In addition to his work as a composer, Mr. Winstin is the principal guest conductor and composer-in-residence of the Kiev Philharmonic, recording conductor of the Prague Radio Symphony, and music director and founder of the Millennium Symphony.

The Taliban Dances are extra-musical comments on society, war, and death. They are full of life, devastating in their sadness, surprisingly humorous, and starkly serious. They are both Eastern and Western; composed for violin and orchestra, The Taliban Dances are loosely based on several authentic Arabic scales and modal rhythmic structures, gradually replaced by traditional Western-style harmonies and rhythmic structures.

The work begins with a violin cadenza-a “Call for Prayer,” which is intended to be a ‘prayer’ for all nations, East and West. This cadenza, used as the opening for both the first movement and the finale, serves to unite the work.

The first movement, which represents hope and youthful love, sets the tone for the piece. This movement, the most “Arabic”-sounding of the five, leads to the first of the two haunting lullabies. In the lullabies, movements two and four, Winstin uses many of the same themes with different textures, consistently returning to a more grounded, rhythmic texture. (In the second of the two lullabies, movement four, the textures are more aggressive-literally a musical fight between two cultures.)

Sandwiched between the lullabies is the humorous “Baghdad Bossa Nova” (movement three), complete with an atonal dance section which owes its structure to the more famous Bossa Novas of the early ‘60s and ‘70s, and, indeed, parodies them. It is a poignantly humorous look at war, featuring a surprising descending slide whistle (”incoming!”) and the popping of balloons to signify the dropping of bombs. It is an artistic statement on the absurdity of war.

After the repeated “Call for Prayer,” the Taliban Dances end with a fiendishly difficult solo violin line which whirls its way-in ever-increasing tempi-towards the climax by way of a nursery rhyme, a cacophonous “Dies Irae” (‘Song of Death’) quote and “Dixie.”

Masterworks of the New Era is the 12th volume in the landmark, award-winning series devoted to the music of living composers worldwide. This four-CD set includes new music by Abbott, Bagdazian, Barmor Rose, Bilotta, Blumhofer, Brickman, Clark, Constantinides, Dal Porto, Evans, Field, Garber, Gottschalk, Guthrie, He, Jones, Korneitchouk, McMullin, Olac, Powers, Rudenstein, Sartor, Schroeter, Timpson, Stadig, Walczyk, Winsor, Worthington, and Wylegala.