P r o j e c t s
P r o j e c t s
15.Dec 2024 | 3:00 pm
Trans-Traditional Music Lab
Encounter I: Trans-traditional Music - An Attempt at Self-positioning
05.Mar 2025 | 7:00 pm
Trans-traditional Musik Lab
Encounter II: Trans-traditional Collectivity
04.Apr 2025 | 8:00 pm
spokenscores
Trickster Orchestra & George Lewis
16.Apr 2025 | 7:00 pm
Trans-traditional Musik Lab
Encounter III: Trans-traditional Comprovisation
03.May 2025 | 8:00 pm
Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik
11.May 2025 | 7:00 pm
Musiques Démesurées Festival
10.Oct 2025 |
Trans-traditional Musik Lab
Encounter IV: Trans-traditional Microtonality
08.Feb 2026 | 7:00 pm
Trans-traditional Musik Lab
Encounter V: Trans-traditional Multiperspectivity
24.Apr 2026 |
TransTraditionale Festival
25.Apr 2026 |
TransTraditionale Festival
26.Apr 2026 |
TransTraditionale Festival

»rain… rain… rain…«

A Requiem (2023)

Then it wakens, filling my soul: a tremor of tears,
And a wild rush of emotion embracing the heavens.

Badr Shakir al-Sayyab

How can we commemorate extinguished life while preparing ourselves for future mourning? To mark the 20th year since the invasion of Iraq, the Trickster Orchestra creates a space for lament and mourning with the premiere of its requiem »rain… rain… rain…«. It sets to music modern and contemporary poetry by the esteemed poets Badr Shakir al-Sayyab (1926–64), whose »Rain Hymn« gives the requiem its title, as well as Anwar Shaul (1904–84) and Sinan Antoon (*1967). The piece pays tribute to the rich tapestry of Baghdad’s multi-religious and multi-ethnic musical history with its classical Chalghi ensembles of santoor, nay and oud, its musical system known as maqam, and its polymaths, who searched for new tones and tunings from the 9th century onward. In particular, the Trickster Orchestra morphs a microtonal tuning system invented by the Abbasid scholar al-Farabi into contemporary soundscapes and new rhythms. With 25 tones of unequal intervals in an octave, this written material from the 10th century multiplies the expressive possibilities of contemporary music.

While the Trickster Orchestra culturally situates the work, it also orchestrates it in trans-traditional instrumentation. In this way, the ensemble, featuring guests such as renowned djoze virtuoso Bassem Hawar, commemorates one of the early human and ecological catastrophes of the 21st century from a transregional and global sonic perspective. The ephemeral notes of musical improvisation become the means for an open, unwritten form of memory, allowing for deep contemplation, shared inquiry, and identification. The piece experiments with sound to engage with unspeakable experiences of ongoing violence. As the orchestra’s members roam freely in the domed hall and video artist Roman Hagenbrock animates the poetry in space, the piece reflects the placelessness of communities caught in constant dissolution. »rain… rain… rain…« opens an emotional and collective space for mourning and reflecting upon the passage of time, the enduring echoes of war on the people of Iraq, and upon subsequent tragedies that shape our global contemporary moment.

Before the concert, the orchestra will show the short films »Journey Inside a City« by Sarah Munaf (*1986) and »Barbershop« by Bassim al-Shaker (*1986), which explore the conditions of life and artistic creation in Iraq and experiences of displacement, diaspora, and fragmented community. Haytham Bahoora (Professor of Modern Arabic Literature at the University of Toronto) will introduce the concert and the libretto.

»rain… rain… rain…« invites us to contemplate the sorrowful history of the young 21st century, its possible futures, and to remember those we have lost.

 

Premiere

November 28, 2023
7:30 PM: Film Screening & Concert Introduction
8:00 PM: Concert
Silent Green, Berlin

 

Lineup

Vocals & Grand Piano Cymin Samawatie
Vocals & Qanun Bassem Alkhouri
Nay & Kawala Mohamad Fityan
Clarinet Mona Matbou-Riahi
Sheng Wu Wei
Flutes Tilmann Dehnhard
Bass Clarinet & Electronics Milian Vogel
Paetzold Recorders Susanne Fröhlich
Tuba Matthew Bookert
Trombone Florian Juncker
Oud Cham Saloum
Djoze Bassem Hawar
Santoor Kioomars Musayyebi
Koto Naoko Kikuchi
Viola Gregoire Simon
Cello Niklas Seidl
Double Bass Ralf Schwarz
Electronics Ketan Bhatti
»Journey Inside a City« (2022) Sarah Munaf
»Barbershop« (2022) Bassim al-Shaker
Concert Introduction Prof. Dr. Haytham Bahoora
Video Design Roman Hagenbrock
Idea, Concept, Dramaturg Philip Geisler
Artistic Directors Cymin Samawatie & Ketan Bhatti