WHO AM I? kUKA MINÄ OLEN? من چه کسی هستم؟ من کیم؟
Working Notes
Description of my working ideas for the pieces I will perform in the concert:
1: My first song will be the improvisation and whistle which shows my style of composing music. usually when I am walking around the city and sitting on the bus I am humming or making noises. At that time with my mobile phone, I try to record the song, melody line, rhythm, or riffs that come to my mind. those melodies coming from somewhere which I am not aware of, but I understand this point of recalling them or using or manipulating your memory for better use which we call it creation.
2: Second song will be a duet between Bagpipe and Voice. In this song, I would like to work on the mixture of two different wild instruments and bring the two genres of medieval row music of European shepherds with freestyle singing of Kurdish mountains.
3: in the third song I will be singing with my brother Marouf and my nephew Aurora. Marouf will play tar (Iranian string instrument) and Ahoora will play tombak( Iranian snare drum). Here in this song, I will be singing my melody and lyric based on the Maqam Rast (Iranian traditional scale).
4: Forth song of this concert is a quartet in which Guitar, Violin, Drum, and Voice will be showing the fragility of the folk/pop tune. This song is about a woman which has a beautiful heart deep in sorrow and melancholic song and mood will be showing the pain that she feels in her heart in her daily life.
5: Romance is the name of the fifth song. Violin, Piano, and voice will be executing the power of melody and here in this song, I will be asking people to join me and sing with me.
6: Sixth song will be an intimidating duet between the piano and the voice. Here in this lied song written by me, the piano starts to play the legato Italian melody and the tenor voice starts singing about love in the Italian language.
- The lost two-song will be the right moment to perform two songs with BaranBand. Mah(Moon) 🌒 and Shao (Night ) will be performed with 6 people of BaranBand including me. There will be Electronics, Accordeon, Violin, Tar, percussion, guitar, and singing.
The aim of these songs will be to demonstrate the ability of my voice to execute difficult and diverse musical genres, which are perhaps not normally heard together them in a solo concert.
Some Other thoughts about the concert
From the beginning of my study, I was thinking about the final concert. I wanted to have a solo and duet throughout the whole concert. I started to record some songs and melodies for my master concert. The first title which came to my mind was the GIAN +1,2,3. I wanted to be a solo musician/singer which I play a little bit of Piano, Violin, Ukulele and I sing while playing. But I felt I do not put myself in that vulnerable situation in which others can judge my poor piano and violin playing.
After some attempt to write complicated songs I realized the difficulties to show off your talent and prove something to others. so I stepped down and I went back into the lonely deep state of my being and I felt simplicity is a key to expose myself without fear of any kind of judgment.
I knew that more than anything I need to be honest with myself and not try to put out something which is not familiar with me or is not part of me. I talked with my friends and bandmates and I asked them to come and play with me.
During the process, I tried to forget about any doubt and only concentrate on the songs which I was composing. I tried to know and learn about every aspect of my concert. I tried to play the role of which I am going to play. I mean to prepare myself for any kind of unexpected accident or act or mistake by me or others.
Also, I wanted to stay focus and in the center of my conscientiousness to not take the whole process so seriously which can break my apart in case if I am not succeeding.
During the final concert, I was at ease. I had no problem to make mistake or be myself. I accepted my look, my limitation, and my power. I knew that I can be very good on the stage because I had experienced, I had power and authority to convince people and more importantly, this is my music and my interpretation which goes out of my mouth to receive by others.
Meanwhile, I could use the old natural skill of mine which is friendship and communicating skills with others. They felt my love, support, and musicianship and we had a calm nice evening to perform with each other.
Concert Process Reflection (interviewing myself)
Gian Majidi: Kuka Minä Olen? Who am I? من چه کسی هستم؟ من کیم؟
My final master's concert was the result of years of practicing, imagining, and creating. In this concert, I worked with different languages and musical genres that have influenced me during the past 20 years. I have been singing Kurdish folk music and pop music in both Persian and Kurdish languages. Later I became interested in English, Italian, and Spanish pop songs and also found my passion for classical music. In this concert, I explored all of these areas in different ways, combined with a variety of singing techniques, communication skills, and my imagination, to create an experience for the audience. As a way to reflect on the process of creating my concert, I decided to set a series of questions for myself to answer in the form of a self-interview. This process was very helpful and meaningful for me, but it is also challenging to look at myself and the whole process with different eyes. This distance gives me a different perspective and I hope that I can go beyond my ego and reflect openly and honestly about my struggles and the ways of evaluating oneself.
Maybe I did get some answers about my identity. This discovery is about the act of doing. The music needs to be created in the first place. then comes the practice of the music and polish it, and in the end, there will be the performances or capturing the sound into the material which people can reproduce it many times again and technological way of this reproduction includes many forms; such as CD or audio format.
Honestly, I was satisfied with the way I performed my music at the master concert. I was myself without any filter or dishonest acting or way of being. I did not want to impose any kind of agenda on the audience. I wanted to communicate with them in a very simple and informal way. Also, the performer felt at ease to work with me. My music was important to them and I felt calm and happy with them. I could be myself and I was. I gave the energy and presence of me to the audience. I think I've got some answers here and there during the performance. I love people and I love music. I love myself and I do my best when there is a possibility. Maybe all of this could be the first discovery of the greater trip into my identity. Time will show all.
With this in mind, I set the following questions for myself:
1. Describe the core idea/concept of the concert and what you hope to express:
I am a singer. I have been singing folk music from age of 5 onward. This feeling of sharing what you have and what is born at the moment has been a core idea of my lifestyle. Still in this age, I am interacting with people in the state of love, care, improvisation, and spontaneity. This is coming from my philosophy of life which I feel I am related to each human being and I can connect with them, without any barrier of knowledge, environment, education, language, race, social class, and religion.
What I express is a voice as an instrument. At this concert, I do not try to be the star of the show and shine on the scene. I am there to transfer the beauty of music which is living inside of my heart. Every song reflects a different kind of essence and emotion, which I am believing in it. Voice is an instrument, but it is a hard one to control, and one needs a mastery of the technique and skill to convey all those feelings that are within the heart. Here at this concert, I am looking to connecting with people. Make them happy and satisfied with being in a good musical show. If after the show, they had a good moment I have done a good job as an entertainer.
Also, here in this concert, I will be sharing my diverse source of pleasure in the case of music genres and fields such as classical music, pop, and folk. Also, I emphasize improvisation which is the core idea of what I do. For composing new songs, I let the melody appear to me from beyond and stays on the instruments, sometimes into the voice and sometimes into the orchestra.
2. Describe and analyze the process have you used to bring your vision to life:
The first step was about composing the songs. I have had many ideas and many of those ideas were very close to coming to reality to be part of this process. I mean some melodies were beautifully crafted to be performed but I could forget them because of being too shiny in my vitrines and not concerning other songs. I wanted to stay faithful to the idea of improvisation, cultural connection, and honest to express my current state of mind and philosophy point of view.
In the second step, I started to think about the arrangement and orchestration. I did not want to hide my voice under the mass amount of sound playing by other instruments. I looked at the voice as an enough strong instrument that brings all the feeling to shine and does not need any kind of censorship and intimidating feeling of rejection from audiences. I wanted the voice to be naked and vulnerable to connect directly with people. The idea was easy. I want to show my ability to sing in the different genres of music without bringing up the egoistic side of my character. I am here to give something nice (let’s call it a good feeling) to other human beings. I am here to serve the music, not showing how good I am as a singer because still I consider myself a student of music and life.
After this, I choose particular songs and started instrumentation/orchestration. And later come thinking about the musicians involved in this concert. When those people accepted to work with me, I have had a short meeting with my music supervisor Timo Alakotila about the songs and later I send the score to the musicians and since some months ago we have had our regular rehearsals.
3. What kinds of challenges arose along the way and how did you manage them?
There are as many difficulties in the way of performing in the show than one can imagine. Especially when you are dealing with many people involved in the process. Finding the right/suitable time for practicing, a suitable player of the music, and work with their tide schedule time. In those moments you need to stay calm and be positive and try to arrange another time or cancel an arranged one. Also attaching all of this ideas to show the unity and consistency of the songs, giving the same kind of color to all different song has been all the struggles which I have the privilege to face in because I believe these difficulties which sometimes are very frustrating, bring out the fruit of tranquillity, modesty, patience and hard work.
Also, some musicians are too deep related to their instrument as an identity tool and it’s mean that they want to be shining on the scene. you have to ask them to play truthfully even if the songs are easy and have no challenges in playing.
Playing correctly, truthfully, with understanding and respect to the roots/culture of the language and songs are the main keys to perform well and communicate with audiences which is the main goal of performance.
4. Reflect on the leadership and collaborative skills that were needed to prepare the concert and how you feel you managed this task:
In this area, I had no such difficulties because I knew many of the musicians from a long time ago. I have had to work with most of them and also, they tried to help me in the process of writing the music. But I tried to focus on my duty, and I tried to communicate with them. I tried to listen, consider what are they suggesting, accepting the different ideas of playing or coloring the songs but they trusted me enough to let me lead the process. I also tried to remind myself about the lack of knowledge might be showing himself at any moment and I did not hesitate a moment to show my honesty and not knowing of some music element and try to fix the problem or learn about the subject.
In these kinds of concerts, two different perspectives come to life. One in the lack of music knowledge and another one lacks having a right attitude to connect with people. Loving what you do is not enough to bring people to believe in what you believe. You need to have the right approach to connect meaningfully with others. They are human, they have felt, they are professional, they have their kind of struggles, timetables, responsibility, and knowing all of these problems make you a better human being. By understanding them you have walk already half of the journey and practicing the songs is another part to walk.
I had not tried to emphasize my role as a leader of the group but more as an individual that is the central figure of the show that every commitment and performance going through him. I respected each one truthfully and I was thankful for each one to participate in my master concert. Without them, all of this journey and works could not be alive.
5. Reflect on any inter-cultural or transcultural elements in your music and how they are integrated into your concert:
As an Iranian/Kurdish born singer/musician I have had already two culture living inside of me. Two languages that are unique and have had up and down moments throughout history. Iran is a multi-cultural country that has had more than 20 different cultures, languages, religions which have been living together in the last 3000 years. That makes any Iranian potential to have a tolerance to accept others and especially strangers. At this concert, I am singing Kurdish, Persian, English, Italian, and Latin. Also, I wanted to sing Finnish which I felt it’s not enough powerful artwork at the moment. My main focus from the first moment of starting my master's journey was making a different song with embracing different cultural aspects and making them as an art form.
I have to emphasize the role of each instrument which with its characteristic sonority and color gives the different tastes of emotional revelation. I tried as well to compromise my ideas and reduce them in such as cases of singing with bagpipe to fit my voice with the loudness, roughness, and bravery of bagpipe. I could not resist the taking risk and moving forward to go out of comfort zone and try to show something that is out of my potential but it’s a new field to explore and later make a plan to build a new musical foundation and outcome.
6. What are the most valuable things you have learned from this process?
Everything is about me. All is about others. What does this mean? I am here to learn about myself. About self-awareness and self-acceptance. Loving what you do and try your best to express those feeling and thoughts which they live in you.
Also, others are real. They are here living with you. Without them you are nothing. You are a doll human being without audiences. Those who coming and listening to your music. There is a chance that some they like your music and some they do not, but in any case, you try your best. You are faithful to yourself and you are not afraid to accept challenges and take a risk. You are a thin rope walker. You should concentrate on your farm, your grasses, and your fruits. Helping others if can but try to farm according to the low of nature, which in the case of music is about knowing your soul, feeling the emotions, empathy with others, hard work of creating, practice daily and wisely, learning from others, staying focused and positive and in the end letting go the all your process fluidly and uninterrupted.
Here I am singing with the BaranBand. we are singing and performing the song called SHAO, which means 'The Night'.
This piece was the last piece of the concert.
I feel this song is very energetic song, full of good arrangement and melody.
Composer: Marouf Majidi
Lyrics: Gian Majidi
Here is the hand drawn stage plan for my master's concert on 11th December 2019. Black Box Hall, Helsinki Music Centre.
