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From: FBInCIAnNSATerroristSlayer@yahoo.com

Hindus have been SUPERIOR to the bible thumping and koran thumping filth
for 1400 years in LITERALLY EVERY FIELD and then the FILTHY VIRUSES
Islam and Christianity DESTROYED US.

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https://www.softpowermag.com/there-is-nowhere-else-in-the-world-you-can-beat-this-level-of-complexity-in-music/


“There is Nowhere Else in the World You Can Beat This Level of
Complexity in Music”

Aparna Sridhar February 25, 2020

Alice Barron and Will Roberts are in Mysore to learn the violin and
Indian percussion respectively. They spend time with the family of
Mysore based Indian violinist Dr Manjunath, from whom Alice is learning Carnatic violin techniques. Will is learning Indian percussion on the
Kanjira which he wants to adapt to the Spanish Cajon.

As part of a practice-led PhD at the University of Oxford, Alice is
currently working on a series of collaborations creating new
cross-cultural works for the violin that draw on her experiences
studying in South India. Her thesis examines violin techniques that
emerge through cross-cultural collaborative practice in contemporary
music in London.

Will has studied percussion and drum kit at York University and
Instituto Superior Des Artes in Havana, Cuba. He has also studied music
in Brazil and India. His love of collaborating has found him supporting exciting artists and co-creating in original cross cultural and cross
genre projects. At Mysore he is learning rhythm (basics and muktayas)
from TT Swamy at Mysore University.

Alice and Will played at the recently concluded Heritage-CSP concert at
the Gudiya Sambhrama temple festival in Bangalore. The interview was
conducted at the temple premises.

How is music a carrier of emotions for you? In India, we have the rasa
theory and since you are learning Indian music are you familiar with it?

Alice Baron: There is a huge amount of emotion and a connect between the
two in Western music but it is not written out and theorised like it is
in India. Put simply, we have major and minor notes, major is happy and
minor sad, but when you learn more and develop more techniques with
harmony, melody and rhythm, there are all these different emotions. But
we don’t specify that this key is this emotion. It is left to the
individual.

Will Roberts: Sometimes when composers write music, they will put it on
top of their score (on the notation), write a word suggesting a mood in
which the performer has to get himself into. Sometimes they are Italian
words or German words, it could be ‘Sombre’ or ‘Hopeful’ or ‘Expressive’. Those are just leads that the performer can take, but they can also have their own emotion. It is not something that is often
spoken about amongst performers. However, most often it transcends the
words.

Do you take into account the time of day to decide on the music?

Alice: it depends on what the music is. If it is a set classical piece
of music like a Beethoven Symphony, the orchestra will play the symphony
at whatever time of the day. We also improvise and do lots of types of
music and then we take it into account a little more but we don’t have a concept of different ragas for different times of the day.

How has your musicality changed after you started learning from Dr
Manjunath?

Alice: I was drawn to Carnatic music, because of the violin, since he
played the same instrument. It’s like I have a much bigger pallet of
paints because of the Gamakas and left hand techniques. That has given
me more expression in how I play.

How does that go down with Western audiences? Do they see these
influences as being ‘exotic’ or as pushing musical boundaries?

Alice: I usually use it when I am working on new music collaborations,
so I am expanding what the instrument can do and that is something that
is happening in Europe now in very experimental ways. In some ways this
is another way of doing that, expanding what the instrument can do. My
wish is for it to be not just exotic, but because you can do all these different amazing things with the violin. And that may be putting the
bow on the wooden peg at the end and have a piece made with the sounds
out of that.

In Western classical music you have different style of music, and now contemporary music is breaking down all the barriers, all the rules of
harmony and experimenting in different ways. We are not going to go to
London and perform traditional Carnatic music but it is excellent for
training the ear and training our sense of rhythm. It really develops
you as a musician in any tradition.

Alice Barron and Will Roberts with CSP Director Vijayalakshmi
Vijayakumar at the art exhibition at Gudiya Sambhrama 2020

Will: this is just another way of experimenting - coming to India and
learning a different way of playing an instrument and it is so creative.
It is very inspiring for the audiences back home when they realise how
many new sounds violin can make. For me coming here has been a treasure
chest of rhythms. The level of musicianship of the percussionists here
is just amazing. There is nowhere else in the world you can beat this. I
have studied rhythm from around the world and here there is a very
different kind of complexity. The difference is that it is an extremely
well thought out system. The level of complexity that can be played on
the instrument is mind blowing. It has influenced and raised my playing.
The system is so accurate and disciplined. There is such discipline in
this music that is really inspiring. I am learning the Kanjira as well
but I don’t perform that. I am trying to adapt the techniques to the
Cajon, a traditional Spanish percussion instrument and to the drum kit.

Does the devotional aspect of Indian music move you. Most of the music originated in temples like this one, so it is filled with devotion. Have
you felt that connect?

Will: We have been here for the last four months and we have spent a lot
of time with Dr Manjunath’s family. He takes us to the temples and has introduced us to lots of Swamis. It is wonderful engaging with this
music in its real environment.

Alice, you are also an academician at Oxford. Do you follow strictly
what is in the rule books while playing?

Alice: It depends on what I am playing. If I am playing with an
orchestra, the programme is set. You can’t break the rules. Even the direction of the bow has to match. It is very strict. But when we are
creating new music, which not everybody does (some people just play the traditional stuff), that is when we break all the rules. Now in 2020, we don’t feel we need to stick to any boundaries at all.

In my thesis, using my own practice involving South Indian violin
techniques alongside my work as a Western classical violinist, I will
present an ethnographic perspective of collaborative processes. The
research will explore the ways in which collaborative practice can
become a platform for finding new ways of playing an instrument, and simultaneously, how the process of developing new techniques can form
creative stimuli in collaborative exchange.

What other aspects of Indian culture appeal to you?

(In unison): Food.

Alice: We are vegetarians. India is the best place for vegetarian food.
We love dosas. We cook Indian food in London. We do Yoga and meditation
every day. Yoga and meditation have become very popular in Europe. But
it’s very nice to be doing it here in Mysore. And it really helps the music.

Something I find interesting is that there are some words I Sanskrit
which don’t translate into English like Raga and Gamaka. There is no
direct translation. We are beginning to understand more about those words.

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