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Commissioned by Allegra Chamber Orchestra
15 Jul 2018, Ismaili Centre, Burnaby, BC, Canada Allegra Chamber Orchestra, with Mohamed Assani (sitar) Janna Sailor, conductor
“Hope. It’s like a drop of honey, a field of tulips blooming in the springtime. It’s a fresh rain, a whispered promise, a cloudless sky...” –Tahereh Mafi"A Drop of Honey" was created especially for a subset of the Allegra Chamber Orchestra-- one of the only all-female professional orchestras in the world, based in Vancouver, Canada, directed by Janna Sailor. The piece was written for a special concert, “Songs for Scheherazade”, as part of Vancouver’s Indian Summer Festival. "A Drop of Honey" is loosely based in Raag Charukeshi, a scale used in classical Indian music, with a sharp 3rd degree of the scale, and a flat 6th and 7th. The music develops slowly and gently, through an introduction and a couple of shorter, improvised alap sections in the sitar, building into a steady tempo. Toward the middle of the piece, an ancient pavane melody, “Belle qui tiens ma vie”, by French composer Jehan Tabourot (1520-1595), makes its appearance in the strings and clarinet, before morphing back into the Charukeshi scale. The piece continues to build up to a quick-tempo jhala conclusion."A Drop of Honey" received its premiere by Allegra Chamber Orchestra, with Mohamed Assani (sitar), at the Ismaili Centre, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, on July 15th, 2018.
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