Sound the Trumpets Beat the Drums

Television (Full Length) – 1969

The late 60s saw globetrotting filmmaker Tony Williams shoot and edit two films for Iranian director Mahmoud Khosrowshahi. Here Williams chronicles an east meets west festival held in the Iranian city of Shiraz. Williams’ love affair with music and montage helps lend pace and life to a film whose sonic interests range from Iranian lutes and Indian oboes to American Cathy Berberian, who is busy turning comic strips into song. A glimpse of cosmopolitan Iran prior to the Iranian Revolution, it includes a rare interview with New Yorker classical music critic Andrew Porter.

The music doesn’t meet. It’s the people who meet, and their minds. The music itself doesn’t make any connection across.
– British music critic/festival attendee Andrew Porter