Composed for, dedicated to, and pefomed by: Galan Trio
Petros Bouras - Piano
Babis Karasavvidis - Violin
Marina Kolovou - Cello
Studio recording (2023)
Athens, Greece
The eighth piece in the series of ongoing chamber compositions for various ensembles (begun 2014), Tuning Exercise No. 8 is composed for and dedicated to Galan Trio. It is the composer’s homage to two of his favorite rock bands and their songs, “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” by Pink Floyd and “Aqualung” by Jethro Tull. Tuning Exercise No. 8 uses transformed themes from these two works combined with quarter-tone scordatura for the strings, as well as diverse strings extended timbral techniques and flageolet tones. The extended timbral techniques appear only in the improvisational ad lib. violin and cello sections in the introduction and coda of the piece, while the structure of the piano part remains relatively traditional throughout.

Tuning Exercise No. 8 (2022) - trio for violin, cello, and piano - Galan Trio

Nearly all of Navid Bargrizan’s compositions explore intonational and tuning concepts. Since 2014, his experiments with microtonality have resulted in ca. 20 premieres and more than 70 performances of his works in the Europe and North America, for instance at New York City Electroacoustic Festival, Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium, Eastern Music Festival, Florida Contemporary Festival, North American Saxophone Alliance, and Conferences of the Society of Composers, Inc., as well as in Lübeck, Salzburg, and Copenhagen. Virtuoso musicians and ensembles such as Galan Trio, Boston String Quartet, Bold City Contemporary Ensemble, Manfred Stahnke, Katharina Uhde, Susan Fancher, Steve Stusek, and Jonas Frølund have performed and recorded his works. For his woodwind quintet Tuning Exercise No. 1, Navid was a finalist in the 2017 American Prize for Composition. Same prize also selected him as a finalist for Se-Chahar-Gah, his piece for solo microtonal adjustable guitar in its 2020 edition, as well as for his solo viola piece Kupferteich in 2023. As a 2018 Composer-in-Residence of Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, Florida, he composed a saxophone piece based on Japanese artworks by Watanabe Schötei from the Harn’s collection. Saxophonist and Multimedia Artist Laurent Estoppey premiered and recorded this work, entitled Pictures at the Micro-Exhibition. Navid’s 10 Aphorisms for saxophone duo (recorded by Stacks Duo) and Se-Chahar-Gah for microtonal guitar (recorded by Tolgahan Cogulu) have appeared on Figments vol. II: Contemporary Solo and Chamber Ensemble Works (Navona, 2019). Lava Ilogica, his fixed-media composition based on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, is released on Mind & Machine vol. III: Organic and Electronic Works (Ravello, 2020). In 2021, Mahour Institute  released a collection of Navid’s music titled Six Chamber Pieces, and Edition Zalzal published his scores. 

Navid’s research on the music of Harry Partch, Manfred Stahnke, Roger Waters, and Mozart has led to several published articles, book chapter, reviews, and proceeding papers (see https://www.navidbargrizan.com/). He has presented aspects of his research projects—supported by awards such as three DAAD Scholarships and Doctoral Fellowship of the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere of the University of Florida—at approximately 40 international conferences in the North America and Europe. Navid worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Composition, as well as Adjunct Lecturer of General Humanities and German Language, at the University of Florida. At this institution and Universität Hamburg, Germany, he earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Music History and Literature; Music Composition, Theory and Technology; Systematic Musicology; and Art History. Navid served as an Adjunct Professor of Music (Theory/History) at Texas A&M University-Commerce and Instructor of German Language at Dallas Goethe Center. From 2021 to 2023, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Composition, Musicianship, and Music History at Valparaiso University, where he directed the New Music Ensemble, collaborated with the Laptop Ensemble, led the Electronic Music Lab, and coordinated the music composition program. Navid is currently an Assistant Professor of Musicology at East Carolina University.