Category: creativity and innovation

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Indien – eine ferne Heimat

Ein Referat von Ludwig Pesch, Musikologe und Flötist, Amsterdam

Überarbeitete Version mit aktualisierten Quellenangaben 2022

Ein Beitrag aus der Konzert- und Kolloquiumsreihe „Musik & Mensch“ – Zyklus 2007/2008 HEIMAT, Uhr Pädagogische Hochschule FHNW, Aarau (Schweiz)

Indien-Eine-ferne-Heimat-11-Oktober-2007-IntroDownload

Wir sollen heiter Raum um Raum durchschreiten,
An keinem wie an einer Heimat hängen,
Der Weltgeist will nicht fesseln uns und engen,
Er will uns Stuf‘ um Stufe heben, weiten.

„Stufen“ von Hermann Hesse (4. Mai 1941)
Ein Gedicht, das für viele vertraut klingt: Deutschlandfunk Kultur >>
Indien-Eine-ferne-Heimat_Ludwig-Pesch_FHNWDownload

Reconciliation
Text und Musik: Manickam Yogeswaran

On rights, peace and reconciliation.
And peaceful co-existence.
Rights, Peace and Reconciliation
Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims
Everybody living with dignity
That’s the true meaning of Rights.
Celebrate each others’ rights
That’s the true meaning of Peace.
Race, language, caste, difference
Living in harmony.
Agnus dei, qui tollis pecatur mundi,
Miserere domini.
O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
Speaking:
So, it’s been possible to talk peace. Indeed, live in peace.
There is an alternative to war and destruction. Everyone remember these three words.
They may not be religious mottos, but important for the future of Sri Lanka.
Important for the future of this unfair world.
Rights, Peace and Reconciliation.

Gathe Gathe para gathe paragadhi
Gathe Bodhi swaha.
Gone gone all gone beyond
Gone into Buddha nature.
This is the first preaching of Buddha after his enlightenment under the Bodhi tree.

More audio and video contents by Manickam Yogeswaram >>

Idakka P. Nanda Kumar belongs to the Marar community of hereditary temple musicians whose members have played the Idakka for several centuries. As Mridangam exponent with advanced training under Palghat T. R. Rajamani – son of the legendary Palghat Mani Iyer – he incorporates complex Carnatic patterns in his Idakka performances. Video © P.V. Jayan and Ludwig Pesch (2009) | For more information, visit https://www.nandakumar.mimemo.net

Raum für Ideen? Zeit zum Spiel! Zum Sinn eines unbefangeneren Umgangs mit der „klassischen“ Musik Indiens
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Book release & Foreword: “Arangilum Munnilum Pinnilum” – Gopal Venu and Kerala’s thriving performing arts

Foreword to Gopal Venu’s new book in Malayalam, titled Arangilum Munnilum Pinnilum; shared by Vinod Kumar (Chennai/Dubai) during the book release online event held on 16 November 2021: an opportunity to reflect on shared cultural roots, values and an association spanning several generations via both, the author’s parents and those of the present writer. In short, one of those rare occasions when light may be shed on the role played by renowned performers and teachers whose contributions to artistic life and training have stood the test of time for all to see and enjoy:

Photo © Natanakairali

The distilling of art education, sharing of knowledge and dissemination of a timeless tradition is best evidenced in Shri Venu’s work on his now legendary ‘Navarasa Sadhana’ workshops that are now attended by dancers, theatre artists, writers, actors, rasikas and even simple folk who carry a deep interest in the art of abhinaya.

Venu_G_Arangilum_Munnilum_Pinnilum_Foreword_VKDownload
Learn more: “Navarasa Sadhana: A system of acting methodology for actors and dancers” by Gopal Venu on Narthaki.com, India’s Gateway to the World of Dance >>

Inquiries on Navarasa Sadhana workshops: abhinayakairali@gmail.com

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P. Sainath awarded 2021 Fukuoka Prize for “promoting civil cooperation”

Selected for the Grand Prize for promoting civil cooperation through his writing

Noted journalist P. Sainath has been selected as one of the three recipients of the Fukuoka Prize for 2021. Mr. Sainath will receive the ‘Grand Prize’ of the Fukuoka Prize while the Academic Prize and the Prize for Arts and Culture will go to Prof. Kishimoto Mio of Japan and filmmaker Prabda Yoon of Thailand respectively.

In a statement issued by the Secretariat of the Fukuoka Prize Committee, Mr. Sainath was described as a “very deserving recipient of the Grand Prize of Fukuoka Prize”. The Secretariat noted his work for creating a new form of knowledge through his writings and commentaries on rural India and for “promoting civil cooperation”.

The Fukuoka Prize is given annually to distinguished people to foster and increase awareness of Asian cultures, and to create a broad framework of exchange and mutual learning among the Asian people. The Grand Prize has earlier been awarded to Muhammad Yunus from Bangladesh, historian Romila Thapar, and sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan. Eleven Indians have received the Fukuoka Prize so far.

115 people from 28 countries and areas have received the Prize in the past 30 years. The Prize was established in 1990.

Source: The Hindu, 28 June 2021
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/p-sainath-awarded-2021-fukuoka-prize/article35018139.ece
Date Visited: 29 June 2021

“Cover Your Country” by PARI: Rural people speak about their lives through photos, narratives, film, and audio materials | RuralIndiaOnline.org >>

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Why Carnatic Music Matters More Than Ever

by Ludwig Pesch

Published by Shankar Ramchandran on behalf of Dhvani Ohio | Read or download the full article (PDF, 800 KB, updated 19 June 2021):

Why_Carnatic_Music_Matters_More_Than_EverDownload

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License

Sruti Magazine (October 2018)
Learn more on carnaticstudent.org:
A brief introduction to Carnatic music >>

For this musicologist and author, there are good reasons to believe that Carnatic music matters, perhaps more than ever and almost anywhere in the world. So why not perform and teach it in the service of better education for all, for ecological awareness or in order to promote mutual respect in spite of all our differences? And in the process, get “invigorated and better equipped to tackle the larger issues at hand”.

Related post

What makes one refer to Carnatic music as “classical or art music”? | Carnaticstudent.org >>

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“Beethoven has given us the music of advaita”: Vinay Lal on a celebrated composer’s search of the soul for the transcendent

This month [December 2020] marks the 250th birth anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven. In ordinary times, Germany, Austria, and a good part of the world beyond Europe would have been ablaze with celebrations: as the opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, a man whose reputation in some circles would be just as great, remarked: “Before the name of Beethoven, we must all bow in reverence.” However, in India, even without the coronavirus pandemic, there would not have been much of a stir. Beethoven’s name is by no means unknown, and India doubtless has its share of afficionados of Western classical music. […]

Stunningly [a] quote from the Iliad is preceded in Beethoven’s notebook by an excerpt from the Gita that he took to be its central teaching:

“Let not thy life be spent in inaction. Depend upon application, perform thy duty, abandon all thought of the consequence, and make the event equal, whether it terminate in good or evil; for such an equality is called Yog, attention to what is spiritual.”

Beethoven’s contemporary, the composer Franz Schubert, was almost singular in recognizing that the late string quartets were perhaps an expression of the ineffable in human existence and the search of the soul for the transcendent. Listening to the String Quartet No. 14 in C minor (Opus 131) for the last time, just before his own death a year after the passing of Beethoven, Schubert exclaimed, “After this, what is left for us to write.” Opinion would begin to swing the other way many years after Beethoven’s death, but what is singularly striking is that musicologists have been loath to consider how Indian philosophy may have contributed to carving out in Beethoven’s frame of thinking a space for the melancholic longing for the liberation that the Buddhists describe as nirvana and the Hindus as moksha. After the Upanishads and Shankaracharya, Ramana Maharishi and Sree Narayana Guru, India must recognize that Beethoven has given us the music of advaita.

Source: “Imagining Beethoven in India” by Vinay Lal (Professor of History & Asian American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles UCLA)
URL: https://vinaylal.wordpress.com/2020/12/30/imagining-beethoven-in-india/
Date visited: 2 January 2020

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