Franghiz Ali-Zadeh
was born in 1947 in Baku, the capital of Aserbeidschan, studied piano at the local conservatoire and composition with Kara Karajew. As a pianist she very early strongly campaigned for contemporary music and performed in her home town – in addition to several Sowjet composers – for the first time Schönberg, Berg and Webern, Messiaen, Cage, and Crumb. Her breakthrough as a composer she had with the piece „Habil-sajahi” for cello and prepared piano (1979), in which she dealt more intensive than before with the musical tradition in her country, and which she – by request of the Kronos Quartet – adapted for string quartet „Mugam sajahi”.
Composing for Frangis Ali-Sade is not an act of inventing or constructing. She has the impression of entering a musical room: “I come from far away, immerse in it, therefore, my music at the beginning is very silent. As if music sounds yet and would I only step into it. Then I would cross the room and leave again. Every work for me has such a room, which I could hear and feel. In a sense I don’t compose, I only guess or feel.”
It was a absolute natural wish of her to search for her artistic way between Europe and the traditional Aserbaidschan music (called Mugam). On the one hand,, she received the normal western education at the conservatoires, on the other hand, she listened since childhood the national music that could be heard on the radio. „It [this music] is very close to us and is in accordance with our feelings. Regarding this conditions, every musician has the necessity to combine these two tendencies, regardless is he is from Japan, China, or Vietnam. As a human being coming from the 20th century, I wish to collect, to combine the differences. It is not a matter of contrasting, but to find a way of cross-fertilisation.”
© Archiv Sikorski