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Latest news, photos, reports and interviews from Santour International Festival in Iran

Thursday, September 04, 2003


11:00 The Morning


The third workshopof the international santour’s festival accomplished by the presence of Mrs. Barbara Schirmer from Swiss and Mrs. Katsiarina Anokhina from Belle russia . the brief of the report is below :

The First Part : Swiss- Mrs. Barbara Schirmer :



Santour has been playing in Swiss since 1500 . this instrument has been brought to the Swiss in 15th century to from Hungry . in the past, the wemon mostly play it . but , when Piano invented , the santour forgot , unless to small zone of Swiss . in these zones, farmers themselves made their instruments and every farmer had been doing his own method . ( in playing or making ) .
The santour of Mrs. Schirmer is made for experts and has 125 lines ( 5 lines for each bridge ) and also the sound variation of this instrument is 3 Octaves and pitches as Cromatic . the pedals of it, are just like piano and was made from 30 years ago .



We use each side of plectrums for every performance .
There are some new santours that have 5/5 Octaves sound variation . and she ( Mrs, Shermer ) invented a new method that play these santours by four plectrums.
The start of the parts are with some unit pressures and then the fast movements come .

In the teaching of this instrument, of course up to now they have not any special way and method . and then Mrs. Schirmer showed the way of playing to the people in work shop and then abit played for them .

The Second Part : Belle Russia- Mrs. Katsiarina Anokhina :



The santour in belle russia has a simple structure :
The make it with the pine tree wood .
It has 5 bridges .
In every bridge, it has three lines .
Its sound variation is about three Octaves .
The pitch is as Cromatic .
It has not pedal ( they do the task of pedals, by their hands )
It has about 16kg and they put it on the tables .
The plectrums ( sticks ) are small .
We can play it in solo or in orcestra .



In belle russia, santour is being teached since 1950 . the santour of Mrs. Anokhina is for experts and after that she played a bit for the people in work shop and then introduce her instrument more and more .

15:00 The Afternoon

the fourth section of the work shop of the international festival of santour in iran started with the attendance of Mr. Marios papadeas .
after the invention of santour, there is two stories :
1 exchanging the word of Santir to Sentir and then Sentir to Santour . ( Santir means sing about the great God )
2 the word of Sent ( means with 100 lines )



the Greek santours made from the wood of Olive tree . and the plectrums are from Rose sticks … the lines are bronze and has 3 mm thick .
santour has four bridges and the pitch is cromatic that the low notes of it started from the down till up . the movement method of notes is like x .
this instrument has three zones :
the first zone started fro Mi till Si . the second part started from Do till #FA . and the last part started from Re till the end that we call this zone the middle Boss .


santour play an important role in Greece music, and has the ability that played as SOLO in the orcestra and ofcourse it’s so creative instrument, itself …
Mr. Ppadeas played abit, for the people and then mentioned that in Greece, every Rhythm has its own Dance .
The performance of Greek music is based on Impromptu ( play by the players feeling)

20:00 The Night

The prohram of the last night started with a solo by Mrs, Zhao . she introduced her own program :
The firs part is a melody for the celebrities and for the celebrations .
The name of next song is a name of flower that often play it and listen to it when they are working .



The third part is a great song,called the Gneral Command .that is a story about a king, who wasted al of his horses and people .
The next part is from and Operah called two butterflays . the origin of this operah is about 30 minutes and has three part : love, separation, union …
The Butterfly lovers

The next song that she played was the Yellow River .
And the last part is a dance song near to the music of Russia …

The Second Part :

In this part Mrs. Anokhina said something befor her playing :
In belle russia we call Tibalin to Santour . the history of this instrument in our country is not like Iran or China and is not More that 100-300 years ago .
The first part that I will play is a dance song of Russia .



The second part is a song named Coupalinca .
The third part is a dance song that is about the Love .. it is a humor song .
The fourth piece contained two melodies, one is Dramatica and the other is a simple Polka .
And the last part is a song from Russa…

The Second Section :



The last part of the firt santour’s festival started with the playing of Mr. Saeed Saabet and Mr. Mohammad Esmaeili .
There was Homayoun system in their pitch that included Daramad, Chahar mezrab, and some Zarbi from Master payvar .

In the end , all of the players went to the scene ( stage ) and took a memorable photo there .



Four unforgetable nights of santour’s festival finished . unfortunately in this festival we could not see the playing of Bulgarian , and also Indian players , but of course we Enjoyed from the playing of Master Majid Kiani, there .


Untill next festival …


Wednesday September 03, 2003
11:00 The Morning



The second work shop of the international santour’s festival accomplished with the attendance of Mrs. Yongqin from China . the report is below briefly :
Her name is Yongqin . Yong means Santour or a foreigner musical instrument . probably 600 - 700 years ago santour has been brought to china from Iran . her father liked and played music and also has been chosen his girl's names from the musical instrument . she started to learn santour when she was 8 . she also graduated in the university and now it’s 10 years that she have been teaching there . in 1982 in a competition she won the first place . now, she lives in U.S and has about thirthy students there . the Yongqin instrument that also see in the picture :
Has about 30 kg

4/5 octaves sound variation
150 lines ( wires )
4 row bridges

and like Iranian Santour we can change it pitch .

the other kind of Yongqin, is Cromatic that has 5 rows bridges and we can not change its pitch . the plectrums are Balbo . and on the head of them , they put a kind of plastic that there is just in China . befor they used leather or cotton . this plectrum does not have a Ring and becouse of this player can play with ti different parts : wooden or plastical .in the far past they said Butterfly Harp to the Yongqin . in China so many people live and and so many musics play . Mrs. Zhao played abit to show the people how the plectrums work . making Vibrato with the pressure of hands, is a technique that she, herself use in her playing .

8:00 The Night

The first Section :

The First Part :



The third day of international santour's festival started by a solo of Mrs. Barbara Schirmer from Swiss . befor playing, she explained :
“ santour has been playing by the farmers of mountain in Swiss . the farmers played it after their works and also played it in their celebrities . in swiss, we play santour in 5 person’s groups . two Violon, one Chello, one Base, and a Santour .
The first part is a thing that the farmers play it when they were on the mountains and far from their family .
The next part is a Valse of my mother .
And then some other Valses .
The fourth part is a Polka in E minor , and then The voice of the River is the name of next part . with a famouse melody . and the last part is one of the 19 th century’s songs . as you are seeing in the picture the method of santour palying is stand ( the player stand up while playing ) .

The Second Part :



In this section Mr. Marios Papadeas did his second performance in the santour's festival of Iran . he said that the pitch of my santour, tonight is probably near to yours ( Iranian ) and of course I will play for you some songs of different parts of Small Asia. He sang while his playing and did some Impromptu too .

The Second Section :

This part was the Solo of Master Majid Kiani . that was the second and ofcourse the last performance of him . Master Kiani started his program with this sentences :
“ I followed all the performances of the other guests , and three thing made me interested in :
Santour in different cultures
Songs and melodies
And more interesting the personality of the players
I selected the Mahour system for this program that includes :
Daramad,Kereshmeh,Avaz,Dad,Majles afrooz,Khosrovani,Delkesh,Khavaran,Nasirkhani,Chahar pareh,Masnavi( that I will sing and song ), Rak ha ( Hendi,Keshmir,AbdAllah ), Froud, Tasneef and Reng that I will play it by myself, depends on time and place .



Master Majid Kiani with his magic and powerfull hands and with his great(very great) performance and also with the great sound of his Santour , played for the people and after that the cold wehther of Niavaran zone had been forgotten .

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

11:00 The Morning

The first work shop of international santour’s festival accomplished with the attendance of Mrs. Victoria Herencsar from Hungry and Ms. Martina Krigovska from Slovakia in the Niavaran cultural center .
At the beginning of the program they started to explain about their santours and also the told some information about it . the breif of the report is below :




HUNGRY-Mrs. Victoria Herencsar :


Santour or Simbalom has been brought from MidEast ( Iran ) to the Hungry . the usage of Santour was in the churches, celebrations,and dances while playing the folk music . after invention of Chimbalon, Piano and etc, santour had been separated . but fortunately Gipcies turn it back between 18 or 19 century .the traditional academic rights created since 1880 . in 19th century so many changes happened by a person called Shonda . the changes included the legs and pedals . with the pedals we can suddenly stop the sound, and this ability help us to play classic musics by santour . unless her own instrument they have another one in their country that has a bigger size and 4-5 Octaves sound scope .Shonda also made a standard pitch for santour in all over the Hungry . We play Simbalom with plectrums or nails or both of them . the plectrums are wooden . till 19th century, the head of plectrums were from leather but after that they changed to the cotton .she also tought how to play with a plectrum and a hand’s nail in a while and tought the way of playing too .



SLOVAKIA-Ms. Martina Krigovska :

The playing methods in czech republic and slovakia are probably the same as Hungry. We call our santour , Simbal . in 18th century santour brought to the slovakia without legs and pedals . and the players put in on the tables . the way of santour playing in slovakia is almost Impromptu . they play santour in a four persons group . a person play Violon, another play Violla, the other play Contrboss, and a person who play Simbal . we play the melody of the music by Violon . then, the Violla and contrboss save the harmony of the parts of the music, and the simbal will fill the spaces in a music . usualy they use Simbal in the celebrations and festivals . she mentioned that due to the communicate between the countries, we teach Simbal in the schools and the other places . and in the last part of this report she said that the czech and the slovakia have so many similarities with each other .

8 : 00 The Night

The second night of santour’s festival started with a solo by Mrs. Yangqin Zhao and after that another solo by Ms. Krigovska . then Mr. Saabet and Mr. Esmaeili played together .

The First part :



Mrs. Yangqin Zhao satarted her program with these sentences :
1: this part is just like the nature . from wind and rain, and I think this part is one of the oldest music in china .
2: the name of second part is “ shoip days” . the meaning is to spend happy days on the ship .
3: the third part is a part by Susan Promiss called general commands .
4: this music is from my hometown, Shanghai . this part is a popular music for the celebrities .
5: the fifth part called yellow river . this is the story of a man who fights with the storm in the Yellow River .
6: the last part comes from the south-west of China and is a very happy music .


The Second part :




In this section of the program Ms. Krigovska played Slovakian music and also Czech Republic ones . her program contained :
 two parts of Slovakian music .
 a part of Lipto ( the harmony and the melody of this zone is common in Slovakia )
 a part of Czech music .
 a polka from Czech .

The Second section :



In this part Mr. Saeed Saabet and Mr. Mohammad Esmaeili played their own music after holding dear Mr. Payvar .the played “ SEGAH” system . this program included :
Pish daramad, Chahar mezrab, Zarbi and Reng .

Monday, September 01, 2003

The inauguration celebration of the first santour's festival started with the speeches of Mr.Baniardalan, the art unit manager of Niavaran cultural center and also Mr. Majid Kiani that the parts of it are below :

It's a great honour and content for me to see this kind of festival in the land of Iran. It is not important to us, that which player will play better or which music is the best, of course this is so important that this musical instrument can bring close our hearts and will return the great sound of santour, to the sky . the sky, that includes the stars just like the notes of santour . we know that the sound of santour is the melody of Iranian stars and of course in all over the world is the same like ours . all kinds of santour from all over the world are the same family that the origin of it, is undoubtly our country, Iran . if one day we want to introduce a musical instrument to the world of music, we should say that we have santour . also Henry Masse said : the music of Iran that is the source of East music one day should be the honour of every Iranian and of course Iranian, instead of Western music should try to introduce the persons like Somaee to the world .
But unfortunately in our country the most of expositions and concerts are light musics or just popular ones . but of course attention and concentrate to the great and original music is mandatory . if our youngers want to select music just as an Entertaintment, of course all kinds of Pop musics are more interesting . by the way we know that all of our youngers are searching for the best kinds of music. If they have fasilities to hear more about the original music, and if the medias help us to introduce and attention more about this case, of course our young people, garadually come in the way and undoubtly, step by step will choose the original music . we hope that the cultural centers concentrate to this case more and more . and now I want to appreciate music association and Niavaran cultural center, and also to say welcome to all the masters of China, Swiss, Hungry, Slovakia, Greece and Belarusia. We will hear their nice musics by our souls .
And it was great if Master Faramarz Payvar was here and of course was playing for us to make our ceremoney greater . but in these days we have the attendance of Mr. Saeed Saabet and Mr. Mohammad Esmaeili. And in the end we have the best wishes for Master Payvar .

THE FIRST PART :



The first part of program started with a Solo by Mrs. Victoria Herencsar. Her program included some parts of dance, a part of Hector Berlioz and a part of Serbian music.and also she explained about her program :
we play sanour in two differents way : Solo and in the Concerts beside the other musical instruments . santour is a perfect musical instrument itself . if we play it in a concert, it will play by the other instruments like Violon . but in the Solo it has so many abilities . from far past we have songs while the playing of santour and some dances too . I think from 16, 17, or 18 century .
Befor the world war, in Hungry Santour had so many fans and freaks . and still after the world war, in the south of Hungry ( Teransilvania ) we can see the people who play santour and also we can see the costumes of santour playing . and the parts of Serbian music still save its own costumes . ( Serbia has so many other cultures beside Hungrian )

THE SECOND PART :



In the second part of program Mr. Marius Papadeas played some parts of Greek music solo and also his songs were great while his music . then he explained more about his program :
the parts that I played were from the islands of Greece and also the old parts of Ezmir music that I think they were 100-year-old music parts . there is a kind of rhythm that its meaning in persian is ghassabi . and another is a rhythm that called zebego which is 9/8 . this rhythm is for a kind of dance in some parts of the Asia and the islands of the Greece .

THE THIRD PART :




The rest of program, continued after 15 minutes break . then Mr. Majid kiani played, but in the beginning of his playing he explained some things about Impromptu in the Iranian music and then introduced his own program as below :
Homayoun system ( left pitched ), Chahar mezrab, Daramad, Karevani, Chakavak, Tarz, Bidad, Bidad E kot, Nei davoud, Bavi, Leili va Majnoun, Norouz E arab, Norouz E saba, Norouz E khara, Nafir, Farang, Tasnif and Reng E farah . and he sang the chanson of Anke halake man hami and some verses of Nezami in his program .


Saturday, August 30, 2003

The periodical interview with the players and the responsibles of the International festival of santour with the attendance of Mr. Majid Kiani from iran and Mrs. Victoria Herencsar from Hungry and Mrs. Martina Krigovska from Slovakia And Mrs. Barbara Schirmer from Swiss and with the attendance of Mr. Sasan Rasouli ( the responsible of the musical unit of the Niavaran cultural center ) and Mr. Farshad Tavakoli ( the councillor of the cultural center in the international Festival of santour)and the group of reporters has been accomplished and celebrated At the 11:00 in the morning of 8/30/2003.



At the beginning of the interview with Mr. Sasan Rasouli , after welcoming , he mentioned somethings about the goals of the festival and the selection way of the Iranian players . he added : we select them of their special School ( the way of playing ) method and their special way of playing . but unfortunately from 5-6 Indicator players just Mr. Majid Kiani and Mr. Saeed Saabet can come and the others can not just because of the personal reasons .

Mr. Farshad Tavakoli told about the sections of the invitation of the foreigner players to our reporter : " we started to research about the santour players of all over the world from the Isfand ( March ) of the previous year . with so many problems the players have been invited from India , China , Swiss , Greece , Hungry , Bulgaria , Belarucia , Slovakia and Iran . he mentioned that the standards of this invitation are based on the method of Santour playing and the specials of their santours.

Then , every player introduced her own country's Santour breifly :

MARTINA KRIGOVSKA from Slovakia :

The usage of the Simbal or Santour have been started since 18th century . these sorts of Santours had small sizes and they put them on the tables and played them with two wooden Plectrums . the viration of this Santour was probably two octaves And a half . gradually , in the Hungry which is the neibour of Slovakia , were made so many big size of Santours that had pedals and of course the Gipcies brought them to the Slovakia from Hungry . and now they use the sort of Santour that has four octaves and a half variation of sound . gradually they tought it in the schools . and people got friendly with it . this kind of Santour brought to Slovakia by Gipcies and because of this it has a relative with the Folk music , but unless the Folk concerts they also this musical instrument in their classical concerts . now it's the sixth years that the academy of the Santour was started and also Mrs. Victoria Herencsar teaches there. I am the student of her and I have been finished the classes of the academy and now I play music for a classical concert of the Zchek Republic but here I will play a Folk music and I love to play it with a song and of course I will play some parts of the Zchek music too .

VICTORIA HERENCSAR from Hungry :

Santour was brought from asia to Europe by the immigrated people and still had usage till the 15th century . we have so many documents to show that in the 15th century the Hungry's music was played just by Santour . this kind of santour was just like the thing that you have and put on the table . in 19th century classical musicians used santour in their own music . now there are so many musicians that made so many songs and so many musics with Santour but the folk playing of it is still teaching .
I , myself play the classical santour and also follow the real way of playing . we should say that in the 19th century Santour even used in the Operahs . and I am a member of an Operah in the Hungry too . in 1991 an International association of santour started to work that included 29 countries . such as Asian earopian south -Amerian and Australian . then an academy of Santour started to work in Hungry that I teach there too . I will play the Folk music of the Hungry and I will have some Impromtu , too.

BARBARA SCHIRMER from Swiss :

The situation of the Santour is more different in Swis s from what ever that Mrs. Herencsar said . Santour brought to Swiss from the eastern countries of Europe .
But after invention of Piano playing Santour probably had been forgotten , and the method of plying remained just in two states : Apentesel & Vadlis , and almost played with the farmers .
the farmers themselves made their Santours and because of this every body had his or her own Santour . forexample I can not play my fathers Santour . of course this problems are not due to the numbers of the scales . but also the scene and the manner of two Major & Minor scales are different in any Santour .
In the recent years in Swiss, Santour came bach to the Towns and Cities from the mountains but it has still a long time to be teached in the academies and etc.

MAJID KIANI from Iran :

I think the reality of these kinds of festivals is to show us where are we in the world of music and what are the others doing . we have so many points in our Guests speeches that they said all the Santours were brought to the Europe from the East and all of them were small and had 5 tetrachords or two Octaves and a half . but when we look at the Iranian Santours we can see that it's just like the 15th century's Santours without any changes . and of course we can see the talent of the young people in Europe and the masters who wana teach this music .we also do the same things and tried to make the santours bigger and changed it into pedal ones and also changed the pitch to play the cromatic scales .
As result we have two different ways of Santour playing . the one is classic and the other is the modern . but the interesting matter is that the modern santours are just the old ones as if the Iranian talent , any way , does not want to make any changes on it . and the Europian countries also wants to return to their old methods . our music is a kind of Impromtu on the scene but the music itself does not creat , but also it just played . the patterns and the themes have been learned and the models have been teaching chest by chest, and on the scene the player just play it, maby by him or her self's talent . I can not predict that what I will play in this festival just I think some systems are important to play such as : Homayoun, Nava, Mahour, Shour, and I will plan (choose) my own playing from them .



Sunday, August 24, 2003

Introduction

Considering and recognizing the cultural relationship between different nations has been taken into consideration since early days. So recognition of the cultural identity is not possible without knowing the other culture’s specifications.

Undoubtedly, at our time this knowledge is being felt more. For this reason, paying attention to different domains of culture, art and wisdom is a duty being felt on the shoulder of our generation.

Meantime, music, in title of the most unintermediary art is doubtlessly of a great attention. One of the most important cases in cultural transactions that must be over looked is using common instruments among different nations.

We know that today knowing the main goal of common instruments in the world, helps acquainting many scientific points in recognizing old cultures and also other sciences related to liberal arts as linguistics and anthropology and …

Through this vision, some instruments show off more than others. The wide spread field of instruments like Naey (pipe), Santour (Dulcimer), Robaab and Tambour which they also exist in similar names, is interesting and considerable.

Santour is one of the oldest instruments have been made by human. First traces available from Santour’s existence belong to old Ashore and Babelian stone works (669 B. D) that shows this instrument's existence clearly.

Today, this instrument is being played in an expand range from Far East-to-East Europe and also North Africa, and it’s called in different names.

Santoor, Santeer and Saantoor in Islamic world and also texts belonging to the Jews, Hackbrett in Germany, Dulcimer in English, Cymbalom, Zymbalum in East European countries, Yank-kin in China and also Psaltery in some other texts.

Meanwhile this instrument is being preformed in countries such as Iran, Turkey, India, China, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Egypt, Greece, Ukraine, Middle Asia, Hungry, Romania and East Europe.

In the other hand, utilizing various kinds of Santour has also been taken into consideration by a few European classic composers such as Bach, Stravinsky and…

Considering this extensive field, Santour can be considered an international instrument.

Regarding the mentioned matters, Niavaran Artistic Creations Foundation has decided to perform a Festival named “International Week of Dulcimer”.


Goals

- Considering cultural music relations by the common instruments among them.

- Recognition and introduction to the history of Santour’s musical utilization in different cultures

- Creating considerative searching background and comparing different ways of performance of Santour in various cultures

- Creating considerate searching background and comparing different ways of making Santour

- Creating searching opportunities for young composers of the country

- Gathering the possibility for the dialogue between civilizations in the field of music

- Providing an audio- visual collection from different ways of composing Dulcimer in the world



Date and Location

- Time: International Week of Santour will be held for 4 nights (2-5 September 2003).

- Location: Niavaran Artistic Creations Foundation, Pasdaran Ave. opposite of Niavaran Park, Tehran, Iran



Programs

- Music Concerts: September 1-4, 2003 at 20:00.

- Work Shops: During these four days of festival, there would be free training work shops with the presence of the foreign artists at Niavaran Artistic Creations Foundation for the profit of interesteds two times a day, morning and afternoon.


Foreign Performers attending the Festival

Mrs. Yangqin Zhao - China


Mr. Marios Papadeas – Greece


Mrs. Viktoria Herencsar – Hungaria


Mrs. Barbara Schirmer - Swiss


Mrs. Katsiarina Anokhina – Belarussia


Mrs. Martina Krigovska – Slovakia



Iranian Performers attending the Festival:

Mr. Majid Kiani


Mr. Saeed Sabet along with the Tonbak of Mr. Mohammad Esmaeeli



Festival program

Monday- 1 Sep 2003

-Viktoria Herencsar -Hungary
-Marios Papadeas -Greece
-Break
-Majid Kiani -Iran

Tuesday- 2 Sep 2003

-Yangqin Zhao -China
-Martina Krigovska -Slovakia
-Break
-Saeed Sabet & Mohammad Esmaiili -Iran

Wednesday- 3 Sep 2003

-Barbara Schirmer -Swiss
-Marios Papadeas -Greece
-Break
-Majid Kiani -Iran

Thursday- 4 Sep 2003

-Yangqin Zhao -China
-Katsiarina Anokhina -Bella Russia
-Braek
-Saeed Sabet & Mohammad Esmaiili -Iran


Workshops Program

Tuesday- 2 Sep 2003

Time : 11:00 to 13:00
Martina Krigovska -Slovakia
Viktoria Herencsar -Hungary

Wednesday- 3 Sep 2003

Time : 11:00 to 13:00
Yangqin Zhao -China

Thursday- 4 Sep 2003

Time : 11:00 to 13:00
Barbara Schirmer -Swiss
Katsiarina Anokhina -Bella Russia

Time : 15:00 to 17:00
Marios Papadeas -Greece

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