Concert – Songs of Love, Ragas of Longing
MUSICA FIORITA and the Ali Akbar College of Music – Switzerland
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of MUSICA FIORITA and
in Honour of the visit to Basel of HRH Shriji ARVIND SINGH MEWAR, the 76th Maharana of Udaipur
present
Meeting Two Worlds of Modal Music – Indian Ragas & Medieval Song
Songs of Love – Ragas of Longing
Ken Zuckerman – Sarod, Dhotar
Hanna Järveläinen –Soprano
Sankar P. Chowdhury – Tabla
„Zum Hohen Dolder“
St. Albansvorstadt 35, Basle
Saturday, June 12th, 5 p.m.
Tickets Fr. 35.- / 25.- (students)
By reservation only!
061 273 93 02 (answering machine)
www.aliakbarcollege.org
“Ten times more than the flowers needed to build a mountain up to the sky are the sweet greetings I send you, and may God fill you with love for me.†Jehan De Lescurel
Meeting Two Worlds of Modal Music: Songs of Love – Ragas of Longing
Program
Ragas of Longing
Bhimpalashree – Alap, Jor, Jhala Traditional Indian
Kirwani – Gats in medium and Fast Tintal (16) Traditional Indian
* * * * * *
Songs of Love
Biaus m’est estez (Trouvere song) Gaces Brulés (13th century)
Improvisation on “Biaus” on dhotar Ken Zuckerman
Dis tans plus qu’il ne faudrait flours Jehan Lescurel (14th century)
Improvisation on dhotar Ken Zuckerman
Raga Pahari Traditional Indian
„Alleluia, Angelus Domini“ Gregorian chant
Raga ‚Manj Khammaj’- introduction Traditional Indian
Bontés, sen, valours et pris“ (ballad) Jehan de Lescurel
Raga ‚Manj Khammaj’(con’t) Traditional Indian
Ven querida Sephardic song
La Charramanga Spanish song
Raga Koushi Bhairavi Traditional Indian
Biaus m’est estez
Pleasant is the summer which resounds with the singing of the birds in the grove,
and the dew brightens the grass on the shore.
I wish my heart to awake to love, no one desires her as much as I.
Nevertheless, she is too noble for me and I have no right to be accepted by the one I love.
Dis tans plus qu’il ne faudroit flours
Ten times more than the flowers needed to build a mountain up to the sky
are the sweet greetings I send you, and may God fill you with love for me.
Young and beautiful and gracious lady, I have given you all my heart;
Honour and loving joy be yours each day, noble and gentle heart.
May you feel no pain, but great sweetness whenever I look upon you.
Just as my love grows ever more faithful since you have given me your favour.
Bontés, sen, valours et pris
Goodness, intelligence, valor, and nobility, a delicate gaze united in a sweet face,
graceful bearing, sovereign beauty make me love with a true love a valorous lady,
for which I thank good Amor.
Ven querida
Come my heart’s desire, come my love, come to the shore of the sea.
Come, I shall tell you of my misfortune, which will cause you to weep.
An orphan, without father and mother, I have nobody to help me.
Stretch out your leg so that I can rest upon it.
I shall dream a beautiful dream in which I die in your arm.
La charramanga
I was posted at the door, watching who left the ball. I didn’t see your face. You are nice with everyone except me. What a night – it rains, it snows…
With your black hair, you steal the hearts – where did you put mine?
* * * * * *
This evenings’ concert offers a rare opportunity to experience two different musical worlds in dialogue: the reconstructed musical culture of the European Middle Ages and the ancient but still continuous tradition of North Indian classical music – two worlds that are indeed separated with respect to time and geography, and yet still linked by common characteristic features. The classical tradition of North Indian music, whose origins can be traced back to antiquity, is marked both by a strong ad-herence to its own origins and an openness to influences from other cultures. The forms that are still practiced today emerged from a fusion of Hindu and Islamic tra-ditions, which reached their greatest blossoming in the sixteenth century during the reign of the Mogul emperor Akbar (1556-1605). North Indian music is based on the creative interplay of raga (melody) and tala (rhythm). The largely improvised per-formances are based on both complex melodic models and traditional compositions, which are passed down over generations from teacher to pupil. A delicate balance is always maintained between the proportion of improvised melodic and rhythmic ex-pressions and the given modal structures and rhythmic cycles. This interplay be-tween the traditional frameworks and the spontaneous expression also enables an active dialogue with the listener, who is subtly led through both the familiar and unexplored territory of the modal and rhythmic landscape.
European art music of the Middle Ages, seemingly far removed and accessible only by means of written documents, has clearly recognizable roots in Eastern traditions. So it is not surprising that parallels can also be established with Indian musical cul-ture. In both cultures, the music is based on complex structures. On the perform-ance level, too, there is clear evidence – as in Indian music – of individual creativity through improvisation. In addition to this there is the mutual characteristic of tonal organization, since a central organizational feature of both musical traditions are the melodic modes, through which structural tones, characteristic phrases, and to a cer-tain extent even emotional content, is developed. Although the tonal systems are different (roughly stated: seven whole- and half-tone steps in Western music as com-pared to micro intervals and groups of tones in Indian music), common features can however, be recognized in the means of musical fashioning.
For example, in Biaus m’est estez (Trouvere song), the Dorian mode development (with both natural and flatted 6th degree), is very similar to several Indian ragas, whose parent scale is referred to as Kafi. And in Dis tans plus qu’il ne faudrait flours (Jehan Lescurel), the treatment of the Lydian mode, with its use of both the raised and natural 4th degree, is similar to Indian ragas belonging to the parent scale Kalyan. In fact, all of the most important melodic modes used in Medieval music have counterparts in the Indian tradition.