Meeting with Indian Musicians
Today I met with two Baul musicians. Bauls are the wandering minstrels and indigenous folksingers of Bengal. They sang and played folk songs that focus on spiritual (of many traditions) themes. These are people that create music that is so rooted in the deep culture and history of Bengal. They played a drum called the with a goat skin head and two strings (fishing line) that is attached to the drum head and pulls through the hollow part of the drum and held in the hand. The drum tone is changed by pulling the strings while striking them with a smooth oval piece of buffalo horn. The stringed instrument played was about 2 feet long with 8 strings. We had the chance to hear one another’s music and then ask questions. When I asked why they play this type of music? He spoke eloquently of how there is no form or structure; it is a music that is interactive and based on rhythm and melody line. He said the age-old roots of the music and spiritual foundations also moved him. He also said it can be played anywhere and so they play everywhere, in train stations and parks and homes and everywhere and anywhere.
I also met a musician who is classically trained in sitar and two musicians who write and perform a fusion of Indian and western music. They often write for Bollywood movies and perform in Kolkata and other areas of the country.
What really struck me was the inner language of music. When the Baul musicians were singing and playing I found myself totally moved and wiping away tears. I could not translate a single word because I do not speak Bengalese, but the music and the spirit of the man singing spoke clearly.
We all talked about the different context in which we perform and how they enjoyed mixing the influences of east and west. India is such an enourmous country and the Punjab is very different than the Bengal. The south is very different than the north. The language spoken in the southern part of India (where I will be starting the 27th) is not even of the same root as the language spoken in the north. I asked the musicians who were performing contemporary Indian music what was the thread that pulled through the music that translated east the west, north to south. They felt in their genre it was combining the familiar western chord forms and structures with the lyrical melody line of Indian music. India melody is like a vine that grows and entwines.
They also gave me an amazing confection made with something like cottage cheese with rose petals.
I sang “If Not Now” and the Baul played and the rest of the room sang. It was a powerful moment to state in music that now is the time to create a more harmonious and less violent world.
Tonight I will play a concert of Indian listeners. Hopefully my music and spirit will speak as clearly as the musicians this morning.