The Analysis of form and Harmony in Neynava

The main purpose of this paper is analyzing the form and Harmony in “Neynava”, a piece composed by “Hossein Alizadeh”. Written in 1984, the piece has been composed for solo Ney (an Iranian instrument) and string orchestra. According to Composer himself, this piece is developed according to “Dastgah of Nava” and its melodic movement and parallel combination is consisted of different modes that could be seen with similarity to modes in this Dastgah. Iranian Composers have always been interested in combination of Iranian musical materials with Western-European ones. For achieving a phenomenal piece using this combination, a Composer not only needs a perfect knowledge about the language of both classical and Iranian music but also he must be professional using these both sides. “Neynava” could be named as a successful piece in this field.  Chords consisted of fourth intervals common usage started in the beginning of the 20^th century in pieces like chamber symphony op. 9 composed by Arnold Schoenberg. Though this phenomenon appeared just in this single piece of him it influenced other composers afterward. This harmony could be seen in other 20^th century composers’ works such as Claude Debussy, Paul Hindemith, Béla Bartók and Olivier Messiaen. But we will see that choosing the notes of chords with perfect fourth intervals in “Neynava” have been chosen regarding important parts of Dastgah of Nava. In order to analyze the form of Neynava, each movement has been studied separately; then the rhythmic and melodic motifs of each part have been reviewed and classified all together. Furthermore, any conformity of different parts of Neynava’s forms with classical music or Radif, have been generally reviewed (if any). Then, a revision of sentences, their variations, and their rhythmic or melodic motifs, have been categorized and reviewed in each respective movement, in a general context of Neynava. However, any similarities of such motifs (including motifs with slight deviations) have been studied. In form analysis we’ll show that Composer developed general form of the piece, with consideration of general forms of Radif which means we can see that horizontal movements and contrapuntal melodic lines were taking a priority over vertical relations; though we can classify two different types of harmonies for this piece. Tierce harmony could be seen and it has been used when the Composer wanted to make a modulation to a new mode or to make a new texture. In second look it can be shown that each part is written with consideration of modal characteristics using those melodic motifs that could be expanded and changed according to Composer’s preferences. This change usually could be seen as a “rhythmic change” or adding more ornaments. In harmony analysis, the way harmony has been chosen and the instances of chords based on tierce or quartal harmony, will be reviewed, taking into account melodic limits in the mode of respective Dastgah, and using tonal plans derived from different parts of Neynava. The Analysis of Harmony in Neynava will show the way Composer create a harmony for string orchestra which is about to be accompanied by Iranian music with “Ney”.