The sitar and tabla performance at Crowell Hall last Saturday offered not only a taste of India, but also a taste of the many different worlds and opportunities offered by the music department. The latest event in Wesleyan’s Navaratri Festival, the concert featured Ravindra Goswami on sitar and Ramchandra Pandit on tabla. Although neither name rings a bell the way Ravi Shankar does, the two displayed stunning professionalism, virtuosity and skill with their instruments.
Several ethnomusicology graduate students formed part of the small crowd that attended Saturday’s Music of North India concert.
“The Navarati Festival has been going on for forty years now,” said graduate student Joseph Getter. “Sometimes we’ve brought musicians all the way from India to perform. But you know, since 9/11, it’s been harder to obtain visas. So we try to get performers who are already touring in the U.S. The guys who played tonight have family in the States, and besides that, they’re about to embark on a tour. This was actually their first stop.”
Often, the interaction between the two musicians was exciting, as Pandit’s expert percussion imitated the melodic patterns created by Goswami. The two communicated onstage through quick nods and glances, as they played four ragas that, as is traditional, were chosen depending on the time of the day and the weather.
“You can really hear the different contrasts in tempo in North Indian music versus Carnatic, or South Indian music,” said Stan Scott, a private lesson instructor for Hindustani music. “North Indian music is more dense with a lot more notes. You can really hear the Persian and Islamic influence.”
Scott added that improvisation is key to the distinct North Indian sound.
“The thing about Hindustani music is that you’re not obliged to sing all twelve lines of composition,” Scott said. “You can sing the first line. Maybe the second, the third, and the fourth. But really after the first one, anything goes. It’s all improv. There was one improvised note in the final raga that was very unexpected but very beautiful – that was definitely an artistic high point for me.”
Undergraduate students who had taken Hindustani music courses expressed their enthusiasm at seeing a professional performance of the music they study.
“This is the event I was most looking forward to in the Navarati series because I play the sitar,” said Woody Leslie ’08. “It was wonderful.”
Others students noticed the difference in style between Hindustani and Carnetic.
“I’ve seen Ravi Shankar before, but this was a really different style,” said Beth Stivisson ’09. “I don’t know why. It was kind of slower. It’s so cool that Wesleyan does this!”
A glance at the audience during the concert suggested that North Indian music was familiar to many but a challenging experience for some. Many audience members nodded their heads along, tapping their fingers and palm in rhythms to the tabla, or twitched their fingers as though plucking sitar strings. Others slouched in their seats or nodded off, especially after the music had gone on for some time.
“For me the music is good when I can turn off the analytical part of my mind and stop analyzing what happened,” Scott said. “That finally happened tonight in the second raga. So I guess the music must’ve been pretty sweet.”
Leave a Reply