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