THE ROSEGARDEN OF LIGHT • 1ANIM Junior Ens of
Traditional Afghan Instruments; 2Kevin Bishop
(va); 3Ensemble Zohra; 3, 4Cuatro Puntos • TOCCATA
0342 (51:26)
OMAR 1Arghawan (The Judas Tree). S.
HARRISON 2Dast be Dast: “Allah Hu” (This is
God). 3Gulistan-e Nur: The Rosegarden of
Light. SARMAST (arr. Bishop) 4Ay Shakhe Gul (O
Flower Branch). TRAD 1Qataghani Folksong. 1Logari
Folksong. 4Pesta Farosh (The Pistachio Seller) (arr.
Bishop). 1Ghunchai-e-Sorkh (Red Rosebud)

Sadie Harrison: The Rosegarden of Light
Audio CD
Toccata Classics
A disc by composer Sadie Harrison impressed me back
in Fanfare 31:2. This is even more stunning: music as it should be, to speak about bringing peace to anguished lands, and to work collaboratively to bring that peace into existence. Here, students of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul work with the U.S. string sextet Cuatro Puntos in a collaborative effort that provides a sister concept to Harrison’s previous work, The Light Garden. That work—written at a time when cultures were being destroyed—as the composer puts it, “raged and shouted.” This work is different: It has tunes, for a start. And that’s not a derogative comment; the composer positively rejoices in them. This second “garden” has melodies everywhere, sitting there for everyone to enjoy.
The pieces come in a very particular order, as discussed in this review.
The disc, and the journey, begins with a joyous piece by rubab player Ustad Mohammad Omar, Arghawan (The Judas Tree). Written for the radio, it celebrates the Afghan aghawan tree (Cercis siliquastrum, for those that like that sort of thing), the pink blossoms of which herald the arrival of spring. The performance here is full of life, appropriately. There follow two pieces by Harrison: the short Dast be Dast: “Allah Hu” (This is God) and Gulistan-e Nur: The Rosegarden of Light. Written for solo viola, “Allah Hu” was written in 2014 and is based on a lullaby. The A is tuned to 432 Hz, slightly lower than the usual 440 (432 is mathematically derived from the Earth’s resonance, an eight-hertz pulse). It is a lovely, yearning piece, played with great intensity by Kevin Bishop. The return to the world of Arghawan seems obvious on first pass when one encounters the opening of Gulistan-e Nur: The Rosegarden of Light, at 24 minutes the longest piece here. Cast in three sections, each holding a paired interlude for youth ensemble and a movement for sextet that works with this material, Harrison once more takes a radio piece in a transcription by the composer. Interestingly, the composer is the first to admit a Copland dance-like feel to the result, itself because of a parallel between the Afghan tuning and that used in American and Scottish folk musics. The second pair works with a gentle love song called “Sweet Nomad Girl,” taking its emotional heart and eking out its sense of loneliness to plains of gentle oscillating tones before the traditional melody once more rises, briefly. The use of a Junior Ensemble adds a rawness (of tone, yes, but of emotion also) and special poignancy to the experience. The interaction of Ensemble Zohra (the girls’ ensemble from the Afghanistan National Institute of Music) with the depth of sound of the Cuatro Puntos (a chamber ensemble based in Hartford, Connecticut) is powerful indeed. The keening phrases that Harrison often uses seem to speak of a search for peace, be it of the individual soul or global (the two are intimately linked, anyway). The final section of the piece is introduced by a fast 7/8 meter dance (an attan) called “Dear Homeland” before the string sextet explores its ramifications joyfully (and there is plenty of joy in this music). This is a virtuoso performance from Cuatro Puntos; but the real virtuosity belongs to the imagination of the composer, an imagination rooted in and driven by music as a force for good in the world. There are some intriguing passages here, a deep bass pizzicato providing an ongoing tread while figures swirl above like wisps of smoke. Remarkable stuff.
Sandwiching Harrison’s piece between traditional music played in its “raw” state is inspired. The active traditional Qataghani folksong (from a state of northern Afghanistan) is a lively dance; in high contrast is the melancholy of Oh Flower Branch, in a superb arrangement for string quintet by Kevin Bishop. The final three items are traditional Afghan pieces. A Logari folksong begins (“Logari” means “great mountain” and is a province in Afghanistan). The piece tends to stop and start a lot, a characteristic of the music from this region, which adds an extra layer of fascination. It is performed by the ANIM Ensemble. The move to the more concert hall
sound of a string group for The Pistachio Seller (arranged by Kevin Bishop) is fascinating, and in the context of the present disc is a marrying of two cultures rather than a softening of one by the other. It is a terrifically jolly little number, apparently universally known in Afghanistan. Finally, there comes a simply astonishing performance by the Junior Ensemble of a piece called Red Rosebud: The drums at the opening are amazing in their velocity and sophistication. Projects of this sort are rare; this one may indeed be unique in its cross-border scope. Colin Clarke
This article originally appeared in Issue 40:1 (Sept/Oct 2016) of Fanfare Magazine.