Composer, guitarist and teacher Sulaiman Zai presents a yearly concert of new music scored for the musicians who sign up for the project. This year there are forty instrumentalists and singers for a project titled "Twelve."
"Twelve" is a sort of central number for me," Zai said. It's a number for transformations. It's the hour at the middle of the day when morning becomes afternoon It's also the hour at the end, midnight when one day becomes the next. And the twelfth year is a break point in a person's growth as a child enter the teen years. "
"I've used the times of day for the individual pieces." he continued. "The opening is a morning piece and I've tried to evoke the gradual rise of the sun as the darkness turns into light. Then there are other pieces as the morning develops."
"With the noon piece, I've done something a bit different in my approach to the music for the players. Part of our ensemble is a group of young violinists. In the past when I've written for them, I've made their music kind of rhythmic and lively. But, one of the older players suggested that I give them something with a little more meat, more opportunity to draw sound from their instruments. "
"The noon music is slower and a bit heavier and I hope that the players and the listeners will appreciate this piece of tailoring. It also gave me an impetus to think about noon as the heat of the day, a time that can be a bit slower and more languid than those earlier or later times."
Twelve by Sulaiman Zai
Friday November 6th at 7 pm
Unity of Bloomington Building
4001 S. Rogers St.
Bloomington, IN