About music
Listening
After having traveled through many countries, I went to Madras, India, where I attended the yearly music and dance festival (mid December - mid January) and it was a revelation. Carnatic Music (South Indian classical music), composed mainly during the 18th Century, has the elements of music that I was the most interested in: an extremely rich rhythm including 35 basic combinations (35 talam), thousands of modes (ragam) issued from 72 basic scales (72 melakarta) and a complex art of oscillating notes and linking them together (gammakam). The combinations of the melody (sruti) and the rhythm (laya) are infinite. Improvisation is an integral part of this music.
Practice
In 1982, I started to study Carnatic Music under Master V.L.Vedagiri who was an All India Radio violinist.
During the many religious festivals, I discovered a drum called thavil that has, as far as I know, the most sophisticated rhythm repertoire in the world and a really powerful sound. It's a double-sided, barrel-shaped drum about 50 cm long and 35 cm in diameter. On one side a very tight skin is played with the fingers covered by hard caps and creates high pitch, almost metallic, sounds. On the other side, the skin is looser and played with a short wooden stick, it produces bass sounds.
There are usually two or more thavil players who play alternately as it is a hard job to play powerfully at this speed. Their solos can last for hours and the public really appreciates them. Usually they accompany a double reed wind instrument called a Nadaswaram. I studied the art of thavil under Master T.R.Subramaniam. I learned first to pronounce the rhythms where syllables represent different sounds on the instrument such as TA DI TOM NAM. I used to perform, particularly in solo, in Europe, India and Japan.
Video
thavil solo (01'41") |
"The Thavil: the arithmetic of the rhythm" This will probably be the title of my reportage on thavil. The shooting was done in six months in Tamil Nadu in the beginning of 2007. The montage (editing) is a hard and captivating work. It is very difficult for me to choose among more than thirty hours of rushes as I love almost all. This movie will show how the thavil is made, learned and used. Here are a few short extracts. |
thavil katai (01'24") |
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thavil teka sul (05'10") |
thavil school (01'28") |
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T.R.S. korvay (00'54") |
T.R.S. mora (01'07") |
T.R.S. tisra nadai (05'46") |
T.R.S. misra nadai (05'42") |
T.R.S. concert (01'46") |
If any problem, these videos are aslo at youtube. |
V L Sudharsan violin (21'58") |
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Composition
Muzafir |
ingredients :
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urban |
