Image by Sam White
Darius Paymai is an Iranian-American composer and performer based in London. His work is characterised by a clarity of approach and economy of material: often fragile, static, cyclical, found and reused in new contexts.
He is undertaking an Artist Master’s at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, learning with Laurence Crane, where he also studied at an undergraduate level with Paul Newland and Paul Whitmarsh.
As a composer he has worked with ensembles such as the London Chamber Orchestra, Plus-Minus Ensemble, Britten Sinfonia, EXAUDI, Quatuor Bozzini, and cellist Francesco Dillon, and his music performed at St. John’s Smith Square, The Place, Milton Court Concert Hall, and Hundred Years Gallery.
As a performer he is interested in approaching experimental repertoire, drone, and free improvisation, often with harmonium, percussion, or live electronics, as well as making and presenting independent radio shows.
His studies have been supported by the Guildhall School Trust.
He enjoys two-word piece titles and crossword puzzles.
link to recent interview
- love song 2024
- soprano, mezzo-soprano, countertenor, tenor, baritone, bass
- written for EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble
Programme note
I had wanted to work with the poetry of William Carlos Williams for some time, and found Love Song (1917) to resonate well with some of the musical ideas I had in mind for EXAUDI. Williams’ poem expresses an experience of love, with its coexistent hazy confusion and moments of clarity, filtered through his keen observational gaze upon the natural world, and is bookended by powerful addresses to the second person:
I lie here thinking of you:–
…
you far off there under
the wine-red selvage of the west!
I used some found musical material from J.S. Bach and Robert Schumann: stretching, repeating, and layering the melodies to examine relationships between them and between the six different voices.
Performances
13-05-2024: EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble cond. James Weeks, Milton Court Concert Hall (UK)
Text
LOVE SONG
I lie here thinking of you:—
the stain of love
is upon the world!
Yellow, yellow, yellow
it eats into the leaves,
smears with saffron
the horned branches that lean
heavily
against a smooth purple sky!
There is no light
only a honey-thick stain
that drips from leaf to leaf
and limb to limb
spoiling the colors
of the whole world—
you far off there under
the wine-red selvage of the west!
William Carlos Williams
Das alte Jahr vergangen ist;
Wir danken dir, Herr Jesu Christ,
Dass du uns in so groß Gefahr
Bewahrt hast lange Zeit und Jahr.
Samuel Scheidt