Landay Sequenza

  

Landay Sequenza

Voice (with handheld a.m. radio), alto and bass flute, viola, double bass, percussion,

lever harp 

For Stone Drawn Circles

Cat Hope (2022)

A contemplation dedicated to the resilience and creativity of Afghan women.

Instructions

More information in the instructions file found on this page, and in the ScoreFile (LandaySequenza.dsz). The score is proportional, with the highest point of the screen being the highest pitch reference, the bottom being the lowest pitch reference. Line thickness indicates dynamic (should be very soft as a starting point). Choose your own pitches, avoiding the tempered scale where possible, but be mindful of the pitch relationships in the score, and your own parts.  Instruments should bot be amplified – but the voice should be amplified badly (eg. With a small amplifier and/or megaphone). Vertical dotted lines signal important ensemble coordination points.

PERCUSSION: TamTam (big soft mallet/s, superball), bowed c rotales or suspended cymbal, vibraphone (bowed ads small mallett).
Double bass and viola: double stops indicated by two lines.
VOICE should be spoken in a droll tone, pitched as indicated, and only sung when and according to the grey line it attaches to sometimes. The a.m. radio is indicated by a simple black line.  It should be tuned to static and the volume never above soft, and the volume manipulated as notated. 

Program Note 

This piece consists of four English translations of Afghan Landay’s set to music. The Landay is an Afghan form of poetry consisting of a single couplet in Pashto, one of two national languages of Afghanistan. Commonly shared orally amongst Pashtan women, they are sung aloud, sometimes with the beat of a hand drum. They typically address themes of love, grief, homeland, war, and separation. Like all music, they were banned by the Taliban during 1996 – 2001, and likely again now given the recent Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

Landay’s are rebellious and powerful, belying the notion of Afghan women as submissive or defeated. They are strong, resilient, pollical, creative and rebellious.

 The graphic scores are made by tracing over a photographs of Afghan women under an aircraft, from a photograph by Seamus Murphy. The work explores the potential of graphic notation to reflect or ‘contain’ certain aural (oral) traditions that may evolve of time. The Landay’s are translated into English by Eliza Griswold. This work was commissioned by Arts Council of Ireland, with thanks to Lina Androvska.