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.