Landay Sequenza

<p><br></p><p dir="ltr"><b>Landay Sequenza</b></p><p dir="ltr">Voice (with handheld a.m. radio), alto and bass flute, viola, double bass, percussion and lever harp. 18mins.</p><p dir="ltr">For Stone Drawn Circles</p><p dir="ltr">Cat Hope (2022)</p><p dir="ltr">A contemplation dedicated to the resilience and creativity of Afghan women.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Instructions</b><br>More information in the instructions file found on this page, and in the ScoreFile (LandaySequenzaComplete.dsz). The scores are proportional, with the highest point of the screen being the highest pitch reference, the bottom being the lowest pitch reference. Line thickness indicates dynamic (should be very soft as a starting point). Choose your own pitches, avoiding the tempered scale where possible, but be mindful of the pitch relationships in the score, and your own parts. Instruments should bot be amplified – but the voice should be amplified badly (eg. With a small amplifier and/or megaphone). Vertical dotted lines signal important ensemble coordination points. Pieces can also be performed individually (Muska Landay has been performed separately, for example and can be seen <a href="https://vimeo.com/671920692/5fa45dfea6" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>).</p><p dir="ltr"><b>PERCUSSION:</b> TamTam (big soft mallet/s, superball), bowed c rotales or suspended cymbal, vibraphone (bowed ads small mallett).<br><b>Double bass and viola:</b> double stops indicated by two lines.<br><b>VOICE</b> should be spoken in a droll tone, pitched as indicated, and only sung when and according to the grey line it attaches to sometimes. The a.m. radio is indicated by a simple black line. It should be tuned to static and the volume never above soft, and the volume manipulated as notated.</p><p dir="ltr">The score should be read using the .dsz file in the <a href="https://decibelnewmusic.com/decibel-scoreplayer/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Decibel ScorePlayer software.</a></p><p dir="ltr"><b>Program Note</b><br>This piece consists of five English translations of Afghan Landay’s set to music. The Landay is an Afghan form of poetry consisting of a single couplet in Pashto, one of two national languages of Afghanistan. Commonly shared orally amongst Pashtan women, they are sung aloud, sometimes with the beat of a hand drum. They typically address themes of love, grief, homeland, war, and separation. Like all music, they were banned by the Taliban during 1996 – 2001, and likely again now given the recent Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.</p><p dir="ltr">Landay’s are rebellious and powerful, belying the notion of Afghan women as submissive or defeated. They are strong, resilient, pollical, creative and rebellious.</p><p dir="ltr">The graphic scores are made by tracing over a photographs of Afghan women under an aircraft, from a photograph by Seamus Murphy. The work explores the potential of graphic notation to reflect or ‘contain’ certain aural (oral) traditions that may evolve of time. The Landay’s are translated into English by Eliza Griswold. This work was commissioned by Arts Council of Ireland, with thanks to Lina Androvska.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>RESEARCH STATEMENT</b></p><p dir="ltr"><b>Research</b><b> Backgound</b><br>RQ How can translating images into graphic notation create connections between Afghan women's poetry and culture in chamber music performance?</p><p dir="ltr">Landay Sequenza is a composition for 5 piece chamber ensemble and voice. The score is created by tracing over photographs of Afghan women, their clothes, jewelry and activities. The graphic scores created are set to English translations of<i> </i><i>Landay</i>, a longstanding single couplet poetry form devised and shared orally by Pashto Afghan women. The orchestration includes a small megaphone and a.m. radio static as reference to the women’s practice of reciting poems to radio stations over the phone, resulting in the death of women attacked by family members when discovered (Griswold, 2016).</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Research Contribution</b><br>The work devises a new notational methodology of tracing photographs as score material for a voice and chamber setting and supports women's resistance against the Taliban ban on Afghan women's culture by engaging tracing as ‘translation’ (McMillan et al, 2025). The score design provides more expressive and performative autonomy, resulting in closer associations with the subject material, and communicates important political situations in new, more empathic ways.<br></p><p dir="ltr"><b>Research Significance</b><br>The scoring technique builds on Hope’s ‘tracing’ methodologies with children's drawings and graphs for her opera ‘Speechless’ (2019) as a way to create inclusion and empathy, but here with photographs, and for a more intimate chamber setting where inter-performer relationships expose delicate, nuanced and visible reactions from performers and audience. The score can be read with the source photographs visible, a new way of engaging peripheral information to enhance the meaning of the score, facilitated by the Decibel ScorePlayer software.</p><table><tr><td><p><br></p></td></tr></table><p></p>