Music: An appreciation Session #2 Ram V1 October 15, 2018

Contents A quick recap of what we picked up so far The vital fundamentals to appreciate music The various genres Its basis for a wholesome experience A musical introduction What is in music? Aspects of Indian music, its diversity in unity and unity in diversity Importance of informed listening for a wholesome experience More listening…… Questions & Answers

A quick recap of what we picked up so far Just listen; throwing yourself in to the strains of the music played. Speech makes sense with a certain poise and pace, a certain rhythm (time), and a tonal quality (modulation). Sound->Organized Sound->Music->Sound Music is the organization of sound to create beauty of form (aurally) and expression of emotion. Essentials of music: Clarity-Why ? Need to settle down. Lend your ears, consciously. Hearing, listening, informed listening. Vital fundamentals to appreciate music; How much knowledge is good, and good enough ? And the various genres.

The vital fundamentals to appreciate music—its basis for wholesome experience It is here that the three vital organs/faculties take part: brain/ears, the capacity to feel/think (heart), and synthesize elements into a whole come into play (brain). The key is knowledge about ‘what is going on ?’ and look for it consciously.

A musical introduction We have the following to begin with: The Dance of Siva, a Tamil composition (vocal): Sudha Raghunathan Anand (happiness), Sounds Of Silence (instrumental): Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia Symphonie 88, Joseph Haydn (musical ensemble): Karl Böhm, Wiener Philharmoniker Symphony, No. 25, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1st movement (musical ensemble): Neville Marriner, Academy of St.Martin-In-The-Fields

A musical introduction Listening to music is different from hearing music ? Agree/Disagree. What did you listen ? Can you describe ? What are the key points you picked up from among the many ?

What is in music ? Something to hear / something to listen. A lot of things go on. Music elements – notes, scales, tunes, time measures, musical forms, patterns (notes and beats), performance aspects Melody (rAga), Tonal aspects (tonic pitch), rhythm

Aspects of Indian music, its diversity in unity and unity in diversity Melodic – rAga as the basis for presenting the musical notes Rhythm – tALa as the basis for keeping time Reference – shruti as the most fundamental basis for any variation of Indian music Percussion – who keeps time matters….. Broadly – Carnatic (South Indian) and Hindustani (North Indian) What binds and what differentiates the two ? Where each score over the other, in a manner that each can learn something from the other ?

Importance of informed listening for a wholesome experience Recognize the elements consciously Graduate from hearing to listening Look for patterns, themes, and if they repeat or not Compare and contrast (your listening experience); NOT the performers and their performance. Listen to the same musical item by a number of different performers; and listen to the same performer performing a number of different musical items. Finally, peel the layers by being ready to be informed about (seeming messy) details.

More listening……. Live in Geneva: Ustad Bismillah Khan and Dr L Subramaniam (shehnai and violin) Pause The Four Seasons, Opening movements in each of the season: Antonio Vivaldi, London Philharmonic, David Nolan Symphony No.5 in C minor: Ludwig von Beethoven, 1st movement, last movement, Dresden Philharmonic, Herbert Kegel

More listening…… What did you listen ? Can you describe ? What are the key points you picked up from among the many ? Essentially we let ourselves to cultivate our ears for informed listening through a lot of guided listening…..which we will take up in detail in the next two sessions.

Questions and answers

Why music ? Objective: Enhanced individual and collective effectiveness in addressing tactical and strategic matters through refined perspectives and outlooks. One of the highly developed aspects of human intelligence that caters to the subjective through an objective approach, perfected by human beings—through the faculty of hearing->listening->informed listening, to appreciate the sublime and the beautiful, often subjectively and occasionally objectively.

Which music ? Essentially any music that moves, impacts, relieves, engages, and most importantly improvised and spontaneous. Indian music: “One of the great characteristics of the Music of India to my mind is its flexibility and freedom. While giving due consideration to traditions stemming from the past, Indian Music is free and improvised so that all powers of imagination in the musician are brought into play. In this way the Music of India is always creative, never a reproduction of what is written or played, as sometimes happens with the Music of Western countries. – Leopold Stakoswki, English conductor of Polish and Irish descent.