Aboutme

jenin is beautiful.  piano improv based on a chord progression i came up with on the road to jenin months ago.  i’d been noodling around with it for a while.  i recorded this on my new piano.

…I would stand atop one hill behind my grandfather’s house and stare out at the land I knew to be Palestine, and I would remember that photograph of my grandmother and her thick, black hair that rolled down to her shoulders as I stared, stared out at the hills of Jenin, at the hills that rolled in the shape of her hair, in the shape of a woman I never really knew.

I composed this in Paris after visiting Chopin’s grave.  Live recording of me performing it in Salle Cortot at the Ecole Normale de Musique.

Sarah Batts, soprano
Elise Turner, soprano
Emily Goodwin, mezzo-soprano
Elizabeth Lenz, mezzo-soprano
Laith Alattar, oud
Maggie Duggan, violin
Dan Smith, cello
Justin Snyder, harpsichord
Chris Sies, percussion
Peter Dodds, percussion
Elim Chan, conductor

Piano 1, Aya Yamamoto
Piano 2, Donia Jarrar

This piece was inspired by what began as a night -time drive with friends beneath the desert sky on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. We would drive out into the desert, with nothing but the moon and stars, the bedus lights, to guide our way. Leaving the heavily polluted city sky behind us, the stars would appear one by one as the curtain of pollution was slowly lifted. The constant whir of the car engine was like a steady pulse that put us to sleep.

In the morning when we returned to the city, the traffic and disorderly, overcrowded streets welcomed us. Driving in that city is a constant brush with death, with cars driving the wrong way down one-way streets as policemen yawn and turn their heads, horse and donkey-drawn carriages blocking the sides of the highways, children hopping rides on the backs of buses, women driving with their babies on their laps, three or four men on one motorcycle, and pedestrians getting injured on a daily basis. Drivers will not even stop or move out of the way for an ambulance.

Eventually we made it to Khan El-Khalili, Cairos famous bazaar and souk in the Islamic District. The souk is filled with coffee shops and hookah bars, where we spent the day. Its narrow alleys and cobblestoned streets are filled with beautiful Egyptian silver jewelry stands, gold, spices, perfumes, accessories, oils and dessert shops where lokmit aadi, deep fried doughnut holes, are made.

My friends and I ended the day with a visit to Cairo Jazz Club, one of the best venues for live music in the city. There was dancing, there were drinks, and then there was dawn. We walked along the Nile. There were no stars, only a reflection of the city’s lights on the river water.

“You don’t know her at all” is the second movement of this multi-movement work for my family I am currently working on. I would like to dedicate this movement to my sister and father.

Performers:

Ali Hodges, soprano
Donia Jarrar, piano & backing vocals
Asaf Peres, electric guitar
Joe Lucas, bass guitar
Emily Graber & Siobhan Cronin, Violins
Kat Lawhead & Chauntee Ross, Violas
Pierre Dyercz & Lauren Peacock, Cellos
Peter DeLio, Percussion (glockenspiel, vibes & chimes)
Conducted by Suby Raman

Lyrics:

You dont know her at all

though you think she’s your daughter

and though angels have wings

they just drown under water

I smile at you when she’s flying

I lie and tell you she’s pure

I laugh when you say she is perfect

let out a sigh like little good girls do

And isnt it funny?

How fathers come and go?

Isn’t it funny?

One man’s lies are another’s daily chores

There’s nothing in this world (quite like you)

hold on

There’s nothing in this world (quite like you to hold onto)

just hold on

You dont know her at all

Producers: Steve Metz, Donia Jarrar
Music: Donia Jarrar
Oud, Nay: Michael Ibrahim
Lyrics and vocals: Donia Jarrar

I recorded myself figure skating and this entire piece was generated from the sounds of my spinning, stopping and gliding.