Music · Painting · Poetry

A. Papelli

One idea, many voices, no hierarchy.

A flower has no petal in charge of the others. A forest has no tree conducting the rest. Multi-Verse Polyphony is a single practice in which music, painting and poetry grow side by side, each voice free, together making one whole.

Paintings Scores Music Poetry Sculpture & architecture Writing

Oil painting of two great orange and magenta blossoms stacked vertically around a glowing golden sphere, surrounded by swans, doves, hummingbirds, a giraffe and a snow leopard in dark textured foliage — *Golden Bloom en Eclipse* · oil and natural pigments on canvas · 150 × 100 cm · 2024–, in progress

The ideaMulti-Verse PolyphonyHow many free voices can grow into one whole. WorksPaintings, scores, music, poetryOne practice in many materials, from oil and ink to wood and carved plaster. CurrentlyAn evening in Edinburgh, 2027Music, painting and poetry in one room.

The idea

Multi-Verse Polyphony

Multi-Verse Polyphony grew from more than fifteen years in which the studio became a laboratory: testing sound, experimenting across many mediums, and observing nature, life, and the ways individuals live and relate to one another within a society.

It began with a question. How could each voice in an ensemble, like each person in a society, be as free and independent as every other? The difficulty lies at the very beginning. The moment a first sound is heard, it becomes memory, and every sound that follows either moves towards it or deliberately escapes it.

Where a Bach fugue plants one seed and follows its growth through time, Multi-Verse Polyphony plants many seeds at once. Each grows on its own terms, intuitively, until their interweaving becomes the piece, the way petals form a flower without any one petal governing the rest. In the orchestra, no instrument carries “the melody” while others accompany. Each is a complete voice within a circle.

The same logic now moves between disciplines. The paintings are not illustrations of the music, and the poetry is not a caption for the paintings. They are the same idea, in different materials.

Art and ritual were never separate. Painting on cave walls, music and dance around a fire were once one shared act of praising life.

Circular and linear scores displayed on a stand in a gallery, with large colourful paintings on the walls behind — Scores and paintings shown together

Functional circles

Scores that are played

The circular notations are not decoration. The rings govern tempo, dynamics and structure, and in some works musicians read the painted image inside the circle as part of the instruction.

Five voices, one score

An ensemble without a leader

At ORi Gallery, Berlin, in 2018, a single solo circular score was read at once by piano, clarinet, two sopranos and cello, who built an ensemble piece together in real time.

Art as ritual

One room, every art

Paintings on the walls, music in the space, poetry spoken aloud: the work is meant to be gathered around, the way the earliest art was.

One practice, four fields

From resonance to life

There is no strict border between the art forms, only a fluid line where one becomes the next. Everything begins with resonance. As at the birth of the universe, sound comes first; then, like gases expanding after the Big Bang, it spreads and flows; then it gathers into forms, as the planets did; the earth takes shape, and living beings begin their journey. The four fields follow this evolutionary pattern of life, and each carries the name of music.

MusicMusica MusicaliaThe ResonanceThe beginning: sound as the first event, from which everything unfolds. Painting and colourMusica ColouraturaSacred GeometryPainting, and the fluid line between music and colour, like gases expanding and swirling. Sculpture and architectureMusica ArchitecturaSpatial Spectrum GeometrySculpture and architecture: forms taking shape as planets do, and the building of the earth. Poetry and literatureMusica LiteraturaThe PoetryPoetry, and from it theatre and later cinema: living beings beginning their journey.

Roots, East and West

Rethinking the foundations of two classical traditions

Multi-Verse Polyphony returns to the fundamental principles of both Western and Eastern classical music, art and philosophy, and rethinks them together.

From the West

The tradition of temperament; harmony and counterpoint; orchestration and notation.

From the East

The tradition of improvisation; the dastgāh and maqām, and their interpretation of musical cycles.

Across the arts

Persian and English classical poetry; orchestration in syllables; the classical vision of perspective, seen in three or more dimensions; the essential principles of psychology.

Circular diagram titled The Universe Bud, Theory of Existence: music at the centre, surrounded by rings for painting, sculpture, architecture, theatre, literature and cinema, set between the words Silence and Chaos — The Universe Bud: Theory of Existence

Why “multi-verse”

Many worlds, sounding at once

In Matryoshka, the idea reaches its fullest form. The music moves fluidly from one tonality and scale into another, a slow metamorphosis, until many tonalities are sounding together at the same time.

Heard in the traditional way, that would be a clash. Here it isn’t: each sound does what it does, none harms the others, and together they make a larger whole, like parallel universes held within one universe. Tonality, like hierarchy, stops being a rule.

The scales and tonalities come from East and West at once, the music of Orient and Occident sounding together. What results belongs to neither: not Eastern music, not Western music, but a new sound.

The Universe Bud maps the same thinking across every art: music at the centre, then painting, sculpture, architecture, theatre, literature and cinema unfolding outwards like petals, held between silence and chaos. Read from the centre outwards, it tells the same story as the universe: resonance, expansion, form, earth, life.

The theory is being written out in the essay Vivid: Theory of Multi-Verse Polyphony, Coloratura Evolution.

Works

Many voices, one practice

Musica Colouratura · Sacred Geometry

Oil paintings built slowly, often over months or a year: dark, textured undergrowth giving way to a luminous centre, with small treasures hidden for those who keep looking.

Oil painting of a vast amber and coral peony glowing against a pale green ground, with a bird at its heart

Roseanne: framed painting in greens of a mythic white horse with a golden spiral sun

The Sacrifice: oil painting of a magenta peony beneath a great golden light, a bird flying into the light above

Bright yellow oil painting with a peacock, trees and flowing figures around a glowing sphere

Fish Also Fly: dark, richly textured painting of roses in deep blues and pinks, with a full moon reflected in a pond

Oil painting of a rose-pink peony with a small blue drop at its heart

Portrait among purple flowers set within a larger bright yellow painting

Musica Musicalia · The Resonance

Circular notation appears across the music, from solo pieces to full orchestra, where circular staves sit inside a conventional score and each circle names the instruments that read it.

Dense black ink drawing on red paper of nesting vessels holding figures, flowers, animals and hundreds of butterflies — Cover drawing for *Matryoshka* · ink and gold leaf on red paper

Detail: a bowl filled with long-haired figures and butterflies — Cover drawing for *Matryoshka* · ink and gold leaf on red paper

Featured work · awaiting premiere

Matryoshka, for orchestra

Like nesting dolls, one world held inside another. Matryoshka is where Multi-Verse Polyphony reaches its peak: the music moves through a metamorphosis of tonalities and scales until many of them sound at once, not in conflict but as one larger whole.

One of the central works of the practice, still awaiting its premiere in the setting it was conceived for.

Book I · 2011–2015

Tutankhaten

Named after the original name of the young pharaoh later known as Tutankhamun, and the painted chamber that held him. The studio became that chamber: a temple, a chapel, a cave, with paintings on its walls and music sounding inside it. This is where Multi-Verse Polyphony was born, together with the first visual scores.

Mass, in three movementsAriana · Anatolia · Scotia (completed early 2015)

AnatoliaSecond movement of the Mass · orchestra, organ and voices · 2015 · awaiting premiere · eleven sections, among them Orpheus, Aphrodite, Rigveda, Nivera

ScotiaThird movement of the Mass · dedicated to the people of Scotland · early 2015, the last piece of Book I

String Quartet No. 1With visual elements · includes I. “Alma Redemptoris Mater” (Gildas Quartet) and III. “The Nest” (Diotima Quartet)

CantatasSome with visual elements

Book II · 2015 onwards

Musica Musicalia

also called Tales of the 1001 Nights

Its second name, Tales of the 1001 Nights, looks to the East; Musica Musicalia belongs to everyone, as the word music does. A life’s project, planned to unfold over some thirty-three years. Composed tale by tale, often one page at a time, in circular notation; since 2022 it has grown to hold the paintings and poetry too.

MatryoshkaOrchestra · the thousand-and-first tale · awaiting premiere

Peach OrchardsConcerto for chamber orchestra with piano, Tales Nos. 333–335 · Edinburgh Contemporary Ensemble, Dialogues Festival 2020

Silhouette en Whirling WillowFor cello and piano · Tale No. 354 · 2022–23 · PN Ensemble, directed by Ioannis Panagiotou; Anoukia Nistor, cello, and Oskar Jones, piano · premiered spring 2023

LucineFor chamber orchestra · Edinburgh Contemporary Ensemble, Dialogues Festival 2019

Highland Rhapsodies No. 1, “Valiha”For chamber orchestra · commissioned and premiered by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, 2018

Sonata for Piano No. 1, Passio: The 11th NightLliam Paterson, piano · 2019

String Quartet No. 2Second movement for piano and string quartet · premiere planned, Edinburgh 2027

The talesShort works in circular notation, among them Ayr Suite, Tale 19th

Eight tall volumes bound in red and gold-tooled covers, each spine titled Musica Musicalia, two also labelled Tales of 1001 Nights and one labelled 2015–18 — The volumes of *Musica Musicalia*, Book II, also called *Tales of the 1001 Nights*

Performed by

Scottish Chamber OrchestraScotland

Red Note EnsembleScotland

Diotima QuartetFrance

Edinburgh QuartetScotland

Gildas QuartetUnited Kingdom

Projects

Current and past

Edinburgh · 2027 · in development

An evening of music, painting and poetry

A single evening that brings the whole practice into one room: an exhibition of paintings and illuminated scores, live chamber music by musicians from across Europe, and poetry in English and Persian. The performance will be recorded and filmed.

IString Quartet No. 2, first movement
IIBeethoven, Für Elise
IIIArvo Pärt, Für Alina
IVString Quartet No. 2, second movement, for piano and string quartet: premiere

A circular score beside the drawing it is nested in

In progress

Musica Musicalia

Also called Tales of the 1001 Nights. Book II of a life’s work, begun in 2015 and planned to span some thirty-three years, across music, illuminated notation, painting and poetry.

Premiere · 2023

Silhouette en Whirling Willow

For cello and piano, Tale No. 354 of Musica Musicalia. PN Ensemble, directed by Ioannis Panagiotou; Anoukia Nistor, cello, and Oskar Jones, piano. Edinburgh College of Art.

Premiere · 2020

Peach Orchards

Concerto for chamber orchestra, Edinburgh Contemporary Ensemble directed by Peter Nelson. Dialogues Festival, Reid Concert Hall.

Solo exhibition · 2019

Impregnant Trees: Birth of Yalda

Matthew Gallery, Edinburgh, supported by Edinburgh College of Art and Talbot Rice Gallery. Paintings sold, followed by commissions for large-scale canvases.

Premiere · 2019

Sonata for Piano No. 1

Passio: The 11th Night, Lliam Paterson, piano. Reid Concert Hall, Edinburgh.

Solo concert and exhibition · 2018

ORi Gallery, Berlin

An evening of music and paintings with the Siyalan Ensemble, including five performers reading one circular score.

Premiere · 2019

Lucine

For chamber orchestra, Edinburgh Contemporary Ensemble. Dialogues Festival, Reid Concert Hall.

Commission and premiere · 2018

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Highland Rhapsodies No. 1, “Valiha”. Reid Concert Hall, Edinburgh.

Group exhibition · 2010

Niavaran Palace Gallery, Tehran

Painting.

About

Arvin Hosseini Kamal

A. Papelli is the artistic name of Arvin Hosseini Kamal, a composer, painter and poet based in Edinburgh, whose work moves between music, painting and poetry as one practice.

He studied classical music performance at Tehran University of Art, and during those years with the late Hamed Mohajer, in the philosophy of music, aesthetics and theory, and with Sharif Lotfi, in music theory and the analysis of performance and creativity: two formative influences on his path as a composer. He went on to a Master of Music in Studio Composition at Goldsmiths, University of London, then an MPhil and a PhD in Musical Composition at Edinburgh College of Art, supervised by Professor Peter Nelson, who worked with György Ligeti and Iannis Xenakis. His doctoral research, rooted in the philosophy of music, followed three strands: tuning and temperament, the invention of visual notation, and the music of Orient and Occident.

His music has been performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Red Note Ensemble, and the Diotima, Edinburgh and Gildas Quartets. A self-taught painter for more than thirty years, he has exhibited at Niavaran Palace Gallery in Tehran, presented a solo evening of music and painting at ORi Gallery in Berlin, and held a solo exhibition at Matthew Gallery in Edinburgh. His manuscripts and doctoral thesis are preserved in the archive of the Arvo Pärt Centre in Estonia. In 2019 he received the University of Edinburgh’s ECAT Composition Prize, and he holds Global Talent endorsement from Arts Council England.

Portrait with a flower drawing · double exposure

Based in: Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Education: PhD in Musical Composition, Edinburgh College of Art
MPhil in Musical Composition, Edinburgh College of Art
MMus in Studio Composition, Goldsmiths, University of London
BA in Classical Music Performance, Tehran University of Art
Recognition: ECAT Composition Prize, University of Edinburgh, 2019
Global Talent (Exceptional Promise), Arts Council England, 2020
Arvo Pärt Centre archive, Estonia
Languages: Persian, English, Turkish, Arabic

On the name

The butterfly and the flame

In the north of Iran, papelli means butterfly, a close cousin of the French papillon. The name follows a long tradition in Persian poetry, where poets take a chosen name joined to the first letter of their own: Ahmad Shamlu wrote as A. Bamdad, “A. Morning.” In the same way, the A is for Arvin, and Papelli is the butterfly.

In Persian poetry the butterfly is drawn to the candle’s flame, circling ever closer until it enters the light and becomes one with it. That image sits at the heart of this work: many voices drawn towards a single source of light, and art as an act of love for life and beauty.

Contact

Enquiries, commissions, collaborations

For available works, performances of the music, exhibitions, or collaborations, please get in touch.

studio@arvinpapelli.com

Instagram

@_prehnitephilharmonia_

Studio

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

A. Papelli

Multi-Verse Polyphony

Scores that are played

An ensemble without a leader

One room, every art

From resonance to life

Rethinking the foundations of two classical traditions

Many worlds, sounding at once

Many voices, one practice

Matryoshka, for orchestra

Tutankhaten

Musica Musicalia

The Flying Carpet

Untitled

Vivid: Theory of Multi-Verse Polyphony

Tuning & Temperament

Geometry before sound

Current and past

An evening of music, painting and poetry

Musica Musicalia

Silhouette en Whirling Willow

Peach Orchards

Impregnant Trees: Birth of Yalda

Sonata for Piano No. 1

ORi Gallery, Berlin

Lucine

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Niavaran Palace Gallery, Tehran

Arvin Hosseini Kamal

The butterfly and the flame

Enquiries, commissions, collaborations