A. Hossein

In the history of human culture, Persian artists and scientists have a great share. Aminollah Andre Hossein is one of these Persians.

Hossein was born in 1905 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan (then part of Soviet Union), in a rich family of Persian descent who had emigrated from Iran. The first pieces of music Aminollah heard were vocals of the Persian master singers his mother often played on gramophone.

Soon the family moved to Moscow, looking for better educational opportunities for young Aminollah. There they experienced the Bolshevik Revolution of Russia in 1917. Aminollah was sent to Germany to finish high school and enter the medicine school. But variabilis fortuna (=ever changing fortune, from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff) made the young music lover move to Paris to study music, although he took precious lessons in piano and composition from the great German musician Artur Schnabel during high school years. It seems his father, disappointed from having a physician in family, stopped financial support after that, because he often suffered financially after entering France. “After the world premiere of Symphony Persepolis which was highly appreciated by the French audiences, on my way walking home, I did not have a penny in my pocket to have supper,” told me the maestro years after that in 1977. Matter of factly, the only source of income for Aminollah was movie music. Later in 1970s he composed original music for almost all of the pictures his son Robert Hossein directed.

Hossein was the first Persian to graduate from Conservatoire de Paris. His music is full of Persian melodies. Despite the fact he lived in Iran not more than 7 days, he loved Iran, and Persian culture. He spoke Persian fair well, and wrote it perfect. He even used Persian tonalities in most of his works. Two great symphonies “Persepolis” and “Aria” are amongst the best in twentieth century. Orchestral works such as “Persian Miniatures” and “Sheherazade Suite” were composed in 1975, and were then combined and added to more orchestral pieces to form “Sheherazade Ballet”, later performed At Tehran Roudaki Hall in 1977, when he traveled to Iran for the first and last time.

Aminollah Hossein played the Persian instrument Tar professionally, and composed four short pieces for it; two “Persian Rhapsodies” for Tar and Tombak in Persian tonalities, “Zarathustra’s Prayers”, and “I Love You My Country” for solo Tar.

Hossein’s music for solo instruments other than Tar, is limited to short piano pieces based on the poems by Omar Khayyam. And of course three superb piano concertos are brilliant works for his main beloved instrument, piano, and orchestra. Most of Hossein’s works were recorded in 1970s by the best recording companies of the time such as Philips.

Aminollah Andre Hossein died in 1983 in Paris.