BIRDSONGS. The Making Of
BIRDSONGS is a full-length violin concerto that revolves around the theme of birdsong.
It is a musical exploration of nature and a statement about the relationship between humans and the natural world.
Karen Gomyo (solo violin) and Arash Safaian (composer) give us a brief insight into their approach to this project.
Todd Schulz, creative director an initiator of BIRDSONGS:
Some years ago, I traded my city apartment for a house in the countryside. It’s located in a small village southeast of Berlin, with a large garden and directly bordering a forest
What struck me on the very first day was that I had landed in a kind of community—one that entertained me every morning with a grand orchestra of birdsong. At first, it sounded like a chaotic jumble of songs and calls from countless different voices.
Gradually, I began to recognize more structure and order within this rich chorus and learned to distinguish between the different bird species. An app also helped me to identify the species corresponding to each sound. Over the course of a year, I encountered more than a hundred bird species living here or stopping by during their migration.
Again and again, fascinated by this powerful orchestra, I began to wonder how this daily, recurring, and beautiful soundtrack might be archived—or, taking the idea further, transcribed into a language we humans understand: translating the music of birds into the music of humans, and in doing so, making my very personal experience accessible to others.
I wrote to my good friend Arash, a highly respected composer of classical music, and asked him whether it would be possible, in principle, to translate the songs of different birds into musical notation and perhaps harmonize them. Essentially, to compose a new orchestral work from an existing one—using the tools of classical music.
Arash’s reply didn’t take long, and the very next morning we were sitting together in my garden, listening to the birds and it quickly became clear that a new shared project had just begun.
Now a couple of years later, with the participation of world class violinist "Karen Gomyo" and legendary orchestra "The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen", our project BIRDSONGS will be released as Stream, CD and Vinyl on May, 8th with Platoon/Apple Music.
Arash Safaian was born in Tehran in 1981 and came into contact with music in Germany at an early age. He attended the music grammar school in Bayreuth. During this time he also received his first composition lessons. Later he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg, yet soon transferred to the University of Music and Theatre in Munich to study composition.
He has appeared within numerous concert and operatic works. He composed the short opera „At Stacke“ for the Munich Opera Biennale in 2010 and his second music theatre piece „On the Beach“ for the thirtieth stage anniversary of Philipp Glass‘ opera „Einstein on the Beach“. This was premiered at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York, directed by Robert Wilson with sets by Egill Saebjornsson. In 2017 he composed the opera „Der Schuss – 2.6.1967“ on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Benno Ohnesorg‘s death for the Berlin Neukölln Opera, which received a broad response from the media.
Since 2016 he has composed two piano concerto cycles for the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and the pianist Sebastian Knauer. Both cycles are based on the form of variation and are modern formulations of „music about music“. Central to both works are themes of Bach and Beethoven’s compositions. Composed in 2016, „ÜberBach“ was released by Neue Meister/Edel and was celebrated in international concert halls after its premiere at the Tonhalle Zurich. The Nationaltheater Mannheim staged „ÜberBach“ in combination with Handel‘s „Dixit Dominus“ in the ballet „Sansoussi“ to a full-length ballet. „ÜberBach“ was awarded the ECHO: Klassik in 2017. After its release, it started directly in the German classical music charts and stayed there for three months.
In 2019 he composed the piano cycle „Beethoven Variations“ for piano and large orchestra, which was released by Modern Recordings/BMG under the title „THIS IS (NOT) BEETHOVEN“. These „Beethoven Variations“ made it to the german classical Charts and the US Billboards in two categories and topped the iTunes charts in several countries, as well as being named an „Album we loved in 2020“ by Apple Music and placed among the cross-genre Top 100 Songs of 2020.
In 2018, Safaian wrote the music for Jan-Ole Gerster‘s award-winning feature film „Lara“. In addition to the original score, he also composed a piano concerto for the film, which was performed by pianist Alice Sara Ott. The soundtrack was released by Deutsche Grammophon in fall 2019. Safaian was awarded the Bavarian Film Award for „Lara“ in January 2020. The Bavarian Film Award in the category film music was awarded for the first time in 7 years to a composer for film music on this occasion.
His Music is performed in international concert halls like Tonhalle Zürich, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie Berlin, Savannah Music Festival, National Theatre Mannheim, L´Auditori de Barcelona, Odessa Music Festival, Philharmonie Luxemburg, Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, Prinzregentheater Munich and many more.
He looks back to performances with orchestras and ensembles like the Zürcher Kammerorchester, Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona, Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, Wiener Kammerorchester, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Duisburger Philharmoniker, Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Bach-Collegium Munich, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Konzerthausorchester Berlin. NDR Radiophilharmonie. Arash Safaian is involved in the promotion of contemporary music on various juries, including the Berlin Opera Prize and the Music Fund of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Arash Safaian is a laureate of the Composition Prize of the Reinl Foundation Vienna, the Günther Bialas Prize, the EON Kulturpreis Bayern and the Kunstförderpreis Bayern. He was a scholarship holder of the Villa Concordia Bamberg, the City of Munich and the Cité des Artes Paris.