Melharmony Workshop: A New Approach of Melody-Centric Harmony

[asangeetha]

Sharing information that may be useful to students abroad..

I take great pleasure in sharing with you the path-breaking news of Summer Credit (and non-Credit) courses on Melharmony and Indian Classical Music by the world renowned Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY. This week long course from Aug 3-7, is open to all students at or above college level as well as composers, avid listeners interested in learning more about these subjects. It is being directed by Prof Robert Morris, distinguished composer and Chitravina N Ravikiran.

The Course details are given below in the link which includes Registration & Accommodation information. It would be a wonderful experience for every talented student familiar with Indian and/or Western Classical/Jazz. Please share this with your friends and ask them to register soon as the deadline is barely a week away.

Melharmony Workshop: A New Approach of Melody-Centric Harmony | Summer @ Eastman

[vasanthakokilam]

Exciting news indeed. Sri. Ravikiran's founding of this new field is a truly trailblazing and monumentally significant achievement in the development of music. The interest in this kind of work has been there. For example, even total amateurs like us have talked about such things here
http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=547
http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php? ... ng#p248722
which illustrates the interest among some enthusiasts.
But it takes a person like Sri. Ravikiran to look into this extensively with deep insight and come up with a set of principles to achieve such melody centric harmonic pieces that live within the rules of both the melodic and harmonic systems.

The courses of this nature at top music schools do provide the necessary exposure to spread it to the wider community.

All the best.

[arasi]

VKokilam,
How right you are! Ravikiran is the sum total of all that we appreciate in a musician. His amazing depth in what he knows, his experience in music, excellent performances, status as a guru and his communicating abilities!

Sounds like a great opportunity for the enthusiasts who can take a week off to experience a workshop like this...

[rvkrishnamurthy]

It is nice to know that Ravikiran has managed to get this summer institute at Eastman. He has all it takes to do something like this but there is no harm in talking to people who have been doing it for a while. Dr Rohan Krishnamurthy began this endeavor six years ago with his percussion summer institute and it was a great success. He produced some gems in that process. He will be doing it again this year and it is a week before Ravikiran's workshop. Rohan told me that Prof Morris did talk to him about Ravikiran's work shop. Eastman School holds Rohan in high esteem by the way. After all he is their their alumna.

[arasi]

Prof. Krishnamurthy,
What you say of Rohan is true.

As for Ravikiran, many in the music world hold his music and musical experience in very high regard. His music says it all, and also his scholarship and communicative abilities. I'm sure Rohan is happy that his alma mater has invited this musician-composer to conduct a Melharmony workshop.

[rvkrishnamurthy]

Thanks Arasi. No doubt we all know what Ravikiran is made of. In fact I have dealt with him for more than a decade arranging concerts in the US between him and Rohan. He is family for us. What I am trying to say is there is no harm in teaming up with another genius who knows the US culture better. For example introducing Ravikiran as the "Mozart of India" doesn't go well here. They laugh at it as I have experienced. There is no need for such comparisons. Ravikiran has a standing of his own and he should make use of it. Any way this is some thing I should talk to him about and not for this forum.

[rvkrishnamurthy]

Arasi
If you send me your email I can share some stuff with you. My email is [email protected]

[Rsachi]

Dear rvkrishnamurthy,

For someone who's family for you, viz. Ravikiran, your hinting that he has swung this on his own somewhat ineptly, when he should have collaborated with Rohan, seems highly unnecessary and in poor "public" taste.

I agree that calling him "Mozart of India" is also unnecessary and somewhat ludicrous, seen from a point of maturity.

[uday_shankar]

Mr. Krishnamurthy:

I know I speak for a lot of people when I say that I find it very insolent that you should be offering unsolicited advice to one of India's foremost musicians in a public forum. If it is "not for this forum", as you claim, then what the hell is it doing here ?!

One need not list the endless musical accomplishments of Shri Ravikiran here; however, if there is no need for comparisons with Mozart, there certainly is none for comparisons with Rohan Krishnamurthy. Yikes!

[arasi]

I don't know if it's Ravikiran's name which brings a tamizh proverb to mind. If I were harimau, I would have posted it, of course!

Uday,
If you don't get it, please send me mail
Seriously, I am certainly not for online or offline smears of this sort...

[uday_shankar]

Arasi, the pazhamozhi escapes me! Sent you an email requesting clarification .

[arasi]

Folks,
The Like feature is back, and not knowing where to click to see the person who liked the post, I generated another Like--from me Didn't want to pat myself on the back. Just a mistake. We have to click on the number and not the icon, I see now...

[cacm]

I dislike POOR COMPARISONS & TRYING to tag on to Ravi Kiran to gain acceptance. THERE IS NO COMPARISON WHATEVER ....VKV

[asangeetha]

Here's a news article about Ravikiran-ji in Wisconsin State Journal, the headline of which calls him 'Mozart of India' .

http://host.madison.com/news/local/educ ... 963f4.html

Around 1.50 of this video, the Belgium National Television says the same

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNKBmWeW4j0

Clearly, it is the American and European media which has given the "Mozart of India" tag to Ravikiran-ji.

Another feature on Ravikiran-ji by America's National Public Radio (NPR) says that "Ravikiran's bio brings new meaning to child prodigy."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4665064

And many others ...

[Nick H]

Prof. Krishnamurthy ...

I'm sure we've known him long enough to be on first-name terms: just call him Dad!

And this time, he certainly got it in first

[Nick H]

I agree that calling him "Mozart of India" is also unnecessary and somewhat ludicrous, seen from a point of maturity.

It is a nonsense, indeed, because he stands simply on his own achievements, and needs no comparison to anyone else. However, it is probably a lot more justified than the Mozart of Madras tag given to someone who is just a merchant of pop.

All people know about Mozart, when they use his name in this way, is that he was a gifted child, a prodigy; he was highly accomplished at a very early age. They know that as a cultural anecdote, even if they have never (knowingly) heard his music. I don't know that much about WCM, or Mozart, either, but I suspect that he was actually a one-off musician/composer phenomenon of all time. On thing that sticks in my mind is that he could not only remember music that he had heard only once, note perfect, but he could remember the orchestral/choral arrangement too. That is, he could leave the concert hall, go home, and write the score, with all its parts. Apparently, this is how some music which was, at that time, only known and performed within the Vatican, came to be available outside its chapels.

[arasi]

Nick,

For some reason, the 'sir' business doesn't wash with me, so I made it Doctor, I suppose. Prof is another handle. After all, he's both.

I heard someone say, 'does this in any way help the gifted son at all?' I tend to agree.

[Rsachi]

Nick, so we're on the same page. However I do hope that (unwittingly) you aren't stoking the aspirations of those who like to create tags like Mozart of India or Spielberg of Bollywood or Kurosawa of Kodambakkam.

There is a hilarious moment in Mirudanga Chakravarthy Tamil movie when the mridangam maestro Sivaji is asked to compete on stage with his own estranged son, who is introduced to the audience with words about how his mridangam prowess has been honoured in Russia, Japan and America etc. Sivaji, by a mere raising of his eyebrow and a curl of his mouth, heaps disdain on the very idea of trying to show off medals or tags won overseas when the real test of Indian music is here and now.

The tag 'Mozart of India' is supposed to make it easy for those who know Mozart to start understanding how great Ravikiran is. But how can you compare two different musicians from two different periods and different musical streams with totally different reach and set of accomplishments.

I am big on Mozart. I have a definitive collection of all his music performed by the best of musicians. I have seen the movie Amadeus a few times. I have a book on Mozart. Mozart is incomparable.

Ravikiran is incomparable. Like Carnatic music. Like his instrument.Like everything that is godly.

All comparisons are therefore puerile. Maybe a confession of our own inadequacies.

Amoolya, Achintya, Atulya, Ananya, are all words coined to reinforce such incomparable phenomena.

[Nick H]

I too hope I am not stoking aspirations of the tag creators

I, too, agree that Ravikiran is incomparable. I can think of a number of other musicians who are too, but few of them would have been considered as such at such a young age, leading to a situation where we have a senior maestro in a comparatively young body.

Another thing I'm not keen on is the "It is all thanks to the guru," (before anyone jumps on me, note the stress on "all." Of course, the guru shows, leads, paves the way, but without the effort, skill and gift of the student, nothing would come of it) but I think that Ravikiran's father, and guru must, by the results that we see in his student, also be incomparable.

Some sort of indication, for those of other cultures who know nothing of the music, might be in order. We might tell another, for instance, that the musician they are to see, in this culture, has the status of someone like Yehudi Menuhin in Western violin, but that would be within the context of the conversation, which is different to "tagging."

Another aspect, which I suspect you will also agree with, is that the tagging approach is almost like a stamp of approval. Either way around, West/East or East/West, that is distasteful. Each stands in its own right on its own ground.

(this is the sort of topic one can waffle on about for ever... so I'll stop now! )

[arasi]

In music, like a ray of sunshine...ravi kiran...

[vasanthakokilam]

>Kurosawa of Kodambakkam

Sachi, LOL, good one.

BTW, any connection and comparison of that sort will not be perfect but that is done all the time because it serves a purpose. It quickly establishes the person in the minds of thousands instantly. Nick makes a pretty good case why one may want to invoke Mozart in connection with Ravikiran given the parallels, so it is true, like Uday says, if at all there is anyone who can be the subject of such comparison, it is Ravikiran. But I think the problem is Mozart is so huge, no one can really be called 'Mozart of <anything>'. It is just unnecessarily invoking a giant. Like calling a genius scientist 'Einstein of Erode'. It just does not work. It is not due to any insufficiency of the person.

There is another aspect to this. We Indians, as a people, have this psycho pathology. This is sometimes endearing which most psycho pathologies are. Let us call them 'quirks'. We have this love hate relationship with the overall concept of 'West'. That is not surprising given our history. On the one hand, we have a part of the 'West' in us that makes us feel good that we have adjusted to fit the modern times. That seems to be the right thing to do rather than getting stuck with obstinate policies of not adopting modern amenities that predominantly originated in the West. Whether it is medicine, science, modern conveniences or technology. On the other hand, we are all naturally proud of our heritage and we revolt against any attempt that invokes western comparisons to establish the greatness of our own stuff.

This is mostly true when it comes to our cultural, spiritual and fine arts heritage. i do not think people will have a misgiving about calling someone 'Bill Gates of Bharat" or 'Warren Buffet of India" or even 'Schwartznegar of <whatever>' .

And 'Kurosawa of Kodambakkam' notwithstanding, let us consider a great indian painter who gives the 'ink wash' painting an indian character. If he/she is compared to 'Sesshu Toyo', that would not feel weird to us. First of all, most people want to know who this person is that is being compared to. Once they learn, they will feel quite proud that this budding painter from our land is being compared to such a giant from Japan. I do not think there will be any cultural clashes in such comparisons. There are three factors at play: We do not feel any great cultural connection to 'ink wash' painting, we do not have such love/hate relationship with Japan culturally and the fact that 'Toyo' does not come to Indians with any pre-conceived notion of a 'giant' ( even though he is a giant in that field and so such comparisons in Japan will have to meet the highest of standards if at all anyone dare to make such comparisons).

<End of psycho analysis of Indians>

[arasi]

Brother! It's just the beginning

You make a lot of sense, though...

I liked Sachi's Kurosawa of Kodambakkam too!

[uday_shankar]

I've spent a lot of time observing and thinking about Ravikiran and perhaps someday I will write objectively about it.

To me among all the recorded amazing feats of Ravikiran starting from the age 2, I think his greatest feat is making a successful transition, relatively unscathed, from being an authentic child prodigy to being an authentic musical genius.

Being either one is a huge psychological burden that can take a toll on an individual to the point of destruction, as we have sadly observed in many cases, including Mozart. Making a transition from one to the other and remaining a normal human being is truly astonishing. I believe somewhere I wrote an essay on him titled "Normally astonishing, astonishingly normal".

One of the reasons, I believe, is his additional gift of remarkable maturity from an extremely tender age. For example, he was able to observe great vidvans at the age of 5 and make deep assessments not only about their artistic merit but also their mental attitude and approach towards life! It utterly boggles my mind that a 5 year old child could think such profound thoughts.

Another reason is his humility in front of the art. Like Isaac Newton (who lived to a ripe old age and made a successful transition from gifted child, perhaps unrecognized prodigy, to a grown up genius) and other great savants of history, Ravikiran is able to perceive the enormity and vastness of the unexplored compared to what we already know. Lesser folks perceive their own great accomplishments and lose sight of that vastness.

This constant exploration and "continuous refinement" is reflected in his musical style which has evolved like no other Carnatic artist I know. The Ravikiran of 25 years ago was a very different artist and chitravina player from the one today, albeit just as great and the music just as beautiful but in a different way. Along the way he has taken advantage of the latest electronic enhancements that helped him express his music better. This constant evolution of an artist's style is, I believe, quite unique in the annals of Carnatic music.

[cacm]

It is nice to know that Ravikiran has managed to get this summer institute at Eastman. He has all it takes to do something like this but there is no harm in talking to people who have been doing it for a while. Dr Rohan Krishnamurthy began this endeavor six years ago with his percussion summer institute and it was a great success. He produced some gems in that process. He will be doing it again this year and it is a week before Ravikiran's workshop. Rohan told me that Prof Morris did talk to him about Ravikiran's work shop. Eastman School holds Rohan in high esteem by the way. After all he is their their alumna.

DEAR RVK,
YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED TO KNOW THAT RAVI SHANKAR STARTED THE WHOLE INDIAN MUSIC THING AT EASTMAN school of music in 1959 WELL BEFORE ROHAN OR PROF. MORRIS Were EVER THERE. YOUR attempt to push your son actually has resulted in the opposite effect taking place as you EXAGGERATE THINGS beyond reason...... VKV

[Nick H]

This is mostly true when it comes to our cultural, spiritual and fine arts heritage. i do not think people will have a misgiving about calling someone 'Bill Gates of Bharat" or 'Warren Buffet of India" or even 'Schwartznegar of ... )

Sholinganallur, of course!

[arasi]

Nick,

[munirao2001]

Uday Shankar Sir,

I appreciate your posting on one of our greatest maestros in the history of Karnataka Sangeetham. I had posted my realization of his genius in a thread on nomination for Sangeeta Kalanidhi, earlier. I would like to add that CRK genius to mature in to the present stature, one of the great Sangita Kalacharya and Great Maestro, Sri Chitraveena Narasimhan Sir's teaching and mentorship should be gratefully remembered. Besides many other achievements, the innovation of Melharmony is one of the great offering to the classical world music in music history. Sincere or compelling creativity of melharmony did take place in Mysore and Tanjavuru. Composers for AIR vadya vrinda and film music had also attempted melharmony in the back ground scores. CRK with great understanding and insights perfected such creativity with his invention free from defects, if any. With deserving acceptance, Classical Music and Indian Classical music will be enriched and its practice will open up new vistas for practitioners and also rasikas.

To me, CRK is excellence and idealism of Karnataka Sangeetham personified.

munirao2001