Iran honors film score composer Farhat

Iranian Artists Forum has honored Iranian film score composer Hormoz Farhat.

Farhat, most famous for theme music for director Dariush Mehrjoui’s 1969 cult film 'The Cow', was honored during a ceremony on Tuesday.

Once the dean of the Music Faculty of the University of Tehran, Farhat attended the ceremony where maestros Loris Tjeknavorian and Houshang Kamkar delivered speeches.

Tjeknavorian said those who follow music in the country have organized the gathering.

Kamkar called Farhat an honorable musician who has trained many great students.

Hormoz's cousin, famous Iranian composer Shahin Farhat said, “He still needs to write more. He owes a lot to Iran’s music. His works are unforgettable.”

For his part, Hormoz, 90, expressed great thanks to the organizers and also musician Amir-Mahyar Tafreshipour for the help and words of encouragement he gave to convince him to return home after all these years.

“After all these years I have enjoyed and received positive energy from every single thing here except the traffic jams of Tehran,” he said.

He added music has made good progress in the country and that people must learn that music is an important art.

“However, the art will find its high status when we can create a new school in Iranian music,” Farhat noted.

He collaborated with Mehrjoui in 'Cow', winner of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) award at the Venice Film Festival in 1971. It was the first award that Iranian cinema received in an international event.

Farhat has studied music at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Mills College, California, graduating with the degrees of BA in music, and MA and PhD in composition and ethnomusicology.

After holding a number of academic music posts in the US and Iran, he took up the post of professor of music at Trinity College Dublin in 1982 until his retirement in 1995.

As a composer, he has written a sizeable body of works including concertos for piano, flute and clarinet, six string quartets and numerous chamber works.

MG/MMF