Khartals, Tampura and Violin & my forthcoming trip to India

Khartals

Tampura

violin

More images for the online sound archive.

Preparations for my India trip are going well (from 10th - 19th January 2013). A recording session with Dr Rajeeb Chakraborty has been arranged for 13th January to start work on the mixed work for Sarod and eletronics.  While in India I will be visiting three cities: Ahmedabad, Delhi and Chennai. I'm hoping to collect some further recordings along the way - I'm looking out specifically for Nadhaswaram, Thavil, Dilruba and Swarmandal.

New acousmatic piece - work in progress

I've uploaded a two-minute fragment from my new work Javaari (acousmatic, stereo). This extract is the final two minutes of the piece.

Programme note:
Javaari is the term given to the bridge of the sitar where the melodic and sympathetic strings run and create the sound. The bridge is made traditionally of Deer horn and is made in a certain shape, width, and length, while the surface is flat with slight semi-circle bend. It needs to be regularly sanded down to take away the mark of the strings after continuous use and to achieve the desired resonance and brightness. The term also refers to the unique buzzing tone produced by the sitar. This piece explores these fascinating timbres originating from this instrument and pays particular attention to the beautiful pitch bends that arch over and under like vocal melismas. The work is structured into four episodes, each exploring a different intensity of explicit cultural sound use – often the sitar material is in the fore and sometimes it recedes or pokes through intermittently.  
This acousmatic work is the first in a series of pieces composed in collaboration with Milapfest (The UK’s leading Indian Arts Charitable Trust) based at Liverpool Hope University. The yearlong project aims to examine the translation and transference of cultural sound to electroacoustic music and is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

Many thanks go to Roopa Panesar (Sitar), Kousic Sen (Tabla), Raaheel Husain (Sitar), Kiruthika Nadarajah (Violin), Senthan Nadarajah (Mridangam) Kaviraj Singh (Santoor), Upneet Singh (Tabla) and Rohan Kapadia (Tabla).

H.N Bhaskar on the violin - recording session

A demonstration of 'gamakas' on the violin (Southbank Centre, London with H.N. Bhaskar

Tarun Bhattacharya - Santoor modifications

Image update

Here is an update to the illustrations for the sound archive:

Swarmandal, mridangam, veena, harmonium, sarod, tabla, sitar, morsing, santoor and dilruba - Many more still to come!

Southbank Centre, London with Milapfest

Patri Satish Kumar

Milapfest's three day mini festival at London's Southbank Centre featured Alif Laila (sitar), Patri Satish Kumar (mridangam), H.N Bhaskar (Violin), Tarun Bhattacharya (santoor) and Kousic Sen (Tabla). 

I conducted some interviews and sound recordings from these world renowned artists. All of these artists have already contributed their sound material to the online educational resource site/sound archive - providing small sound clips representative of their unique playing styles.

With all these instruments I have been particularly attracted to the sounds of 'gamakas' (possible piece title...) - translated as 'ornamented notes' - on the sitar or veena these appears as vertical pulling gestures, while on the Indian violin this refers to the sliding between pitches. These oscillations also appear on the tabla and mridangam through subtle pitch bending. Gamakas appear to refer back to the vocal inflections and movements typical in Indian classical music.

More illustrations for web page (Sarod & Tabla)

Sarod

Tabla

web design with Splinter

First meeting with Splinter Web Design who will develop the online educational resource of Indian musical instruments.

The online resource will contain images of all the instruments I have recorded with pop-up windows for listening to instrument sounds, images of the performers, find out more links and historical/contextual info.

I've started work on the illustrations for the site - here is the first draft of the Veena - black and white now, but will be in colour soon!

And now with colour:

Susan Frykberg's radioshows

I thought I'd include the links to Susan Frykberg's two radioshows on electroacoustic composers influenced by world music:

Radioshow 1

featuring:
Iannis Xenakis - Orient-Occident
Robert Worby - Shanghai Lipper
Diana Salazar - Kalimba
Robert Sazdov - Tetovo

Radioshow 2

featuring:
Ian Whalley - Kasumi
Richard Scott - Resonating Bodies
Manuella Blackburn - Karita oto 
Alistair MacDonald - Strange Rainbow

    

Horniman Museum visit

The Music Gallery at the Horniman Museum, London, has interactive 'sound stations' which allow the viewer to select an instrument from the collection and hear a short sample. Some historical/background information is given about each instrument when listening to the instrument.

Instruments in the collection

It was interesting to come across the 'peacock dilruba fiddle', 'gajelu' anklet bells, 'pungi' double clarinet, 'ghanti' priest handbell, 'sarangi' bowed string instrument, 'kartal' concussion sticks and 'rasp' scraping stick.
From the Music Gallery Guide (Margaret Birley, Jarrold Publishing, 2009): "Musical instruments are both manifestations of material culture, and the tools for the creation of an intangible cultural herritage in sound. Cultural values are invested in musical instruments, and in the numerous systems that have been used to classify them."

Sound stations for viewing & hearing instruments

Classification terminology used: "Aerophones, idiophones, membranophones, chordophones, and electrophones"

Displays - Visit - Horniman Museum and Gardens

Displays - Visit - Horniman Museum and Gardens

Recording session: Tarang

Today I conducted a recording session with four members of the Tarang ensemble - the UK’s National Ensemble for Indian Music. All members of the ensemble are early-career musicians performing Hindustani (North Indian) or Carnatic (South Indian) music.

I was particularly keen to work with the two vocalists of the ensemble -  Raaheel Husain and Yarlinie Thanabalasingham as a means of capturning the differences between Carnatic and Hindustani vocal styles and techniques. A wide range of pitches, motifs, scales and fragments from pieces were recorded along with Q&A sessions with each performer. 

I was also able to record two veena performers from the ensemble - Shyla Shanmugalingam and Mithila Sarma. I was particularly drawn to the dramatic note 'pulling' on this instruments and the finger pick playing technique. 
Many thanks to the all the performers I worked with today for their beautiful playing and contributions to the project. 

Top: Tarang ensemble at the Bridgewater Hall (20th Oct 2012), bottom left: Yarlinie Thanabalasingham, bottom centre: Raaheel Husain, bottom right: Shyla Shanmugalingam

 

For those who would like to know more about my collaborative research project with Milapfest, I have included some of my AHRC application details below:

 

My project will address the current ‘Translating Cultures’ highlight notice by establishing a framework for understanding processes of musical exchange across cultural boundaries. In this case, the culture in translation is Indian music culture, but in practice the framework I am developing will be applicable to a wider range of multicultural situations. My research will focus on how Indian cultural sound emblems signify and communicate within the context of electroacoustic music composition. I define cultural sound emblems as units of audio information extracted from a cultural tradition different to my own, and distinct from what are to me, as a composer of electroacoustic music of British/Colombian extraction, more culturally familiar and abundant sound sources. 

 

Within the practice of electroacoustic music composition (using technology to explore, create and perform sounds not limited to traditional instrumental sources), and especially acousmatic music (music for loudspeakers where sound materials are invisible to the listener) recorded sound often provides the starting point for creative work. The choice of source material is seemingly as “wide as the environment itself” (Emmerson, 1986), but what are the ethical considerations here? Should we as composers assume unrestricted access and proprietary rights over this substantial resource?

Further to this starting point of inquiry, the following research questions require consideration 

•  Is the ‘open’ sound world of electroacoustic music really as wide open as we think (ie. are certain sounds ‘off-limits’ with respect to issues of cultural or social sensitivity?)
• What does it mean to borrow cultural sound emblems ‘respectfully’?
• How do electroacoustic compositional processes foster or obstruct the communication of culture through sonic means?
• How does the inclusion of cultural sound emblems impact upon multi-cultural audiences and how are these sounds interpreted?
• Do relationships with cultural sound change over time (ie. when do sounds stop being unfamiliar and exotic)? 

 

Shiraz and Prince Khurram

Yesterday evening I attended the screening of 'Shiraz' - a silent film from 1929. This emotional and sometimes heartbreaking film was accompanied by live music scored by Sarvar Sabri and performed by the Sabri ensemble. The themes of romance all lead toward the making of the Taj Mahal in India. The music was sympathetic to the visuals and I particularly enjoyed the more 'sound design' moments of the scoring eg. the bell clattering in the opening scenes as the camels and horses walk across the rubble and the trumpet fanfares (sounded by sax notes) that signaled the wedding of Salima and Prince Khurram.

Cultural Hybridity

I'm reading Peter Burke's book - Cultural Hybridity which gives a useful introduction to all aspects associated with this theme. 

I found some of the introductory quotes on hybridization thought provoking and applicable to my own practice:
"This process [hybridization] is particularly obvious in the domain of music... New technology - including, appropriately enough, the 'mixer' has obviously facilitated this kind of hybridization." (p3)

On the subject of hybrid texts, an analogy to borrowing cross-culturally can be found when considering the process of translation: "Equivalent effect [a term used in translation] involves the introduction of words and ideas that are familiar to the new readers but might not be intelligible in the culture in which the book was originally written... The domestication of a foreign work is poised between plagiarism and imitation." (p17) 

When discussing "hybrid people" (p3, p30) Burke identifies a non-coincidental trend of theorists of hybridity having a "double or mixed cultural identity." "Homi Bhabha for instance, in an Indian who has taught in England and now lives in the USA... Edward Said, a Palastinian who grew up in Egypt and taught in the USA, described himself as 'out of place' wherever he was located." (p3)
- "Their personal experience of life in different cultures, or living between different cultures, surely underlies their concern with questions of hybridity". (p4)

I guess I am ideally placed to begin this research...

Another wonderful Music for the Mind and Soul concert with Joydeep Ghosh (surshingar) and Kousic Sen (tabla).

It was great to experience the less well known and heard - 'surshingar' which sounded similar to the sarod in sound quality.

Jawaari

I've been looking into the term 'Jawaari' which refers both to the tone of the sitar and the bridge part of the instrument. I'm hoping to use this as the title for my new piece. Many thanks to Gaurav Mazumdar for helping me out with this info:

"The term 'Jawaari' or 'Javaari', refers to the bridge of the sitar where the melodic & sympathetic strings run and create the sound. The bridge is made traditionally of Deer Horn and is made in a certain shape, width, length & the surface is flat with slight semi-circle bend. It needs to be regularly sanded down to take away the mark of the strings after continuous and acheive the desired resonance and brightness" 

In some of my work so far on sitar sounds, I've been exploring some of the sonorities and subtleties from the instrument.  I have collected some prelimenary sound material from Roopa Panasar and I have started experimenting with enhancing the inherent pitch bends to bring out the quality and timbre of each gesture.

This initial work has taken place during my composition residency in Visby, Gotland at the Visby Centre for Composiers (VICC).

More information about the residency can be found here.

Quotes of interest...
 
"Let us define musical borrowing broadly as taking something from an existing piece of music and using it in a new piece." Peter Burkholder, 'The Uses of Existing Music', Music Library Association Notes, Vol.50 (3),  1994, p863.

"...by referring to other music, all types of borrowing force us to think of another piece of music while we encounter the one in front of us, giving works that use existing music a special place in a musical tradition that esteems both the distinctive contributions of each composer or improviser and the repetition of the familiar.” Peter Burkholder, 'The Uses of Existing Music', Music Library Association Notes, Vol.50 (3), 1994, p859.

Music for the Mind and Soul (June)

I attended Music for the Mind and Soul today at Liverpool Hope University, which showcased Hindustani vocal music and Kathak dance. The dancing by Saberi Misra was particularly impressive - I was particularly intrigued by the coordination and seemingly perfect synchronicity of the rhythmic footwork (using ankle bells) and the tabla playing. The sense of 'obsession' and persistence around a single musical motif/idea are attractive ideas to explore in my upcoming projects.

Saberi Misra

Visit the Milapfest website to see more about this and future concerts.

Arts and Humanities Research Council Fellowship for Dr Manuella Blackburn