news and events – Page 3

30/12/201208/06/2020

What Makes Music European: Looking Beyond Sound – book recommendation (ignoring its author’s warning)

Sorce Keller, Marcello. What Makes Music European: Looking Beyond Sound.
Europea: Ethnomusicologies and Modernities, 12. Lanham: Scarecrow Press,
2012. xxv, 303 pp., bibliography, index. ISBN 978-0-8108-7671-2.

Great reading for anyone interested in fresh cultural perspectives; backed up by a wealth of sources and covering a mind boggling range of topics!

In short: serious scholarship yet fun to read. So don’t let its author deter you:

Judging from the feedback I am beginning to receive, it seems like I am becoming the person many “classical music adepts” most love to hate…

Source: Bookish Stuff – MSK about Music
Address : https://www.marcellosorcekeller.com/bookish-stuff/
Date Visited: Sun Dec 30 2012 18:19:11 GMT+0100 (CET)

27/07/201221/01/2024

A Musical Lotuspond ISME 2012 – impressions of a successful world conference for music education

Our ISME 2012 workshop titled A Musical Lotuspond was greeted with great interest by a full house of music educators from all over the world. The atmosphere of the entire world conference was inspiring and thought provoking. We also sensed a sense of urgency motivating all participants to learn from one another and share their experiences. In this manner we all seek to reach out to young and adult learners, including those for who making music has so far remained a distant dream – the very motivation for designing this new type of workshop: expanding the range of intercultural expression within the context of integrated learning; and this even with a minimum of resources.

Two special instruments – one known as yal in ancient Tamil literature, and a newly developed bamboo tambura – met with special interest among fellow presenters and young participants alike.

07/07/201216/11/2023

Paper and Lecture Recital at the International Congress of the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung – Goettingen

Music | Musics. Structures and Processes
15th International Conference of the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung Goettingen

Paper and Lecture Recital by Ludwig Pesch & Manickam Yogeswaran
Friday, 7 Sept. 2012 (15:00-16:00)

Read/download the paper published in Musik – Politik – Identität / Music – Politics – Identity (2016) >>

Unity in diversity, antiquity in contemporary practice? A fresh look at South Indian music

The music of South India or Carnatic music is an amalgam of regional traditions and practices and became increasingly codified in the past five centuries. Today it reaches global audiences while ancient roots are claimed even by those who cherish its association with musicians from other cultures – from Messiaen to Menuhin, from jazz to rock-fusion – throughout the 20th century. But how to account for its intrinsic qualities in a manner that makes sense to “non-Indian” ears and minds?

Here we explore the essential features of Carnatic music as a means of achieving instantaneous immersion in melody and rhythm. This is facilitated by a precise yet flexible tonal and metric framework that enabled Carnatic vocalists, instrumentalists and composers to transmit their musical and pedagogical legacy across vast distances in time and space.

Lecture Recital (voice with flute, percussion and string instrument)

an inspiration to many [and] the highlight of the conference for me
Unsolicited feedback from fellow presenter/author Paul Christiansen (University of Southern Maine)

Both the preliminaries of a composition and the integration of voice and instruments in a modern Carnatic recital are reminiscent of a Minnesang performance such as described in Gottfried von Strassburg’s Tristan in the 13th c. CE (McMahon 1990:71-73 “An Example of Performance”).

While such similarities may seem coincidental, they point to shared concerns that bind practicioners and educators from different periods and cultures together. While these cannot be analyzed in the course of a lecture recital, there is scope for demonstrating some key features on unconventional lines. Some of the historical and intercultural undercurrents go well beyond the realm of mere wishful thinking, mysticism or Orientalism:

[A]ny attempt to maintain so-called cultural purity through the repression of what is considered harmful influences is doomed to fail. Cultures don’t do battle, they flow into one another. – Ilija Trojanow & Ranjit Hoskoté in “Kampf Absage”

30/04/201208/06/2020

A Musical Lotus Pond – workshop at ISME 2012 World Conference

Purpose
Probing the depths of Indian sounds and symbols both for their interdisciplinary potential and intrinsic value.

Content
We pool musical, visual and numerical motifs. Sounds, hand gestures and movements link two school subjects within a single session; and more subjects wherever this approach lends itself to being integrated into a curriculum.

Method
The “Musical Lotus Pond” is a biotope where beauty flourishes in unexpected ways. Each participant embellishes a sheet of paper containing numbers and shapes. These form the basis for musical activities. At the conclusion, the sheets are folded into small cones resembling the “school cones” traditionally used to entice European children to attend school. Children will spontaneously share their experiences with peers and family members.

Application for integrated education
Analytical thinking, self-expression and teamwork are cultivated. For this purpose, motifs derived from Indian music are combined with those belonging to subjects as diverse as visual arts, geography, biology, physical education and maths.

Pure maths is a religion and in the East, valued for more than merely its technical application – Novalis (1799)

Background information
Indian culture is permeated by synesthetic associations that make learning both enjoyable and (cost) effective. Moreover it fosters concentration and teamwork. It is therefore no coincidence that the ubiquitous lotus motif symbolizes the aspiration to rise above the ordinary and beyond predictability.
The presenters work with the motto “Adapting Indian Universals in Music Education” (AIUME); and this in response to the needs of children and music students. Contributions to exhibitions (e.g. Museum Rietberg Zürich and Royal Tropical Museum Amsterdam) complement their artistic and scholarly pursuits: one is a singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist; the other trained and performed as flautist in India, and authored The Oxford Illustrated Companion to South Indian Classical Music.

I surely know the hundred petals of a lotus will not remain closed for ever and the secret recess of its honey will be bared. – from Gitanjali by Nobel Awardee Rabindranath Tagore

Listen to Tagore: Unlocking Cages: Sunil Khilnani tells the story of the Bengali writer and thinker Rabindranath Tagore: https://bbc.in/1KVh4Cf >>
The acclaimed BBC 4 podcast series titled Incarnations: India in 50 Lives has also been published in book form (Allen Lane).

“I was moved by how many of these lives pose challenges to the Indian present,” he writes, “and remind us of future possibilities that are in danger of being closed off.”¹

Sunil Khilnani quoted in a review by William Dalrymple in The Guardian, 14 March 2016[↩]

23/04/201205/04/2020

Raga und Tala in Südindien

Blockseminar für Studierende der University of Göttingen

Musicology | Kurze Geismarstr. 1 | 37073 Göttingen

Fr 4. Mai 2012 – 14.30-18.30 Uhr
Sa 5. Mai 2012 – 10.30-15.00 Uhr
Fr 11. Mai 2012 – 14.00-18.30 Uhr
Sa 12. Mai 2012 – 10.00-15.00 Uhr

Der Kurs bietet den TeilnehmerInnen die Gelegenheit, die Kunstmusik Südindiens zu studieren und hinterfragen. Deren kreatives Potential lässt sich mittels systematischer Übungen jederzeit und überall – mit oder ohne Instrument – künstlerisch wie wissenschaftlich analysieren.

Die Vermittlung beruht dabei nur ausnahmsweise auf Notation. In der Regel kommt eine schon im 8. Jh. nachweisbare Methode zur Anwendung, die aus Solfège und mnemotechnischen Strategien besteht. Stimme und Handgesten umreissen musikalische Räume und Zeitabläufe während Texte, Bilder und Zahlen weitere Orientierungshilfen bieten. Seit der indischen Antike fördert dieser Ansatz das gemeinsame Musizieren und erleichtert auch Laien den Einstieg in eine hochdifferenzierte Musikpraxis.

Der für Lernende wie Ausführende gleichermassen verbindliche Rahmen wird von “Raga” (Melodie) und “Tala” (Rhythmus) vorgegeben. Die vorwiegend solistisch konzipierte Ausgestaltung im eng miteinander verknüpften Konzert-, Tempel- und Tanzrepertoire besteht aus Kunstliedern, Hymnen und virtuosen Darbietungen.

Seit dem frühen 19. Jh. wird eine Integration traditioneller Elemente in präzise wie virtuose Ensemble-Darbietungen bevorzugt. Ähnliche Entwicklungen lassen sich seit dem frühen 20. Jh. in ganz Indien auf die Begegnung mit der musikalischen Ideenwelt des Südens zurückführen. So haben V.N. Bhathkhande, der wohl prominenteste Musiktheoretiker und Erneuerer der “Hindustani Sangit” (nordindischer Kunstmusik), und der bengalische Dichter-Komponist Rabindranath Tagore nachhaltig zur weltweiten Verbreitung von Indiens Musik beigetragen. Dies geschah nicht zuletzt durch die Vermittlung virtuoser Interpreten wie Pannalal Ghosh, Ravi Shankar und Hariprasad Chaurasia und namhafte südindische Musiker wie Balamurali Krishna, N. Ramani, L. Subrahmanian und “Vicku” Vinayakram. Sie und andere Vertreter der “klassischen” wie “fusion” Musik (vielfach in einer Person) betrachten sich selbstbewusst als Katalysten einer sich ständig erneuernden “Weltmusik”, die sich bisher wiederholt den Einordnungsversuchen westlicher Musiktheoretiker zu entziehen wusste: konventionelle wie traditionelle und moderne Instrumente einschliesslich Keyboard gelten inzwischen in ständig wechselnden Besetzungen (Jugalbandi) als gleichwertige Partner. Es ist also kein Zufall, dass die meist als “karnatische” bezeichnete Musik (Carnatic music) gerade bei Jazzmusikern Anklang findet.

Workshops >>