ORIGINAL MUSIC FOR PIANO AND GUITAR
The concert was like a series of
controlled conversations between two good friends who happen to be very intelligent;
who discussed their thoughts, feelings, and ideas respectfully and openly
on a variety of subjects. They asked and answered questions and exchanged news
and information in a way that was civilised and engaging.
Concert organised by Hyderabad
Western Music Foundation
(first of a series to celebrate
the 10th year of HWMF)
At Alliance Francaise Hyderabad
on 3 March 2018
And the conversations were conducted by
Aman Mahajan and Nishad Pandey, two creative musicians - in the medium of
music.
It was like two people talking to
understand each other, and to create shared meaning. There was no flirty banter or malicious
gossip, arguments, debates or awkward silences, yet there was humour and a
lightness of touch to the conversations.
And what were the conversations about?
Well, they were about real and imagined
worlds; a pastiche of sounds
from Indian and European music; they created musical conversations and
improvised on subjects, pictures, and Zen like tales, they made up melodies on
the spot, they entered uncharted and varied terrain and met creatures of those
areas, they explored rhythmic patterns and developed themes around them, they
conversed about machines communicating with one another, and they played a
lullaby for a snake.
And though the music was very listener
friendly and melodious, the music was also very
complex, in the sense that this
music could be played only by very advanced musicians who were also
extraordinarily proficient at their instruments and had a deep understanding of
the theory of music; of compositional technique, of improvisation, and who have
systematically studied music.
The various techniques that they employed
in making the music they made and yet keeping it simple sounding enough for the
audience to enjoy as much as we did was the work of genius. And that’s what
they were.
To give you a few examples of what they
did, without us realising it:
In one tune, ‘Patterns’ both the musicians
played circular palindromes, i.e. they played musical phrases that are the same
played forward and back. Like the word Malayalam, or the sentence ‘was it a rat
i saw’, they are the same forward or back. In the same tune, they played these
circular palindromes to what is equivalent to a rhythm cycle of 9 beats which
was also a circular palindrome.
In “See you in Berlin” they together
harmonised a phrase inspired by Indian music.
In another tune they used a ‘phasing
compositional technique’, where both the instrumentalists play a phrase of
music repetitively but in different tempos. Varying the tempos or the tune very
slightly but perfectly coordinated, and though simple sounding, and
minimalistic it demands a great deal of musicality, musical expertise and
intense concentration to do this.
In one tune, ‘Simple Machines’ they cross
phrased chord progressions, this too is not as simple as the tune sounded, and
it was a very appealing tune too, in this they juxtaposed simple chords with
unusual rhythmic cadences in untraditional ways, more or less like
counterpoint, so one could say that they re-harmonised the melody elaborately
as only jazz musicians can do to make it sound so good.
In one of their pieces that was completely improvised; both the musicians plucked a melody out of thin air and took off and conversed intelligently; it was based on a quote by Thich Nhat Hahn which said “In true dialogue, both sides are willing to change”, this held true for the whole concert, where both the
musicians conversed in a true dialogue. Both listened to the other. Both the
musicians put in their own point of view, simply, clearly and seamlessly. Both
brought in interesting ideas which they formed and changed and agreed upon in a
dialogue that was impressive.
The Tinctures concert, the first in a
series of concerts to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Hyderabad Western
Music Foundation was always interesting to the audience, and to paraphrase 'Have I told You lately...' by Van
Morrison, Aman & Nishad filled our hearts with gladness, took away our
sadness and eased our troubles - that's what they did.
Photographs: Joe Koster
Photographs: Joe Koster
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