A visit to Halabja during his sojourn in the Kurdish town in Northern Iraq during the first week of July inspired him to compose the symphonic poem, Saket told the Persian service of ISNA on Friday. 

 

Saket and Iranian pianist Saman Ehteshami performed a duet in Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan on July 7.

 

The symphonic poem will be comprised of a combination of Iranian and Kurdish music scales. It will be an epic composition with a sad ambiance.

 

Saket plans to stage the symphonic poem with a large orchestra in Sulaymaniyah after it is completed.

 

Iraqi government forces used chemical weapons in an attack to Halabja on March 16, 1988, during the closing days of the Iran–Iraq war. The attack was part a campaign organized by Saddam Hussein’s regime in order to terrorize the Kurdish rural population and end the Kurdish rebellion in the region by brutal means.

 

The attack killed between 3200 and 5000 people, and injured around 7000 to 10,000 or more, most of them civilians.

 

Iranian musician Hushang Kamkar, who is also leader of the Iranian Kurdish ensemble Kamkars has previously highlighted the tragic incident in the Khorramshahr and Halabja Symphonic Poems album, which was released in Tehran in late September 2011.

 

MMS/YAW

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