Ahmedabad (11th - 14th Jan): I attended the last three days of the Saptak festival (annual event showcasing new talent and guest stars in Indian Classical Music). I was particularly interested in the different vocal traditions on show in the evening concert including: Parveen Sultana (often referred to as the Queen of Classical Vocal and Hindustani Music) and Aishwarya Majumdar.
Another interesting concert included a 'Mohan Veena' (modified guitar used in Indian Classical music) performed by its inventor - Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. Seeing these performances provided my first experience of this listening to Indian Classical music within its home cultural context.
13th Jan: 2hr recording session with Rajeeb Charkraborty (Sarod) - this gave me an opportunity to collect sound materials for a new piece for Sarod and electronics. We talked about how the piece would be put together and performed. Rajeeb's raw sound material will be organised in Pro Tools and the electronic part (electroacoustic sound) will be placed around this as a tape part (triggered at points during the piece). Single sounds, motifs, rhythmic pattens and extended phrases were recorded for this purpose.
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| Rajeeb Charkraborty & sarod |
Delhi (14th -16th Jan): Visit to Gandharva Mahavidyalaya - a school for Indian music and dance - some music classes were briefly observed and a meeting with the principal, Madhup Mudgal enabled us to discuss teaching styles, the Milapfest/Liverpool Hope collaboration and the forthcoming educational website. This school had a wonderfully stocked library which I'm eager to return to. I really would like to get my hands on: B. Chaitanya Deva, Musical Instruments of India, Their History and Development:
A visit to the Sangeet Natak Akademi to view the extensive Museum and Gallery of Musical Instruments was an amazing discovery. The museum holds around 600 Indian musical instruments, 250 which are currently on display. This was a fascinating visit to be up close to many instruments I'd read about from afar. The collection of instruments is also documented in a hard-copy catalog (with photos) and a computer based archive classifying instruments on lines of 'membranophones, idiophones, aerophones and chordophones.
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| Instruments from the Sangeet Museum |
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| Catalog system of instruments at Sangeet Akademi |
Chennai (16th - 19th Jan) Alok and I met with Leela Samson (Bharatanatyam dancer who has recently been appointed by Liverpool Hope as a visiting lecturer within Dance). This was a great opportunity to discuss her intentions for her time at Hope starting in September 2013.
A recording session of three India folk percussion instruments (Pohl and two different Halgis) was an unexpected opportunity at Girish Gopalakrishnan's home studio - this opened up a discussion on how extensive the online sound archive should be - where do you draw the line in terms of the lesser known obscure instruments and those that exist more as historical artifacts, no longer in use? We have discussed the possibility of building this resource in phases so its development evolves over a longer time span to include as many as possible.
I was fortunate to visit A. R Rahman's sound studio in Chennai on my penultimate day in India. He is widely known for his film music and Oscar nominations, including the soundtrack to Slum dog Millionaire. It was great to see the amazing studio facilities, which are attached to a conservatory (KM Music Conservatory) set up by Rahman for music education/future musicians.
Overall the trip to India provided a great opportunity to discuss future plans for the Milapfest/Hope partnership and how the research project can move forward. On reflection the visit appears to be an important turning point in the AHRC project as my relationship and knowledge of Indian classical music culture has changed purely from visiting its country of origin. Its an interesting question if visiting a country (where one is borrowing from) is a necessary prerequisite for borrowing in the first place? The discussions with Alok Nayak on diaspora, the existence of a British Gharana and how he views respectful borrowing provided some the most stimulating conversations of the project so far including an 8-hour discussion while waiting for a plane to Delhi!
It was a fascinating experience to travel together, to be both an observer in your collection and research of Indian instrumental sounds, but also to work on our long-term collaboration for Indian Music education. The partnership has huge potential, and this research project is a significant part of it.
ReplyDeleteVisiting and researching institutions and musicians like this is far more than just a rich experience to set the context of your work; it felt even like a process of paying respects to, and appreciating a huge art form that we would like to teach, research and present further in England. My reflections on the journey will follow in detail soon!