André Hossein

French Composer Of Persian Origins B. 1905 In Samarkand D. 1983 In Paris . His Father Was A Rich Merchant And His Mother Initiated Him In-To Music. He Was Studying In Moscow When The 1917 Revolution Occurred. He Then Left For Germany And Continued His Studies There Where His Father Wanted Him To Do Medicine. Simultaneously However He Studied Music At The Stuttgart Conservatory And Later In Tübingen And Berlin Where He Studied Piano With Arthur Schnabel And Composition With W. Klatt. He Settled In France In 1927 And Entered The Paris Conservatory Where He Studied Composition And Orchestration With Paul Vidal Mahámud Pp. 386-90 Akbarza@deh P. 64 .
As A Composer Hossein Was Much Inspired By Traditional Persian Music And Most Of His Works Demonstrate This Intellectual Preoccupation. He Knew The Ta@r Very Well And Could Be Considered One Of The Great Ta@r Players Of His Time. He Began Playing This Instrument Ancestor To Most String Instruments As A Child And Later Composed Several Works For It. He Was A Fairly Prolific Composer And Was Generally Acclaimed By The Critics. He Also Composed Some Twenty Film Scores Mostly For Films Directed By His Son Robert Hossein The French Actor And Director.
His Orchestrated Works Include Symphonie Des Sables 1946 Symphonie Persepolis 1947 Symphonie Arya 1976 And Three Concertos For The Piano No. 1 "Capriccio " 1946 No. 2 1946 And No. 3 "quasi Una Fantasia" . His Works For The Ballet Were Vers La Lumieàre 1935 Miniatures Iraniennes 1975 Sheherezade 1975 Danse D'Esmeralda 1980 And Vacances Sur Glace 1982 Which Must Have Been His Last Published Work. Hossein Also Composed A Number Of Piano Pieces Many Of Them Named After Persian Themes And Several Songs Baker And N. Slonimsky Akbarza@deh P. 64 .
As A Composer Trying To Find Expression In Western Music For Ideas Derived From Persian Impressions Hossein Must Be Considered As One Of The Pioneers Whose Music Was By And Large Well Received. Others Both Before And After Hossein Have Tried To Make Use Of Persian Melodies In Classical Music But None Received As Large An Audience As He Did. He Never Attained The Depth Or Breadth Of Contemporaries Such As Bartok And Shostakovich To Name Only Two In Exploring The Possibilities Of Folkloric Music And Themes But So Far As Persian Music Is Concerned There Has Been No Real Successor To Hossein In The West. read less