Beautifully
Untuned
Mind

Beautifully Untuned Mind is composed for 9 tars and is inspired by Horaţiu Rădulescu's Credo 1969, which is composed for a homogeneous ensemble including 9 cellos. Rădulescu wrote the entire piece based on the first 45 harmonics of the low C on the cello. The first time I listened to Credo, I felt like I was lost in time. I was absorbed at the moment and trying to understand the relationships and interactions of the harmonics that were unfolding through time. The homogeneity of the layers created a condition that I could not recognize the number of sounding layers and the thickness of the texture.

In Beautifully Untuned Mind I am trying to create a similar impact that I had from listening to Credo; however, I substituted cellos with tars, and instead of outlining the harmonics of a specific fundamental note, I experiment with intervals based on Dastgah's tuning system of one-sixth of a tone (30 – 35 cents) as well as some of the untuned micro intervals that existed on the fret positioning of my own tar.

Of the nine parts for tar, eight of them are scored and one is considered an improvisation layer. In the improvisation section, I limited myself to ornamentations and articulations that are relevant in each section of the scored part, and I tried to elaborate on motifs and melodies that could deliver a sense of melodic line in contrast to the existing sound mass.

Beautifully Untuned Mind was an effective experiment to include the logic of Iranian improvisation within a homogenous ensemble and its offering effects such as alternative tuning and polytimbral structure. A piece that arose from my fascination with the mechanism of tar and the beautifully untuned sonic possibilities that its structure offers as a traditional instrument.