Meshahid

Meshahid, or “scenes” in Arabic, is scored for solo piano and orchestra and written in five movements. The first movement of this work depicts the piano as a psuedo-riqq, a type of tambourine used in traditional Middle Eastern music, through the constant changes of key depression in combination with accented rhythms typical from that music. The second movement treats the piano as an ornamental vehicle whose aim is to emphasize an extended Western harmonic vocabulary. This contrasts with how ornaments are more commonly used in Arab music, as an agent for expressing the poetic lyricism of melodic lines. The third movement is more impressionistic in nature, with the strings acting as a spectral-like extension of the piano’s lyrical lines, featuring pitches that are found in both just intonation and Middle Eastern music. The fourth movement features the pianist playing cluster chords that are “released” to reveal harmonies that are further supported by the orchestra. The last movement is a re-orchestrated version of the first movement, bringing the five scenes of this work back to where it all began.