Polypontes
a Requiem for Mahsa
cycle on past & present. acoustics & electronics.
between Iranian and European Music Traditions.
dedicated to Mahsa, Kian, Mohammad, Yalda, Nika & Sarina.
Ehsan Ebrahimi’s electroacoustic music comes from pain. Pain is the center – independent of individual life circumstances and universally valid for every life, everywhere, always. Pain is unavoidable, existential to life, just as death is. Pain is much more encompassing and abstract than sorrow.
Pain in loneliness, however, is special. Pain in loneliness cannot connect with anything or anyone. Such pain requires connections that lead out of isolation. The POLYpontes cycle seeks these connections. The poles between which POLYpontes forms bridges appear as points of orientation in the diverse, contradictory, and confusing landscape where a very specific kind of loneliness arises – the loneliness of estrangement, uprooting, the loss of home, and longing.
The bridges in POLYpontes form a multidimensional web of interconnecting and crossing paths. Along the paths over the bridges, original opposites meet and touch.
Central European classical music meets the traditional folk music of Khorasan (a region today considered part of northeastern Iran, whose millennia-old history is marked by immense cultural and religious diversity). In this ancient Persian music, an echo of “Old Music” from Central Europe can be heard. This old music contrasts with the sound of contemporary music, which carries the tension between electronic and acoustic sounds.
POLYpontes plays with the distinction between true and alienated sounds, and for the blending of these sounds, alongside electronically mixed acoustic instruments, live electronics are also used. In the final movement, Ehsan Ebrahimi draws inspiration from the second movement of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, a funeral march that resembles an instrumental procession in somber orchestral colors. This composition by Beethoven, in turn, refers to the historical Pavane rhythm, later picked up by Schubert in his work Death and the Maiden. In Sarina, this connection across space and time creates a musical bridge, elevating memory to a living monument while simultaneously highlighting the timeless power and significance of music.
A repetitive variety of rhythmic patterns creates a groove that may drive toward answering the question of how connection can arise – how pain might find its way out of loneliness. In Ehsan Ebrahimi’s composition, this path leads over more than one bridge – toward the commonality of the inevitable pain of all. Thus, the POLYpontes cycle ends with a vision of peace.
Each of the pieces in POLYpontes is dedicated to one of five individuals who died in the Revolution in Iran last year:
Mohammad Hosseini, 40 years old, was so alone in his life that after his execution, there was no one to bury his body.
Kian Pirfalak, 9 years old, had a dream of becoming a scientist.
The 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini was the first casualty of the recent revolution. She died because she had not covered her hair.
Nika Shakarami wanted to sing. She was only 17 years old.
Sarina Esmailzadeh’s life lasted 16 years – it should have been a long and better life.
The musicians of the asambura ensemble venture into the tension fields of these dialogues. They explore them—with an ensemble consisting of flutes, clarinets, trumpet, electric guitar, lute, santur, accordion, viola, cello, vibraphone, and extensive percussion—using familiar and newly developed playing techniques, incorporating electronic music and its possibilities to create their own distinct sounds.
The music of the asambura ensemble enters into dialogue with visual productions, blending listening with seeing. POLYpontes is an artistic message from Iran, full of longing. In the here and now.
composition • Ehsan Ebrahimi
world premiere • 2023 Hannover • with video installations by Andre Bartetzki
patron: Oberbürgermeister der Landeshauptstadt Hannover Belit Onay
Commissioned by the asambura ensemble, funded by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.
„
“Ehsan Ebrahimi, with his new composition POLYpontes, brings the professional perspectives of (post-)migrant music into an innovative dialogue with contemporary music and alternative performance practice here in the UNESCO City of Music Hannover.
POLYpontes builds bridges between Persian and European music traditions, creates connections between music from the past and the future, and integrates sound into a visual staging. Music here is not just music!
The musicians of the asambura ensemble, from diverse backgrounds and cultural affiliations, give the music a greater meaning: music as an opportunity for interreligious dialogue, as a symbol of reconciliation, as a sign for peaceful and respectful coexistence, and music as a reflection of a culturally diverse social, societal, and political present.”
– Belit Onay –
Oberbürgermeister Hannover
“The asambura ensemble plays a special role in the music scene because it is constantly focused on building bridges and extending its influence beyond its own sphere. The question of opening up the music scene and increasing attention to regions outside Europe is one of the most important issues we must address today. This is what makes this concert so significant, as it contributes to the meeting of different cultures, where not only musical but also societal and political aspects of these cultures come to the forefront.”
– Björn Gottstein –
Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung
