In last year’s Advent Calendar i included Patrick Nunn’s instrumental arrangement of the Aphex Twin track ‘Nannou’; today i’m featuring another arrangement, this time Caleb Burhans’ acoustic take on ‘Blue Calx’, the only track on Aphex Twin’s classic 1994 album Selected Ambient Works Volume II to have an explicit title (the rest are untitled, but many have long assumed titles can be inferred from the artwork). While a number of tracks on SAW II explore the same kind of dark, unsettling soundworlds that Brian Eno had established in Ambient 4: On Land, ‘Blue Calx’ isn’t one of them, comprising a gentle, steady state track that brings together a few basic ideas and simply lets them play out. The primary element is a small series of chords hinting at E major / C# minor (though often sounding as open fifths) that cycle slowly round, varying slightly later on in terms of their order and pitch make-up. In contrast to this, in the background, is a quick, light pulse; there are also sporadic deep bass notes (too low to have a clear pitch, but suggesting low E), and another percussion layer, adding syncopations to the pulse.
Caleb Burhans’ arrangement retains this simplicity, slightly clarifying the low notes by giving them to a double bass (articulated as small glissandi). The cycling chords are mainly played by strings but continually coloured by wind timbres in a way that at times makes them almost sound like they’re breathing, due to changes in weight and register. It’s a lovely effect, enhanced further by the sequence (around the midpoint) when the chords vary most, drop out for a time, and then restart. It’s classic ambient, like a slowly rotating mobile where each element impinges on the others in ever-changing ways.
This performance of ‘Blue Calx’ took place in April 2016, given by the Southbank Sinfonia conducted by Gerry Cornelius. Unlike the original (and also the original performance of this arrangement by Alarm Will Sound), Cornelius takes the piece at a much slower tempo than the original (110BPM rather than 136). It’s not ideal, perhaps, losing something of the briskness in the pulse that creates such a nice fast / slow contrast at the core of the music. (They also appear to have a faint swishing throughout, not present in the original but perhaps added to hint at the reverb that Aphex Twin uses, which creates a slightly similar effect). Yet it works all the same, and if anything the slower tempo plays up the gentleness of the piece. As with so much great ambient music, you may just find yourself nodding off.
For those prepared to drop everything and hurry out to hear a concert right away, there is Music On Main’s annual Music for the Winter Solstice program. This year’s performers are Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, piano; Robyn Jacob, vocals & piano; Asitha Tennekoon, tenor; and Jonathan Lo, cello. You can anticipate a varied program that Music on Main tells us includes “Solstice favourites such as Caroline Shaw’s Winter Carol and the Wyrd Sisters’ Solstice Carole.”
Christmas by Candlelight
When: 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., Dec. 16
Where: Pacific Spirit United Church, Vancouver
Info and tickets: vancouverchamberchoir.com
Last-minute concerts this time of year go big on atmosphere, with carefully considered venues adding a visual counterpoint to all that music. The Vancouver Chamber Choir, for example, offers Christmas by Candlelight. Taking advantage of what the choir calls “the warm glow of candlelight,” artistic director Kari Turunen conducts an elegant program with repertoire including from Giovanni Gabrieli and John Tavener, plus VCC composer-in-residence Matthew Whittall.
When: 2 p.m., Dec. 17, 5 p.m., Dec. 17 and 19, 8 p.m. Dec. 16, 17 and 19
Where: St. Andrews-Wesley United Church, Vancouver
Info and tickets: chorleoni.org
Chor Leoni Men’s Choir will sing six programs in the beautifully renovated St. Andrews-Wesley United Church. Christmas with Chor Leoni is always a heady mix of this and that, as the ensemble promises music “ranging from the holy to the hilarious.” The lions are joined this December by harpist Vivian Chen, violinist/fiddler Cameron Wilson, and guitarist and Chor Leoni vocalist Keith Sinclair.
Winter Patterns
When and where: 7:30 p.m., Dec. 17 at Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver; 3 p.m., Dec. 18 at West Vancouver United Church; 8 p.m., Dec. 22 at St. James Community Square, Vancouver.
Info and tickets: musicaintima.org
Musica Intima offers Winter Patterns downtown at Christ Church Cathedral on Dec. 17, then a matinee on the North Shore the next day. For this program, emphasis is on contemporary repertoire “sprinkled with favourite Christmas carols arranged by ensemble members past and present.” The conductorless vocal ensemble offers an entirely different take on seasonal music “both raucous and tender” in Ding Dong: Musica Intima after hours on Dec. 22. Guests for the informal do include members of Mad Pudding, Andy Hillhouse and Amy Stephens, plus Jodi Proznick on bass
Christmas with Bach
When: 3 p.m., Dec. 17
Where: West Vancouver United Church
Info and tickets: laudatesingers.com
On the North Shore, the Laudate Singers have scheduled Christmas with Bach, a program comprising three parts of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with soloists Abby Bottsk, soprano; Mark Donnelly, countenor; Mark De Silva, tenor; and basses Barry Honda and Cameron Killick. Lars Kaario conducts.
A Christmas Reprise
When and where: 2 p.m., Dec. 17 at Holy Rosary Cathedral, Vancouver; 7:30 p.m., Dec. 17 at Queens Avenue United Church, New Westminster
info and tickets: vancouvercantatasingers.com
Vancouver Cantata Singers’ A Christmas Reprise has always been one of the last things on the December choral calendar, and for just under two decades it’s been a runaway success. You may not find it easy to score tickets for their matinee, but listeners have a second chance to hear glorious music by Herbert Howells and the master of the king’s music, Judith Weir, and settings of Ave Maria by Nathaniel Dett and Franz Biebl later that day in New Westminster.
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The Bulgarian superstar soprano has nnounced that she will release her next album in February 9 on her own label, SY11 Productions.
It features, she says, ‘the world of courtesans’.
Or what humourless Sony bosses might misconstrue as geishas.
“The world of courtesans has always intrigued me”, says Sonya Yoncheva. “I discovered their universe in my stage incarnations of some of them. Once I read the story of Veronica Franco, a courtesan who was also a poet, asserting herself in territories traditionally reserved for men: those of erotic casuistry and public debate. I was struck by this personality, who in her speeches defied a whole era that both idealised and degraded women, objectifying them. A warrior of women’s rights, who was offering her body to pleasure. What a contrast and what faith! Inspired by her path, I decided to realize this CD you are holding in your hands.”
The press release stipulates, however: Still remaining an exclusive Sony Classical recording artist, Sonya Yoncheva preferred for this project, which she takes closely to heart, to produce the album fully according to her own vision.
Very few musical instruments have their own “National (instrument name) day/week/month…” Earlier this year I blogged about two of them – the piano and the guitar. Let’s close out the year with another, and one of the oldest: the violin, whose national day is celebrated on December 13th.
Some music historians believe the violin is a descendent from stringed instruments played by ancient Mesopotamian equestrian cultures, originating as far back as 2700 years BCE. Some also draw a straight line from the “modern” lyre, used in ancient Greece around 1400 BCE, and then spreading throughout the Roman Empire, changing shape and materials along the way.
Most people believe that the violin as we know it today was developed in 16th century Italy. Instrument makers in Brescia, Venice and Cremona took the lead in Europe in developing the instrument. It’s said that King Charles IX of France elevated the instrument when he ordered two dozen violins from Andrea Amati in 1560 for his palace ensemble, known as The King’s Violins. One of the violins still survives and is called The Charles IX.
Whether the instrument emerged from the maple and spruce trees of northern Italy or elsewhere, the music written for it has also endured. This versatile instrument shines equally as bright whether playing solo, duo with a piano or other instrument, or part of a larger ensemble. Here are a handful of the most famous violin pieces that you should get to know.
Everyone thinks of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons when showpieces for violin are discussed, (and they are excellent pieces to get to know), but how about his idea to put four outstanding violinists on stage at the same time? Here’s his Concerto for Four Violins, Op. 3, No. 10.This all-star line-up includes violinists Isaac Stern, Ivry Gitlis, Ida Haendel, and Shlomo Mintz. Zubin Mehta conducts the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Bach’s Partita No. 3 was part of his collection of pieces called “Sonatas and Partitas.” We know that they were completed by 1720, although not published until 1802. No. 3 remains a favorite of violinists. It is played here by Midori.
Mozart’s first music teacher was his father Leopold Mozart, a violinist in the orchestra of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. Leopold also published a violin textbook the year his son was born, so what better teacher for the four-year-old? Although he was taught to play violin and keyboard simultaneously, the young Mozart gravitated to the keyboard and began composing for it by age five. He never forgot his early lessons, however, and wrote five violin concertos. Some say it was just a way to show his nagging father that he could do it, and then get back to composing for his other favorite instruments. We may never know why he wrote only five when he was more than capable of writing more. His 5th Concerto, nicknamed the “Turkish,” is often hailed as his most mature. Here’s Christian Tetzlaff joining the German Chamber Philharmonic of Bremen and conductor Paavo Järvi.
Beethoven’s Violin Concerto was written in 1806 but did not have a successful premiere. Later, in 1844, the 12-year-old violinist Joseph Joachim, who was already on the cusp of becoming one of the greatest violinists of that century, played it with Felix Mendelssohn conducting the London Philharmonic Society. Joachim declared it the greatest German violin concerto, and ever since the piece has become one of the best known (and longest). Here’s violinist Uto Ughi playing with the Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE with conductor Luis García Navarro.
Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto was meant as a gift for his longtime friend Ferdinand David, the concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. It took him six years to complete it. The autograph score is dated September 1844, but it’s said that Mendelssohn was still not quite happy with it and was consulting with David right up until its premier in 1845. One of the most unusual aspects of this piece is that the cadenza was written out, whereas in other concertos of the era, the cadenza is improvised by the soloist. Ray Chen is the soloist here, along with conductor Kent Nagano and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.
It quickly became one of Mendelssohn’s most popular pieces, and considered one of the “greats” in the violin repertoire.
Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso was written in 1863and was originally intended to be the finale of his Violin Concerto No. 1. It was so well-received at its premiere that Saint-Saëns published it as a stand-alone piece.
Itzhak Perlman’s version is considered by most to be “the” classic recording. Here he is playing it with Charles Mackerras conducting the Sadler Wells Orchestra.
Saint-Saëns dedicated the piece to a leading virtuoso of the day, Pablo de Sarasate, who performed the premiere.
Pablo de Sarasate was a composer in addition to being a violinist. His Carmen Fantasyis based on music from Bizet’s opera Carmen. The piece was published in 1882 as a piece for violin and piano. Although it’s only about 12 minutes long, it’s considered one of the most challenging pieces for violinists to play. Here is Gil Shaham, with conductor Claudio Abbado leading the Berlin Philharmonic.
The Carmen Fantasy is often performed at violin competitions by violinists hoping to show their range of abilities.
The last of Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices is widely acknowledged as one of the most difficult pieces for a violinist to play, with everything from fast scales to arpeggios (chords played one note at a time in rapid succession) to left-hand pizzicato (plucked strings) to parallel octaves. Paganini himself was a violin virtuoso and showman of “rock star” legend. He was nicknamed the “Sorcerer” and many accused him of “selling his soul to the Devil” to be able to play as he did. Violinist Augustin Hadelich makes it seem like it’s his own.
The Caprice No. 24 is not only appreciated on its own, but for the countless variations by other great composers, including Brahms, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and even Andrew Lloyd Webber, who did a version for his brother, cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, and rock band.
And one more worth getting to know: 20th century American composer Samuel Barber wrote his Violin Concertoin 1939. It was commissioned by a man whose son was a budding violinist. Barber presented the first two movements and the man complained that the piece was too simple for his son. Taking the criticism to heart, Barber wrote a more complicated third movement. The violinist himself then complained it was too difficult. By that point, the frustrated Barber called one of his music students to come and sightread the piece, which he did with ease. There were no more complaints afterwards. Here’s Joshua Bell and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, led by David Zinman.
There are so many gorgeous, exciting, romantic, complicated and simple pieces for violin. These are but nine with some of the greatest violinists of our time. Enjoy this intro for National Violin Day, and happy exploring on your own!
CODA: Let me end this blog post as I started it, with a quote, this time by novelist Freda Bright. This is her telling of the story about the best violins in the known universe:
“In the late 1600s the finest instrument originated from three rural families whose workshops were side by side in the Italian village of Cremona. First were the Amatis, and outside their shop hung a sign, ‘The best violins in all Italy.’ Not to be outdone, their next-door neighbors, the family Guarneri, hung a bolder sign proclaiming: ‘The best violins in all the world!’ At the end of the street was the workshop of Antonio Stradivari, and on its front door was a simple notice which read ‘The best violins on the block.’”
In 2019, Sasha Scott won the senior category of the BBC Young Composer of the Year, with an electroacoustic work titled Humans May Not Apply. The following year she composed a new work for the BBC Concert Orchestra, Nerve, though due to the pandemic its performance was delayed until August 2021.
Though short, the piece is impressive both for how it projects a coherent internal logic and in the way Scott teases the prospect of enormous pent-up power lurking beneath the surface. That sense of power is magnified due to the way it’s kept largely at bay; indeed, not only does Nerve begin with no hint of that, but even what is happening – a faint drone with light piano noodling, coloured by wavering little string notes – all seems to be taking place in the distance, making its intricacy feel all the more intriguing. The first signs of energy appear via a low string gesture, though they, and everyone else who joins in, start to sag. More energy gets thrown into the mix and everything begins to roil and move, and despite the fact that Scott keeps all this activity quite vague, its weight feels almost intimidating.
As it goes on the music increasingly falls back to a kind of default behavioural position involving rapid repeated notes in the winds and brass alongside slow violin movement. This is what follows both that first burst of energy, as well as the one that comes next, seemingly triggered by a chord progression in the strings serving as a catalyst for a general wake-up throughout the orchestra. All the muscular weight is instantly present again, tremulous and powerful, threatening to really let rip at any moment. It doesn’t, and having moved through that default position again, the texture afterwards, while cohesive, feels like different layers pushing and pulling against each other in a way that suggests, far from being an equilibrium, the music is still extremely volatile. The proof comes when the music ruptures open, though this time the energy dissipates, falling back to an echo of the soft violin while the soft repetitions gradually die out.
The world première of Nerve was given by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Hugh Brunt.
The Christmas concert is set to begin with an orchestra piece called Christmas Festival by Leroy Anderson, an American composer of light music who lived from 1908 to 1975.
Following this will be two pieces, including Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate featuring Pham Khanh Ngoc, a female vocalist who has won First Prize at the Concour Festival in 2019. A chorus from Handel’s Messiah, For Unto Us a Child is Born, will then be played.
Furthermore, German Christmas song Maria Wiegenlied by Max Reger will be performed by soprano soloist Duyen Nguyet.
A Christmas Scherzo by American arranger and keyboard player Don Sebesky and O Holy Night will then be played by Dao Mac, a baritone who plays many roles in HBSO operas, from Papageno in The Magic Flute to Doctor Falk in Die Fledermaus.
Dao Mac will sing It’s beginning to look like Christmas by Michael Buble, a celebrated Canadian composer.
The solo orchestra will return with Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride, before leading into Variations on Jingle Bells led by the HBSO chorus.
Most notably, a group of Korean children residing in Ho Chi Minh City will then bring to the stage a performance Santa Claus is Coming to Town, as well as singing festive songs from the movie Home Alone.
The concert will be conducted by Tran Nhat Minh who has trained in both Russia and Italy and is the chorus master of the HBSO.
BLACKPINK is the K-pop group behind “How You Like That,” “As If It’s Your Last,” and “Kill This Love.” In 2022, they released Born Pink, complete with eight new songs for BLINKs to stream.
For one interview, the artists mentioned their current favorite songs from the collection. Here’s what Rosé, Jennie, Lisa, and Jisoo said.
BLACKPINK released ‘Born Pink’ in 2022
Jisoo, Rosé, Lisa, and Jennie of BLACKPINK perform on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ | Randy Holmes/ABC via Getty Images
Jisoo worked on Snowdrop. Jennie appeared in HBO’s upcoming series The Idol. Each performer appeared in fashion and cosmetics campaigns. Now, this K-pop group is in your area – with new original music.
In 2022, Rosé, Jennie, Lisa, and Jisoo released their second full-length album. That’s Born Pink, complete with title tracks “Shut Down” and “Pink Venom.” The collection became one of the year’s most popular albums, with BLINKs mentioning their favorite songs on social media.
The BLACKPINK members mentioned their favorite ‘Born Pink’ tracks
The BLACKPINK members explored new themes in this album, with eight new songs available to BLINKs. During their appearance on iHeartRadio, the artists were asked about their favorite Born Pink songs.
“Oh my god, that’s so hard,” Rosé said. “I really like ‘Tally,’ I like ‘Tally.’ That’s a good song — one of my favorite songs.”
This BLACKPINK song is about playing dirty, with the narrator describing how she doesn’t “play nice” even though that’s what’s expected. As of December 2022, “Tally” holds over 45 million Spotify plays.
“Mine is ‘Typa Girl,’” Lisa said while nodding her head. Jennie said, “Mine is ‘Shut Down.’”
“Shut Down” became one of the title tracks for the album, with the artists appearing in a corresponding music video. When they performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live, this was the song they highlighted.
“‘Shut Down’ is a song that brings the charisma BLACKPINK has always been showing off to another level,” Jennie mentioned during their D-1 Interview. “The combination of classical music and hip hop gives off good impression which is new but also has addictive charms.”
“I think the fun lyrics with wit and the choreography that expresses ‘Shut Down’ directly will be a fun point,” she added. “I hope that feeling we felt first and the thrill of excitement gets delivered to everybody.”
Jisoo said her favorite was “Pink Venom,” rounding out her answer with the dance move from the lead single. This was the first track BLACKPINK released from this new era, as well as the song they performed on the MTV VMAs. Now, the track has over 325 million Spotify plays.
To celebrate Born Pink’s release, this K-pop group embarked on the 2022 world tour, making stops in London, Los Angeles, Barcelona, and other major cities. The artist also showcased solo songs, with Lisa performing “Lalisa” and “Money” and Rosé highlighting “On the Ground.”
Music by BLACKPINK is available on most major streaming platforms.
RELATED: BLACKPINK’s In Our Arena: Concert Review of the ‘BORN PINK’ First Night in Newark, New Jersey
There are some composers whose music i keep coming back to not out of love but with the attitude of a nutcracker, trying once again to break through its tough, tenacious surface. i don’t know Milton Babbitt‘s music well (as i admitted when noting his centenary a few years back), and in part that’s precisely due to the fact that i’ve found so much of it to be forbidding and inaccessible. In that respect, Babbitt is pretty much unique – few composers leave me drawing such a complete blank – though his soprano and tape piece Philomel is a powerful exception, a work i’ve marvelled at for many years.
It’s in that spirit of ongoing attempts at nutcracking that i’m today featuring Babbitt’s last ever composition, An Encore, composed in 2006 when the composer was 90 years old. It seems almost silly to admit that i still find it a tough prospect considering it’s a tiny duet – lasting less than two minutes – for violin and piano. But in fact, that’s the first question: is it a duet? Trying to ascertain the nature of the relationship between the players is difficult. Initially at least, there’s the impression that they’re taking turns to dominate, though as it continues it seems equally plausible that they’re merely adjacent to one another, feeling their way forward in parallel through separate strands of individual material. For that reason, i often find myself focusing on one instrument at a time, though the gaps in each player’s music invites one’s perceptions back to the possibility of it being some sort of conversation. Certainly, taken on their own terms each player doesn’t appear to achieve something self-contained, or develop or progress somewhere obvious, again suggesting the emphasis should be on the results of the duet.
This first European performance of An Encore took place in February 2016, by violinist Mandhira de Saram and pianist Julian Trevelyan. i’ve lost track of how many times i’ve listened to it since then, but for all that time i’ve been flip-flopping back and forth between the players and their material, trying to parse their individual and combined details and find a way in. i’m not there yet (maybe it’s just a small window into a larger interaction, or a microcosm of sorts), but until that day dawns and the penny finally drops, maybe one or two of you might be able to shine a light onto this inscrutable little piece.
Along with Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák is perhaps the best known Czech composer. Contemporary accounts from the time of his life show that it was not just Dvořák’s music that made an impression on people, but his character as well.
The musical legacy of Antonín Dvořák is one of the bastions of European cultural heritage. During his lifetime the composer became one of Europe’s most important symphonists and writers of oratorios and chamber works. From the 1880s onwards his music was performed by leading artists in the most celebrated venues of Europe, the United States, Canada, Russia and Australia. Towards the end of his life Dvořák was frequently described as the world’s greatest living composer.
Video of Antonín Dvořák: Symfonie č. 8 v podání SOČRu (HD)
MUMBAI: There is a moment in the 2013 film ‘The Lunchbox’ when a withdrawn Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan) tells the lonely suburban hausfrau Ila (Nimrat Kaur) through one of their written exchanges, ‘I think we forget things if there is nobody to tell them’. In the next scene, Ila is seen at leisure with her adolescent daughter playing with her stuffed doll, while recounting the story of a similar time in her life when she played houses with her brother.
Stories and memories form an unsullied reservoir of facts that drive us. They are also a way we experience each other and help “pass down tradition and culture,” said Amrita Somaiya, trustee of Somaiya Trust and Somaiya Vidyavihar, and director of Kitab Khana.
Many years ago soon after they were married, Amrita and her husband Samir, while on a month-long road trip in Canada, stopped by Whitehorse, on the Alaska highway in northern Canada, to drop off a young hitchhiker. The unplanned route led them to a destination that would spur Amrita into creating an ambitious project: Gaatha — Mumbai International Storytelling Festival, many years later.
“The young girl, not more than 18 or 19, was headed to a festival of storytelling that had been a tradition in this town. Tents were set up everywhere, each hosting a distinct style of storytelling – from native American, to stories about laughter, mystery, horror and folklore,” recalled Amrita. The Somaiyas were at once taken aback and pleased to find that people came from afar, and many had marked the event on their social calendar way ahead in time.
Gaatha, a first such initiative, will be held between February 17 and 19, 2023, at the Somaiya Vidyavihar University campus. As Festival Chair, Amrita has partnered with Mumbai Storytellers Society, helmed by Usha Venkatraman, who is Gaatha’s curator.
Participants include both international and Indian storytellers – prominent among them are Dan Yeshinsky, from Canada, who set up the Storytellers School in Toronto, and has received many honours for his contribution towards enhancing Toronto’s cultural life with stories; Salil Mukhia Koitsu, well-known shamanic storyteller, from Kiranti, an indigenous community of the eastern Himalayas, popular for his many workshops on healing through storytelling; Shaili Sathyu, a Mumbai-based theatre director known for her plays with children; Dr Nina Sabnani, an artist and storyteller, who uses film, illustration and writing to tell her stories, among many others. “She will conduct a workshop with artisan designers from Somaiya Kala Vidya, in Kutch, while Sherline Pimenta, design educator, storyteller and experience curator, will work with students from Nareshwadi Learning Centre, in Dahanu, to conduct a workshop for kids,” said Amrita.
Apart from English, Indian folk storytellers will engage in Marathi, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Hindi and Urdu.
“People want to be heard as well as hear,” said she. “Everyone likes discourse and discussions. While the pandemic had pushed us into isolation, at Kitab Khana these days I find more young people coming in perhaps to discover themselves or to gain a different perspective by meeting people. Similarly, storytelling is a fabulous way to learn and give.”
What is the draw expected from a session in Sanskrit?
“You will be surprised,” said Amrita. Rangaparva, a Sanskrit Theatre Festival organised at the school campus in August this year, saw a packed house, she said. “The shows had a humongous response from the audience, which consisted of Sanskrit scholars and theatre connoisseurs spanning across all ages. People are getting immensely interested in the rich treasure of literature. It forms an important part of oral as well as written culture of India. The response of Rangaparva is a sign that a new trend is setting in.”
“Stories can give life and happiness. They preserve the culture and beliefs of a tribe or community and pass them down to the next generation,” said Usha Venkatraman, extending Amrita’s thought, while underlining the significance of oral traditions. “And I would like to think I am a keeper of this tradition as I sing and narrate my stories passed down by my grandmother.”
In the midst of all the rapid and unrecognisable change that surrounds us, India’s lore, culture and heritage are distilled into an even more precious evocation of times past, she added. “It is our duty to convey the voices of the past to the ears of the future.”
Indeed, the most powerful way to persuade people and stoke their curiosities is by uniting an idea with an emotion. “The best way to do that is by telling a compelling story – where you not only weave a lot of information into the telling but you also arouse your listener’s emotions and energy,” Usha said.
Curating an international festival is a detailed, planned process, which requires much research. “Gaatha took me a year to plan and curate,” said Usha. “The featured storytellers were selected for their unique contribution, for example, Ragas and Kathas — a bespoke event – will attempt to make classical music accessible through stories to a wider audience. Our featured storytellers will include classical music and paint visual pictures through their stories.”
As the storyteller weaves the narrative, the song will express a similar ethos. It is a musical presentation with commensurate drama; the songs will be in the Carnatic and Hindustani idiom.
Similar attractions will be the rendering of the mystical story of Gajamukha, presented through a kaleidoscope of five art forms — poetry, dance, storytelling, classical music and painting. Two musical bands will blend an iconic style of classical music and progressive rock in Mersha. On one of the days Dayro and Bharud performances by folk artistes from Gujarat and Maharashtra will be presented.
To borrow from Margaret Atwood, “You’re never going to kill storytelling, because it’s built in the human plan. We come with it.”
