I heard about this artist in residence at IIT who was a classical Indian singer. She gave a series of performances but I only found out about her when she had one performance left. I wanted to go and find out more about Indian classical music. So I went to her last performance. I stayed for about 1 hr and 15 minutes, then I had to leave. I know I hear some westerners say they don't understand Western classical music and they often say that it sounds all the same. Of course I completely disagree with that and it makes me so sad to even hear it! I don't understand how people can't see the exquisite beauty and numerous differences. I know that I have been trained my whole life to appreciate Classical music and to hear and know the intricacies of it. So it is hard for me to admit that the Indian Classical music, at this perfromance at least, sounded all the same to me. I am sure that someone who is familiar with it could tell the subtle differences throughout, but I could not,well, besides it getting faster at the end. It is interesting and intruiging to me though because I have heard that this type of music is just passed down by ear and not written down. So I have to think that it has had changes over the many years. And I also wonder how it got started, it is so different! Here is a sample of what it was like - imagine this for over an hour. This was the big climax so it was a little more interesting, but the previous hour was similar, just a bit slower. It was so loud and the b-flat drone never stopped the entire time, so after 1 hr and 15 minutes... I was done. Something interesting was how the Indians play the violin (see video). I'm going to practice this technique and give a presentation (Kevin will sing..hehe)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 HOUR and 15 MINUTES!!!? How? That 52 seconds drove me nuts
ReplyDeleteHi Amy
ReplyDeleteI am an Indian from Aust. Love your courage. and have read other posts on your blog. Interestingly, India can have different effects on different people and being Indian and almost always nostalgic about home I found your blog interesting. Use the following rules in India :
1. fix a taxi driver or auto driver for an entire week, ask him to come to the hotel room every morning 8.00am and be available until what ever time. you can alter these timings to suit you. Pay him a lump sum for this. If you hire a taxi the average rate for long trips is no more than say 20 rupees per kilometre. So go in taxi/car every where..dont use bus trips. Alternatively go by trains..make sure taxi driver has interstate permits if you are going interstate..
Buy yourself a cotton salwar kameez.. most are thin and allow in lot of cool air.. and are easy to wash and no they will still stare at you but not as much !!
Get some silk shirts tailored. Give the tailor one cotton shirt and ask him to make it for these exact measurements.. they are cheap.
Make local friends who are educated middle class Indian.. most will be happy to help you. if you play the violin one way of making friends is to contact local music and art centres --- Try and eat freshly cooked food that is 'hot to touch' you will never fall sick. An empty restaurant has no customers and his food may be stage.. dont eat there even if its 5 star. Eat in middle tier restaurants where food is inexpensive and there is a lot of traffic of people .. Drink water from sealed bottles. Hope this helps. PS Listen to Kala Ramnath on www.last.fm she is a well known violinist in India. Sumi
That was fascinating. It makes me want to learn more about their musical heritage, etc. The culture is just so utterly different! And I thought that the Russians were different. But then I think Shostakovitch and Tchaikovsky, etc and from a musical perspective they are definitely western civilization.
ReplyDeleteI just really can't even wrap my head around the possibility of thinking that western classical music all sounds the same! I mean, it doesn't have the same exact note playing the whole time in the background and perhaps I would just need to spend my life listening to it to appreciate the nuances like they do.
I think more than anything it indicates that anything that is really foreign or different seems all the same because it just can't be processed. When exposed to lots of it, then the brain learns to differentiate.
It is like with different ethnicities. I can see all sorts of variation in white people when I look at their faces, all seem very unique. But that's because I grew up around them. Other ethnicities I sometimes have a hard time seeing the differences in their faces, until I get to know a few of them, then it is so easy to tell them apart, when they looked the same to be at the beginning! Just another example of the same phenomenon I guess.