From: Valuemetaphysics@aol.com
Date: Tue Jan 27 2004 - 00:18:07 GMT
Dear forum,
as part of my project to search for examples of exceptional SQ-SQ
tension/coherence, i have been thinking about the following for a couple of
years:
From: http://www.library.duq.edu/newsletter/Summer2000/worldmusic.htm
What was it about the music of India, and specifically the form called the
raga, that captured the imagination of musicians from George Harrison to
violinist Yehudi Menuhin? Everyone has heard the Beatles' incorporation of the form
with attendant Eastern mysticism. Lesser-known efforts at that time included
numerous hybrids a multitude of folk/rock/blues/jazz ragas. Does any
one remember"East-West" by the Butterfield Blues Band? Or jazz trumpeter Don Ellis'
Hindustani Jazz Sextet? The music became inextricably tied to images of lava lamps
and love beads, which lends to it an anachronistic quality nowadays. That is
unfortunate, because this is Indian classical music, not a fad.
At the same time, Ravi Shankar, the leading exponent of this music, became a
smash with jazz aficionados and later with rock fans at the Monterey Pop
Festival in 1967. Shankar played the sitar, a north Indian stringed instrument
previously unknown in the West, but soon to become almost as recognizable as the
electric guitar. Hippies adopted the musical traditions of India as part of
their consciousness.
Ragas, a new addition to the Gumberg Library's world music selections,
featuring Shankar on sitar and Ali Akbar Khan on the more resonant sarod, affords a
glimpse into the why of it all. This is a recording from the mid-Sixties,
around the time George Harrison introduced the sitar to his fans. The mysticism
inherent in the raga holds the Western listener before its structure and
complexity of a different sort from our own musical evolution but no less complex
becomes clear.
Musicologists may have an explanation for this spell. It is the concept of
ethos, or personification of character in music. It was important to the ancient
Greeks and included morality or ethics. What we know in the West is that each
raga type (which can be a spin-off on a melody, a central note, scale, mode,
or a collection of these) has a special persona or character and this
embodiment lends itself to metaphysical possibilities and the idea of musicas a means
of meditation or getting closer to the Divine.
Perhaps this explains why the raga (which is Sanskrit for color or musical
tone) became such a touchstone in pop culture during the Sixties, drug-addled
yet searching for transcendence. But whereas some of the synthesis in the West
was rather heavy-handed and used ostinato, or repeated figures, to approximate
the drone of the raga, the Indian musicians create subtle music that seems to
flow out of another dimension and sense of time. And this drone is the
opposite of the harmonic movement which is our frame of reference in music.
Western ears attuned to harmony may at first find this an arid landscape with
no familiar landmarks. The backdrop of the music lies in the drone, which is
created by the stringed instrument called the tambura. The tambura does in
fact generate some overtones (harmonics) that hover over the sitar and the sarod.
Each raga is a cycle that starts in free rhythm, based on certain scales,
modes or melodic motifs. There may be short bursts of melody and numerous "bent"
notes or ornaments. These notes fall in the cracks between intervals known in
the West and are something like "blue notes" in jazz or rock, but actually
more intricate in the possibilities of articulation. These bent notes also held
fascination for rock musicians, for whom blues guitar was important.
Gradually, imperceptibly, rhythmic patterns emerge, spelled out by the tabla,
or hand drum, the pace quickens, and the structure builds to a climax.
On Ragas, there are four offerings in this form, and underneath a deceptive
sameness, the personality of each raga emerges. And indeed one can listen to
them raptly enough to induce a reverie that could be likened to a meditative
state. This is in large part improvised music, so that while there is a sketch or
plan to the gradual unfolding of the raga, spontaneity is always there.
Shankar and Khan are truly masters of the style, who play with elegance, wit and
nuance.
Note the phrases and words i have highlighted.
Over the last few years i have become a huge admirer of the Raga, and would
recommend any Shankar material or the Nimbus 4 CD survey of 74 basic raga
patterns.
It is the drone i wish to draw attention to - here we have a static centre on
which SQ-SQ tension is made coherent with the patterns of the human
player/listener. Essentially, any conceptual distinction in this coherence other than
that explained by the MoQ does not make any aesthetic sense to me.
The dharma of the raga, if this is an acceptable way of putting it, is DQ? I
wonder what the forum thinks about this?
There appears to be a close connection between the drone in Indian raga, the
drone is celtic pipes, the clave in Latino music, the modes of Christian
liturgical cannon, and many other examples of static centres around which SQ-SQ
tension between Inorganic, organic, social and intellectual patterns are brought
into exceptional coherence - DQ.
These exceptional states seem to me to have a high moral status which is, i
venture to suggest, Universally explored in Human culture - and from an MoQ
perspective, culture means social and Intellectual patterns of value also.
Mathematicians use musical analogues to express the Quality of their art,
which urges me to consider were the drone/centre/clave in a mathematician's
creative experience is?
Is there a drone/centre/clave in social patterns?
One last word, listening to Holts' Beni Mori recently, i noted again, as is
always the case when i here the third movement of that piece, the rhythmic
drone you may hang onto throughout the performance - he uses a similar device in
'Mars' from The Planets. It kills you - it removes you - it transforms you into
nothingness. And one feels wonderful to be alive.
Mark
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