Report from India, Part 16: Day 8 Music Workshop

A sculpture near the English Dept at the university

Our day began early again. We continued to thresh rice, but this time I could cover my hair with my shawl and therefore avoid the grains getting stuck there. After a while we got into the line to meet the guru and were sorted according to our topic/reason for seeking audience. There were those who had had a birthday, one newlywed woman (lots of henna!), a girl who had won the district chess competition and lots who sought guidance about a new job or other big decision in their lives.

The guru worked his way down the line, taking time to talk with and look into the eyes of each person. In case we haven't mentioned it before, Indian culture puts great stock in seeing, be it “I know it, because I saw it” or “I saw the deity and the deity saw me”. This latter fits under the term “darshan”, which is what you call when an Indian goes to a temple to look at a statue of a deity, feeling that he has both seen and been seen by the deity. Similarly, it is very special to see the guru and especially to look into his eyes. At one point, while waiting in the line, F’s ‘mom’ left us. After 20 minutes or so, she returned with the comment that she had just been “getting in some darshan”.

When he got to us, F's 'mom' explained why we were here, some of what we had done and F's topic for his thesis. The guru shared some of what he knew about Amitav Ghosh, told of his experience in the U.S. and wished us well.

Later that day F helped me give the music workshop, the focus of which was western harmony (as Indian traditional music is sung in unison and the harmony is found in the accompaniment). F and I opened by singing a duet of “Redeemer of Israel”; of course we couldn't sing all four parts, but two were still impressive :)

Then I talked about the idea of polyphony (several melodies but no one 'main' melody) vs. harmony, often with four-parts (where one is the melody + the harmonies accompany (and are often boring/sound strange alone :-P ). Then I taught them the round/canon “I love the mountains”--we got up to four parts; I could tell they were music students because they were exemplary in singing back the passages I sang for them :). I asked them to sing a song for me, which they did—a traditional folk song, accompanied by a dholak drum (which lies in front of the player and is played on both ends).

I also talked a bit about solfège vs. their version of solfège (different intervals, different syllables), note names and lengths, musical notation (they learn mostly orally and have to memorize everything, which has some definite advantages :) ). Then F and I sang “Nearer my God to Thee” and then we sang our round again as a class. Then picture time!

And here are some more of those great murals:

And a cool painting:

And as is typical at universities, you can often find newer/more forward-thinking ideas (as well as crazier ideas :) ), than elsewhere. Here a simple plea to clean up

and a way to deal with waste differently: Waste Recycling Competition!

For example, you can turn it into a sculpture :) (Yay, Dad!)