art by Nikki Duong https://www.instagram.com/nikkiduongart/

Topo

Piece for full orchestra. Composed in 2010, Performed by the Austin Symphony in spring of 2011.

Isolation (2010)

Piece for full orchestra. Composed in 2011, Performed by the Austin Symphony in Spring of 2012.

Bleak Dawn (2011)

NOW SLEEP (2024)

Composed and Produced by Behnam Arzaghi, February 2025, in collaboration with Alyssa Johnson and Paracosm Dance for Zach Young’s world premiere: An Exploration of Movement, Structure, and Integrated Design.

Levitations I takes its inspiration—perhaps uncharacteristically for me—directly from its title. In this case, levitations alludes to a violin lesson I once had with Arnold Steinhardt. He was already in his 70s at the time, and at one point, we took a break from the particulars of playing. (This was at the very end of my time pursuing violin professionally, so beyond the Bach Allemande I played for him, I hadn’t prepared much.)

I remember him talking about how the greatest violinists had such command and mastery of the instrument that, when you watched them play, it could appear as if they were levitating. But this was merely an illusion. He said that even the greatest players—"even Heifetz!" I remember him saying—must eventually come back down to Earth. Humbled by age, injury, or simply the impossibility of attaining perfection, it was bound to happen. And yet, he said, this was the ultimate work of any performer: to devote oneself to perpetuating the illusion of levitation for as long as possible.

So that became the theme of the piece: capturing the pursuit of craft, the ephemeral moment of levitation.

The piece opens with an inchoate soundscape. The elements of what’s to come—fragments of the primary bass line, sampled and distorted violin sounds—swim together in a disorganized, chaotic churn.

The main violin part represents the craftsman, entering with a bare three-note motif: a leap up, then a step down. The fragment repeats, much like a beginner trying to get it right. In the background, a chorus of strings responds in a layered, stochastic texture, demonstrating what the violin’s simple melody could become—much like a teacher might demonstrate for a student. Finally, the violin embarks on a full statement of the melody, stepping carefully through each note. As it gains footing, it begins to explore variations, floating over a slow-growing swell as the background strings permute and evolve.

The piece rises and falls at multiple levels of hierarchy: within the motif itself, within the main four-bar phrase (a stack of three motifs rising, then one falling), and within the larger structure—the first peak collapses into stillness before a second emergence. Cycles within cycles, waves within waves, yet never quite returning to the same place.

This becomes especially clear in the contrast between the two halves of the piece, split by a moment of silence at the six-minute mark. The second iteration lacks the tentativeness of the first. Like a seasoned craftsman recalling their once-beginner’s mind, the violin restates the motif—this time needing no invitation before launching into the main theme, moving through it with ease and freedom. Once again, the lines build, but just as the violin soars higher and the trajectory feels inevitably triumphant, the ground beneath it begins to collapse. The bass line begins a chromatic descent, pulling everything with it. The main line resists, climbing higher and holding on to its peak for as long as possible. But slowly, inevitably, it floats back down, eventually returning to the same shrouded soundscape from the very opening of the piece.

I added the "I" in "Levitations I" just because I think it's kind of funny and pretentious. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Levitations I (2025)

Written and performed by Behnam Arzaghi - August 2015
Produced by Joe Bowman

Unwind

Co-Writing & lyrics credit to Sadie DeCoste!

Freewheeling (ft. Sadie DeCoste)

This Is The Outro

Stride

Unfinished (Smth)

It's the big reveal
what we truly love
all we adhere to
what we hold dear

if the truth be spoken
you know what they'd say
you're a liar, and I'm a fool 
for ever thinking you'd changed

did it always have to be like this
when you don't know what my per diem is
until you're lonely in my dm's
don't need followers to follow my bliss

tell you know you ain't my only
got 'em lined up like the DMV
telling Gödel I'm completely
fine on my own, don't you believe me?

if the truth be spoken
you know what i'd say
i'm a liar, and a fool
for letting you get away

The Big Reveal

Be Fine

Lyrics:

wake up, light up, layup, layout
these are the days my friends warned me about
where summer's a savior but you smoke it away 
thinking you should be somewhere else

wake up, light up, layup, wait it out 
'till you feel like your former self
you've got nothing but time
to wake up, light up, layup, layout

wake up, light up, layup, layout
these are the we'll always dream about
spirited away, a strange zeitgeber of when we are

never wonder which way it goes
it's all perspective anyway
growing apart's a synonym
for growing closer to someone else

wake up, light up, layup, wait it out 
'till you feel like your former self
you've got nothing but time

Zeitgeber

Lyrics:

dead rosemary on the dashboard
I glow like a fairy but I sink when I'm bored
live fire burning in an ashtray
a trail of forgetting but my brain's still scorched

and I know what I asked for 
you deal with the devil as a last resort
told you the stories that I had to
a faked moonlanding on a beach resort

i don't need a fuck
i just need you in my arms
and i don't give a fuck
i would give you both my arms

Behnam

Pinned to spotlight

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