/m2/1/high... · CHAPTER 1 – ABBIE BETINIS ... 1 Pronounced [b! ˈtin ɪs]. 2 Ghazal, pronounced

HÂFEZ AND BETINIS:

A CONDUCTOR’S APPROACH TO ANCIENT PERSIAN POETRY AS VOICED BY A TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, WESTERN COMPOSER

Peter C. Steenblik, B.M., M.M.

Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of

DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS

December 2015

APPROVED: Dr. Jerry McCoy, Major Professor and

Director of Choral Studies Dr. Stephen Austin, Committee Member

and Director of Vocal Studies Dr. Richard Sparks, Committee Member

and Chair of the Division of Conducting and Ensembles

Dr. Benjamin Brand, Director of Graduate Studies, College of Music Dr. John C. Scott, Dean of the College of Music Dr. Costas Tsatsoulis, Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School

Steenblik, Peter C. Hâfez and Betinis: A Conductor’s Approach to Ancient Persian

Poetry as Voiced by a Twenty-First Century, Western Composer. Doctor of Musical Arts

(Performance), December 2015, 91 pp., 1 table, 20 illustrations, bibliography, 67 titles.

The choral music of Abbie Betinis is being widely performed and commissioned by

prominent high school, university, and civic choruses. This study examines From Behind the

Caravan: Songs of Hâfez, a five-movement work by Betinis for women’s chorus, vielle, oud, and

Persian percussion. Four ghazals by Hâfez of Shiraz, a fourteenth century Sufi poet, are used as

the text for Betinis’s Caravan. When considering a performance of this work, a conductor must

understand proper treatment of the text, available translation options, Hâfez’s vast world of

imagery, vocal demands inherent to the work, alternate instrumentations available and the

benefits of each, how to approach improvisatory passages, how to engage heterophonic elements,

and how to prepare a Western choir and audience with very little to no understanding of the

philosophies of Sufism that heavily influence the work. This study addresses the body of

practical knowledge gained after a year of examining, researching, teaching, and performing this

work.

ii

Copyright 2015

by

Peter C. Steenblik

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Dr. Jerry McCoy: Thank you for your tireless help in the preparation of this document

and for your investment in my educational process. My career path is forever changed because

of your influence. Thank you for encouraging me to take risks, to follow my passion, and to

spread my wings and fly.

Dr. Richard Sparks and Dr. Stephen Austin: Thank you for your serving on my

committee and for your advice, support, and encouragement along the way.

My UNT Colleagues: Thank you for sustaining me through a very demanding year. You

stepped in when it was needed. This process would have been impossible without you.

Abbie Betinis: Thank you for your music. Thank you for your contribution to a world

that sorely needs it. It has been a joy getting to know you.

Behrooz Alavi, Hengemah Fallah, Dr. Elroy Friesen, Ryan Hardcastle, Dr. Susan McMane,

Daniel Sabzghabaei, Dr. Philip Swan, and Raychel Taylor: Thank you for your willingness to

participate and offer your respective areas of expertise to this very complex web of information.

I am appreciative of your time and the incredible collective body of knowledge you represent.

Singers of the 2014-2015 UNT Women’s Chorus: Thank you for your communal power

of spirit. You brought From Behind the Caravan to life. A conductor without a choir is nothing.

It was an honor to perform this work with you.

My family: Thank you for loving and encouraging me.

God: Thank you for the wealth of blessings that shape my life.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES ............................................................................................. vi

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................1

CHAPTER 1 – ABBIE BETINIS .................................................................................................2

Biographical Sketch ..........................................................................................................2

Compositional Style: A Brief Overview ...........................................................................5

CHAPTER 2 – HÂFEZ OF SHIRAZ ...........................................................................................9

Biographical Sketch ........................................................................................................10

The Ghazals of Hâfez .....................................................................................................11

CHAPTER 3 – FROM BEHIND THE CARAVAN: PERFORMANCE PRACTICE .................18

Performance Options ......................................................................................................18

Vocal Production and Timbre .........................................................................................20

Persian Musical Influences:

Metric Stress Patterns .........................................................................................21

Melody and Mode ...............................................................................................29

Text:

Specific Words of Symbolism ............................................................................37

Alteration of Original Poetry ..............................................................................40

IPA and Pronunciation Guide .............................................................................43

Harmonic Language:

Voice-crossing ....................................................................................................43

Divisi ...................................................................................................................45

v

Canon ..................................................................................................................47

Preparing the Choir .............................................................................................49

Instrumentation Options:

Viola or Cello ......................................................................................................50

Inclusion of Oud .................................................................................................52

Advice for the Violist ..........................................................................................53

Advice for the Percussionist ...............................................................................54

Ornaments and Heterophony ..........................................................................................55

CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................................60

APPENDIX A – IPA Guide ........................................................................................................61

APPENDIX B – Canon: A Source of Comfort and Healing ......................................................64

APPENDIX C – Transcripts of Interviews .................................................................................65

Betinis, Abbie with Behrooz Alavi .................................................................................66

Friesen, Elroy ..................................................................................................................71

McMane, Susan ...............................................................................................................73

Swan, Phillip ...................................................................................................................75

Sabzghabaei, Daniel ........................................................................................................78

Hardcastle, Ryan .............................................................................................................81

Taylor, Raychel ...............................................................................................................83

BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................86

vi

LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES

EXAMPLE 1 – From Behind the Caravan, mvt. 2, measures 1-4 ............................................23

EXAMPLE 2 – Caravan, mvt. 4, measures 21-31 .............................................................. 24-25

EXAMPLE 3 – Caravan, mvt. 3, measures 1-2 ........................................................................27

EXAMPLE 4 – Caravan, mvt. 4, measure 59 ...........................................................................27

EXAMPLE 5 – Caravan, mvt 1, measures 16-19 .....................................................................28

EXAMPLE 6 – Caravan, mvt. 3, measures 1-22 ......................................................................31

EXAMPLE 7 – Caravan, mvt. 2, measures 1-8 ........................................................................32

EXAMPLE 8 – Caravan, mvt. 1, measures 60-64 ....................................................................33

EXAMPLE 9 – Caravan, front matter for the second movement .............................................36

EXAMPLE 10 – Caravan, mvt. 2, measures 30-46 ..................................................................39

EXAMPLE 11 – Caravan, mvt. 3, compositional notes ...........................................................42



EXAMPLE 14 – Caravan, mvt. 2, measures 37-49 ............................................................ 47-48


EXAMPLE 16 – Illustration of traditional Persian music from The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music .....................................................................................................56

EXAMPLE 17 – Notes on previous entry .................................................................................56

EXAMPLE 18 – Caravan, mvt. 1, measures 1-2 ......................................................................57



1

INTRODUCTION

This study is the result of the author’s efforts over the past year in examining,

researching, teaching, and performing one of Abbie Betinis’s1 most expansive works, From

Behind the Caravan: Songs of Hâfez, a multi-movement piece for women’s voices. The work is

a setting of four ghazals2 penned by Hâfez3 of Shiraz—a 14th century Sufi mystic, and is

accompanied by vielle,4 oud,5 and percussion. To create a successful and insightful performance

of Caravan, the conductor is required to gain a basic understanding of the philosophical, cultural,

and textual implications that are not immediately apparent in the score itself. Conductors

interested in approaching this piece are met with a series of questions, such as: 1) how best to

handle the treatment, translation, and imagery of the text; 2) how to address vocal demands

inherent in Betinis’s work; 3) if original instruments and experienced players are not available,

what alternate instrumentations to use and the benefits of each, and how to coach those players

on the improvisatory techniques required; 4) how to engage ornaments and heterophonic

elements in the vocal solo, choral, and instrumental lines; and 5) how to prepare a Western choir

and audience with very little to no understanding of the philosophies of Sufism that heavily

influence the work.

1 Pronounced [bəә ˈtin ɪs]. 2 Ghazal, pronounced [ˈɣa zaɫ] in the Middle East or [ˈgæ zæɫ] in English, is a form of Persian poetry

common during the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries. The structure is one of rhyming couplets in a consistent meter. 3 Pronounced [ˈhɔ fez]. Alternate spellings include Hafez, Hafiz, and Hafeez. The author has chosen to use

Hâfez, as used by Abbie Betinis in the score of From Behind the Caravan, except where quoted from another source.

4 The vielle, pronounced [vi ˈjɛɫ], is a medieval stringed instrument that evolved into the modern violin. 5 The oud, pronounced [ud], is a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in Arabic music, much

like a lute.

2

CHAPTER ONE

ABBIE BETINIS

Abbie Burt Betinis (b. 1980) is one of the leading composers of 21st-century American

choral music. At only 35 years old, her compositional output is wide and varied. She is Adjunct

Professor of Composition at Concordia University-St. Paul and her catalog spans nearly 60

commissioned works. The New York Times describes her music as “inventive [and] richly

melodic.”6 Matthew Culloton, director of The Singers, an internationally renowned choral

ensemble in Minnesota, has said, “the music of Betinis…is worthy of consideration because of

its originality, degree of compositional craft, and musical sincerity.” She is no longer an

“emerging” composer, but one whose career now belongs to the same tradition as such names as

Dominick Argento, Stephen Paulus, and Libby Larsen.7

Biographical Sketch

Betinis was raised in Amherst Junction, Wisconsin—situated amidst farms and forests

about 20 miles southeast of Stevens Point.8 She grew up singing songs with her family. At the

age of three, while singing a canon in the car with her family, she proudly held her own part—an

event that is fondly remembered as a “coming-of-age” experience in a family abounding in

musical tradition.9

6 Allan Kozinn, “Romanticism, Tone Paintings and Modern Takes on Folk Tunes,” The New York Times,

May 27, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/. 7 Michael Culloton, “Jocelyn Hagen and Timothy Takach: An Introduction to Their Choral Music and a

Study of Their Positions Within a Lineage of Minnesota-Based Composers” (DMA diss., North Dakota State University, 2013), 79, 96-97, ProQuest (AAT 3557360).

8 Stanley H. Rothrock, II, “The Choral Music of Abbie Betinis: A Prospectus of the Composer’s Output Through December 31, 2008” (DMA diss., University of Minnesota, 2009), 3, Unpublished.

9 Abbie Betinis, e-mail message to the author, June 12, 2015.

3

Throughout her teens and college years, Betinis played and studied voice, piano, flute,

and euphonium. She began her study of composition while still in high school, working

privately with an instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.10 She sang alto, and

occasionally tenor, in the high school choir.11 She attended St. Olaf College on a piano

scholarship12 and graduated with departmental distinction with her B.A. in music with an

emphasis in theory and composition and a concentration in linguistics.13 She sang alto in the St.

Olaf Choir, first soprano in the Early Music Singers at St. Olaf, second soprano in the Manitou

Singers, and alto in the jazz choir at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.14 She later

attended the University of Minnesota, receiving an M.A. in music composition. She has

completed post-graduate work in Paris, France, with the European American Musical Alliance.

While there, she studied harmony and counterpoint with Dr. Philip Lasser, a member of the

Juilliard faculty and whose work is rooted in his studies in the style of Nadia Boulanger.

Betinis’s schooling and composition work have not gone uninterrupted. She has survived

three bouts of Hodgkin’s lymphoma over the past 19 years, ultimately leading to a complete

bone-marrow transplant in 2010. Of this experience, Betinis has said:

Any cancer survivor becomes a counter. You count months, you count weeks, you count how long you’ve been in remission. People can tell you to the day how long that has been. You just never know when it’s coming back. So you wake up and say, I don’t have cancer today—what am I going to do today?15 One of her more significant commissions came in 2011 from Chorus pro Musica director

Betsy Burleigh who asked her to write a companion piece to Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms.

10 Abbie Betinis, e-mail message to the author, July 18, 2015. 11 Abbie Betinis, “A More Personal Biography (2007),” Abbie Betinis: Composer, last modified May 28,

2015. http://www.abbiebetinis.com/writings.html. 12 Ibid. 13 Abbie Betinis, “Biography,” Abbie Betinis: Composer, last modified March 29, 2014,

http://www.abbiebetinis.com/wp/biography.html. 14 Abbie Betinis, e-mail message to the author, July 18, 2015. 15 David Weininger, “A Commission to Evoke ‘the other,’” The Boston Globe, June 3, 2011,

http://www.bostonglobe.com/.

4

The resulting piece, Expectans expectavi, is a rarity in which Betinis actually drew inspiration

from the image of cancer within the body—a single motive that, over the course of the piece,

“infects the entire musical texture.” The motive eventually disappears with the united

declamation of the chorus: Amove a me plagas tuas (Remove your scourges from me).16 The

work’s world premiere, with Chorus pro Musica and the New England Philharmonic, was

described by The Boston Globe as the highlight of an evening “suitably eclectic” and that the

piece “managed to feel both cathartic and unresolved.”17

Various members of the Burt family, Abbie’s mother’s line, have been counting

Christmases through the long-standing tradition known as the Burt Family Christmas Carols. In

1922, Reverend Bates G. Burt began the ritual of sending a newly composed carol to friends.

His son, Alfred, perpetuated the observance in 1941 until his death in 1954. The collection,

known to choirs across the globe as the Alfred Burt Carols, resulted in some beloved favorites

such as The Star Carol, and Caroling, Caroling. Abbie Betinis is the great-niece of Alfred Burt

and has since 2001 resurrected the practice—after it had lain dormant for nearly 50 years.

Alfred Burt had two requests for his wife, Anne, upon his death. One was to take care of his daughter, the other, his music. Both requests were fulfilled dutifully with love. Abbie Burt Betinis would begin her contribution to the Burt Family Christmas card carol legacy in 2001, further making the Burt family name famous in the choral world.18 Another powerful force in the choral community that has had influence on Abbie Betinis

is Dale Warland. Betinis sang with the Dale Warland Singers, a professional chorus with a

thirty-year history, for its last three years of existence. She also sang in the Saint Paul Chamber

Orchestra Chorale conducted by Warland and has said the following about his impact:

16 Ibid. 17 Matthew Guerrieri, “Getting Personal With the Psalms,” The Boston Globe, June 7, 2011,

http://www.bostonglobe.com/. 18 Sharon Howell, “The Burt Family Christmas Card Carol Tradition” (MM thesis, The University of St.

Thomas, 2011), 14-15, unpublished.

5

Dale’s influence on the new music community in Minnesota cannot be underestimated—particularly, of course, the choral community—which is now a thriving culture of commissions and respect for new music and its creators. He has been a constant advocate for me, publishing some of my music in his series with G. Schirmer, recommending it to friends and colleagues, programming it when he can. His kindness and generosity is an example to all of us and infuses the commissioning culture with the same.19 Betinis is a highly active composer and is passionately involved in the promotion of her

own works as well as the works of other composers. She is a founding member of the

Independent Music Publishers Cooperative, and, in 2014, her works were performed “in 14

countries on 5 continents, totaling nearly 400 performances.”20 She attributes her success to her

professional collaborations and advises young music students to get involved, join professional

organizations, and always act with the utmost professionalism.21

While not diminishing her own efforts, she acknowledges that she is privileged to live in

the right time and in the right place. St. Paul is home to the American Composers Forum, a

nationally recognized organization that has profoundly supported her. Furthermore, she benefits

strongly from her association with Minnesota Public Radio. The station has become a significant

partner in promoting her work to a wide audience.22

Compositional Style: A Brief Overview

One particular trait that enhances Betinis’s compositional style is her academic degree in

music composition with a secondary emphasis in linguistics. As a result, she has set texts in

“Gaelic, ancient Greek, Latin, Norwegian, medieval Persian, Spanish, Tang-era Chinese, and

19 Abbie Betinis, e-mail message to the author, July 18, 2015. 20 Abbie Betinis, Abbie Betinis, “Biography,” Abbie Betinis: Composer, last modified June 21, 2015,

http://www.abbiebetinis.com/wp/biography.html. 21 Abbie Betinis, “Abbie’s Top 10 Tips for Graduating Seniors in Music,” Between the Measures no. 21

(2011). 22 Abbie Betinis, in-person interview with the author, February 26, 2015.

6

gibberish.”23 Each time she sets a new text, the influences of that particular language and culture

can be observed in her music. Her compositions have included such extra-musical elements as

yodeling, whistling, keening, spitting, crying, grunting, and bird calling. She maintains a goal to

“never write the same piece twice,” by writing in a wide range of styles and exploring various

timbres and textures.24

Her musical influences include Thomas Tallis, Jaako Mäntyärvi, Knut Nystedt, Francis

Poulenc, Libby Larsen, Arnold Schoenberg, Olivier Messiaen, and Eric Satie, to name a few.25

Betinis routinely practices daily composition and likens it to such circadian events as brushing

her teeth.26

While studying on scholarship at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, Betinis

developed a general compositional vocabulary and a distinct understanding of counterpoint that

particularly affects her choices regarding voice leading techniques. Such techniques will be

discussed in Chapter Three. Betinis, a singer, is also conscious of vocal colors that result from

tessitura and placement.27 She has said:

Before I start writing for women I always think, “What will make them sound the most resonant, the most rich?” Regarding men’s chorus, I wonder, “What will make them sound the most clear?” So, I approach the vertical spacing quite differently [with the men], doing everything I can to wrestle the harmonic series into closed spacing for more vocal “ring.” On the other hand, I love writing crunchy, gritty chords for women, because I am never worried about them sounding “muddy.”28

On the use of various accompaniments, she added:

A great deal of women’s chorus music I have heard is texturally and timbrally tame, and an entire concert of that can tire the ear. I love trying to “mix it up” by writing a mallet

23 Abbie Betinis, “Biography,” Abbie Betinis: Composer, last modified March 29, 2014,

http://www.abbiebetinis.com/wp/biography.html. 24 Abbie Betinis, e-mail message to the author, March 30, 2014. 25 Abbie Betinis, in-person interview with the author, February 26, 2015. 26 Abbie Betinis, “On the Suzuki Method in My Life,” Aber Suzuki Center Alumni Brochure (2007). 27 Abbie Betinis, in-person interview with the author, February 26, 2015. 28 Abbie Betinis, quoted in Debra Spurgeon, ed., Conducting Women’s Choirs (Chicago: GIA Publications,

2012), 168.

7

or other percussion accompaniment part, or a low, string drone. I have designed some women’s pieces with levels of texture so it will “pop off” the page.29

Betinis further elaborated in a recent interview:

One of the great luxuries I’ve found in writing for women’s chorus is permission to be adventurous. In my experience, it seems a great proportion of women’s choruses are actively seeking challenging music…music with cultural significance, emotional depth, and often political relevance. Many women’s choruses seem to me to be programming by message rather than, say, by season or available instrumentation. This is very exciting to me…. I’m convinced the world is changed through singing. A powerful text sent out through the medium of song can make that message so deeply meaningful, and that’s the kind of choral community I love being a part of.30

One compositional technique of which Betinis is very fond, and which affects many of

her compositions, is canon. Chapter Three will address the significance of canon. The inclusion

of canonic devices forms a deep connection between Betinis’s very soul and the music she

composes. One of her publications includes the following preface:

I love singing [canons] so much I apparently write them in my sleep! I woke up with this one in my head one morning, as the sun streamed into my window on a bright fall day.31

Such natural ability does not mean that her compositions come without significant work.

She is an exhaustive researcher. When receiving a commission centered on a specific theme, she

typically scours the library for every book on the topic—sometimes a pile as high as the piano.32

When it involves a text in a foreign language, she will ask a native-speaker to coach her and

teach her the natural intonation and flow. She then memorizes the text, internalizes it, and

recites it to herself while going about her everyday tasks, studying the meaning and origin of

each word. Of this process, she says,

29 Ibid., 170. 30 Abbie Betinis, transcripted interview with Nancy Menk, June 21, 2011. 31 Abbie Betinis, Morning Round, (Abbie Betinis Music Co.: Saint Paul, 2013). 32 Abbie Betinis, e-mail message to the author, June 12, 2015.

8

There’s so much music already in a text that sometimes I feel like I’m cheating. Once I get to the piano, the music tends to be there. It’s kind of an elusive and mysterious process.33

For Betinis, the selection of text generally precedes the composition of music. She spoke

of how she went about this process in preparing for Caravan.

For the Rose Ensemble last year I wrote a piece in Persian, and I really had to study the language…the intonation and the patterns of…poetic stresses in the [ghazal, which] made me think about the text in a more removed way. …I was able to concentrate on the music having its own form, separate from what the text might dictate, actually. When I’m too close to a text, I can find it impossible to set.34 A columnist for Minnesota’s Star Tribune noted a shift in her writing style with the

creation of Caravan, calling this emergence a “more insistent voice,” that she has “begun to push

her text-centered envelope.” He writes of her imminent success as a composer, citing that “her

talent and tenacity, along with a self-critical bent, should take her far.”35 Indeed, Betinis credits

Caravan as a turning point where she had the challenge of “learning about a completely new

culture [in order] to fulfill a commission.”36

In preparation for this study, Betinis was asked to direct the author toward works in her

repertoire that had influence upon her composition of Caravan, and works that grew out of what

she learned from Caravan. She replied, somewhat humorously, “That’s everything.”37

33 Abbie Betinis, quoted in Shekela Wanyama, “Nothing Off-Limits: An interview with composer Abbie

Betinis,” International Choral Bulletin 28:2 (2009) 39. 34 Abbie Betinis, transcripted interview with Peter Myers, January 29, 2008. 35 Larry Fuchsberg, “Expect Big Things,” Star Tribune, November 11, 2007, sec. F. 36 Abbie Betinis, e-mail message to the author, March 30, 2014. 37 Abbie Betinis, in-person interview with the author, February 26, 2015.

9

CHAPTER TWO

HÂFEZ OF SHIRAZ

The literature available on Khwajeh Shams al-Din Muhammad Hâfez-e Shirazi (ca. 1320-

1390), otherwise known as Hâfez, is vast and varied. Although his writing influenced the works

of Goethe and Emerson, Hâfez has not yet gained a strong foothold in the literary circles on this

continent.38 Goethe wrote,

Only with you, Hafez, do I wish to compete, for the older you get the younger you become… And religion is no obstacle, for if the word “Islam” means to submit to God, we all live and die in Islam.39

Hâfez’s presence, however, is widely known in present-day Iran. Shahriar Zangeneh, a

scholar in Persian poetry, wrote, “His turn of phrase has enriched the Persian lexicon and, even

more than the Shakespeare in English, has entered everyday language.”40

Reza Ordoubadian, a literary scholar who has translated many works of Hâfez wrote:

He is everywhere in the culture: in the market places and in the streets, on the radio stations and among lovers, between husbands and wives, children at school and taxi drivers. I was…in Iran in 1970, and as my taxi weaved through the streets of Tehran, the driver began mumbling something very musical, which I could not hear clearly. I asked what he was singing, and with delighted laughter he said, “Nothing! Just reciting some ghazals of Hafez.” He said he was depressed, and reciting Hafez always gave him a boost.41 For the contemporary American audience, however, Hâfez remains largely unknown.

38 Issa Boullata, “Introduction: Convention and Invention: Islamic Literature in Fourteen Centuries,”

Religion & Literature 20:1 (1988): 12. 39 Michael Boylan, et al., Hafez: Dance of Life. (Washington, D. C.: Mage Publishers, 1988), 1. 40 Reza Ordoubadian, The Poems of Hafez, (Bethesda: IBEX Publishers, 2006), 11. 41 Ibid., 13.

10

Biographical Sketch

Limited reliable information on Hâfez’s life is available from which to construct a

thorough biography. There are even significant variances on his given name. It was likely

Shams-al-din Muhammad, but he is widely known today Hâfez of Shiraz. He chose the pen

name “Hâfez” which simply means “memorizer,” a title given to one who learns the Qur’an by

heart.42 Shiraz was his birthplace and was described anonymously in the tenth century as “a

large and flourishing town with many riches and many inhabitants.”43 He was born

approximately fifty years after the death of Rumi, the well-known mystical poet.

His parents were poor. His father, a coal merchant, died when Hâfez was still young.

Even though he was the youngest of three sons, Hâfez was then expected to help support the

family. While working as a baker’s assistant, Hâfez split his earnings between his family

obligations and his own tuition for school. He studied calligraphy and became a professional

copyist. He was well read in Persian poetry and absorbed the writings of his predecessors. He

was a teacher and earned much of his living on patronage. Both the court and college employed

him, however, since he was not afraid to push the literary boundaries a bit, he often fell out of

favor with those who supported him—leading to spells of impoverished unemployment and even

exile. He also knew extreme grief. Hâfez’s son passed away at a young age and he lost his wife

soon after. Yet out of these periods of poverty and grief rose the sincerity and depth of his art.44

He had a small following of devoted students and admirers who revered him. He was a known

Sufi and his writings frequently display dissatisfaction with organized religion and the ongoing

fighting between various sects. Above all, he admired the pure in heart. He died around the age

42 Henry S. Mindlin, “Introduction: The Life and Work of Hafiz,” in Daniel Ladinsky, The Gift: Poems By

Hafiz, The Great Sufi Master, (New York: Penguin Books, 1999), 7. 43 Arthur J. Arberry, Fifty Poems of Hāfiz, (London: Cambridge University Press, 1962), 3. 44 For more information on how Hâfez’s circumstances helped define his art, refer to the transcript of an

interview between Abbie Betinis and Behrooz Alavi. This transcript is available in APPENDIX C.

11

of seventy and was buried “at the foot of a cypress tree he himself had planted in a rose garden

near Shiraz.”45 This site has served as a pilgrimage destination for hundreds of years.

The Ghazals of Hâfez

In 2004, Dick Davis published an article in the New England Review titled “On Not

Translating Hafez” and outlines the difficulties in translating the Sufi master—helping to explain

the reasons for the varied approaches of translation. Davis wrote,

Two kinds of problems for the translator of a literary text are well-recognized: first, the linguistic and second, the cultural; naturally, the two often overlap.46 Notable literary translations of Hâfez’s writings are those by Wilberforce Clarke (1891),

Arthur Arberry (1962), Michael Boylan (1988), Daniel Ladinsky (1999), Peter Avery and John

Heath-Stubbs (2003), and Reza Ordoubadian (2006). Each collection approaches the translation

of Hâfez quite differently. The three that will be addressed in this study are the Clarke, Boylan,

and Ladinsky.

No source is quite as thorough or expansive as the aforementioned 1891 publication by

Wilberforce Clarke titled The Divan, a two-volume set that spans 1,000 pages. The work

provides an exhaustive review of the ghazals by Hâfez. Its formidable size makes it somewhat

intimidating to even the most ardent scholar. Although translated into English, the first letter of

their original Farsi script organizes the ghazals in this publication. Such organization makes it

difficult, though not impossible, for the Western researcher. The four ghazals Betinis selected

for Caravan are given the following numbers by Clarke: 6, 222, 284, and 433 and can be found

in The Divan on pages 30, 406, 499, and 723, respectively.

45 Henry S. Mindlin, “Introduction: The Life and Work of Hafiz,” in Daniel Ladinsky, The Gift: Poems By

Hafiz, The Great Sufi Master, (New York: Penguin Books, 1999), 9. 46 Dick Davis, “On Not Translating Hafez,” New England Review 25:1-2 (2004),

http://www.nereview.com/back-issues/2004-issues/vol-25-no-1-and-2/.

12

Daniel Ladinsky’s publication titled The Gift: Poems By Hafiz, The Great Sufi Master

provides an updated contextual translation of Hâfez’s poetry in an attempt to make the ghazals

accessible to the modern-day reader. Ladinsky wrote:

I may seem to have taken the liberty to play a few of these lines through a late-night jazz sax instead of from a morning temple drum or lyre. To some readers a few expressions in this book may appear too contemporary for this work. To that I say—nothing doing. The word translation comes from the Latin for “to bring across.”47

Ladinsky’s translations bring the archaic poetry of Hâfez to a Western audience in a way not

generally found in other sources. Notice the different approach taken by Clarke and Ladinsky in

their respective translations of the same ghazal Betinis uses for her first movement of Caravan

(TABLE 1). Ladinsky professes that his work is not a word-for-word translation, but instead, a

contextual translation—one that may translate across cultures.

47 Daniel Ladinsky, The Gift: Poems By Hafiz, The Great Sufi Master, (New York: Penguin Books, 1999),

5.

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Clarke translation48 Ladinsky translation49 Not in pursuit of pomp and of pageant, to this door (of the murshid)—

we have come For shelter from ill-fortune, here—

we have come. Way-farers of love’s stage are we, and from the limits of non-existence, Up to the climes of existence, all this way—

we have come. The freshness of Thy down, we saw, and, from the garden of paradise, In search of this love-grass,—

we have come. With such treasure, whose treasurer is the faithful spirit (Jibrã,il), In beggary to the door of the King’s house—

we have come. O bark of grace (the family of Muhammad) thy anchor of patience (‘Ali Murtazã) is where? For, in this ocean of liberality, immersed in sin—

we have come O cloud, sin-cleansing honour goeth; (mercy) rain: For in the court of action (as opposed to theory) black of book,—

we have come. Hãfiz! this woollen khirka (of outward worship) cast. For (with love’s consuming and melting), From behind the kãfila with the fire of sighing (and wailing)—

we have come.

We Are not

In pursuit of formalities Or fake religious

Laws,

For through the stairway of existence We have come to God’s

Door.

We are People who need to love, because

Love is the soul’s life,

Love is simply creation’s greatest joy.

Through The stairway of existence,

O, through the stairway of existence, Hafiz,

Have You now come,

Have we all now come to The Beloved’s

Door. TABLE 1 – Comparative translations of the same ghazal (we have come) used for Caravan, mvt. 1.

One additional publication of note, a small selection of Hâfez’s poetry titled Hafez:

Dance of Life distributed by Mage Publishers, contains renderings by, Michael Boylan, Hossein

Zenderoudi, Amir Tabnak, Michael C. Hillmann, and Mohammad Batmanglij. Along with the

complete anthology of Wilberforce Clarke, the Mage book is another source from which Abbie

Betinis gathered much of her information and even assembled her own hybrid translation. This

book, and all that it has to offer, will be addressed more thoroughly in the Texts portion of this

study. In Hafez: Dance of Life, hereafter referred to as the Mage publication, each contributor

brought his individual flavor. The result is a collection of poetic translations, artistic renderings,

48 Wilberforce Clarke, translator, The Divan of Hafiz: Volume 2, (Caluctta: Government of India Central

Pritning Office, 1891), 723. 49 Daniel Ladinsky translator, The Gift: Poems By Hafiz, The Great Sufi Master, (New York: Penguin

Books, 1999), 96.

14

calligraphic illuminations, literal translations, and footnoted information for each ghazal.

Particularly helpful is a description of the meter of each poem (ghazal). This helps complete the

understanding that “most Persian poetry…was composed not so much to be recited as sung—

even without accompanying musical instruments—either as chanting or straight singing.”50 A

significant transliteration guide is also provided to assist in learning the Farsi pronunciation. The

Mage collection is an invaluable source that leads to greater understanding of Betinis’s vision.

Hâfez: Dance of Life is out of print, and has, at this time, no scheduled date for reprint.

Fortunately, however, in October 2014, Mage Publishers made the entire volume available

online, including recorded readings of each ghazal being recited by the Iranian-born poet Nader

Naderpour (1929-2000). Such a resource is invaluable to students of Hâfez, particularly to a

conductor and ensemble considering a performance of Betinis’s Caravan. Betinis had access to

this material while composing. In addition to her own interviews and resources, she was

undoubtedly affected by the inflections and performance available in the Mage recordings. The

publishers have given permission to reference the work in this study and information is available

in the footnotes.51

While the literary performances associated with the Mage publication are helpful, the

translations, on the other hand, are not quite what Betinis envisioned. Michael Boylan, a writer

of philosophy and fiction, calls his representation of the Hâfez ghazals an artistic “rendering,”

rather than translation. His understanding of Farsi was insufficient to translate the work himself,

so he drew from multiple translations and sources—including those in Farsi, German, and

French—and consulted with native speakers of Farsi who helped him fine-tune some of the

50 Reza Ordoubadian, The Poems of Hafez, (Bethesda: IBEX Publishers, 2006), 26. 51 Amin Sepehri, Assistant to the Publisher, Mage Publishers, e-mail message to the author, June 8, 2015.

www.mage.com. The entire publication is available in a bilingual audio/visual web rendering and includes transliterations of the Persian using a phonetic English script. Visit http://www.magepublishers.com/hafez-dance-life-poetry-read-persian-english/.

15

points of meaning.52 Betinis is aware of the limitations of this translation, which is why she

chose to consult other versions as well. The rendering in the preface of Caravan is her own,

informed translation—drawing heavily upon the words of Clarke and Boylan.53

Perhaps like the Psalms of David, the poetry of Hâfez was sung, rather than recited. Each

ghazal adopts a certain metric stress pattern that is extremely important when being recited

aloud. The Mage publication referenced above illustrates the meter. Above the transliterated

text, the editors have placed to denote syllables of short duration, and to denote

syllables of long duration. Both of these symbols appear together above syllables of “very long”

duration. To maintain the proper meter, pauses are occasionally necessary. A is placed

below the text in those places between words where a pause is expected—preserving the natural

meter. When read in the correct manner, one can immediately identify the musical quality

inherent in Hâfez’s ghazals.

Throughout From Behind the Caravan, it is apparent that Betinis is aware of the scansion

of Hâfez’s poetry. The various methods she uses to reflect these stress patterns are not merely

limited to note duration. Additionally, she includes adjustments to the time signature,

articulation, inclusion of percussion, and utilization of free chant. These specific techniques will

be outlined in a more specific way in Chapter Three.

As with all the Sufi mystics, symbolism and allegories abound in Hâfez’s writings.

These literary devices can be challenging to Western readers. The aforementioned Davis writes:

We come to a major problem, which is that the appearance of a set of strategies considered intrinsically poetic in Persian—the inferiority of the speaker, praise of the

52 Michael Boylan, e-mail messages to the author, June 19 and 20, 2015. 53 Abbie Betinis, e-mail message to the author, June 12, 2015.

16

addressee…is relatively rare in English poetry, is not considered intrinsically poetic, and can be seen as unnatural or absurd.54

An example is the inclusion of Hâfez’s own name in the final paragraph in many of his poems.

This practice has dual purposes—to embody deity and/or humanity, and to personalize his work.

In order to understand the implications of this simple act, the inclusion of the author’s name, the

Western audience must first gather a basic understanding of Sufism. To quote one biographer,

Nobody really knows for sure what Hafiz’s ‘religion’ was, but he was, above all, a Sufi, and to be a Sufi is to be above the differences and squabbles of religious divisions.55

At the heart of Sufism is a love of humanity and a desire to view oneself as part of a larger

picture.56 With this understanding, we can see that when Hâfez inserts himself into his own

poetry, he is inserting all of us, and God, at the same time. He is speaking at the same time as

the seeker and as the master. “In psychological parlance [he] is ‘dissociated’ from [himself],

losing consciousness of the world as it is normally perceived.”57

Another possible reason for speaking of himself in the third-person is simply an act of

“signing” the poem—much like an artist signs a freshly completed oil painting, or a loved one

signs a letter.58 It was his way of preserving his authorship of the ghazal through the ages.

A concept that is present in Hâfez’s poetry and is evident in Caravan is the inclusion of

various invented characters and locations. One prominent example is a character called the

Beloved, which can be translated as any number of things: God, a family member, a friend, a

lover. The Beloved is usually associated with a sense of longing. The literature of many cultures

54 Dick Davis, “On Not Translating Hafez,” New England Review 25:1-2 (2004),

http://www.nereview.com/back-issues/2004-issues/vol-25-no-1-and-2/. 55 Peter Avery and John Heath-Stubbs, Hafiz of Shiraz, (New York: Handsel Books, 2003), x. 56 Huston Smith, The World’s Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions, (New York: Harper Collins, 1991),

260. 57 Ibid., 261. 58 Daniel Ladinsky, The Gift: Poems By Hafiz, The Great Sufi Master, (New York: Penguin Books, 1999),

4.

17

adopts this kind of an association, but the Sufi poets (Hâfez, Rumi, etc.) take this association to a

deeper, more spiritual level as the “amalgamation of intimacy.”59

Hâfez frequently references a fictional place called golestân, which is a happy, hopeful

place, loosely translated into English as a “garden.” It often appears by comparison with another

fictional place, Kolbe-ye ahzân, which is a place of sadness and brokenness. Kolbe-ye ahzân can

be transformed into Golestân. This process is one of deep, spiritual meaning.

He has also created a character called Rend, which can mean a person, or a state of being,

and is translated to be one who loves freely, does not fear, and is a bit of a nomad. The person

who has achieved Rendi has no prejudices, rarely argues, is quick to forgive, and is decidedly

balanced.

Such ideas illustrate in general terms some of the broad themes found in Hâfez’s

writings. Other themes associated with Hâfez are joy, appreciation, gratitude, loyalty, patience,

forgiveness, peace, and freedom. Upon hearing a list of attributes woven through the ghazals,

Abbie Betinis replied with a sigh and said, somewhat dreamily, “If only we could do all of those

things in life.”60

59 Elaboration is contained in the transcripted interviews between Abbie Betinis and Behrooz Alavi, and

between the author and Daniel Sabzghabaei in APPENDIX C. 60 Abbie Betinis, in-person interview with Behrooz Alavi, April 19, 2008.

18

CHAPTER THREE

FROM BEHIND THE CARAVAN: PERFORMANCE PRACTICE

The composition closest to my heart is From Behind the Caravan. … The poetry is so evocative. It is from fourteenth-century Sufi mysticism, an Islamic tradition of longing for the beloved through imagery of fire, breath, whirling, and dancing. To me, the text is a great opening up of the heart and the human spirit. It says ‘patience, faith,’ but it also says ‘celebration,’ and above all ‘peace.’ The work is a major commitment for a chorus. Nevertheless, it is receiving frequent performances, and a few choirs have performed it from memory! Because of the improvised elements, the work is different every time, and the enthusiasm, determination, and emotional depth of the ensembles that learn and perform it continue to thrill and inspire me.61

Performance Options

When considering a performance of From Behind the Caravan: Songs of Hâfez, one of

the first questions a conductor must ask is whether to perform the complete work or to extract

movements. There is some difference of opinion as to whether the movements are extractable.

Originally, Caravan was a response to a commission from the Rose Ensemble. Jordan Sramek,

founder and Artistic Director, asked for a five-movement work with a Middle Eastern text.

Betinis first turned to the Qur’an as a source for text choices before learning that setting a

Quranic text to music would be considered sacrilege. She then turned to poems Hâfez and Rumi

for inspiration. Betinis eventually settled on five ghazals of Hâfez—the four currently in the

score, and a ghazal titled Bar xizam.62 This additional ghazal was included to strengthen the

imagery of rising up, conquering difficulty, and experiencing personal healing. The last

movement, Âmade-im (we have come), was to serve as a point of arrival. As Betinis began the

composition process, however, she decided to remove Bar xizam from the set and to allow it to

61 Abbie Betinis quoted in Debra Spurgeon, ed., Conducting Women’s Choirs (Chicago: GIA Publications,

2012), 177-178. 62 Pronounced [bæɾ xizæm].

19

develop into its own work—primarily due to a desire for an SATB setting, rather than setting it

according to the Rose Ensemble’s SSAA constraints. The original commission, however,

specifically adjured five movements. It was at this time that Betinis took the last movement,

âmade-im and used it as a prelude and epilogue, bookending the entire work.63

With this history of the work’s origins in mind, it is clear that Betinis intended the work

to represent a journey—using the idea of “we have come” as an arrival point. For this reason,

there are varied opinions as to the extractability of the movements. Dr. Philip Swan of Lawrence

University has said,

Yes. I think they are [extractable]. That’s the beauty of it. For the work as a whole they all tie in to create a beautiful story but, at the same time, the movements can all stand on their own. In fact, I’ve done [movements 1, 2, and 3] on their own.64

By contrast, with regard to extractability, Dr. Elroy Friesen of the University of Manitoba

responded with an emphatic,

No. They’re not extractable. Part of the success of the piece is the emotional journey. Of course, if you’re looking for a flash-in-the-pan [effect], you could do one movement—but, I don’t think it does the piece justice.65

Betinis has made the first, second, and fifth movements available for individual purchase

on her own website and, in conversation with the author, she has said that she does not mind the

movements being extracted. However, she added caution that if programming Caravan in

abbreviated form (example: mvts. 1, 2, 5) she does not particularly feel that the ear is ready for

the return of the opening material so soon. It is helpful to have a little more aural “padding”

between the bookends of the first and fifth movements.66

63 Abbie Betinis, e-mail message to the author, June 12, 2015. 64 Phillip Swan, interview with the author, June 16, 2015. 65 Elroy Friesen, interview with the author, June 2, 2015. 66 Abbie Betinis, interview with the author, February 26, 2015.

20

In selecting the proper key for a choir, Betinis is a strong supporter of a conductor

experimenting with possibilities. She has said,

A good deal of forethought goes into choosing the proper key for a piece for women’s voices and, even then, it does not always work for every choir. It is incredible to me to hear the timbral change when a women’s chorus sings a piece a half step up or down from the key in the written score. More than any other ensemble, it seems women’s timbres change the most when the key changes. I have had many conductors ask me if they could take my written key up or down. I always say: “yes, yes, yes!” I am certainly not the expert on what will make their choir sound the best, and that initial decision of key is always really hard for me.67

Caravan was premiered in keys that are different than the published version. As will be

addressed later, the work was premiered with vielle, rather than cello or viola. Betinis adjusted

the keys of the piece to better fit the technical needs of modern instruments.68

Vocal Production and Timbre

Betinis understands that there exists a broad range of opinions with regard to timbre and

vocal production for Caravan and wholly supports the conductor in making these decisions.69 A

recent performance of Caravan by the Santa Fe Desert Chorale70 delivered the music exactly as

it was written on the page, but made significant use of the female chest voice—a tonal approach

that could be considered raw or robust. This author observed Betinis’s rapturous enthusiasm for

this particular performance.

On the other hand, a more classical, bel canto approach might be taken, especially with

younger singers. Both Dr. Susan McMane of the Young Women’s Choral Project of San

Francisco and Dr. Elroy Friesen of the University of Manitoba advised performing the piece with

67 Debra Spurgeon, ed., Conducting Women’s Choirs (Chicago: GIA Publications, 2012), 170. 68 Abbie Betinis, e-mail message to the author, June 12, 2015. 69 Abbie Betinis, in-person interview with the author, February 26, 2015. 70 From Behind the Caravan, mvts. 1, 2, & 5 conducted by Dr. Joshua Habermann for the National

Convention of the American Choral Directors Association at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City, February 26, 2015.

21

a slightly more classical approach, maintaining strong, healthy vocal production, but allowing

singers to sing “a little more off-the-chest”—as long as the students understand that “it’s not the

way we usually sing.”71

A balanced approach was taken by Dr. Phillip Swan who maintained a bel canto

approach, but made deliberate choices of departure in interest of honoring the text:

I wanted it to reflect the text more than anything. At times it would be strong, then joyful, then…reflective. So, I wanted both extremes. I wanted it to have an edge to it, at times, but I also wanted a clear beauty to the sound at times—so people could focus on the text and reflect.72 The polarity of opinions with regard to vocal timbre also affects the selection of soloists.

The score could be performed using as many as twelve or more soloists with a variety of timbres.

If a conductor asks the choir to approach the work by means of classical vocal production, one

option is to utilize soloists that can healthily exhibit more of the raw, chest tone. This was

Friesen’s decision. He reduced the solo parts to using only two guest soloists that each had

healthy “chesty” production and significant soprano capabilities too. Friesen said selection of

the correct soloists is imperative to the performance of Caravan, suggesting that the use of

soloists who cannot handle the strength and power required of the piece “can bring the whole

thing down.”73

Persian Musical Influences: Metric Stress Patterns

Above all, I have tried desperately to remain true to the intonation of the language, and to Hâfez’s poetic instinct. … The music is my own, and not authentically Persian. It is my interpretation of an assortment of influences, including my study of Persian speech, scales, and modes, but perhaps also from my distant memory of being four years old and

71 Susan McMane, interview with the author, June 2, 2015. 72 Phillip Swan, interview with the author, June 16, 2015. 73 Elroy Friesen, interview with the author, June 2, 2015.

22

dancing—joyfully and tirelessly—with my Greek relatives to music that whirled feverishly around me.74 Betinis states in the preface to Caravan that the music is not authentically Persian. For

this reason, this author will not present exhaustive research on the rich musical practices of the

Middle East but will highlight a few traits common to Persia that Betinis has used.

The previous chapter addressed a collection of twelve Hâfez ghazals published under the

title Dance of Life. This collection by Mage Publishers is a valuable resource in understanding

the meter of the ghazals as they are recited in the Farsi language.

The Mage publication indicates meter with the presentation of each ghazal. Above the

transliterated text, the editors have placed to denote syllables of short duration, and to

denote syllables of long duration as seen in the first line from the ghazal Betinis selected for the

second movement of Caravan:

This ghazal, one of the most well known in Iran, is set to the meter (LONG-short-LONG-

LONG//LONG-short-LONG-LONG//LONG-short-LONG-LONG//LONG-short-LONG). Betinis

sets this text75 almost entirely homophonic in corresponding rhythmic fashion (EXAMPLE 1).

74 Abbie Betinis, From Behind the Caravan: Songs of Hâfez, (Abbie Betinis Music Co.: Saint Paul, 2007)

preface. 75 Translation provided by the composer in the preface to Caravan: “Joseph, forsaken, shall return to

Canaan. Suffer no grief.”

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EXAMPLE 1 – Caravan, mvt. 2, measures 1-4. Scansion of text in a Western choral setting (LONG-short-LONG-LONG//LONG-short-LONG LONG…).

The text for the fourth movement is presented by the Mage publication as having an

entirely different meter:

(LONG-LONG-short//LONG-short-LONG-LONG). Betinis achieves the desired effect, once

again, by utilizing corresponding note values with each syllable.76 However, this time the solo

line observes this metric pattern while the choral parts appear in ostinato. An accompanying

duet with the viola, and a rising melody in the textless choir, aids in delivering the message of

the simultaneous texts delivered by soloist and lower voices of the choir: “Come to my cry, for

God’s sake” (soloist), and “Arise, o breeze, arize” (choir) (EXAMPLE 2).

76 Translation provided by the composer: “My heart falls from grasp! Come to my cry, for God’s sake.”

24

EXAMPLE 2 – Caravan, mvt. 4, measures 21-31. Scansion of text by the soloist and viola. Choir provides additional imagery to aid in poetic meaning. (Cont’d on next page)

25

EXAMPLE 2 (cont’d)

26

In addition to note duration, an example is found in the third movement where Betinis

observes scansion through use of various articulations. The ghazal in this movement is

illustrated by the Mage publication as having the following meter:

(short-short-LONG-LONG//short-short-LONG-LONG). A less-inventive composer may have

set the text in a simple 3/4 time signature, as this scheme lends itself to a waltz-like stress

pattern.77 Betinis, however, sets the ghazal in 7/4 time and effectively adds the use of

articulation to aid in the delivery of metric stress (EXAMPLE 3). Staccato and tenuto are used

to illustrate syllabic stress; Betinis fragments some of the words to drive this point further.

Without proper understanding, some conductors and singers would choose to connect adjacent

syllables belonging to the same word across the eighth-rest, making an assumption that the

preservation of the word as a whole is more important. By breaking the word into two

fragments, the performer is, in fact, honoring the text stress as interpreted by Betinis.

77 Translation provided by the composer: “Last night I saw the angels beating at the door of the tavern, The

clay of Adam they shaped, and into the mould they cast it.”

27

EXAMPLE 3 – Caravan, mvt. 3, measures 1-2. Scansion of text in a Western choral setting. Use of articulation to emphasize metric pattern. Notice, particularly, the word be-se in the second line of text and the need to honor the rest in order to preserve the scansion.

At one point in the score, Betinis does not lay her own compositional ideas atop the top

of a pre-existing chant line. The soloist at the end of the fourth movement must understand the

representation of long and short syllables in order to effectively sing this passage (EXAMPLE

4). 78

EXAMPLE 4 – Caravan, mvt. 4, measure 59. Scansion must be understood by the soloist to ensure proper delivery.

78 Translation provided by the composer: “With friends, give kindness; with enemies, courtesy.”

28

The first and fifth movements share much of the same material. The scansion outlined by

Mage for the ghazal used for these movements is:

(short-short-LONG-LONG, etc.). While the same passage in Betinis’s score79 has allusions of

3/4, created through articulation of strong beats, she has set it within a structure of 4/4 resulting

in a dance-like feel that approximates that of Middle Eastern belly dancing (EXAMPLE 5).

Advice to the conductor and percussionist on handling such improvisatory and highly rhythmic

passages can be found in APPENDIX C.

EXAMPLE 5 – Caravan, mvt 1, measures 16-19. Scansion must be understood by the percussionist to support proper delivery.

79 Translation provided by the composer: “For shelter from ill-fortune, here… we have come.”

29

Persian Musical Influences: Melody and Mode

One source providing understanding of Persian music is a conference booklet written by

Margaret Caton titled “Melodic Contour in Persian Music, and Its Connection to Poetic Form

and Meaning.” The booklet provides a brief description of the scansion found in Persian poetry

and how various musical settings reflect that pattern. Caton writes,

In Persian language and music, pitch is often associated with stress or accent. Musical phrases progress from a sense of relaxation to that of tension and again to relaxation. Formal and cognitive elements combine to create an overall effect of a gradual stress-and-release pattern, which takes the listener from a state of relaxation to one of tension where the crux of the emotional message is given, whereupon he is released and returned to his original state.80

Betinis discussed this concept with Persian ney81 player Behrooz Alavi who said,

Persian music starts always with a statement, like a… preparation, and then it starts elevating. And then it goes to a peak, and usually goes to a middle station and then it does a landing. It’s always like this.

To which Betinis replied,

So…if I’ve been trained in this Western system of chant, I can think of it as having a reciting tone. And that reciting tone is escalating too. And then you come back to tonic at the end. … That way you come full circle.82

On a macroscopic scale, Betinis has practiced this scheme of escalation and return through her

manner of positioning of the various movements. Each movement carries a bit more emotional

involvement than the one before it. The final movement serves as the release as we are returned

to the opening musical material once again.

Some specific musical elements have been borrowed from the rich history of Persian

music. Adoption of artistic cultural elements by a composer or artist not of that specific heritage

is known as cultural appropriation.

80 Margaret Caton, “Melodic Contour in Persian Music, and Its Connection to Poetic Form and Meaning,”

Cultural Parameters of Iranian Musical Expression, (self-published, 1988), 15. 81 The ney, pronounced [ne], is an end-blown flute commonly used in Persian music. 82 Behrooz Alavi, in-person interview with Abbie Betinis, April 19, 2008.

30

An example of appropriation in Caravan is the inclusion of mahur— one of the twelve

systems in the Persian classical music repertoire. Without actually using this system, Betinis

alludes to mahur in the second and third movements. Mahur is the tonicization of a pitch

through assertion of a shahed (witness note). The shahed serves as the beginning and end of a

small musical journey as melodic ideas expand and contract around the shahed—usually in short

episodes which are limited to an intervallic range of perhaps a fourth or fifth, always returning to

the shahed. Then, according to mahur, focus moves to another shahed and a subsequent set of

pitches, usually higher. Betinis’s Caravan adopts this idea, albeit in a Western, more common-

practice way, in the second and third movements. Clear examples of such a shift in “tonality”

(according to the Western tradition) can be found in the second and third movements of

Caravan. Each musical statement is repeated, on a new level of mahur (EXAMPLES 6 and

7).83

83 For more information on mahur, refer to APPENDIX C for the transcripted interview between composer

Daniel Sabzghabai and the author, June 1, 2015.

31

EXAMPLE 6 – Caravan, mvt. 3, measures 1-22. Three episodes that exhibit a Western appropriation of the Persian system of mahur.

32

EXAMPLE 7 – Caravan, mvt. 2, measures 1-8. Two episodes that exhibit a Western appropriation of the Persian system of mahur.

Betinis has also appropriated use of a scale very common to Persian music. Western ears

hear this collection as a major scale with the second- and sixth-scale degrees lowered. For

example:

D Eb F# G A Bb C# D

The first and final movements of Caravan most notably make use of this scale. This

dastgah, or Iranian mode, has a long tradition but has only been identified as shown above since

the importation of the piano into the Middle East. Prior to that, and what is still evident in

Persian instrumental music today, is the scale in its more authentic form with the second- and

sixth-scale degrees lowered by an additional quartertone as follows:

D E b F# G A B b C# D

33

Given this information, it is clear that Betinis’s work is an approximation or an appropriation of

traits that are Persian, but not an attempt to reflect authenticity of the musical culture

(EXAMPLE 8).

EXAMPLE 8 – Caravan, mvt. 1, measures 60-64 illustrate an approximation of the scale common to Persian music. One extra-musical concept important to Persian music is concerned with the feeling and

spiritual connection of the performer with his/her audience. Western performers typically are

highly concerned with performing exactly what appears on the page. Daryush Safvat, a scholar

on Iranian music has said,

In traditional Iranian music, the manner of playing is much more important than what one plays. And the manner of playing is conditioned by hāl. How to translate this word which escapes definition? Hāl is an intense state of the soul, it is the interior fire which must animate the artist like the mystic… When he attains the high point of this state, the artist plays with an extraordinary facility of execution. His sound changes. The musical phrase liberates its secret. The creativity gushes forth. It seems that the very essence of the music manifests itself delivered from the usual interferences of the human personality. The world becomes transfigured, unveiling its marvelous visages, and across an ineffable transparency which abolishes the actual barriers between the musician and his auditor, offers itself to the direct comprehension of every being capable of sensing. Hāl is the fruit of authenticity. The authentic musician is he who plays or sings under the force of an irresistible interior impulse.84

84 Daryush Safvat, Iran, les traditions musicales, (Paris: Buchet/Chastel, 1966), 11, quoted in Lloyd Miller,

Music and Song in Persia (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1999), 22.

34

In short, a performer raised in the Western tradition must be willing to let go of the rigidity and

express the music freely. The application of hāl in a choral setting will be discussed in the

section of this study titled Ornaments and Heterophony (page 59).

By the composer’s own declaration, the music is not authentically Persian. Such

understanding should mitigate any concerns about cultural appropriation. It is important to

educate audiences on the difference. Dr. Phillip Swan had an opportunity to take a performance

of Caravan to an audience in Oman when he received an invitation to conduct a choir of 200

students from English-speaking schools from various regions of the Middle East. He asked the

festival organizers if this annual festival had ever included compositions representative of that

region. The reply was that it had not been done, but they would welcome such inclusion. Swan

asked Betinis to score the first movement of Caravan for an SATB choir. The performers and

festival organizers received the piece positively. When asked about concerns of cultural

appropriation, Swan said of the singers and audience:

Nobody had a problem with it. I didn’t ever claim that it was going to be authentic. We did claim that the text was [Middle Eastern]—not that it was [set to music] by someone from the Middle East.85

Another solution to address concerns of appropriation is to help educate the audience on

authentic Persian music. Performing chants or additional music indigenous to the Middle East

alongside or even within a performance of Caravan educates the audience on the difference

between the two. Betinis recently published the second movement with an optional

improvisatory chant to be played/sung before the setting by Betinis (EXAMPLE 9). She has

encouraged adopting additional musical elements and said,

If I were to re-publish an updated version of the full score [of Caravan], I might include optional [improvisatory] intros…to each movement…making the distinction clear in

85 Phillip Swan, interview with the author, June 16, 2015.

35

concert between what is authentically part of the tradition, and what is my own interpretation of the poetry. I don’t want anyone listening to my setting to think I’m trying to “sound Persian.” So adding [introductory material] like this to each movement would help define the differences, and also hopefully put the new settings into better focus. It would also break up the ‘choral’ sound the whole way through. … I like the idea that this piece is a journey. I want the music to hold the audience from the very first note, and to take them somewhere. Breaking up the textures from choral to solo, etc., can really help keep the audience completely engaged, and can let the choral singers breathe and re-focus on the next movement.86

The Instrumentation Options section of this study will address, in more specific detail, the

process of successfully adding improvisatory elements.


36

EXAMPLE 9 – Caravan, front matter as it appears in the published octavo for the second movement (AB-049-22). Used with permission from the composer. Available for purchase at www.abbiebetinis.com.

& bbb 44 .œ jœ œ œYu sof e gom

A f , expressively, "stylized-gutsy"

.œ jœ jœ œ œ œgash te bɒ zɒ

˙ œ œ œ œ œ3yad be Kan

jœ ˙ ‰ œ jœ>'ɒn. Qam ma- - - - - - - -

& bbb ....Drum

œ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ jœ>jœ

khor, Qam ma

∑

œ œ œ œ œ œ œkhor,

∑

œ- Œ jœ œ- œ œ3

Qam ma

∑

wkhor...

Jœ ‰ œ œ œ̂

Tempo: q =126

f

˙Jœ ‰ œ œ œ̂- -

&

&

&

bbb

bbb

bbb

Chorus

Vla.

Drum

.œ jœ œ œ œ œKol be ye ah

wnn...

.œ jœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œJœ ‰ œ œ œ̂

B Soloist:

F.œ jœ œ œ œ

zɒn sha vad, ru

w

.œ jœ œ œ œJœ ‰ œ œ œ̂

jœ ˙ œ œ œ œ œ3

zi, go le

wjœ ˙ Œ œ œ

Jœ ‰ œ œ œ̂

jœ wstɒn.

˙ ‰ œ jœ>Qam ma

jœ œ jœ œ jœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ3

Jœ ‰ œ œ œ̂

.˙ Œ

œ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ jœ>jœ

khor, Qam ma

œ œ œ œ œ ‰ œœ jœœ

jœœJœ ‰ œ œ œ̂

- - - - - - -

- -

&

&

bbbbbb

bbbb

bbbb

Chorus

Vla.

Drum

œ œ œ œ œ œ œkhor,

œ œ œœ œ œœœJœ ‰ œ œ œ̂ ‰ Jœ̂

poco rit.

poco rit.

poco rit.

œ- Œ U

œœ Œ U

œ Jœ̂ ‰ U

lunga

lunga

lunga

Œ ‰ jœ œ- œ œ3

Qam ma

∑

∑

CFreely, much slower, sadly

Soloist:

wU

khor...

.˙ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ jœ œ"

‰ w"

"

œ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ ˙ œ œ œ .˙U

∑U

ad lib., espress. (grieving)

-

Yusofe gomgashte (Lost Joseph)

1

* Drum: tombak recommended (though daf or other frame drum is also possible). Viola/cello: use parts AB-049-2P.

Introduction (optional):� �You may wish to introduce "Suffer No Grief" with an excerpt from or improvisation on a more authentically Persian

setting of the ghazal. This melody from Iranian singer Nader Golchin is one possibility. More at www.abbiebetinis.com.

1. Solo, a cappella (Freely, ad lib)2. Tutti (in new tempo, "punchy") viola improvise or drone. drum continue pattern.

AB-049-22

37

Text: Specific Words of Symbolism

First movement:

The fourth stanza used in the first movement reads: “Hâfez, in kherqe-ye pashmina bi-

yandâzəә.” The translation given by the composer is, “Hâfez, throw off your woolen kherqe.” 87

This study has addressed possible reasons for Hâfez’s inclusion of his own name in the poetry

that could include dissociation of oneself, personification of deity, or simply a type of literary

signature (page 19). In this same line of poetry he makes a reference to throwing off one’s

kherqe. Betinis has said,

It’s this first movement where we throw off the woolen kherqe. I want to make sure that we [communicate the meaning of kherqe] with the audience [in the pre-concert lecture].88

The message of kherqe comes from Hâfez’s general ideas on Sufism: to lose one’s ego and strive

for the divine. Hâfez invites the reader to let go of the kherqe as a reminder of man’s

insignificance—to return to the dirt from which we came. By doing so, we are one step closer to

the divine.

Second movement:

In a recent interview, Betinis confirmed her understanding of the meaning behind

movement two. As was addressed earlier in this study (page 20), the central theme of this

movement is the transformation of one’s Kolbe-ye ahzân, a place of darkness and sadness, into

golestân, a place of beauty. This metaphor could be interpreted as having the deeper meaning of

endurance amidst suffering, finding patience in the process. Betinis stated emphatically, “And

that’s what THIS [movement 2] is about.”89 As was addressed earlier in this study, Betinis is no

stranger to seeking resolve amidst life’s trials.

87 Kherqe is loosely translated to be a woolen cloak and is a symbol of Sufi devotion. 88 Abbie Betinis, in-person interview with Behrooz Alavi, April 19, 2008. 89 Ibid.

38

Betinis omits certain stanzas of the ghazal. But, there is evidence that she still accounts

for these sections by using “Qam ma-khor” (suffer no grief) from the end of each line as is

clearly outlined in her own notes. Although her text setting repeats the word in canon, her notes

credit each Qam ma-khor as coming from a different stanza of poetry—thus reflecting a different

sentiment each time. It is not to be sung as a simple repetition of the same word (EXAMPLE

10).

39

EXAMPLE 10 – Caravan, mvt. 2, measures 30-46 in relation to corresponding notes from Betinis’s text selection process.

!!

!!!!!

#1

#2 #3 #4

#4 #5

The text to the left is as itappears in Betinis’ compositionalnotes. Borrowed from the MagePublication, the composer greyed-out texts she did not set to music.

The bubbles and numbers have been added by the author to illustrate the correlation withthe musical examples below.

Only the alto line is providedfor illustrative purposes.

40

Third movement:

Chapter Two addressed Hâfez’s dissatisfaction with warring religions and how he

professed admiration for purity of heart, apart from organized religion (page 13). The third

movement makes reference to “The churches war among themselves,”90 but is to be sung with a

sense of celebration and joy, rather than anger: joy because the singer, an outside observer of this

war, is at peace with God. Betinis extracted the word âtash from a later stanza in the poem,

which means “fire” or “power.” She heightens the sense of power by adding a repeated “Ah, ah”

after this word. To quote from Behrooz Alavi,

When you take a deep sigh and you say “Ah!” you connect yourself with [the] divine power, that energy source…which is like fire.91

The concept of breath and its connection to the divine affects each of the five movements of

Caravan and is one the conductor and singer must fully understand.

The fourth movement acts almost as a summation of all the ideas presented so far. The

fifth movement reinforces further the process of throwing off the woolen kherqe by repeating

material heard in the first movement—bookending the entire work.

Text: Alteration of Original Poetry

Once the four ghazals were selected, Betinis edited them down to a length she felt

appropriate for composition. She felt it important to present the text in a homophonic fashion.

The poetry is really important to be heard… I knew there were going to be Persian speakers in the audience at the premiere. And I didn’t want to obliterate the poetry with [complex, polyphonic] compositional techniques. [So, I chose to depart] from the poetry in those places [by using a single word or] a neutral vowel as a way to “comment on” the poetry….92

90 This is the translation provided in the score by the composer. 91 Behrooz Alavi, in-person interview with Abbie Betinis, April 19, 2008. 92 Abbie Betinis, e-mail message to the author, June 12, 2015.

41

There are certain words in each movement that she extracted and used for these compositional

departures. Such poetic passages are highlighted in APPENDIX A. The connection of these

words help complete Betinis’s thread that influences the work. Examples include: âmade-im (we

have come), qam ma-khor, ey del (suffer no grief, o heart), âtash (fire or power), and barkhiz, ey

bade barkhiz (arise, oh breeze arise) and serve as a prolongation of the respective sentiment.

Betinis’s own compositional notes indicate a deliberate decision to use specific words that have

been extracted from stanzas otherwise not used (EXAMPLE 11). The compositional devices

used on these words are canon, ostinato, obbligato, rhythmic patter, and polyphonic

counterpoint.

42

EXAMPLE 11 – Caravan notes from the composer. The text is as it appears in Betinis’s compositional notes. Originally borrowed from the Mage publication, the composer has greyed-out texts she did not use in the composition. The word Âtas (translation: fire/power) has been set to an imitative rhythmic patter in the third movement.

43

Text: IPA and Pronunciation Guide

Due to the Arabic script having no direct relation to the Roman script used in English,

when creating pronunciation guides, one scholar has said,

“There are as many transliteration systems [of Farsi] as there are transliterators, and these often reflect either English or French phonetic orthography.”93

For this reason, the author has included a transliteration of Betinis’s selection of ghazals and has

used the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to illustrate the pronunciation (APPENDIX A).

Harmonic Language: Voice-crossing

I love manipulating voice-crossings in my melodic ideas for women. Some of my most successful writing, I think, is just two-part counterpoint that leapfrogs, or three-part counterpoint that, in effect, braids itself across the page.94 Works by Betinis are rife with instances of voice-crossing. Caravan is no exception

(EXAMPLE 12). A conductor unfamiliar with the general catalog of Betinis’s compositions

might feel the need to adjust these somewhat awkward voice-leading challenges for the singers.

Chapter One addressed Betinis’s practice regarding single-voice counterpoint—the idea that an

audience hears in stepwise motion. Any break larger than a major second draws the ear to the

beginning of new melodic material. Composing in this manner results in frequent, and highly

intentional voice-crossings. Such crossings, while they may be considered awkward at first, are

to be observed whenever possible.

93 Dr. Paul Meers, American University of Beirut, in pamphlet distributed at a workshop hosted by the Salt

Lake Choral Artists at the University of Utah, summer 2008. 94 Debra Spurgeon, ed., Conducting Women’s Choirs (Chicago: GIA Publications, 2012), 171.

44

EXAMPLE 12 – Caravan, mvt. 2, measures 50-53. Episodes of voice-crossing.

Concerning this issue, Dr. Elroy Friesen, a conductor involved in an early performance of

Caravan, said,

A composer, especially like Abbie knows darn well what a first alto sounds like versus a second soprano in a typical choir. So, I just wouldn’t ever mess with that. It’s all a voice-leading thing. I don’t see how adjustments would simplify it.95

Phillip Swan agreed with Friesen,

[In performing Caravan,] we tried to maintain the voicings as they were written. Abbie and I have talked about this a lot. One of the reasons I like her writing is that she is a singer. She gets how the voice works. And she’ll push boundaries, but always [makes] good vocal choices. I, philosophically, ask my women to use a wider range, and not be stuck to such a narrow [range], like the Alto 1. So, we tried to stick to what was on the page. We made a few [alterations] for balance issues but, pretty much, stuck to the page.96

Even Dr. Susan McMane who works with young singers chose to honor all voice crossings for

similar reasons.97

When asked about voice crossings specific to Caravan, Betinis explained to the author

that at the time of the premiere of Caravan, The Rose Ensemble, for whom the work was

commissioned, had a countertenor sing with the otherwise all-female group. While some of her

compositional choices in Caravan were a result of the practice of single-voice counterpoint,

95 Elroy Friesen, interview with the author, June 2, 2015. 96 Phillip Swan, interview with the author, June 16, 2015. 97 Susan McMane, interview with the author, June 2, 2015.

45

others were deliberate decisions made to highlight the vocal color of this singer.98 The timbral

reasons for these choices are evident in the recording of the world premiere performance of

Caravan. Ordering information for this recording is available in the footnotes.99

Harmonic Language: Divisi

Particularly when working with younger singers, the amount of divisi required for a

performance of Caravan can be daunting. Of this challenge, Dr. Susan McMane said,

I only have 40 singers. If we start to divisi too many of them, I couldn’t do [the first movement.] In measures 53-56, the top line was not [given to a soloist, but instead] was the 2nd sopranos singing the lower notes and some 1st sopranos singing the upper pitches. I divided the lower parts amongst all sections. My soloists [are] young and…can’t sustain very long.100 (EXAMPLE 13)

McMane made similar adjustments to most of the solos in the score. Betinis welcomes

accommodations made by the director for such challenges in efforts to make the performance a

success.

98 Abbie Betinis, in-person interview with the author, February 26, 2015. 99 Abbie Betinis, Works for Men’s Chorus and Women’s Chorus, Various artists, Abbie Betinis Music Co.

AB-CDR-02, digital album. Available for purchase at www.abbiebetinis.com. 100 Susan McMane, interview with the author, June 2, 2015.

46

EXAMPLE 13 – Caravan, mvt. 1, measures 53-59. Demand required of soloists and choir.

47

Harmonic Language: Canon

As was described earlier, Betinis is very fond of canon (pages 8-9). Canon is one of the

compositional devices Betinis uses in Caravan when diverging from the structure of the original

ghazal. The text Qam ma-khor, ey del (Suffer no grief, O heart) is extracted and repeated in the

second movement. A four-voice canon is used as a way to depart from the delivery of the ghazal

and prolong the poetic meaning. Betinis’s compositional skill is most evident when, even in the

middle of this canon, she incorporates a second level of departure. The outer voices utilize a

textless sigh, connecting themselves once again with the divine power, further deepening the

level of grief, while all voices engage simultaneously in thematic material not part of the original

canon (EXAMPLE 14).

EXAMPLE 14 – Caravan, mvt. 2, measures 37-49. The most extensive episode of canon in the work. (Cont’d on next page)

48

EXAMPLE 14 (cont’d) – Episodes of departure from the canon.

49

When asked why she included canon in setting the Hâfez ghazals, Betinis responded, “A

canon is the perfect compositional technique for a lot of this poetry.”101 She elaborated on the

reason canons and rounds play such an important role in her general compositional catalog:

A canon is a melody that is its OWN harmony. You can’t sing a canon by yourself (live, anyway) and hear all of its harmonies. You need to sing it with other people to really hear how the melody creates its own support system of pitches and rhythms. I thought that was the perfect metaphor for getting through rough times. I think we each have our own melody in this life, something unique to us that we can offer the world – but sometimes that melody is hard to hear when life gets hard. Sometimes we need our friends to come in, one at a time, and sing that melody too, so we can hear how strong it is and it can lift us up.102

Such understanding clearly illustrates Betinis’s reasons for using canon as a way to prolong the

text Qam ma-khor, ey del (Suffer no grief, O heart). The choir’s purpose is to comfort a heart in

distress.

Harmonic Language: Preparing the Choir

In addition to the many rounds available in Betinis’s repertoire that could aid the choir as

an accessible introduction to her harmonic language, the author suggests two from Betinis’s

collection, The Babe of Bethlehem and The Mirthful Heart, that each could serve as preparatory

material for Caravan.

The Babe of Bethlehem could be done during the Christmas season prior to a spring

performance. Although this is an SATB setting, the women’s parts frequently cross and echo

each other as they do in Caravan, yet there are moments of sublime lyricism. Composed just

101 Abbie Betinis, e-mail message to the author, June 12, 2015. 102 Abbie Betinis, e-mail message to Jennah Delp, Artistic Director of iSing Silicon Valley, June 04, 2015.

The text of this e-mail explains the personal circumstances that influenced composition of Be Like the Bird, a canon, and the role this compositional device played in Betinis’s healing process. The full context of this message is presented in APPENDIX B.

50

three years before Caravan, the harmonic language contained in The Babe of Bethlehem is

similar but not as complex.

Another preparatory piece to examine is The Mirthful Heart. Composed in 2012, for

SAA choir and hand drum. The conductor has the chance to introduce the harmonic language of

Betinis in a setting that is straightforward three-part writing without the complex divisi found in

Caravan. The score for The Mirthful Heart suggests bodhrán, but there may be an opportunity

to work with the same percussionist that will later appear on Caravan and the score is peppered

with musical devices that are signatures of Betinis’s musical language.

After a successful performance of Caravan, a logical next-step with the group would be

Chant for Great Compassion. This piece was composed just a year after Caravan and exhibits a

similar compositional style. The work includes chant, ostinato, tone clusters, rhythmic patter,

aleatoric sections, and canon. Because of the unaccompanied nature, the Chant for Great

Compassion is sure to be a fitting challenge for the choir that has effectively grasped the Betinis

harmonic language.

Instrumentation Options: Viola or Cello

The original commission for Caravan was for vielle, oud, and Persian hand percussion.

Betinis realized that such instrumentation would pose a marketing challenge for the work:

At the beginning it was hard to get ensembles interested in giving a second performance to the piece, but I really wanted it to live, so I made [alternate] accompaniments…. Yes there is a violin transcription but it proved not to work very well, so now that the piece has gotten momentum and ensembles are programming around it, most ensembles will use either viola or cello, which are the two I prefer.103

When considering a performance of Caravan, the conductor has the unique opportunity to assess

his/her own performance circumstance and may choose either viola or cello. The origins of these


51

alternative instrumentations grew out of specific situations. In 2009, Dr. Elroy Friesen asked

Betinis to adjust the vielle part for cello because he wanted to feature a new faculty member at

the University of Manitoba.104 That same season, the viola arrangement grew out of a similar,

but less-direct path. Dr. Philip Swan outlined the circumstances as follows:

I decided to do…the 3rd movement [of Caravan]. One of my colleagues [at Lawrence University] is a saxophone player. I contacted Abbie and asked…if she would consider writing the [vielle] part for a saxophone. Which she did. So, the first performance I did [of the work] was the 3rd movement…accompanied by saxophone.

I [considered performing] the rest of the work with soprano sax, but…as the year progressed I thought that it didn’t quite work for all the movements. Abbie and I had talked about using another friend of mine [and] doing a combination of viola and soprano sax before we just settled on viola. … We don’t all have a vielle as a resource. So, [viola] was a good option and Abbie was genuinely happy with it.105

Dr. Susan McMane has taken advantage of each alternative. When comparing the two, she

favors the cello because “it gives a little more depth” and support to the choir.106

On the other hand, the author favors the viola. There are certain passages in the score

where the difference in registration between a treble choir and a bass instrument can be

distracting to the listener. One particular example of timbral difference is in the fourth

movement, measures 60-61, where the viola/cello mimics the soloist (EXAMPLE 15). It is the

author’s opinion that, although in a higher octave, the viola has a quality more homogenous with

the alto soloist and thereby can achieve the desired “echo” effect in this passage.

104 Elroy Friesen, interview with the author, June 2, 2015. 105 Phillip Swan, interview with author, June 16, 2015. 106 Susan McMane, interview with the author, June 2, 2015.

52

EXAMPLE 15 – Caravan, mvt. 4, measures 59-60. Echo figure between the soloist and viola/cello.

Instrumentation Options: Inclusion of Oud

The performer will find that the inclusion of the “optional” oud heightens the cultural

flavor of Caravan in a powerful way. However, if involvement of oud is not possible, Betinis

composed the work in such a way that Caravan stands on firm footing without it. She has said,

[The oud] doubles the viola or cello, so it’s not absolutely necessary for the harmonic ideas, but it is for a more complete flavor of the culture.107

Dr. Phillip Swan elaborated further:

I don’t think [the oud] is necessary. I feel she’s written [Caravan] in a way that can be…effective with [just] the viola. There’s enough quality to the piece and [the listener] can focus on the voices. With the percussion and viola, there’s enough background information to give it a structure without becoming dominant. [The oud] is great though—I’m not opposed to it. We just didn’t have one [in the area].108

107 Abbie Betinis, e-mail message to the author, June 12, 2015. 108 Phillip Swan, interview with author, June 16, 2015.

53

For the premiere performance, the oud was added with specific intention of having

improvised sections played between each movement. It was this improvisational element that

led the composer to exclude the oud from the second and fourth movements for fear of it

becoming wearisome. Betinis explains,

For the original performance we decided…to have [David Burke, the oud player] improvise between some of the movements. Jordan Sramek [Artistic Director of The Rose Ensemble] and I wanted to make sure the sound of the oud always sounded special, and we thought it might get stale if it was used continuously for all five movements plus the interludes. I decided a symmetrical structure for the oud would be nice, [movements] I, III, V. Oud players are still encouraged to improvise in movements II and IV if they want to. Each of these poems has a very traditional way that it is sung – and often if an ensemble has an oud or a ney player, they’ll know immediately how the traditional setting of the song goes. My favorite performances of [Caravan] – and I should really try to standardize this into the performance practice for the piece – is when the instrumentalists (and even some vocalists sometimes) – will play part of the traditional setting of them poem as an introduction to that movement. This creates a kind of “zipper” with the old and new, and I like that very much.109

Instrumentation Options: Advice for the Violist

Ryan Hardcastle, a doctoral student in viola performance at Indiana University, Jacobs

School of Music, performed the viola accompaniment in a recent performance of Caravan. He

was not shy about adding folk-like elements—through ornamentation, rhythmic adjustments, or

the use of an open string as a double-stop to the melodic line. He also noticed a few specific

places in the score that would be a challenge to even a highly experienced violist—due in part to

the original instrumentation being scored for vielle. His assessment of the challenges and advice

to future players of Caravan is found in APPENDIX C.110

109 Abbie Betinis, e-mail message to the author, June 12, 2015. 110 Ryan Hardcastle, interview with the author, June 17, 2015.

54

Instrumentation Options: Advice for the Percussionist

One of the significant challenges of Caravan is the lack of specific instructions for the

percussionist. This can also be one of the greatest avenues of exploration for the conductor and

ensemble. Raychel Taylor, a graduate student at Northern Illinois University with a particular

focus of study on Persian percussion, recently performed the accompaniment for a performance

of Caravan. She recommends the following options be considered: riq111 for the first and last

movements, and doumbek, darbuka, tombak, or tabla112 for the second and third movements.

Percussion is tacet on the fourth movement.

The conductor is cautioned against using substitutes like djembe or conga when

performing Caravan. Such substitutions would create an entirely different timbre—one not

appropriate for a performance where a Middle Eastern flavor is desired.

Significant improvisatory skills are required from the percussionist in a performance of

Caravan. Many parts of the score simply give the direction to “Improvise, perhaps on this

theme” –and a rhythmic example is outlined. APPENDIX C contains a transcript of an

interview with Taylor in which she gives specific instructions on improvisational tactics that can

be explored by even the most novice player. She also includes advice for the conductor when

considering instrumentation options for improvisatory interludes between movements.113

111 Riq is a frame drum that has origins in the dance tradition of the Middle East. It is generally held with

both hands and played with the fingertips. A unique feature of riq is the presence of jingles like a tambourine. Unlike a tambourine, however, the jingles on a riq are bigger and more tightly bound so the player has significant control over when they sound.

112 Doumbek, darbuka, tombak, and tabla are terms that could all apply to the same instrument—a chalice or goblet-shaped drum used in the performance of Middle Eastern music. They can be made from a variety of materials. For a more complete discussion, see the transcript provided in APPENDIX C.

113 Raychel Taylor, interview with the author, June 15, 2015.

55

Ornaments and Heterophony

The cultural practice of hāl was presented previously in this study (page 36). One

possible way to encourage more freedom of expression from individual performers of Betinis’s

Caravan is the use of heterophonic effects.114 Betinis has said,

Yes, the flavor of heterophony was my intention. I’m not sure the incorporation of it is necessary to this particular piece…. I [wouldn’t] write in the score something like “heterophony encouraged” because there’s no emotional reason and the performances will be dry. I’d rather write something like “sing this to yourself” if it was a soft passage, or “raucously” if it was loud…which would more likely make the heterophony a happy bi-product of the emotion.115

The encouragement of impulsive musical behavior is not a foreign concept in Betinis’s works.

Instruction included in the preface of her score for Come in! Come in!—a looping canon for four

voices—reads, “Spontaneity is optional, but encouraged. Enjoy!”116

The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, the first comprehensive academic resource

for ethnomusicology, contains a section on Iranian music that clearly illustrates the prominence

of heterophony in the regional musical tradition. This publication elucidates an example of a

monophonic line sung by a soloist, and is written in standard Western notation. The

encyclopedia includes a recording of this line being sung by a Persian soloist. It is clear, upon

hearing the soloist while reading the score, however, that there are rhythmic and tonal elements

impossible to display in Western notation (EXAMPLE 16). Any attempt to transcribe the

melodic material in a more authentic manner, as presented by the singer, results in an absence of

the improvisatory nature inherent to the music. When this example is heard and experienced, it

becomes readily apparent that the rhythmic values presented in Western notation are

114 Heterophony is the textural result of simultaneous improvisation on the same monophonic line. Two or

more vocalists singing the same melody or side-by-side instrumentalists improvising on the same material can accomplish the effect through use of ornaments or embellishments unique to each player/singer.

115 Abbie Betinis, e-mail message to the author, June 12, 2015. 116 Abbie Betinis, Come in! Come in!, (Abbie Betinis Music Co.: Saint Paul, 2011) program notes.

56

approximations, pitch can vary by as much as a quarter-tone in places, meter is actually

determined first and foremost by text, and expressive ornamentation is much more prevalent than

what is indicated in the score.

A few of the possible interpretations are sketched in the score (EXAMPLE 17). The

recording that Garland makes available is a strophic performance of the monophonic example,

so the listener is exposed to a wide variety of possible interpretations.

EXAMPLE 16 – Illustration of traditional Persian music from The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music

EXAMPLE 17 – The author’s notes on the actual performance practice of previous example.

Applying such ornamentation to the choral setting is not uncommon in Arabic music—

resulting in a heterophonic effect, with simultaneous ornamentations amongst members of the

choir. Certain passages of Caravan lend themselves easily to this type of ornamentation. For

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example, the first measure of the first movement is sung by a soloist then echoed by the choir

(EXAMPLE 18). Following the lead of the soloist, the body of singers has the opportunity to,

albeit briefly, ornament the notes in a collective, yet individualistic way.

EXAMPLE 18 – Caravan, mvt. 1, measures 1-2. Soloist encouraged to improvise. Choir responds in similar fashion—creating simultaneous ornamentation (heterophony).

The idea of heterophony is brought to the forefront in the final few bars of the first

movement (EXAMPLE 19) where all voices, viola, and oud (which doubles the viola line) are

presented in a seemingly monophonic fashion. Proper understanding of Iranian music, as

explained above, would suggest that the individual musicians might each take certain liberties

with the material presented.

EXAMPLE 19 – Caravan, mvt. 1, measures 60-64. Entire choir and instrumental ensemble on a monophonic line—when ornamented, becomes heterophony.

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In a performance of Caravan, Dr. Phillip Swan had the choir at Lawrence University take

this idea one step further. In a unique departure from the printed score, he employed an almost

aleatoric technique in the solo at measure 59 (EXAMPLE 20).

EXAMPLE 20 – Caravan, mvt. 4, measures 59-60. Chant indicated in the score. In some performances may become an aleatoric episode. This passage was sung by 3 singers simultaneously and free of rhythm. Once the group had

displayed this effective use of heterophony, they chose to utilize the effect again in the first

measure of the fifth movement (refer back to EXAMPLE 18), only this time the simultaneous

ornamentation involved the whole choir. Betinis approved of this brief departure from the printed

score.117 In fact, she often approves of such experimentation with her music, having printed in

the preface of one of her earliest publications,

Please modify this text to your heart’s content and for goodness sakes take credit for it in your program. Then send your new text to me! I love to read what ensembles have written and have a laugh myself.118

117 Phillip Swan, interview with the author, June 16, 2015. 118 Abbie Betinis, Gloria!, (Abbie Betinis Music Co.: Saint Paul, 2001).

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The author uses this citation not to encourage blatant departures from the score, but as a way to

encourage the future conductor and singer to be brave, take risks, and strive to unlock the

greatest joy that is still buried within the score. After all, such is the truest message of Caravan:

Hâfez, throw off your woolen kherqe, for we, from behind the caravan, with the fire of sighing “ah!” …we have come.

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CONCLUSION

From Behind the Caravan: Songs of Hâfez is a work that can be and should be performed

by advanced high school, university, and civic choruses. This study represents the body of

knowledge gained after a year in examining, researching, teaching, and performing Abbie

Betinis’s From Behind the Caravan and provides the conductor with the tools necessary to create

a successful and insightful performance. With this information, the prospective conductor will

better understand proper treatment of the text, available translation options, Hâfez’s vast world

of imagery, vocal demands inherent to the work, alternate instrumentations are available and the

benefits of each, how to approach improvisatory passages, how to engage heterophonic elements,

and how to prepare a Western choir and audience with very little to no understanding of the

philosophies of Sufism that heavily influence the work.

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APPENDIX A – IPA Guide

From Behind the Caravan

Top line: transliteration printed in the score Bottom line: International Phonetic Alphabet Grey: non-metrical segments that are borrowed from other parts of the poem

I. we have come Mâ, be-din dar, na pey-e heshmato jâh âmade-’im; mɔ bedindæɾ næ peje heʃmæto d" ʒɔh ʔɔmædeʔim az-bad-e hâdese, ’injâ, be-panâh, âmade-’im. æzbɔde hɔdese ʔind$ ʒɔ bepænɔh ʔɔmædeʔim Rahro-e manzel-e ’eshqimo ze sarhadde ’adam, ɾæhɾoe mænzeɫe ʔeʃɣimo ze sæɾhædːde ʔædæm tâ, be-eqlim-e vojud, in-hame râh âmade-’im. tɔ beːeɣɫime vod( ʒud inhæme ɾɔh ʔɔmædeʔim Langar-e helm-e to, ey kashti-ye tofiqəә, kojâst? ɫæŋgæɾe heɫme to eɪ kæʃtije tofiɣə kod$ ʒɔst ke, dar in bahr-e karam, qarq-e gonâh âmade-’im. ke dæɾ in bæhɾe kæræm ɣæɾɣe gonɔh ʔɑmædeʔim Hâfez, in kherqe-ye pashmine bi-yandâzəә, ke mâ hɔfez in xeɾɣeje pæʃmine bijændɔzᵊ ke mɔ az-pe-ye qâfele, bâ-’âtash-e ’âh âmade-’im! æzpeje ɣɔfele bɔʔɔtæʃe ʔɔh ʔɔmædeʔim II. suffer no grief Yusof-e gom-gashte bâz-âyad be Kan’ân. Qam ma-khor. jusofe gomgæʃte bɔzɔjæd be kænʔɔn ɣæm mæxoɾ Kolbe-ye ahzân shavad, ruzi, golestân. Qam ma-khor… koɫbeje æhzɔn ʃævæd ɾuzi golestɔn ɣæm mæxoɾ Dar-biâbân, gar, be-shoq-e Ka’be, khâhi zad qadam, dæɾbiɔbɔn gær beʃoɣe kæʔbe xɔhi zæd ɣædæm

ʔ = glottal onset ɣ = voiced velar fricative, not found in English. Articulated by interrupting the airflow with the back of the tongue against the soft palate. Think: Warner Brothers cartoon character gulping down a bottle of ale.

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sar-zanesh-hâ, gar konad khâr-e moqilân, Qam ma-khor… sæɾzæneʃhɔ gæɾ konæd xɔɾe moɣilɔn ɣæm mæxoɾ Qam ma-khor, qam ma-khor, ey del. ɣæm mæxoɾ ɣæm mæxoɾ eɪ deɫ Vin sar-e shuride bâz-âyad be-sâmân. Qam ma-khor… vin sære ʃuɾide bɔzɔjæd besɔmɔn ɣæm mæxoɾ O ey del, del-e qam-dide, ey! ey! Qam ma-khor… o eɪ deɫ deɫe ɣæmdide eɪ eɪ ɣæm mæxoɾ Hichəә râhi nist, ka-ân-râ nist pa-âyân. hitʃ͡ᵊ ɾɔhi nist kɔnrɔ nist pɔjɔn III. closer to the fire Dushəә didam ke malâ-yek dar-e mey-khâne za-dand; duʃᵊ didæm ke mælɔjek daɾe meɪxɔne zædɔnd gel-e âdam be-seresht-and-o be peymâne za-dand. geɫe ɔdæm beseɾeʃtændo be peɪmɔne zædænd Jang-e haftâd-o do mellat, hame râ ozrəә be-neh; d" ʒæŋge hæftɔdo do meɫæt hæme rɔ ozɾᵊ beneh chonəә nadid-and haqiqat, rah-e afsâne za-dand. t͡ʃonᵊ nædidænd hæɣiɣæt ɾæhe æfsɔne zædænd Âtash, Âtash! â! â! ɔtæʃ ɔtæʃ ɔ ɔ Shokr-e izad ke miân-e man-o u solhəә oftâd, ʃokɾe izæd ke miɔne mæno ʔu soɫhᵊ oftɔd sufiân raqsəә-konân, sâqar-e shokrâne za-dand. sufiɔn ræɣsᵊkonɔn sɔɣæɾe ʃokrɔne zædænd Âtash, Âtash! â! â! ɔtæʃ ɔtæʃ ɔ ɔ IV. boatpeople Del miravad ze dastam, sâheb-delân khodâ râ; deɫ mirævæd ze dæstæm sɔhebdelɔn xodɔ ɾɔ

Betinis adds two extra syllables to this line, perhaps to add to the sense of longing. The corrected IPA is provided here.

In “sigh-figures” such as this, each vowel sound in the diphthong receives equal weight.

The score incorrectly reads “sufian.” Here is the corrected pronunciation.

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Dard-â ke râz-e penhân, khâhadəә shod âshkâ râ. dæɾdɔ ke rɔze penhɔn xɔhædᵊ ʃod ɔʃkɔɾɔ Bar-khiz, bar-khiz… ey bâd-e… bar-khiz… bæɾxiz bærxiz eɪ bɔde bæɾxiz Âsâyesh-e do giti tafsir-e in do harf-ast: ɔsɔjeʃe do giti tafsiɾe in do hæɾfæst Bâ dustân morov’at, bâ doshman-ân modârâ. bɔ dustɔn moɾovʔæt bɔ doʃmænɔn modɔɾɔ Kashti-shekastegân-im, ey bâd-e shorte bar-khiz kæʃtiʃekæstegɔnim eɪ bɔde ʃoɾte bæɾxiz Bâshad ke bâz binam, didâr-e âshna râ. bɔʃæd ke bɔz binæm didɔɾe ɔʃnæ ɾɔ Bengar…! beŋgæɾ

The score incorrectly reads “âsna.” Here is the corrected pronunciation.

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APPENDIX B – Canon: A Source of Comfort and Healing

The following is an excerpt section of an email written by Abbie Betinis to Jennah Delp, Artistic Director of iSing Silicon Valley, dated June 04, 2015. Reprinted with permission from Delp and Betinis. It references the circumstances surrounding the composition of Be Like the Bird, a canon. The text for this work is:

“Be like the bird that, pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her – and sings – knowing she hath wings.” --Victor Hugo

“I came across the extraordinary text for Be Like the Bird after my grandfather died. It was a really sad time, and we were going through his many letters and speeches (he was a minister in Pasadena). When my cousins and I found this text in one of his sermons, we hugged each other and cried. My cousin runs an academy for under-privileged girls in West Virginia, and I’ve been so inspired by what she has achieved, so I decided I should set the text to music and dedicate it to her school. I had also just finished cancer treatment for the second time and was looking for a way to try to put into music the extraordinary power of community that can help people through all kinds of difficulties. I knew I needed to set this beautiful text as a canon because a canon is such a cool form: Think about this.... A canon is a melody that is its OWN harmony. You can’t sing a canon by yourself (live, anyway) and hear all of its harmonies. You need to sing it with other people to really hear how the melody creates its own support system of pitches and rhythms. I thought that was the perfect metaphor for getting through rough times. I think we each have our own melody in this life, something unique to us that we can offer the world – but sometimes that melody is hard to hear when life gets hard. Sometimes we need our friends to come in, one at a time, and sing that melody too, so we can hear how strong it is and it can lift us up. Or – like the words say – it can give us wings.

“I didn’t know that I was going to need Be Like the Bird so much myself when I wrote it. A few friends came over to my house and we were singing around the piano and getting all the harmonies just right, trying different notes until we all thought it was really beautiful. We went to the local radio station the next morning and recorded it (that’s the recording on the YouTube video). And three months later I was diagnosed with cancer a third time. And that’s when this melody became like a mantra to me... something I could sing whenever I felt afraid. I still sing it to myself. I’m healthy now, but I still get scared sometimes, and even when I’m by myself, I imagine all my friends coming in at their part and singing it with me.”

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APPENDIX C – Transcripts of Interviews

Betinis, Abbie (composer) with Behrooz Alavi (Persian music expert) .........................66

Behrooz Alavi served as a consult for a performance of Caravan by the Seattle Choral Company at Benaroya Hall under the direction of Freddie Coleman

Friesen, Elroy (conductor, University of Manitoba) .......................................................71

Director of a performance of Caravan in 2009 with the University of Manitoba Women’s Choir at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra New Music Festival

McMane, Susan (conductor, Young Women’s Choral Project) .....................................73

Director performances of Caravan in 2009 with the San Francisco Girls Chorus Swan, Phillip (conductor, Lawrence University) ...........................................................75

Director of a performances of Caravan in 2008 and 2009 with Cantala, the Lawrence University Women’s Choir

Sabzghabaei, Daniel (composer, Peabody Institute) .......................................................78

Has set a large body of Persian texts to music Hardcastle, Ryan (violist, Indiana University) ...............................................................81 Collaborator on performances of Caravan in 2015 Taylor, Raychel (percussionist, Northern Illinois University) ........................................83

Collaborator on performances of Caravan in 2015 and student of Persian performance practice

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NOTE: This is a raw transcript of an in-person interview. Parts of this interview appear in the document “Hâfez and Betinis: A Conductor’s Approach to Ancient Persian Poetry as Voiced by a Twenty-First Century, Western Composer” by Peter Steenblik, published by the University of North Texas in 2015. For permission to quote this raw material, please contact Dr. Peter Steenblik as well as Behrooz Alavi and Abbie Betinis. Interview between Abbie Betinis and Behrooz Alavi Persian Music Scholar and Ney Player April 19, 2008

Behrooz (Barry) Alavi = BA Abbie Betinis = AB

BA: In Iran, there are people who [are] educated in classical Persian literature and poetry and have decided that they want to focus on Rumi or Hâfez… AB: That it can be so rich that people can spend their whole lives studying it is just so beautiful. … It’s almost like he’s developed his own mythology. BA: A few places and spaces where he has created the environment: golestân is another place. It’s a garden filled with flowers and waterfalls and…bustân. These are all his creations. Throughout his poetry, he describes it very tactfully. Kolbe-ye ahzân shavad, ruzi, golestân, Gham ma-khor. … So he’s saying “Kolbe-ye ahzân” is a house that is broken, …everything is dusty, it’s full of sadness. He says, “One day it will become golestân.” If you’re patient. BA: …the Persian classical music repertoire has 12 systems. These 12 systems consist of 7 main systems and 5 âvâz (means “singing”). What I sang for you last night was in the system of Mahur. … The names of the seven are…Shur, Mahur, Homayoun, Segah, Chaharrgah, Rast va panjgah, and Nava. … Persian music starts always with a statement, like a… preparation, and then it starts elevating. And then it goes to a peak, and usually goes to a middle station and then it does a landing. It’s always like this. … You start with the dâramad, which means the prelude, …and then you start climbing and they all have names [each level]. … And then it goes up higher and higher and higher until he gets to a peak of the system and then he does a landing. AB: So…if I’ve been trained in this Western system of chant, I can think of it as having a reciting tone. And that reciting tone is escalating too. And then you came back to tonic at the end…. BA: Exactly. Then you always land. So, in the main systems, you keep climbing up but you have to repeat the prelude—the last tonality of the prelude—every time. … This goes on for…9 or 12 lines of poetry. It’s quite extensive. …if you ask me to sing the same three [examples] 15,000 times, it [will] sound the same way every time, over and over, because that’s how…the “plumb line” that you use [in] Hâfez poetry so that, these [ornaments] that I just did [he sings] you can’t remember how many to do unless you use the poetry, you know what I mean? AB: Right. And all of the ornaments are set! …

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BA: Rend is another character [Hâfez] has created. Rend is a person who is in love, has no fear, is very playful. He loves music, sleeps anywhere, stays up late, parties, he likes to go [somewhere] and then suddenly changes his mind. That’s a Rend. And [Hâfez] says, “The beauty, or the final verse of your life is not dependent on you being religious or the Rend. … I let go. I just let go. Because I am not a follower of either one of these two paths in life.” … AB: I can ask you some questions about how does Hâfez speak now, even after all these years. I think the audience would love to hear it. BA: First of all, I’ve said Hâfez lived between 1320 and 1390. …. In the 1200-year history of Persian literature and poetry [Hâfez] is considered one of the best—in line with Mawlana, in line with Saadi, in line with Ferdowsi and others. AB: And those are names I’m surprised that people don’t know in our culture. BA: No. They don’t. There are 25 major poets that…I’m going to bring up [in the pre-concert lecture] so people get a little bit of [a familiarity]. [he reads the list] All of these are either at the same time as Hâfez lived or before him. So, Hâfez has studied all of these. AB: Did they ever share the mythology that Hâfez had put out there? These characters and the places… Did that become a poetic [rhetorical device]? BA: I think Hâfez has absorbed all of this and the Qur’an, and the Araqi literature, and a whole bunch of Arab literature and come up with a book. It’s like an artist who goes and gets inspired by the work of others and suddenly creates something of his own. … I extracted some main points [from Hâfez’s writings]. One is: How do you look at life in general? How can you see beauty in things that are ugly to others? … [Another theme is] being hopeful and happy in life regardless of [circumstances]. … The fact that the end and the beginning is both here is…you know…this idea that you’re going to die and go into another golestân, you know, both of them are HERE. [Other themes of Hâfez are:] Love and rendi, this person that I just described, is a big thing. Letting go of prejudice. … Being…balanced in life. Having patience for bad things that happen in life…. Have the ability to handle them. Stop complaining. Believe in fate. … Be jolly—enjoy life. Appreciative. Praying [in gratitude] for what you have. Keep [confidences]. Patience. Be loyal. Forgive people. And have gratitude for what you have. These are [laughs] all in there. AB: If only we could do all of those things in life. … AB: I tried to pick poems that had a lot of images of transience, of breath and fire, things that move, and breeze, and things like this. I was imagining this nomadic life that Sufi followers had. How did Hâfez talk about that?

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BA: He talks about Sufism. He talks about Shia. He talks about [the] 70 other [sects]. … [Hâfez] does a little bit of ridicule—I’m going to be careful how I word this because some people will get offended. His basic message about religion is that if you have purity of soul, and purity of heart, you don’t need a religion. You are connected to the Divine. And this is not something you learn. It’s not something like engineering or math that you go and learn. This is something that is in you, genetically, when you’re born. It’s like Dali Lama. It’s purity that is in you since childhood. It’s within you as you’re born in this world. It’s by keeping good thoughts—Zoroastrianism. So, his messages about Sufism is lose your ego, get down to the dirt, burn the Sufi outfit, the Kerqheh is a warm woolen thing, it’s very…disgusting to wear. … But, they wear it because it’s cheep and it keeps you warm. AB: And the metaphor is if you burn it… BA: You give up your kerqheh, you give up your ego, your belonging—you burn it, and you get closer to the dirt. …which is where you come from. Because the people who are angels built you from that. And eventually, that’s where you go. AB: Dust to dust. BA: Yeah. So, that’s the message—let go of the ego. Become a nomad. You are nobody. You’re nothing. … Because you’re now connected to the Divine Power. …the source of energy, as you get more and more in tune with it, it gets so huge that basically all you need to do is ask, and then you’ll get. That’s it. Simple as that. AB: Right. Did Hâfez consider himself Sufi? BA: No. He has no [religious affiliation]. AB: But still, we have a lot of metaphors from the Sufi tradition that come in to his writing? BA: Yes. The Sufis are the closest to what he considers—people who have connected with the divine power. AB: Is there anything that I should know about these particular poems? BA: The movements, the first one which is Âmâde-im, is talking about patience, fate, and endurance. You come from hâdese, which means incidents in life… AB: It’s this first movement where we throw off the woolen kerqe. I want to make sure that we talk about that with the audience. These metaphors will be interesting to them. … I read that the connection between the breath and the fire of the soul is one of these Sufi ideas. Is that true? When they say “Ah!”—that’s a sign of being open in the body….

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BA: When you take a deep sigh and you say “Ah!,” you connect yourself with that divine power, with that energy source I was just discussing. Which is like fire. You have so much power. AB: I was hoping [the soloist in mvt. 1, measure 55] would make herself a vessel more than a [bravado delivery]. BA: In the second [movement, Hâfez is] using a lot of allegories. Like Kolbeye ahzân gets converted to golestân, and Joseph comes back from Egypt. …stay the course. AB: Right. And that’s what THIS [movement 2] is about. … I’ve set it with a tone, that is…walking—everybody’s walking the path together. BA: You’re just giving the message of “Be comfortable.” AB: This…would be so amazing to have…the original [ghazal sung] between each movement, or just even a few lines, just like that …to get the feel of it. BA: I’ll give [the audience] a taste. And then the choir will go [mimics the choir]. And then the [audience] thinks, “Ah, don’t worry.” You know, they get the message. I think it would be nice—a nice texture. Then the 3rd movement…is that you have forgotten that you come from God. Most people forget that through life. God actually made you and put his soul into you. So, why do you keep doubting all these things? Don’t forget that. It doesn’t matter what religion you are. AB: The 3rd movement, also, to me, in my humble opinion on this tradition [chuckles], had an idea of celebration at the same time as it’s…taking down the walls, “the churches warring among themselves.” That was the line that really got me. They don’t know. They beat on the door of truth. [laughs] And that’s where our drum comes in. BA: That’s the right message. It also talks about true nature of human being—please, look at these people fighting among themselves about 72 religions, the 72 other sects, and at the very last line, he says, “Thank God, that I’m at peace with Him. For that reason all of the Sufis…are singing and dancing. That’s a sign. Because I’m at peace with God.” AB: And what do you think the fire is here? BA: The fire talks about the energy you were saying…. The fire that comes from the spirit, the fire that comes from the soul, that…is the real fire. Not the candle. That’s not fire. AB: Yeah. So, when I ask them to sing “âtash” it’s…more a celebratory sound, than a scary sound? BA: It’s power. AB: It’s POWER! Yeah.

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BA: Âtash has always meant “power” in Persian literature and poetry. It’s from Zoroastrian’s religious belief system. Because the first religion in Iran was Zoroastrian. Then the Arabs came and attacked Iran and destroyed all the books, the libraries, and everything else, and changed the religion to Islam. But, Iran was always a Zoroastrian country. They never had these issues [previously]. Zoroastrian has three simple things: Good thoughts, good deeds, and good behaviors. That’s it.

NOTE: This is a raw transcript of an in-person interview. Parts of this interview appear in the document “Hâfez and Betinis: A Conductor’s Approach to Ancient Persian Poetry as Voiced by a Twenty-First Century, Western Composer” by Peter Steenblik, published by the University of North Texas in 2015. For permission to quote this raw material, please contact Dr. Peter Steenblik as well as Behrooz Alavi and Abbie Betinis.

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NOTE: This is a raw transcript of a Skype interview. Parts of this interview appear in the document “Hâfez and Betinis: A Conductor’s Approach to Ancient Persian Poetry as Voiced by a Twenty-First Century, Western Composer” published by the University of North Texas in 2015. For permission to quote this raw material, please contact Dr. Peter Steenblik as well as Dr. Elroy Friesen. Interview with Dr. Elroy Friesen Director of Choral Studies at the University of Manitoba June 2, 2015

Elroy Friesen = EF Peter Steenblik = PS

PS: Briefly describe for me your experience with Caravan. EF: … I approached the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s new music festival. … I found the money to bring Abbie up. It was one of the HITS of the festival, actually. … Abbie coached us a bit, and gave an introduction to her piece at the festival and she stole the show, essentially. PS: I just listened to a recording of your performance. It was a pretty robust sound. EF: I didn’t want it to sound like a classical choir. I asked for more chest voice. It does make tuning a little trickier. … If I were doing this with a community choir or a professional women’s chorus, I would go very robust. I’m not interested in a piece of this character and nature sounding like a classical choir. I’m just not interested in that. But, when we are working in a university where they’re not being trained to be professional choristers, they’re training to be professional soloists at this point…. PS: In your opinion, is there an overarching theme to the work? Are the movements extractable? EF: No. They’re not extractable. Part of the success of the piece is the emotional journey. Of course, if you’re looking for just a flash-in-the-pan thing, you could do one movement—but, I don’t think it does the piece justice. PS: What other sources did you consult in preparing this piece? EF: I would say that Abbie is a very reliable resource because SHE has done the work. And being a chorister herself, she understands what needs to be understood by the choristers. I relied on that a lot. PS: I noticed your performance excluded the oud and you also used cello. Can I get your thoughts on instrumentation options? EF: We asked Abbie to write it out for cello. Which she did. And there had to be adjustments made in the score. PS: Right. So, it was only available for vielle prior to your request

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EF: That’s what I understand. … I believe we were the first. We asked her for cello. We had a new faculty member…who was a cellist. Not having any money to bring in guest artists at all… PS: And your reason for excluding the oud was more for financial and resource unavailability? EF: Right. Accessibility. PS: There are significant passages of voice crossings. Are you a conductor who would honor the score as written, or make adjustments? EF: I do it exactly as written. The only time I would ever not do that is if there was something that, because of the voice crossing, was so difficult it wasn’t worth the bang for the buck. And if it would be an issue…[pause]… No. Because it affects voice leading, tone color… [looking at mvt. 2, measure 32-35] A composer, especially like Abbie knows darn well what a first alto sounds like vs. a second soprano in a typical choir. So, I just wouldn’t ever mess with that. It’s all a voice-leading thing. I don’t see how adjustments would simplify it. But, I do make adjustments, for instance, in the first movement, I didn’t have enough beef from my women for what I wanted. So, there are times where each section is split where only half of each section sings, I would ask all of the voices sing the final statement [of “âmâdaim in their respective parts], in measure 6, for example. PS: Any other comments? EF: You asked about classical vs. heavier sound… So those two soloists [I used] are absolutely fabulous classical singers. PS: You used the same two soloists throughout? EF: Yeah. Exactly. Both of them have a great chest voice register, and one of them has a humongous soprano register. So, that’s how we did it. …it was a practical [decision]. We didn’t have soloists within the women’s chorus. I…brought in a couple who could. Because if it doesn’t start on the right foot with the soloists…[pause]…soloists can bring the whole thing down.

NOTE: This is a raw transcript of a Skype interview. Parts of this interview appear in the document “Hâfez and Betinis: A Conductor’s Approach to Ancient Persian Poetry as Voiced by a Twenty-First Century, Western Composer” published by the University of North Texas in 2015. For permission to quote this raw material, please contact Dr. Peter Steenblik as well as Dr. Elroy Friesen.

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NOTE: This is a raw transcript of a telephone interview. Parts of this interview appear in the document “Hâfez and Betinis: A Conductor’s Approach to Ancient Persian Poetry as Voiced by a Twenty-First Century, Western Composer” published by the University of North Texas in 2015. For permission to quote this raw material, please contact Dr. Peter Steenblik as well as Dr. Susan McMane. Interview with Dr. Susan McMane Artistic and Executive Director of the Young Women’s Choral Projects of San Francisco June 2, 2015

Susan McMane = SM Peter Steenblik = PS

PS: Describe your experience with Abbie Betinis and your involvement with Caravan in particular. SM: We’re both interested in accessible, but interesting music with integrity—things that are emotional but also modern. My singers love to sing her music. It fits their voices well. It stretches them as musicians, but it feels very satisfying to sing. … Caravan was the first big piece I did of hers. PS: How did you help your young singers prepare musically for this experience? SM: Trying to get them to have a more…Middle Eastern flavor to their sound—sliding, and having a little more off-the-chest in midrange. It’s not the way we usually sing. They had fun with it after a while. I had already done quite a bit of Eastern European things with my group. We had lots of experience with modern harmonies and mixed meter. So, the group was ready for it. It still was a challenge though. PS: Do you feel the movements are extractable? Or, in your opinion, is there an overarching theme that is lost when breaking the movements apart? SM: I did extract…the 2nd movement, “suffer no grief.” I took that and performed it with a cellist. … The other 3 times I performed it, I did it with viola. But, having heard it with the cello that one time, I thought, “Oh, wow. I even like this better.” PS: So, you prefer the cello over the viola? SM: After I heard him play, yes. And…with treble voices, it gave a little more depth. Any time you have cello with a treble choir it finally gives some bass support. It helps. The viola gets a little bit lost, although it’s a nice quality too. PS: What are your feelings about the inclusion or exclusion of the optional oud in performance? SM: I used oud in San Francisco at the two performances we did. And I inserted an oud improv. between movements 2 and 3, and between 3 and 4, and also at the very beginning while the viola held an F# drone. The oud improvised on that before we started. It kind of put us in that style.

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Between movements 3 and 4, for example, I asked him to improv. in g-minor [to prepare] movement 4. PS: Did you encourage individual ornamentation and improvisation within the choir in some of the monophonic sections—adding an element of heterophony? SM: It’s an interesting idea. I didn’t use that. I could see that would be interesting. I guess I [yield] first to the intent of the composer. If she writes “improv,” you know, or “ad lib” then I would do it. But without [specific direction] I tend to err on the other side. She does have a few slides and that kind of thing marked. We tried to do that. Sometimes in a choir situation [individual ornamentation] just muddies it up, so you have to be careful. Coaching a soloist is one thing—and then I tried to get the choir to just echo whatever the soloist did, you know. PS: I’m curious how you handled some of the voice crossings and/or divisi. SM: I added a lot of voices to [some of] the solo lines, for instance, [in the 1st movement], measure 50: instead of being a soloist, that was my 2nd soprano section. I only have 40 singers. If we start to divisi too many of them, I couldn’t do it. And so, in 53-56, the top line was not a soloist. It was the 2nd sopranos singing the lower notes and some 1st sopranos singing the upper pitches. I divided the lower parts amongst all sections. My soloists, they’re young and they can’t sustain very long. So, in other movements I also [added to the solo line]…the alto solo in bar 9 of movement 4. I had 3 or 4 girls sing that so they could sustain the line. I felt, [with a soloist], it wouldn’t be as nice. PS: There’s quite a bit of voice crossing between the A1 and S2. Did you follow the parts as written or did you make adjustments to parts like that? SM; I performed it as written. Even though my girls are young, they have a lot of experience with part crossing and holding their own so they are fine with that. I just left that as is.

NOTE: This is a raw transcript of a telephone interview. Parts of this interview appear in the document “Hâfez and Betinis: A Conductor’s Approach to Ancient Persian Poetry as Voiced by a Twenty-First Century, Western Composer” published by the University of North Texas in 2015. For permission to quote this raw material, please contact Dr. Peter Steenblik as well as Dr. Susan McMane.

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NOTE: This is a raw transcript of a telephone interview. Parts of this interview appear in the document “Hâfez and Betinis: A Conductor’s Approach to Ancient Persian Poetry as Voiced by a Twenty-First Century, Western Composer” published by the University of North Texas in 2015. For permission to quote this raw material, please contact Dr. Peter Steenblik as well as Dr. Phillip Swan. Interview with Dr. Phillip Swan Co-director of Choral Studies at Lawrence University June 16, 2015

Phillip Swan = Sw Peter Steenblik = PS

PS: Could you briefly describe your experience with Caravan? Sw: I decided to do the 3rd movement [of Caravan]. One of my colleagues that I’ve collaborated with is a saxophone player. I contacted Abbie and asked how she would feel and if she would consider writing the [vielle] part for a saxophone. Which she did. So, the first performance I did [of the work] was the 3rd movement…accompanied by saxophone. PS: So you asked her to write it for soprano sax as a way to highlight this particular faculty member? Sw: Right. And it went really well. I was planning to do [the whole work] for our main choral concert. I was considering continuing to do the rest of the work with soprano sax, but…as the year progressed I thought that it didn’t quite work for all the movements. Abbie and I had talked about using another friend of mine who plays viola. We talked about possibly doing a combination of viola and soprano sax before we just settled on viola. PS: At this point the work was only scored for vielle, correct? Sw: Right. And Abbie said that she thought viola could be a really good option for us to do. So that’s how we did [our] first full performance. We don’t all have a vielle as a resource—either early instruments or world instruments. So, this was a good option and Abbie was genuinely happy with it. PS: I noticed that for the ACDA performance you did the 2nd movement, and for the Kaleidoscope performance you did the 3rd movement. I assume, then, that you believe the movements to be extractable. Correct? Sw: Yes. I think they are. That’s kind of the beauty of it. For the work as a whole they all tie in to create a beautiful story but, at the same time, the movements can all stand on their own. In fact, I’ve done three movements on their own. The other movement was the 1st movement, “we have come.” I was asked to conduct a festival choir in Oman. So, as I was [selecting] music, I was chatting with the person in charge. I found that the festival brings in kids from all over the Middle East from English-speaking schools and private schools. There were going to be about 200 students at the festival. I asked about previous works and what they had done and they had hosted a lot of well-known conductors. But, everybody had done standard rep and some standard world literature. I asked, “Well, has anybody done anything Middle Eastern?” And she

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said, “No. That would be so great. The problem is that not a whole lot has been written for choir and nobody has really introduced that to the students.” So, I got this hairbrained idea to call Abbie and…explain the situation…with an SATB group. [I asked,] “Would you consider voicing [the first movement] for an SATB choir? I’ll use it as the opener for the concert.” And…she did. She re-voiced that movement for SATB choir. PS: While Abbie owns the fact that Caravan is not authentically Persian, did you find any concerns about cultural appropriation by taking Caravn to the Middle East? What was the reaction of the singers with whom you worked? Sw: Nobody had a problem with it. I didn’t ever claim that it was going to be authentic. We did claim that the text was. That’s what I was pushing—that it featured a text that was Middle Eastern—not that it was written by someone from the Middle East. So, in the program I used [Caravan, mvt. 1] and also used Whitacre’s This Marriage with the Rumi text. PS: There’s a polarity of tonal approaches with Caravan. What was your approach as far as timbre is concerned? Sw: I really wanted to have…a more “raw” approach to it. [But,] I wanted it to reflect the text more than anything. At times it would be strong, then joyful, then…reflective. So, I wanted both extremes. I wanted it to have an edge to it, at times, but I also wanted a clear beauty to the sound at times—so people could focus on the text and reflect. PS: In the 4th movement, you chose to employ an almost aleatoric technique in the solo at measure 59—the chant at the end. What guided this decision and what are your feelings about the incorporation of heterophony? Sw: It was a musical choice—when I hear it, I just felt that’s what it needed. PS: You treated the beginning of the 5th movement in a similar way, but not the 1st movement? Sw: Yes. I did it to tie [the 4th and 5th movements] together. … I asked Abbie some questions too. She wanted me to…be free with what I was doing…which was delightful. I’ve worked with a lot of composers who have very specific…ideas—composers who say, “Don’t mess around. Don’t leave the page. I don’t want to hear anything else other than what I wrote.” And Abbie, while she has very definite opinions, she’s also…willing and free to experiment with new ideas…and see if it’ll work. PS: What are your feelings about the inclusion or exclusion of the oud in performance? Sw: The oud is great—it adds a real depth to the quality. I like it. PS: Did you use the oud in performance? Sw: No. We just didn’t have one [in the area]. I don’t think it’s necessary. I feel she’s written it in a way that can be pretty effective with [just] the viola. There’s enough quality to the piece

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and [the listener] can focus on the voices. With the percussion and viola, there’s enough background information to give it a structure without becoming dominant. [The oud] is great though—I’m not opposed to it. PS: Do you recall making any adjustments to the various voice-crossings? Or did you choose to follow the score as printed? Sw: We tried to maintain the voicings as they were written. Abbie and I have talked about this a lot. One of the reasons I like her writing is that she is a singer. She gets how the voice works. And she’ll push boundaries, but always [makes] good vocal choices. I, philosophically, ask my women to use a wider range, and not be stuck to such a narrow [range], like the Alto 1. So, we tried to stick to what was on the page. We made a few [alterations] for balance issues but, pretty much, stuck to the page. NOTE: This is a raw transcript of a telephone interview. Parts of this interview appear in the document “Hâfez and Betinis: A Conductor’s Approach to Ancient Persian Poetry as Voiced by a Twenty-First Century, Western Composer” published by the University of North Texas in 2015. For permission to quote this raw material, please contact Dr. Peter Steenblik as well as Dr. Phillip Swan.

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NOTE: This is a raw transcript of an in-person interview. Parts of this interview appear in the document “Hâfez and Betinis: A Conductor’s Approach to Ancient Persian Poetry as Voiced by a Twenty-First Century, Western Composer” published by the University of North Texas in 2015. For permission to quote this raw material, please contact Dr. Peter Steenblik as well as Daniel Sabzghabaei. Interview with Daniel Sabzghabaei MM student of composition at the Peabody Institute of The John Hopkins University June 1, 2015

Peter Steenblik = PS Daniel Sabzghabaei = DS

DS: [The ghazals] have this idea of the “Beloved” [which is] so rife in Sufi poetry…. This “Beloved” can mean so many different things—it goes from God, to passionate love, to sexual love, to desire, so it’s just this idea of…longing and…desire for intimacy. Honestly, that’s a staple of the poetry…this “longing.” This idea is in every music, but what’s special about Hâfez, Rumi, etc., the Sufi poets, [they] combine all of these facets of love…and make it into something that is deeply spiritual, whether it be physical love for a person, thing, or the Beloved as a Godhead. That’s what makes this “Beloved” idea unique: the amalgamation of intimacy. PS: As a composer with Persian heritage, what elements do you hear that are Persian versus not? DS: Appropriating the scale. She’s using this collection. …it’s a very common collection. This is just the base. She obviously works off of it:

G Ab B C D Eb F# G This is a very common scale. PS: The major scale with a flatted 6 and 2. DS: Yeah. But, this is not a Persian scale [the scale above]. THIS is… okay? [the scale below]. [Pointing to 2nd and 6th scale degree] A quarter-tone flat, and a quarter-tone flat.

G A b B C D E b F# G This is VERY important to me. There’s two systems [to be aware of]. There’s the dastgah system, and then there’s the vocal system. [Dastgah] means “mode.” Well…it doesn’t really mean that, but it’s a Persian modal system. [Even the scale above] gives you an incorrect vision of what the “mode” is because we’re so steeped in Western tradition, so, if you looked at this, you would think, “What are the stress pitches?” G à D à G, I à V, right? No. In Persian music it’s not like that at all. I’m not saying they’re NOT stressed. They are. But, I’ll call this, this is chaharmezrab [pointing to scale above], that’s just one of them. This gives you a bad indication of what it really is. I’ll show you mahur, okay? G – A – Bb – C. So, here’s another

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collection of mahur: C – D – E – F. So, this is what a western audience would see. G – A – Bb – C So, it looks major-ish, right? So let’s say we start with these couple pitches. It’ll center around here [A-D]. I’m not saying this is correct [for the Betinis] but this is just how Persian modes work. So, for a while, it’ll feel like we’re in A. And then, it’ll reach over and grab this much [G-Bb]. And then, it’ll center around maybe C. So you kind of, it’s like taking binoculars okay? It’s not so I – V – I – V – I – V – I. You kind of shift your view [from area to area]. And the shahed note, the “witness” note, which is where your finalis is for every section of your mode that you’re going through, it’s kind of like a journey every time. So, it’ll shift and shift and shift, and then while you’re in each dastgah, go through various gusheh…which are just patterns. And, if you look at…Persian music, there are very common patterns that are not even plagiarism anymore, it’s just, this is what you do. You set it up, and then from there you do what you want. You can experiment, right? So, that’s the dastgah system. The vocal system kind-of came out of this, and now, ever since the invention of the piano, because it came to Iran, these [quarter tones] are less common whenever there’s vocal music, which is sad. PS: So, in going back to the mahur system: it appears to be an isolated, very confined space, just using this as your tonic, and floating around, and then moving to another place, then moving to another place [and so forth]. Which, while I don’t fully understand the system, seems like that’s what she’s doing with movements 1, 5, and 2. In a small, confined space, expanding and contracting, then moving to a new space. …expands to about a 4th or a 5th, and then comes back, and moves to another area. DS: Exactly. It’s kind of like climbing a mountain [with various degrees of foothills], and then you have a descent at the end. …I can see the feeling that you’re talking about. It does do that in the work. PS: This book [the Mage publication] was one of her sources while writing Caravan. DS: This is really beautiful. This is rare. [looking at book] Having a book that has Farsi, translation, AND transliteration—very uncommon. PS: AND the artistic rendering… DS: Yeah. Oh yeah. That’s beautiful. Very, very uncommon. PS: Are there elements particularly important for proper delivery of Caravan? DS: I know this is hard for groups doing it, but…the gutterals. They’re very important. …That’s one thing I can definitely feel in her work, she’s setting the poetry correctly [to achieve that]. … Let’s say this obscures their pitch a little bit. For me, I don’t care. [It’s about the flavor.]

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PS: Any thoughts on the instrumentation options? DS: The inclusion of the tombak, and optional oud—it says you can improvise. [pause] It goes back to the tradition of each. The oud and the tombak have a deep tradition on their own [so] it’s hard to tell a Western performer, “Just improvise.” So, as long as [Betinis] just wants the sound of the instrument, that’s okay. But…those traditions are just as deep as the choral tradition. NOTE: This is a raw transcript of an in-person interview. Parts of this interview appear in the document “Hâfez and Betinis: A Conductor’s Approach to Ancient Persian Poetry as Voiced by a Twenty-First Century, Western Composer” published by the University of North Texas in 2015. For permission to quote this raw material, please contact Dr. Peter Steenblik as well as Daniel Sabzghabaei.

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NOTE: This is a raw transcript of a telephone interview. Parts of this interview appear in the document “Hâfez and Betinis: A Conductor’s Approach to Ancient Persian Poetry as Voiced by a Twenty-First Century, Western Composer” published by the University of North Texas in 2015. For permission to quote this raw material, please contact Dr. Peter Steenblik as well as Ryan Hardcastle. Interview with Ryan Hardcastle DM – viola performance at Indiana University, Jacobs School of Music June 17, 2015

Ryan Hardcastle = RH Peter Steenblik = PS

PS: What choices did you make and what problems did you encounter in preparing From Behind the Caravan? RH: In the first movement, at first…I approached it fairly straightforward. And then, [in a later performance,] … I began to add more folk-like elements—through ornaments, changing rhythms, or using an open string along with the melodic line. For example, from the very first note—I have an A. It could be played on an open string or on the [D] string—so I played both. I played an A on the open string, and I played an A on the D string so it matched the same pitch—basically playing two simultaneous A’s on one instrument. The second or third time [that motive] comes back, I tended to hold the A a longer time—as a drone under the line, like a pedal tone throughout the phrase. I also added a few glissandos in where I felt it would be effective. RH: The second movement, some of the lines are quite long. I had to pay special attention to bowings. There are also moments of texture where the choir [overpowers] the mid-range of the viola, so I had to play a little bit louder than marked, just so I knew [the viola part] would come through. RH: [The third movement] is actually quite awkward on the viola [due to] the key and where it lays on the viola. Look at m. 24-25, for example—it’s extremely awkward with the A#’s. So, I had to stay on the D string—so I didn’t have to cross a bunch of strings. Otherwise, going that speed would just be a mess. I ornamented quite a bit in this movement too, because there were good opportunities to do so. A lot of the ornaments I did were almost “grace-note” type additions [at the beginnings of phrases], leading to the starting pitch. It seemed to fit. This movement is very much like a dance. RH: Now, the fourth movement is my favorite movement to play. Everything is fairly straightforward. The only problem is in measure 33—that is very difficult to play [on viola]. I ended up playing an open D string, but then to play that G, I actually had to go to 7th position—that was the only way to get around it. By measure 35, I was able to return to 1st position. Another issue in this movement is that she sometimes writes in bass clef, as in measure 37. We simply don’t read bass clef. I’m sure that has to do with the origins of the part being written for vielle. Just something to watch out for. The rest of it is pretty self-explanatory. There is an issue in texture at measure 78. The choir and soprano soloist are quite high, but [the viola is] in the middle of its range. So, to get that line to come out I had to play very loud. PS: Were there adjustments you had to make for the final performance when we added the oud?

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RH: It wasn’t an issue to add the oud. … It was nice to have something like that running alongside my part—because both textures came together to create one unified texture which was quite nice. PS: I know you prepared by familiarizing yourself with other works by Abbie. Are there things you learned through that process that would be valuable for another player? RH: I went into this having heard her Bar Xizam 4 or 5 times in concert. I was familiar with that work and observed [a need for a] rhythmic quality [that was] very precise, almost like a drum. It has a very percussive quality to it—in the vocal lines too. [This exposure] made [Caravan] familiar. My approach to it was one of familiarity rather than foreign. NOTE: This is a raw transcript of a telephone interview. Parts of this interview appear in the document “Hâfez and Betinis: A Conductor’s Approach to Ancient Persian Poetry as Voiced by a Twenty-First Century, Western Composer” published by the University of North Texas in 2015. For permission to quote this raw material, please contact Dr. Peter Steenblik as well as Ryan Hardcastle.

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NOTE: This is a raw transcript of an in-person interview. Parts of this interview appear in the document “Hâfez and Betinis: A Conductor’s Approach to Ancient Persian Poetry as Voiced by a Twenty-First Century, Western Composer” published by the University of North Texas in 2015. For permission to quote this raw material, please contact Dr. Peter Steenblik as well as Raychel Taylor. Interview with Raychel Taylor Graduate student at Northern Illinois University with particular focus of study on Persian rhythms and percussion June 15, 2015

Peter Steenblik = PS Raychel Taylor = RT

PS: For our performance of From Behind the Caravan, what informed your musical and instrumental choices? What options did you consider? RT: All [the score] says is “Persian Hand Drum,” and [Abbie Betinis suggests for the 1st and 5th movements] a riq or another kind of tambourine. [The riq]is considered a frame drum—a wooden circle or square with skin [stretched] over it. You hold it with both hands and play with your fingertips. … A riq is a little bit different than a typical frame drum because it has jingles. So it’s closer to a tambourine—because tambourines, in a classical setting, have jingles. … With the riq, the jingles are really tight so they don’t move around or make extraneous noise unless you hit them or unless you are shaking it. As opposed to a tambourine—the purpose of a tambourine is the jingle sound, so if you hit it you will hear the jingles. If you’re playing a riq, you can play the head and just hear the head, or you can play the jingles [independently or together]. The jingles have a higher, tighter, pitched sound. Most Arabic…drums [have] a low sound and a high sound. So, with the riq, you have the high jingle sound, and the low head sound. … Riq, doumbek, [and] Middle Eastern drumming technique came from accompanying dance—especially belly dancing. In playing, if I wanted to highlight a certain rhythm [during Caravan], that’s where I’d use the jingles. It’s a more interesting sound. PS: I observed one performance of Caravan that used a basic frame drum and tambourine. Would that be an acceptable substitute? RT: You could. With Middle Eastern instruments, there are so many names for the same thing. When [a score says] “Persian hand drum,” that is just so broad. Literally hundreds of options. … The middle movements ask for a Persian hand drum—[the score suggests] tombak. So, darbuka, doumbek, tombak, and tabla can all mean the same thing—depending on where you are from: Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan, etc. … A doumbek, which is what I used [for the performance of Caravan] is held while you sit—you hold it on your non-dominant side. All four of these are considered goblet drums—which means they look like a chalice. PS: Would djembe be an acceptable substitute? RT: No. It is characteristically African. It’s deeper. It’s a wholly different sound. [With djembe] you can’t get the high sound [you get from these other options]. [Arabic] drums have two sounds—a doum and a tek. The doum is a deep sound that is usually played with the flat of

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your hand in the middle of the drum. The tek is usually played at the edge of the rim with just the fingers and creates a high-pitched sound. You can’t get that on a djembe. PS: What advice might you give to a less-experienced player? RT: If you were going to perform this … with a player who wasn’t very experienced, you can get the right sound quite easily on a doumbek played between the legs [like a djembe]. … But the traditional way is actually to the side so that the bottom of the drum goes behind you and you play with one hand over the top. But it is harder to play that way. The darbuka is almost the same thing. The main difference is that the head of the darbuka actually stretches over the rim. With the doumbek, there is a rim that is placed on top of the head. So, you can actually get the high-pitched sounds easier on a darbuka because the edges are exposed. So that would be a great option for someone who doesn’t have much experience. Tabla could mean either of those—it’s a very generic term. But tabla can also refer to Indian drums—a Northern Indian instrument that is actually two drums. That is totally different—clearly Indian. Not Arabic. PS: Other drum options? RT: And then there’s tombak, which [the score] actually requests. The term tombak can actually be Arabic, or Turkish, or Indian. The upper part of the chalice shape is very deep and big—like a large wine glass. The tombak are often made of wood. Whereas a doumbek and darbuka are usually made from ceramic, aluminum, or brass. Each give a different timbre. I chose a ceramic one—they are easily broken. Not a good choice for a novice. PS: How did you handle some of the improvisatory passages? RT: When I was improvising, I felt the need to lay a clear groove that was easy to understand. If you are accompanying an ensemble, that is not the time to show off. Your job is to hold it together and be straightforward. So, even though I had a lot of improvisatory ideas, I wanted it to be clear. In the Arabic music, sometimes an upbeat is in an odd place that can sound like a downbeat to a Westerner. It can be very odd. The thing to remember is that low sounds equal downbeats. So, on beat one, I tried to incorporate a low sound—and sometimes on beat three (if in 4/4). I didn’t feel the need to be consistent—doing a low sound on EVERY beat 1 and 3, but enough that the choir was aware of where I was. It’s familiar to our Western ears. Most of the time, however, I was playing high sounds. I drew inspiration from the melody and tried to follow the contour of the melody. There were times where I took a heterophonic approach and played in unison with the viola or vocalist—to reinforce what they were doing. But, other times, where there was empty space, I would fill those spaces. I just tried to listen a lot and make musically informed decisions. If dealing with an inexperienced player, simply request them to lay clear downbeats (low sounds) on beat 1 and keep it simple. When improvising, the simpler the better—especially when with an ensemble. PS: In places, the score asks for a “roll.” How did you accomplish this? RT: There are a lot of different ways you can create a roll on these Arabic drums. One is a finger roll—usually done between the ring finger and pointer finger on the right hand and the

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ring finger on the left hand—a triplet-based roll between those three fingers. You have a lot of control and can be very quiet and delicate with that technique. So, I used that technique most often. Another option is a one-handed roll, [played flat-handed with the thumb extended] alternating between the palm and fingers. Inexperienced players can get away with using a two finger roll—with just the two pointer fingers on each hand. They won’t typically have the chops to do either the triplet finger roll or the one-handed roll. A two-finger roll is okay—using both pointer fingers played toward the edge of the drum. This also gives control over the high-sound. PS: What suggestions do you have if we were to use improvisatory elements between movements? RT: That would allow for moments where the player doesn’t have to simply lay down a groove. Having some sort of dance rhythm could add a lot of interest to the piece. One detail that creates complications with the doumbek is, because it’s only two tones, a single player can’t groove AND solo at the same time. So, sometimes doumbek solos are often accompanied by another doumbek player who just grooves behind them. So, you feel a goove, and the soloist improvises over the top. PS: So, an improvisatory section could be done by two players? RT: You could do that, or have the doumbek set the groove while the oud improvises—if you don’t have two drummers. Or the doumbek could solo over the top of a simple melody on viola or oud. Or the doumbek could just solo—without a groove. That’s okay too. Just, if the doumbek is truly soloing, no one else should be playing unless it establishes a groove. NOTE: This is a raw transcript of an in-person interview. Parts of this interview appear in the document “Hâfez and Betinis: A Conductor’s Approach to Ancient Persian Poetry as Voiced by a Twenty-First Century, Western Composer” published by the University of North Texas in 2015. For permission to quote this raw material, please contact Dr. Peter Steenblik as well as Raychel Taylor.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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no. 21 (2011). Betinis, Abbie. “A More Personal Biography (2007).” Abbie Betinis: Composer. Last modified

May 28, 2015. http://www.abbiebetinis.com/writings.html. Betinis, Abbie. “On the Suzuki Method in My Life.” Aber Suzuki Center Alumni Brochure

(2007). Articles Allen, Sue Fay, and Kathleen Keenan-Takagi. “Sing the Songs of Women Composers.” Music

Educators Journal 78:7 (3/1992): 48-51. Davidson, Mary Wallace. “Chorus Pro Musica Sings Psalms.” The Boston Musical

Intelligencer, June 6, 2011. http://www.classical-scene.com/. Edwards, J. Michele. “The World of Women and Beyond.” Choral Journal 53:5 (12/2012): 8-38. Fuchsberg, Larry. “Expect Big Things.” Star Tribune, November 11, 2007, sec. F. Gonzo, Carroll, review of Conducting Women’s Choirs: Strategies for Success by Debra

Spurgeon, Choral Journal 54:1 (8/2013): 80-81. Guerrieri, Matthew. “Getting Personal With the Psalms.” The Boston Globe, June 7, 2011.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/. Hughes, John C., “Living Minnesota Composers.” Choral Director 10:6 (11/2013): 25-26. Hughes, John C. Review of Songs of Smaller Creatures and Other American Choral Works by

Grant Park Chorus, Christopher Bell, conductor. Choral Journal 54:3 (10/2013): 65-66.

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Kozinn, Allan. “Romanticism, Tone Paintings and Modern Takes on Folk Tunes.” The New York Times, May 27, 2011, sec. C. http://www.nytimes.com.

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62-65. Wanyama, Shekela. “Nothing Off-Limits: An interview with composer Abbie Betinis.”

International Choral Bulletin 28:2 (2009): 39-41. Weininger, David. “A Commission to Evoke ‘The Other.’” The Boston Globe, June 3, 2011.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/. Books Spurgeon, Debra, editor, Conducting Women’s Choirs. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2012. Dissertations & Project Documents Culloton, Michael. “Jocelyn Hagen and Timothy Takach: An Introduction to Their Choral Music

and a Study of Their Positions Within a Lineage of Minnesota-Based Composers.” DMA diss., North Dakota State University, 2013. ProQuest (AAT 3557360).

Howell, Sharon. “The Burt Family Christmas Card Carol Tradition.” MM thesis. The University

of St. Thomas, 2011. Unpublished. Rothrock, Stanley H., II. “The Choral Music of Abbie Betinis: A Prospectus of the Composer’s

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Wahl, Shelbie L. “By Women, For Women: Choral Works for Women’s Voices Composed and

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Selected Scores Betinis, Abbie. Bar xizam (Upward I Rise). Abbie Betinis Music Co.: Saint Paul, 2007. Betinis, Abbie. The Babe of Bethlehem. Abbie Betinis Music Co.: Saint Paul, 2005. Betinis, Abbie. Be Like the Bird. Abbie Betinis Music Co.: Saint Paul, 2009. Betinis, Abbie. Come in! Come in!. Abbie Betinis Music Co.: Saint Paul, 2011. Betinis, Abbie. From Behind the Caravan: Songs of Hâfez. Abbie Betinis Music Co.: Saint Paul,

2007. Betinis, Abbie. Gloria!. Abbie Betinis Music Co.: Saint Paul, 2001. Betinis, Abbie. In the Bleak Midwinter. Abbie Betinis Music Co.: Saint Paul, 2006. Betinis, Abbie. The Mirthful Heart. Abbie Betinis Music Co.: Saint Paul, 2012. Betinis, Abbie. Morning Round (ecumenical lyrics). Abbie Betinis Music Co.: Saint Paul,

2013. Betinis, Abbie. Morning Round (secular lyrics). Abbie Betinis Music Co.: Saint Paul, 2013. Selected Recordings Betinis, Abbie. Works for Mixed (SATB) Chorus. Various artists. Abbie Betinis Music Co. AB-

CDR-01. Digital album. Betinis, Abbie. Works for Men’s Chorus and Women’s Chorus. Various artists. Abbie Betinis

Music Co. AB-CDR-02. Digital album. Betinis, Abbie. “The Babe of Bethlehem.” Shout the Glad Tidings. Singers-Minnesota Choral

Artists. Conducted by Matthew Culloton. The Singers B0031GBI9W. Compact disc.

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Betinis, Abbie. “In the Bleak Midwinter.” Dulci Jubilo: Christmas with the Singers. Singers-Minnesota Choral Artists. Conducted by Matthew Culloton. The Singers B00AK88P72. Compact disc.

Betinis, Abbie. “In the Bleak Midwinter.” Candlelight Carols: Music for Chorus and Harp.

Seraphic Fire. Conducted by Patrick D. Quigley. Seraphic Fire Media. Compact disc. Betinis, Abbie. “Nattsanger.” Bright Angel. Kimberly Cole Luevano, Midori Koga, and

Lindsay Kesselman. Fleur de Son Classics, Ltd. FDS 58019. Compact disc. Betinis, Abbie. “Nattsanger.” Breaking the Language Barrier: Songs in Norwegian and Danish,

Composed by Foreigners. Laura Loge, Beth Kirchhoff, and Luara DeLuca. Laura Loge BTLB-001. Compact disc.

Betinis, Abbie. “Songs of Smaller Creatures.” Songs of Smaller Creatures and Other American

Choral Works. Grant Park Chorus. Conducted by Christopher Bell. Cedille Records CDR 90000 131. Compact disc.

Betinis, Abbie. “To the Evening Star.” Into the Night. Vox Humana. Conducted by David N.

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