A Review of Khonya Group's Concert , Headed by Pari Maleki
Niavaran Cultural House , July 23-24, 2001
The Mounthly "Women"
Tenth Year, 78th edition
July 2001
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By. Ali Jafari
On July 23 and 24 , Niavaran Cultural-Historical Complex welcomed the
fans of Khonya Group, wich was to perform concerts. The Group , headed by Pari
Maleki performed several Tasnifs from the works od celebrated older-generation
composers in the Bayat-e
The head of th group is an Avaz instructor. She was a
student of Nasrollah Nasehpour and then studied the
Maleki , beside performing in
In this concert , the group performed famous old songs
accompanied by CETAR ,PIANO , DAF and TOMBAK . Maleki , Founded the group in 1994
with the aim to introduce young talents and to set the stage for the presence
of women-musicians on the scene of musical performance.
In studying the performance of Khonya , it should be
pointed out that:
1- For years , the presence of women-musicians has not
been taken seriously and for various reasons the foundations were never aid. Although
women have been active in the theoretical aspect and teaching of music, yet
their presence on the stage , whether as the player of a musical instrument or
a singer, was always limited. In recent year however , we have withnessed many
attempts to overcome these limitations.
One success has been women choir singing and sometimes with
a male choirmaster. Religious jurisprudence bans women's solo singing for a
male audience. Hence, a solution has been in the form of choir singing. On the
other hand, as Iranian Avaz and Radif musical performance is not possible in
the form of a choir , performance of Tasnif and Taraneh is more popular. In
view of this, Pari Maleki performed a number of old Tasnifs in these concerts, which
were beautiful and revived many memories. Performance of a Tasnifs by a choir
always presents one major problem : musch of the delicacy of teh tasnif, the
accents and other features loose their color or are even reduced to zero.
In other words, one difference between song and hymn.
In general , the latter is composed and arranged for choir
singing and thus are devoid of the mono-tunic delicacies on wich songs are
based.(For instance, in this concert, performance of a Tasnif with a high tempo
more successful than one with a low tempo. What was most eye catching in teh
course of the concert was the optimal harmony among the group.(
Khonya's performance was unfortunatly affected by the same
limitation. Pari Maleki's choice of tenor-baritone singer diminshed the overall
quality. Whereas , in view of the type of orchestration and the foreseen
performance program a tenor-baritone vocal was unnesessary. Yet , what was very
intresting in this concert was the perfect coordination ot the choir, especially
in Suprano and Metso-suprano , in the performance of the Tasnifs.
The ladies : Simaeifar , Mohsseni , and Pessian were very
well practiced. Althought this was their first stage performance they were
quite competent.
2- Shadi Fat-hi has been studying music and teaching
students cetar for several years now. Several of her students accompanied her
in this performance . Young and talented female musicians should be taken
serious and given the chance to prove themeselves. This is one of the goals of
Khonya . Yet, for a publicperformance a minimum qualification is necessary, which
Fat-hi's students lacked. Obviously only a few years of experience doas not
suffice for joining a performance group.
The students are not to be blamed . It is Shadi Fat-hi who
has to be more careful in her choice. All along the program , her students were
in a struggle with their instruments and tried to keep pace with the group. In
General, the musicians were the weak point of this performance. It seemed like
the Cetar players were displaying their practices for their instructors instead
of beign in harmony with the others.The palying of this instrument requiers a
certain techniques , delicacy and softness that is not so demanded by others.
It seemed like the cetar players had trouble with
coordination between the two hands in playing the lefts and rights. It was
obvious at the beginning of the second part of the program , which was
dedicated to performance of Datgah-e Chahargah. In this segment, pianist Bardia
Sadr-Nouri did not accompany the group. The
omission of this instrument demonstrated its significant roel in the group. The
finesse and tenderness of the group ot the sound of the group has been invested
in the artfilness of the pianist.
Hence, this segment's performance was without any soul like
a school performance and the choir's endeavor to make up for this shortcoming
was in vain. Had Shadi Fat-hi made a better choice, Khonya's concert would have
been much more attractive and pleasant to the ears.
3- The dexterity of Bardia Sadr-nouri was very
instrumental. She has several years' of experience to her credit in playing the
piano, with an Iranian style. Her soft and beautiful performance with khonya
was reminiscent of such maestros as pianist Anoushirvan Rohani . Pari Maleki's
choice of Sadr-Nouri has been the best. Sadr-Nouri's knowledge of the dynamics
of each piece,portrayed the intrinsic and extrinsic characters of each piece
skillfully.
But in the end, the concert should not be construed as a
weak performance despite some shortcomings. Pari Maleki knows Iranian music
very well and seeks to encourage the young generation towards it. Like other
lady artists of the country, Mrs. Maleki too is trying to pave the grounds for
women's participation in social , cultural and artisticactivities on the one
hand, and to remind us
that ladies too can and must be allowed to on the stage for
such performing arts as music.
