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Some months ago, I wrote a tribute column to the great Bengali film-maker Satyajit Ray (whose birth centenary we celebrate this year) and his film music. But a more recent article in the Kolkata press (Telegraph India) reminded me of another aspect of that music that I didn’t touch
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Do you remember when we first met? It was an evening, end of October 2016. We had come down with The Bangalore Men to Calangute, to perform our Schubert-programme, and we were expecting you to be in the audience. We hadn’t really interacted or met, I had only heard
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This continues the discussion exploring the association of music and poetry, comparable to the “ekphrastic” relationship of poetry and art, and various ways music can appear in poems. How do other poets respond to classical music? I attended a few weekend poetry retreats in Chester, Connecticut led by Dr. June
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The nine Greek muses of the arts served to encourage creativity, enhance imagination, and inspire artists. The Greeks also named “Ekphrasis,” a process in which descriptive words can expand the meaning of a work of art. For poetry, such works are known as “ekphrastic poems,” and literary journals exist that
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On 9 February 2021 the world of jazz bid a tearful goodbye to iconic jazz composer, keyboardist, bandleader, and occasional percussionist ‘Chick’ Corea (born Armando Anthony Corea), who died at 79 of cancer at his home in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, US. But like so many great musicians
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Two of Mahatma Gandhi’s most effective foreign disciples during his lifetime were great admirers of Beethoven. One of them was a Nobel laureate and a former university professor (at the Sorbonne) of music history, Romain Rolland (1866-1944). He told Gandhi, in 1931, “You are the greatest
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“Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?” – Terry Pratchett On October 5, 2020, a horrific car accident on the highway at night spirited away the lives of Immanuel Thiyakeswaran and his parents. Immanuel was a musician brimming with accomplishments, accolades, and
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There’s a lot to say about the peculiar lifestyle a conservatory student leads and the limitless ways it blends into their very identity. From the motivations behind pursuing a field that doesn’t always guarantee monetary returns to the reasons why so many find these few years of their
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In moments of social confinement, art, once again, is man’s companion, like it has been in war and peace, sickness and health. By Snigdha Hasan It is the fifth month of the year, and in a parallel, Corona-free world, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra would have been neck-deep in rehearsal
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Never has the somewhat cliché expression felt more apt than now. Since end of March, we have been grappling with a pandemic of, in our lifetime, unseen proportions. The measures put in place by governments over the world have of course also impacted culture, art and music. Concert halls are
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Hailed as India’s longest-running music society, the Madras Musical Association (MMA) celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2018 with a series of concerts and tours illustrating its diverse musical repertoire and expanding membership and popularity. This year, the MMA embarked on a tour of Singapore, performing a programme entitled Sacred
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“I always sang. Both my father (Edwin) and his sister, Muriel were gifted singers, but Edwin was streets ahead because he was also a brilliant pianist and, from my very youngest years, I had the pleasure and honour of listening to him play. His love for music was great and
