Musings on music
MANJARI SINHA
|
Artistes and scholars got together in Mumbai recently to discuss the meaning of improvisation.
|
ACROSS BARRIERS Sarod exponent Adrian McNeil
A three day symposium, `Improvisation in Music' organised jointly by the ITC Sangeet Research Academy (West), the Music Forum and the National Centre of Performing Arts (NCPA) brought together scholars, musicologists and musicians from across the world this past week at the NCPA, Mumbai. The keynote address was delivered by Frans de Ruiter, Principal, Royal Conservatoire, The Hague, and Dean, Faculty of Creative & Performing Arts, Leiden University, who maintained, "Composition and improvisation are not opponents. The phenomenon of a composition is relative, despite all admiration we can have for the genius of a composer.". He reiterated that good performers never play the readymade score, they always deviate from what has been notated, especially as far as tempo, metre and rhythm is concerned.
Ashok Ranade talked about improvisation in Indian cultural expressions, especially in music and theatre, making his point with examples by Shubha Mudgal's vocal, Anish Pradhan's tabla and Adrian's sarod playing in music, and Ila Bhat's vachika and angika abhinaya as theatrical expressions. Wim Van Der Meer, Associate Professor, University of Amsterdam, spoke about the interrelation between composing, interpreting and improvising while presenting his paper on `The Margins of Musical Creation'.
Joep Bor, Associate Professor of World Music from Rotterdam, cited Bharat, Matanga Muni and Sangita Ratnakar while speaking on `Improvisation in Melodic Instrumental Music'. Jose Luis Martinez from Brazil, a student of Ustad Fariduddin Dagar, spoke on `Musical Semiotics in Improvisation'.
Richard Widdess, Professor of Musicology, University of London, focused on the historical perspectives of improvisation and alap - the anibaddh sangeet (unconstrained music) - giving examples from the Brihaddeshi and the Buddhist Charyapada. Ritwik Sanyal, Reader, Banaras Hindu University, also a disciple of the late Ustad Zia Moiuddin Dagar, spoke at length on improvisation in the nibaddha sangeet, especially Dhrupad, with appropriate examples in his own authentic renderings with the tuneful background of an electronic tanpura. The session concluded with a panel discussion moderated by Arvind Parikh and Ashok Ranade with panelists like Dinkar Kaikini, Prabha Atre, Sudhir Mainkar and Phalguni Mitra from SRA Kolkata making relevant statements regarding improvisation in different genres of Hindustani music.
Across cultures
`Improvisation in Various Musical Cultures' was the topic of the next day's deliberations, where Mohsen Mohammadi from the University of Teheran, Iran, talked about improvisation in Persian music. Kifah Fakhouri, Secretary General, Arab Academy of Music, Jordan, spoke on elements of improvisation with reference to Arabic music. Ramon P. Santos, Director, Center for Ethnomusicology, University of Philippines, presented a paper, `Beyond Improvisation: Expressive - Creative Processes in Musical Traditions in Southern Philippines' along with video clips of quite a few musical instruments and music of his country. William Tanke of the Rotterdam Conservatory talked about improvisation in Western classical music, whereas Henri Tournier spoke of improvisation in contemporary Western Music.
`Boundaries and Freedom in Jazz Improvisation' was dealt with in detail by Aart van Bergen, the youngest panelist of the seminar. Adrien Mc Neil from Sydney spoke about how one can think across different musical cultural barriers in his paper `Improvisation in Cross-Cultural Context' emphasising on mixing of flavours of different kinds of music where the nuts and bolts of the difference fade away.
S.R. Janaki Raman and Chitraveena N. Ravikiran talked about improvisation in Carnatic music.
Arvind Parikh found the question `Can Improvisation be Taught' both intriguing and interesting. His candid lecture demonstration was appreciated by one and all. Stephen Slawek from the University of Texas at Austin, himself a disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar, also spoke on this topic with video clips to prove his point. Improvisation in action took place in the concluding session, when both the rhythmic and melodic aspects of improvisation were displayed by artistes like Yogesh Shamsi and Vijay Ghate on the tabla, Prakash Sejwal on the pakhawaj, Shridhar Parthsarathi on the mridangam, moderated by Pandit Suresh Talwalkar. There were also demonstrations by Sanjeev Abhayankar (Khayal), Falguni Mitra (Dhrupad), Brij Narayan (sarod) and Nayan Ghosh (sitar), moderated by Pandit Jasraj and Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. The artistes enchanted the audience with their imaginative improvisations.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Entertainment
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
