Hommage à Khāleqī (گر آتش بارد به پیکرم)

This work for orchestra blossoms from the unofficial peoples anthem of Iran E? Iran by Ruhollah Khaleqia twentieth-century Persian composer, musicologist, and performerobserving it in different ways, like light shining through a jewel. At times, the character and bombastic air of the original anthem is embraced, while at others, the material is contorted, slowed, slurred, and stripped of its triumphant tenor, reduced to a delicate mobile, floating among a bed of slowly shifting noise. The work moves in-and-out of equal temperament and shades of Persian dastg?hs (modes). The title comes from the final stanza of the song, Gar ?tash b?rad beh pe?karam, which roughly translates to If I was covered in flames. An hommage to Kh?leq?, this work explores the tune as one would a tongue of fire: carefully examining all of its peculiarities, its spectrum of intensity, its volatile proclivities, and its encompassing nature, unifying all in ash and flame.