There’s something deeply moving about this programme note for Pomegranates on My Altar by composer Noor Hingorani.
The piece is inspired by the Persian Sofreh wedding ceremony – an altar adorned with symbolic gifts: honey, eggs, nuts, grass and pomegranates representing sweetness, fertility, wisdom, vitality, joy, passion and strength in love.
Mirrors and candles are traditionally placed at the head of the spread: the mirror symbolising eternity, the candles representing light and clarity in the couple’s future together – though this beautiful symbolism is absent from Hingorani’s own note.
“The title ‘Pomegranates on My Altar’ is a word-play on a traditional Persian wedding function, the Sofreh. A traditional Sofreh is where the bride and groom formally tie the knot, and is a ceremony taking place before a wedding altar adorned with different symbolic gifts for the newlyweds.
A pot of honey for sweetness and joy, a basket of decorated eggs for fertility and new beginnings, a jar of sweetened nuts to symbolise wisdom, safety and security, and a patch of grass to symbolise health and vitality.Pomegranates are placed on the table to represent the joy, passion, and strength in the couple’s bond.
I find this ceremony incredibly poetic and wanted to use the idea of placing different items on a table musically; by placing different little sections of music together in one bigger piece.
With this piece I hope to have depicted the process of meeting one’s other half, falling in love, discovering the fire within each other and slowly entering into a more stable and lifelong period of unity in heart and soul.”
Near the end of the Sofreh ceremony, the newly-weds dip their little fingers into honey and feed it to one another – symbolising sweetness and intimacy in the life they are about to share.
What I love most is the idea of music itself becoming ceremonial: small musical offerings placed carefully beside one another, gradually forming an emotional tapestry.
A rather lovely thought:
that love is not one overwhelming event, but the slow accumulation of tenderness, memory, passion and companionship.
Pomegranates on My Altar by Noor Hingorani will be performed by Federico Pendenza (guitar) on Saturday 5th June at 1.00pm.
Further details and tickets: Late Music Concerts
Steve Crowther publishes essays on music, politics and culture at
An Outsider’s Perspective
https://clueless13.substack.com