Daniel Reza Sabzghabaei (سبزقبایی رضا دانیال) is a creator who is interested in looking at time through different lenses: unpacking notions of tradition, exploring memories of those past, and investigating nostalgic frameworks that lean forward. His music has been commissioned and presented by organizations including: the GRAMMY-winning New York Youth Symphony, JACK Quartet, National Sawdust, the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Proton Bern, loadbang, the Duisburg Philharmonic, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Intimacy of Creativity Festival, the American Composers Orchestra, TAK Ensemble, Beth Morrison Projects, the New York Festival of Song, bassist Robert Black, the Banff Centre, Contemporaneous, Guerilla Opera, the Moab Music Festival, Chorus Austin, the Young New Yorkers Chorus, Pro Coro Canada, The Esoterics, OPERA America, and VocalEssence among others. Daniel recently completed his doctorate at Cornell, where his dissertation focused on Persian Choral Music. Outside of music and interdisciplinary projects, Daniel also translates Persian poetry.
Residues I. Ostinato
Composed 2021 – Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Piano
From the composer: “I am interested in exploring the ways that sounds and practices influences each other, not simply as mimicry, but as things that exist as things themselves, related to their sources, but not attempting to be those separate constituent parts.
The voice of 20th–century vocalist Delkash takes the central role—explored through the guise of the vocality of the clarinet. The classic song Ātash-e Kārevān “Caravan Fire,” by violinist and composer Ali Tajvidi acts as the canvas—an ostinato from the original tune becomes the anchor point.
I remember my father listening to this tape Sunday mornings, in all of its noisy and rich imperfection—the piano echoing this memory in a warm bed of noise, a resonant din of tinny bass.“