The DVD features music and visual arts that project a vivid sense of the times and places of the western Silk Road. Islamic culture developed in the lands of ancient Persia and reached an extraordinary level of creative inspiration. The DVD focuses on this unique synthesis and the narration includes Persian and Sufi poetry from the 11th-13th centuries.
Most of the musical selections were recorded 30-40 years ago. The performances are by musicians who have devoted their lives to the traditions of Sufi music or pre-Islamic Persian classical music. The works are performed as they have been for centuries--and the absence of any modern influences makes this a powerful experience of the exquisite culture and artistic sensibility that flourished along the Silk Road.
Taksim (solo improvisation; conclusion), performed on the ney, from the Mevlevi order of Dervishes founded by Jallaludin Rumi in the 13th century in Konya, Turkey (recorded in the early 1970s)
Improvised solo for the ney, a reed flute whose tone is the symbol of the ecstatic, used by Dervishes in many Silk Road regions to convey mystical experience
Såki icelim cåmini dem-saz ederek gel(“Saki, come let us drink the wine of friendship”), Persian poetry sung by the Choirs of the Musique Classique Turque, as was performed by Dervishes for the court of the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century (recorded in the early 1970s)
Persian poetry with a secular theme traditionally performed at the Court of Topkapi in Istanbul
Taksim (solo meditation), from the Mevlevi order of Dervishes founded by the poet Rumi in the 13th century (recorded in the early 1970s)
Sufi call to prayer performed on the ney
Taksim (solo) improvisation on the ney in the mode of nostalgia (Hűseynî) with bendir (drum), by Sufi musicians(recorded in the mid-1970s)
A Sufi melody with rhythmic drumbeat performed in the mode of nostalgia, bringing the past and present together in a timeless reverie
Homayun (improvisation, the scale of kings), written down in the 6th century during the last pre-Islamic dynasty of Persia,performed on the Persian santur (recorded in the late 1960s)
Persian classical music for santur (dulcimer) unfolds as the expression of a moment in time, or a state of being
Improvisation, Sufi "The cry from the depths of the soul," performed on the ney with accompaniment (drone), from Samarqand, 1999
A solo for the ney from Samarqand improvises on a Sufi theme, evoking the mystical feeling of this ancient land
Photographs of Iran and Afghanistan were taken in 1970 by Huntley Ingalls, whose work has been featured in The National Geographic. The 140 beautiful photos in the DVD are presented with camera movement and digitally edited to omit any traces of modern life. These sights--virtually unchanged since the time of the Silk Road--convey what it was like to be alive in this remarkable era.
