SIMORQ (Introduction) by Hamid Motebassem

Hamid Motebassem

Hamid Motebassem was born in 1958 in Mashad, Iran. He was raised in a musical family, where his brother was a violinist and his first teacher was his father, Ali Motebassem who played the Tar.

Motebassem studied in the Tehran School of Art and the Conservatory of Persian Music. He was a member of the Chavosh Cultural Center where he taught music. One of the original members of Aref Ensemble, he founded Dastan Ensemble as well as Ensemble Chakavak upon immigration to Germany in 1986.

Hamid Motebassem is the founder of the Society of Tar and Setar and has since 1994 organized annual seminars dedicated to the two instruments. He has performed on numerous albums of contemporary Iranian composers. His own works include compositions for traditional instruments, the recordings Bamdad; The Scent of Norooz; The Song of the Sea; Saz-e No, Avaz-e No, Dastan Trio; Dastan Duet; Hanaie and Shurideh, which won the title“Musical Shock“ in the music journal, Le Monde and received the 2003 Best Music of the Year Award from the French Ministry of Culture. (From Motebassem's website)

Simurgh (Persian: سیمرغ), also spelled simorgh, simurg, simoorg or simourv, also known as Angha (Persian: عنقا), is the modern Persian name for a benevolent, mythical flying creature. The figure can be found in all periods of Greater Iranian art and literature, and is evident also in the historical places of medieval Azerbaijan, the Byzantine empire, and other regions that were within the sphere of Persian cultural influence. (The silk textile representation is probably a senmurv, (a dog-headed barking eagle), not a simurgh but another Persian mythological creature.

The name simurgh derives from Middle Persian Pahlavi sēnmurw (and earlier sēnmuruγ), also attested in Middle Persian Pāzand as sīna-mrū. The Middle Persian term derives in turn from Avestan mərəγō Saēnō "the bird Saēna", originally a raptor, likely an eagle, falcon or sparrowhawk, as can be deduced from the etymological cognate Sanskrit śyenaḥ "raptor, eagle, bird of prey" that also appears as a divine figure. Saēna is also a personal name which is root of the name. (From Wikipedia)