Virasat 2023 Indian Arts Connection featuring Pandit Kushal Das and Pandit Sanju Sahai St Mark's Unitarian Church Edinburgh 26th March 2023 Review
Virasat 2023 featuring Pandit Kushal Das and Pandit Sanju Sahai presented by Indian Arts Connection at St. Mark’s Unitarian Church, Castle Terrace Edinburgh this evening was, as the title of the programme said, a chance to celebrate the heritage of one of the oldest and most diverse and influential music, dance and cultural legacies of all forms – Indian Classical music with two highly regarded musicians.
I have to admit that whenever I review a concert for Indian Cultural Heritage that I am, for the most part out of my normal musical spheres as gone are so many of the references that are so familiar to me. Yes, I know what the main instruments are, I am familiar with some of the biggest stars of Indian music such as Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka, and like many people, I know mostly the sound of a sitar (and other Indian instruments) through the music of George Harrison and The Beatles for popularising them in the 1960s. The music performed today is however from western musicians adapting instruments and sounds to fit their music, this was a concert performance of traditional Indian Classical music in its true and original form.
Performing the music for this concert, Pandit Kushal Das, internationally acclaimed ‘Sitar and Surbahar (sometimes known as a bass sitar)’ player and Pandit Sanju Sahai, equally acclaimed for his skills as a Tabla player.
As Pandit Kushal Das played that one major difference between Indian and Western classical music forms became very clear as here tonality is expressed through melody rather than harmony (the use of chords) and although this for me means losing another musical reference point, this different journey into music and sound opens up so many new possibilities and it is easy to hear why so many western musicians have been drawn to Indian Classical music over the years and often in the process created music that is new. Interestingly for me though was the fact that even though harmonic structure in Western Classical music was a development that took place over a long period of time, and Indian Classical music developed along its own pathways, you can still if you listen closely hear moments of how the latter influenced so much of Western music in so many of its classical, folk and contemporary music forms as people travelled over time and either brought their music with them, or where influenced by what they heard on their travels.
Together with the music of Pandit Sanju Sahai this was at times an hypnotic and almost trance like experience into sound as the two musicians on stage often worked more like improvisational jazz musicians, flowing as the moment and the music took them.
With Virasat 2023, this glimpse into the rich culture of Indian Classical music is. Of course, this music is massively diverse with many different regional sounds and histories and today we only touched upon the surface of its many possibilities.
Over the two hours of this concert, four ragas of varying length were performed
1. Marwa: Alaap Jod Jhala
2. Yaman:Gat in Teen Taal (16 beats)
3. Gorakh Kalyan: gat in Rupak Taal (7 beats)
4. Bhairavi: Dhun
Here is where I have to admit that my knowledge of the history of Indian Classical music is very limited and Karthik Subramanya and Indian Arts Connection for providing me with so much of the background information and set list for this concert. This though for me is what any music should be about, the chance to experience something new and there is really no better way to explore and try to understand any culture than through its cultural arts, its music, history, words, and art as all of these things so define where people come from. With todays music I was given a small insight into music that is so interwoven into the Indian culture and is with its rhythms is very much the beating heart of India and its people.
Music is also one of the great cultural bridges and it so often allows a wordless exchange of cultures and their history and philosophies to take place, for each of us to understand, even if in some small way the many things in life that are common to us all, and this, as much as the music as much as the dance is an important part of the work of Indian Arts Connection as an organisation.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
I have to admit that whenever I review a concert for Indian Cultural Heritage that I am, for the most part out of my normal musical spheres as gone are so many of the references that are so familiar to me. Yes, I know what the main instruments are, I am familiar with some of the biggest stars of Indian music such as Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka, and like many people, I know mostly the sound of a sitar (and other Indian instruments) through the music of George Harrison and The Beatles for popularising them in the 1960s. The music performed today is however from western musicians adapting instruments and sounds to fit their music, this was a concert performance of traditional Indian Classical music in its true and original form.
Performing the music for this concert, Pandit Kushal Das, internationally acclaimed ‘Sitar and Surbahar (sometimes known as a bass sitar)’ player and Pandit Sanju Sahai, equally acclaimed for his skills as a Tabla player.
As Pandit Kushal Das played that one major difference between Indian and Western classical music forms became very clear as here tonality is expressed through melody rather than harmony (the use of chords) and although this for me means losing another musical reference point, this different journey into music and sound opens up so many new possibilities and it is easy to hear why so many western musicians have been drawn to Indian Classical music over the years and often in the process created music that is new. Interestingly for me though was the fact that even though harmonic structure in Western Classical music was a development that took place over a long period of time, and Indian Classical music developed along its own pathways, you can still if you listen closely hear moments of how the latter influenced so much of Western music in so many of its classical, folk and contemporary music forms as people travelled over time and either brought their music with them, or where influenced by what they heard on their travels.
Together with the music of Pandit Sanju Sahai this was at times an hypnotic and almost trance like experience into sound as the two musicians on stage often worked more like improvisational jazz musicians, flowing as the moment and the music took them.
With Virasat 2023, this glimpse into the rich culture of Indian Classical music is. Of course, this music is massively diverse with many different regional sounds and histories and today we only touched upon the surface of its many possibilities.
Over the two hours of this concert, four ragas of varying length were performed
1. Marwa: Alaap Jod Jhala
2. Yaman:Gat in Teen Taal (16 beats)
3. Gorakh Kalyan: gat in Rupak Taal (7 beats)
4. Bhairavi: Dhun
Here is where I have to admit that my knowledge of the history of Indian Classical music is very limited and Karthik Subramanya and Indian Arts Connection for providing me with so much of the background information and set list for this concert. This though for me is what any music should be about, the chance to experience something new and there is really no better way to explore and try to understand any culture than through its cultural arts, its music, history, words, and art as all of these things so define where people come from. With todays music I was given a small insight into music that is so interwoven into the Indian culture and is with its rhythms is very much the beating heart of India and its people.
Music is also one of the great cultural bridges and it so often allows a wordless exchange of cultures and their history and philosophies to take place, for each of us to understand, even if in some small way the many things in life that are common to us all, and this, as much as the music as much as the dance is an important part of the work of Indian Arts Connection as an organisation.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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