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Hormoz Farhat

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Iranian-American composer and ethnomusicologist (1928–2021)

Hormoz Farhat
Farhat in 1977 in Tehran
Born(1928-08-09)9 August 1928
Tehran, Imperial State of Persia (now Iran)
Died16 August 2021(2021-08-16) (aged 93)
Dublin, Ireland
SpouseMaria Baghramian
Academic background
Alma mater
Academic work
DisciplinePersian traditional music
Institutions
Notable worksList of compositions
The Dastgah Concept in Persian Music (1990)
List of publications

Hormoz Farhat (Persian: هرمز فرهت; 9 August 1928 – 16 August 2021) was a Persian-American composer and ethnomusicologist who spent much of his career in Dublin, Ireland. An emeritus professor of music, he was a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. Described by the Irish Times as a "gifted and distinctive composer of contemporary classical music," his compositions include orchestral, concertante, piano and choral music, as well string quartets and chamber works. He also wrote numerous film scores, including that of Dariush Mehrjui's 1969 film The Cow. However, his musicological research dominates his legacy; his writings on the music of Iran—a country which he insisted be called 'Persia'—were pivotal in ethnomusicology, particularly his acclaimed 1990 study The Dastgah Concept in Persian Music.

Life and career

Hormoz Farhat was born on 9 August 1928, in Tehran, the capital city of what was then Imperial State of Persia, but renamed in 1935 as Iran. His father Ebrahim Farat was a senior official at the Persian Ministry of Finance married to his mother Sedique. The Farhat family had descended from a long line of "secularised Muslims", many of whom were civil servicemen like Ebrahim. His cousin Shahin Farhat also became a composer. According to Farhat himself, his early exposure to Iranian music was limited to his father occasionally playing the tar. Instead, he recalls that his ""early musical outlook was mainly western", later filtered through the country's radio station that was established in 1939.

Farhat later moved to the United States and received a BA in music from the University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA (1953), an MA in composition from Mills College, California (1955), and a PhD in composition and ethnomusicology from UCLA (1965). He studied composition with Darius Milhaud, Lukas Foss, and Roy Harris.

In 1959, Farhat founded the Music of Persia Performance Group at UCLA. During his years in California Farhat worked first as an assistant professor of music at California State University, Long Beach (1961–64) and then as associate professor of music at University of California, Los Angeles (1964–69).

On returning to Iran he became a professor and head of the music department at the University of Tehran, (1970–78) as well as the head of the Music Council in the National Iranian Radio and Television Network (1969–78) and Shiraz Arts Festival. He was vice-chancellor at Farabi University in Tehran (1975–77). In 1972 and 1973, he was invited as a visiting professor of music to Harvard University.

Farhat moved to Northern Ireland in 1979 as a senior research fellow at Queen's University, Belfast and then to the Republic of Ireland as the chair, professor and head of the School of Music in Trinity College Dublin (1982–95). Among his students at Trinity College was Donnacha Dennehy, who became among the leading Irish composers of contemporary classical music. He was a guest lecturer at numerous institutions including universities of Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Princeton, Stanford, Berkeley, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Durham, Amsterdam, Cologne, Warsaw, Ljubljana, Copenhagen, Stockholm and The Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. He was the external examiner at the University of Durham School of Music (1991–1994) and the Royal Irish Academy of Music (2001–2004 and 2011–2014).

Farhat died in Dublin (https://en.wikipedia.org/Dublin), Ireland, aged 93. In December 2021 the University College Cork and the University of Tehran jointly organised a virtual memorial for Prof. Farhat.

Music

Overview

His compositions have been performed widely by, among many others, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and English Chamber Orchestra and most recently by the pianist Soheil Nasseri in Carnegie Hall and Merkin Hall in New York as well as in the Strathmore Music Center.

Selected recordings

  • String Quartets, Nos. 1, 2 & 3: St Petersburg String Quartet & Arvand String Quartet (Ravi-Azar-Kimia Institute, 2007).
  • Persian Autumn (piano work): Mary Dullea, piano (Divine Arts, 2020).

Selected compositions

Orchestral works

  • Sinfonia Concertante, for seven solo instruments, soprano and orchestra
  • Mazandarani Rhapsody, for orchestra
  • Theme and Variations
  • Sinfonietta
  • Three Songs of Sa'di, for soprano and orchestra
  • Fantasy and Fugue, for string orchestra
  • Concerto Grosso, for piano and string orchestra
  • Flute Concerto
  • Clarinet Concerto
  • Sougue, elegy for orchestra
  • Nouveau rivage and La Nuit éternelle, two orchestral pieces after the poem "Le Lac" of Alphonse de Lamartine.

Chamber music

  • 6 string quartets
  • 3 wind trios
  • Duo for Violin and Viola
  • Divertimento for Saxophone Quartet (published, Chicago: Leblanc Music Publishers, 1966)
  • Piano Quintet
  • Partita for Wind Quintet

Piano music

  • Theme and Variations
  • Persian Suite (4 pieces)
  • 2 Sonatas
  • Four Suites
  • Four Concert Études
  • 24 Essays
  • Five Bagatelles

Vocal music

  • Two Songs on Poems by Sa'di, for soprano, violin and harp (1957)
  • Be Yad-e Neyshapur ; a "chain" of seven songs on Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1959)
  • Three Persian Songs, for soprano, flute, cello and piano (1962)
  • several pieces for a cappella choir

Motion picture scores Scores for feature films by prominent Iranian film directors Dariush Mehrjui: Gaav (The Cow, 1969), Postchi (Postman), and Aagha-ye Haaloo (Mr. Naive, 1970); and Nasser Taghvai: Aaraamesh dar hozoor-e digaraan (Tranquility in the Presence of Others, 1972); and Saadegh Kordeh (Sadeq the Kurdish, 1973). In 1970, Farhat was awarded The Golden Plaque for Best Music for the score of Mehrjui's internationally acclaimed film Gaav.

Selected publications

Books:

Persian Translations:

  • Counterpoint by Kent Kennan (Tehran: University of Tehran Press, 1974).
  • Dastgah dar Musiqi-ye Irani (a Persian translation by Mehdi Pur-Mohammad of "The Dastgah Concept in Persian Music") (Tehran: Part Press, 2002).

Articles

References

Citations

  1. "Present Past: Notes from the Life of a Persian/American Composer in Ireland". Ibex Publishers. 4 June 2018. ISBN 9781588141415.
  2. "Former Trinity Chair of Music, Composer Hormoz Farhat, honoured in homeland Iran". Trinity College Dublin. 9 May 2018.
  3. Kayhan Life Staff (25 August 2021). "Remembering Hormoz Farhat, Celebrated Iranian Composer and Musician". KayhanLife. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
  4. ^ "Hormoz Farhat obituary: Gifted composer and much-loved teacher at TCD". The Irish Times. 9 October 2021. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
  5. De Bréadún, Deaglán (29 August 2021). "Obituary: Hormoz Farhat, professor of music at Trinity College and a renowned composer and author". Irish Independent. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
  6. "Composer Hormoz Farhat honored in homeland Iran". Tehran Times. 4 May 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
  7. ^ Farhat 2004, p. ix.
  8. "Hormoz Farhat". Contemporary Music Centre. 20 September 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
  9. "Highlights from the Ethnomusicology Archive: Music of Persia ensemble". UCLA. 12 May 2014.
  10. "به عبارت دیگر: گفتگو با هرمز فرهت". BBC Persian. 11 October 2010.
  11. "آخرين شب از 'هفته موسيقی ايرانی' در راديوی بی بی سی". BBC Persian.
  12. Obituary, Contemporary Music Centre, Dublin, Ireland, 17 August 2021; retrieved 18 August 2021.
  13. Gilmore, Bob (2009). "Dennehy, Donnacha". Grove Music Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.2082335. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
  14. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. "A Tribute to the Late Professor Hormoz Farhat". UCC. 14 December 2021.
  16. "Persepholis: Discovering the Music of Iran @www.classicalsource.com".
  17. "Speed and Mideast Echoes Add to a Pianist's Palette". The New York Times. 8 September 2011.
  18. "Pianist Soheil Nasseri, brooding over Beethoven at Music Center at Strathmore". The Washington Post. 8 June 2010.
  19. "BBC – (none) – Performance on 3 – BBC Symphony Orchestra". BBC.
  20. Dublin, Trinity College. "Music Composition Centre : Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Ireland".
  21. "Cinema Celebrities (English)".
  22. ""Rhapsody Mazandarani" for Orchestra: New Publication from Persian Dutch Network". PDN. 23 May 2020.
  23. "Search Results – "Iran: past, present and future"".
  24. Farhat, Hormoz (1 January 1997). The evolution of style and content in performance practices of Persian traditional music. Vol. 33. Cambridge University Press. pp. 81–89. ISBN 978-0-521-54206-7. OCLC 444316548.

Sources

Further reading

External links

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