Transmutations

Last Friday night, as part of the Muslim Voices Festival,
the Persian classical singer Parissa gave ethereally powerful performances of mystical poems of Rumi, with accompaniment by the composer and
tar player Iman Vaziri and the tombak player Dara Afraz. Among the lines she sang were these: "How should I know how it all happened / Since how is drowned in the Howless?" The somber major-key melody with which she closed, a majestic slow march, rang in my ears all weekend.