While it might seem counter intuitive, the art of improvisational music fused with disciplined ideology is alive and well. And it took center stage Friday night at the Kaua‘i Community College Performing Arts Center in Puhi. Who would have thought
While it might seem counter intuitive, the art of improvisational music fused with disciplined ideology is alive and well. And it took center stage Friday night at the Kaua‘i Community College Performing Arts Center in Puhi.
Who would have thought there is a way to methodically approach improvisation? Anyone second-guessing such an ideology would have witnessed it firsthand at the 4th Annual ‘Classical Music of India’ Concert Series.
Compelling to both hear and watch, the show brought maestro violinist Kala Ramnath and percussionist Ty Burhoe (playing a tabla) together in masterful accord.
Seated on an unassuming platform, the duo enlivened the ambiance with musical chemistry embellished with a vivid splash of flowers and the earthy scent of incense.
“It’s a real treat to play with someone when you don’t know what (Ramnath’s) going to do from one second to the next,” Burhoe told the audience.
Though the two-set show only included three songs, each seemed to have a life of its own, lasting between 10 and 20 minutes.
At the beginning of the second act, the master of ceremonies announced that it was perfectly fine for the audience to express themselves during the music — and express themselves they did indeed. A number of “free spirits” could be seen dancing in the aisles during the second set.
The spirited homage to classical Indian music was certainly a crowd-pleaser, relying on the extemporization between Burhoe and Ramnath and a simple, harmonious series of scales coupled with structured — albeit improvised — progressions.
“It’s like being given a set of colors and asked to make a painting with only those colors,” Ramnath said, explaining to the audience the method behind the approach.
Each piece began with Ramnath setting the melodic structure, with Burhoe listening to the direction of the music before beginning percussion on the tabla (drums).
“The pieces begin slowly,” Ramnath said before playing her initial, seemingly-mournful notes reminiscent of Yo Yo Ma’s cello. The duo then picked up the pace, literally “playing off of each other” as the expression goes, with the pieces progressing, building cadence speed and tempo, at times evocative of Charlie Daniel’s fiddle.
Midway through the second set Ramnath took the microphone to give the audience a lesson in the methods of classical Indian music, while Burhoe continued keeping rhythm on the tabla.
“Would you like to know what’s going on?” she said. Ramnath then explained to the audience how it’s done: A 10-beat cycle is the foundation, followed by a scale and selected progression. Ramnath said the scales and progressions dictate a “way to come up and down.”
Ramnath then illustrated this using the Westernized scale method: “do re mi …” and varied it to match the progressions she was playing.
Shorter than the previous two numbers, the third progressed very quickly to a high level of energy before its crescendo and, of course, a well-earned standing ovation from the audience.
No doubt, witnessing the improvisation and symbiotic interaction between the musicians was in itself part of what lent to the audience’s experience, both musically and visually.
To be sure, in addition to Ramnath’s music method lessons, a highlight was witnessing the intricacies with which Burhoe struck the tabla, coupled with Ramnath’s’ emotive reactions to the music.
Also impressive was the communication between the two as they constructed the music, nodding to each other when harmonious, and visually acknowledging to each other their slight, less-than-harmonious mistakes.
Masterful and organically executed, Ramnath and Burhoe demonstrated the nature of making music, in a method signifying the fleeting quality of true art.
