Dedicated with admiration to the Afghanistan Women’s Orchestra ‘Zohra’.
Sapida-Dam-Nau was written especially for the Afghanistan Women’s Orchestra ‘Zohra’ at the request of Dr. Ahmad Sarmast and the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. The instrumentation reflects the combination of western orchestral and traditional Afghan instruments which are taught side by side at ANIM, integrating them into a piece which celebrates the unique sounds of the ensemble. These sounds are transformed into jubilant peals of bells and two contrasted melodies. The first melody is lyrical and reminiscent of the English pastoral and the second is joyous in character, inspired by an Afghan-Indian scale associated with early morning. The title is suggestive of the music that might be heard at dawn in both my home town of Shaftesbury and in Kabul and also celebrates the ‘new dawn’ of music in Afghanistan. It is particularly wonderful that this rebirth is being spearheaded by the Afghanistan Women’s Orchestra ‘Zohra’ (Venus).
The mottos for the Afghanistan National Institute of Music are:
BUILD LIVES THROUGH MUSIC
REVIVE AND PRESERVE AFGHAN MUSIC
TRAIN FUTURE MUSIC EDUCATORS
ESTABLISH INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE
ASSURE MUSICAL RIGHTS
Sapida-Dam-Nau was written during my time as Composer-in-Association with ANIM, and its composition was generously supported by a Finzi Trust Scholarship 2015-2016.
The work was premiered on 18th January 2017 at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, conducted by Kevin Bishop.
Further information about ANIM and Sadie Harrison can be found on the following websites:
www.anim-music.org
www.sadieharrisoncomposer.co.uk