An enthralling evening of traditional Indian performing arts
That post title is a lie.
After completing the aforementioned sari shopping and vowing to never again be dragged along on shopping trip with ten girls, we went to a performance at one of Mysore's many palaces. The first part of the performance consisted of an English professor (who appeared to be about one thousand years old) singing some songs in Kannada. I admit I'm a complete cultural Philistine, but I was struggling to stay awake. The man was accompanied by two drummers and violinist, and was singing in a voice that was essentially a monotone. Combine that with words that are total gibberish, and you get a recipe forstupefication EXCITEMENT!
The dance performance was a bit better, but I've never been able to appreciate dance on the level of others. It's one of my gaping character flaws. However, all was redeemed when we went to the Sandesh (best restaurant/hotel in the city) for Dr. Vidya's birthday dinner. We got to teach her about the American custom of blowing out the candle on the cake (which the restaurant staff hadn't even lit) and watch her expression of total befuddlement when we serenaded her with "Happy Birthday." A nice capper to the evening.
And now back to Kannada studying.
After completing the aforementioned sari shopping and vowing to never again be dragged along on shopping trip with ten girls, we went to a performance at one of Mysore's many palaces. The first part of the performance consisted of an English professor (who appeared to be about one thousand years old) singing some songs in Kannada. I admit I'm a complete cultural Philistine, but I was struggling to stay awake. The man was accompanied by two drummers and violinist, and was singing in a voice that was essentially a monotone. Combine that with words that are total gibberish, and you get a recipe for
The dance performance was a bit better, but I've never been able to appreciate dance on the level of others. It's one of my gaping character flaws. However, all was redeemed when we went to the Sandesh (best restaurant/hotel in the city) for Dr. Vidya's birthday dinner. We got to teach her about the American custom of blowing out the candle on the cake (which the restaurant staff hadn't even lit) and watch her expression of total befuddlement when we serenaded her with "Happy Birthday." A nice capper to the evening.
And now back to Kannada studying.
posted by Jake | 5:10 AM
1 Comments:
Much eastern/asian music has a very limited tone range. The 13 tone scale you are used to hearing is a unique western thing. It came out after the middle ages. until then the "Church" determined what was and what was not an appropriate harmony...especially when it came to sacred stuff (think of that toe-tapping Gregorian chant and so forth). Non-church (secular) music was developed in spite of the church and that is where our tone scale/harmony largely comes from. It was deemed to stimulating and hence sacri-religious. The emergion of secular music is really a political/social story as much as it is music theory. Another limitation was the tonal range opf the instruments. I wonder if there are paralels in Indian music. I remember how monotonous the music in Vietnam and Japan was, absent any understanding of the lyrics. Dance is wholly secular.
It helps to think of it as story telling with body motion. I approach graphic arts the same way...what is going on and what is the artist trying to tell me. ...and as is true of any art form, it's a form of communication/interpretration that needs historical/social context to fully apreciate. That where you history jocks come in.
You are not a cultural Philistine. Such a person would not acknowdege that there something going on in a performance that is hard to understand/appreciate. Pop
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