It is not, at first sight, an obvious choice to compose a concert combining the Persian kamancheh, with tar, classical European violin and cello, a double bass that could be from New Orleans or New York Jazz scenes and complementing the string sextet with percussions. Hence, it was all the more astonishing to experience the deeply moving and authentic concert – Nowruz – About That Magic Circle, by composer Mostafa Taleb, held at the Concertgebouw in Bruges on the 23rd of March, celebrating the spring equinox and Persian New Year.
This was a deeply poetic, spiritual and melodic hour of being transported by the dialogue of the instruments, while making a statement of commonality and unity, knowing no borders. This concert went far beyond making an obvious statement on the importance of intercultural dialogue. The concert was a living co-creation, a majestic, evolving new thing in itself, fundamentally more than a combination of instruments. Each instrument sounded not just as itself, but its meaning fed on the contrast and resonance with the other instruments. A new instrument was alive on stage with seven voices.
It is, of course, best to experience the musical magic live on stage when Mostafa Taleb’s About That Magic Circle gets together, but I hope these words manage to whet your appetite for immersing yourself in the real thing.
Some of the first notes felt very modern, with a minimalistic, atmospheric feel, but this evolved rapidly into something far richer, more than intriguing music-for-musicians-and-the-afficionado, but a rich narrative, an exchange, a creation, a musical poem and a journey.
Mostafa’s composition was inspired by the Persian poet, mystic, and philosopher Attar of Nishapur (c. 1145–1221), author of The Conference of the Birds (Mantiq al-Tayr) and The Book of Suffering (Musibat-Nama), with its themes of water, air, earth, and fire.
In Attar’s Book of Suffering, a person seeking wisdom turns to the elements for answers. Each in turn says that they cannot help. Air says, ‘I am too weak, as soon as I stop moving, I cease to be’. Water says, ‘ How can I help, I who cannot do anything without the wind and the support of the sky?’ The Fire of Anger cries and through the tears turns to water. ‘See when I stop, all is destroyed; only dust is left. How can I help you?’ Earth concludes, ‘While all comes from me and returns to me… I am nothing without water, wind, fire. So how can I help you?’
Each element on its own cannot help, but working together, they can be creative forces. The fifth element, the soul, allows the emergence of life, the ultimate mystery. So, Mostafa Taleb asks, how can I use the positive element? “Establishing the unity of the five elements can perhaps make the world a little bit more beautiful.” This he achieves by bringing together six musicians, seven instruments, their song of the four elements and the voyage of the soul seeking wisdom.
The Magic Circle represents the sacred space where transformation occurs. The CD booklet says that in mystical traditions, a magic circle is a boundary between the ordinary and the spiritual, a place of deep introspection and self-purification. Through this music, listeners step into their own “magic circle,” embarking on a journey mirroring the seeker’s path in The Book of Suffering, even though the concert is quite the opposite of suffering.
The concert kicked off with Sussurus Winds where each instrument plays short melodies in parallel (though with slightly deferred starting points), like little gusts of wind that dance – first separate, here and there, as if to say, yes there are many winds and they each whisper to those near, but everywhere is local, separate. The volume rises, and the winds grow and dance, first apart, but note after note they approach each other, test each other out, then converge and dance together, their voice stronger together, profound, powerful.
After the air comes water, fire, and earth. Water (Near, Yet Far) started with the slow drip drip drip of rain of the tar, then flowing water, that, extracted from the info pamphlet, represents a cleansing and purifying energy. Fire adopts faster tempos, more aggressive rhythms, and intense harmonic clashes, communicating passion, transformation, conflict, and even destruction, the burning away of impurities to find wisdom, for spiritual awakening.
Earth (Astral Passage) adopts more stable, grounded, and deliberate musical structures, symbolizing a return to balance. The Earth absorbs and cools the heat of fire, providing stability and support. Mostafa Taleb’s fifth element – the Soul (Fallen Verse) moves away from the dance of six instruments and is a solo performance, the individual’s journey toward enlightenment, portrayed with softer, more reflective melodies, inviting introspection and connection.
In the final section (The Endower), a 7/8 rhythm is used, symbolising the uneven, lopsided journey of the human soul toward perfection (we all zig-zag in life). The irregularity of the rhythm reflects the struggles, the hesitation, and the slow progress of the seeker on their path to personal growth, higher knowledge and enlightenment.
It was a magnificent exploration of each element, a movement, a dance, a development, growth, communication, and the elements are brought together to an ever more sophisticated dance, but not into a classical crescendo, but more an organic, growing evolution into a breathing soundscape. It becomes almost a living creature of notes. Even though the acts are sequential, in the end, it is as if the whole concert of notes and feelings still floats as a whole, time-forgotten, independent of space and time. It lives on in us.
It was a truly mesmerising and beautiful hour telling us what we all can help make happen and enjoy if we let it, if we nourish it. It takes the breath of the soul. It is our opportunity, indeed perhaps even responsibility, to be a conductor of the elements in our small worlds and join others already conducting their elements into an ever-growing dance. We are far more than the sum of the parts, doubly so if voices work in resonance, we engage in harmony.
In these times, where the world order seems to be heading toward chaos and confusion, where hate is infecting language, it is all the more important to listen to music that is a fusion of instruments, a dialogue between us, a joint creation, not an inevitable destruction. We have a choice – there is a narrative of hope. Go, listen to Mostafa Taleb’s About That Magic Circle – on Spotify and all other music platforms, but much better on stage. There you can see the musicians inspire each other, and wow, when you see the infectious pleasure that one instrument gives another, one culture gives another, it brings a calming hope. I particularly loved the mutual appreciation of the tar for the double bass and vice versa. Rain can be impressed by the earth, by thunder. And the earth welcomes the rain that dances down.
Which instrument dance touches you most will be personal. Let yourself be invited in and mesmerized by the kamancheh, drawn in to hear and feel the dance of elements and the creation of something new, driven by the breath of Mostafa Taleb’s soul, and wrapping together the cello, violin, double bass, percussion, and tar. Something new and special was created. It lives on even after the instruments stopped.
Keep an eye and ear out for Mostafa Taleb and his About That Magic Circle.
