For the Love of Indian Music

Southern Connecticut State University

May 2006

Associate Professor Stan Scott plays the tanpura, a drone instrument that resembles a sitar except that it has no frets. The drone is an essential part of traditional Indian music, creating a continuous sounding of one or more notes providing the harmonic base in a performance.

That is about the best explanation Stan Scott, an adjunct professor of music, can offer concerning his dedication to the classical music of a country and a people half a world away.

“I have such a passion for this music,” says Scott, an aficionado, student, teacher and singer of North Indian classical music. “It was sort of like falling in love.”

Scott grew up in a house filled with the familiar Western classical music played by his mother, a piano teacher, and her students. In his teens, however, he also discovered the music of India’s Ravi Shankar. Immediately taken by its sophistication and emotional power, Scott tried to imitate parts of the music on his guitar.

For the uninitiated, North Indian classical music ranges from slow and meditative to pulsing and ecstatic, Scott explains. A single song can stretch over 45 minutes, beginning slowly and picking up speed and passion as it goes along.

“One of the things most appealing about the music is that it is some of the slowest, most intense meditative music on the planet,” Scott says.

The music is improvisational, with great range and variety in tempo and emotion, a showcase for the virtuosity of its vocalists.

In 1971, Scott was studying voice at Bennington College, where he heard the recorded melodies of Rajdulari Ali Akbar Kahn. The woman’s astonishing vocals sealed his interest in North Indian classical music and set him on a hitchhiking journey to Wesleyan University in Middletown, which had a highly regarded Indian music program with resident musician instructors.

Friends immediately put him in touch with a musical guru, Laxmi G. Tewari, and thus began what has become a lifelong pursuit of knowledge, experience and opportunities to perform the sounds of the Indian culture.

Over the years, Scott has played with and learned from some of India’s best classical musicians from coast to coast in the United States, as well as in India and around the world. He also has made a career out of Indian music as a private lessons teacher of banjo, mandolin and guitar at Wesleyan.

One of the highlights of Scott’s career as both a teacher and performer came at the end of 2005 when he was invited to teach at the Bhatkhande Music Institute in Lucknow, India. It is the oldest and largest university in North India that is dedicated to music. A Southern travel grant helped support the trip.

Scott taught Western and world music for three weeks to classes of university students and professors at Bhatkhande. Despite warnings from local faculty that attendance would likely drop, the class remained intact through the entire period. “They attended religiously,” Scott says of his students.

Scott set out to help the Bhatkhande students recognize and appreciate the similarities between Western classical music and their own. Both have seven notes in the scale, 12 half steps in the octave and rhythmic structures based on combinations of two, three and four beats. The classical music of Northern India also features themes of love and religion, similar to the themes and thematic evolution of Western classical music.

“In my classes here and there, I stress the great many things Western music and Indian music have in common,” Scott says.

It is not an easy lesson for either American or Indian students, he admits. The music of the West and India evolved in different directions over the centuries, making it more difficult to appreciate their commonalities. Whereas Western classical music developed rich systems of harmony and fixed compositions, the evolution of Indian classical music featured systems of melody and structure and improvisation.

“Even after three weeks of instruction, students and other professors were asking, ‘Can you really say that they have anything in common?’” Scott says. “The message is difficult to grasp because of superficial differences between Western and Indian classical music. It’s hard to perceive even for experienced musicians.”

Although he has made numerous trips to India during the past 30 years, the most recent trip was special because it allowed Scott to experience and appreciate what it is like to be a professor in India.

“The respect shown to teachers is extraordinary,” he says. “In the U.S., professors and students are very informal. In India, it is radically different. There, students touch their teachers’ feet as a gesture of respect,” Scott explains.

Left: Scott performing classLeft: Scott performing classical Indian music at Ramakrishna Mission in Lucknow, a northern city in India near Nepal.

During his latest trip to India, Scott also enjoyed the opportunity to perform for his hosts, which he describes as a “wonderful experience, ” adding that his Indian audiences were very supportive and encouraging. In India, a Hindustani vocal performance by a Westerner is “not unique, but it is unusual,” Scott says.

Besides teaching at Wesleyan and Southern, Scott directs the Rangila School of Music in Middletown. He also has taught at Yale, Colgate, Clark and Brown universities.

Scott completed his doctoral dissertation on Hindustani classical singing in 1997 at Wesleyan.

Scott is also is interested in Irish folk music. He and his wife, Dorothea Hast, front their own Irish band and recently co-wrote a text, “Music in Ireland,” published by Oxford University Press. Hast is an ethnomusicologist and instructor at the Greenstreet Art Center in Middletown.

This problem has been even worse in India than in the United States, because recordings have to be sold at a much lower price, requiring an increased number of sales in order to turn a profit. This is probably why "filmi" music was for years the only consistently successful form of popular music in India. It was more economically viable to get everyone to listen to the same small group of artists than to try to preserve the rich diversity of musical styles that vary from village to village.

However, as the costs of selling, storing, and making recordings have decreased significantly, the nature of the market has dramatically changed. Ethnomusicologist Peter Manuel points out that when cassettes replaced vinyl records in India, new popular musical genres such as ghazals and devotional music flourished, and "film music’s share of the commercial market plummeted to less than half of all sales." Today "many cassette producers and performers are based in provincial towns and even villages," often preserving the folk styles that filmi music had almost destroyed.

The world wide web has had an even bigger impact on the marketing of Indian music, turning the traditional wisdom completely on its head. Web-based businesses are able to save money by selling all of their products from a single warehouse in a low-rent location. They can also attract customers from all over the world, thanks to sophisticated search engines. This means that it becomes profitable to stock thousands of titles, because customers can easily find you if you’ve got what they want, and there’s no problem waiting until they do find you because storage space is cheap. Product sales for web-based companies like Amazon are thus portrayed by graphs with a few products at one end selling millions, then trickling down to a "long tail" of products which sell only hundreds or even dozens of units. But unlike in traditional business models, this tail is so long that it can amount to 70 percent of the company’s gross sales. In the words of Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine, this new business model aims at "selling less of more." Consequently, web-marketing businesses do not ignore small elite markets like Hindustani and Karnatik music, but instead see them as their bread and butter.

The business that provides the most support for musical niche markets is CDbaby. For 35 dollars and five copies of an album, CDbaby will create a website which features audio samples, online credit card processing, and checks mailed directly to artists. Indian classical music is only a tiny fragment of CDbaby’s $250,000 yearly sales. But this company knows that all of their sales depend on small markets like this one, and the top executives are constantly responding to the requests of their 150,000 artists. For example, CDbaby’s search engine originally had one category ("Asian") which lumped Indian classical music together with everything from shakuhachi to belly dancing. However, a recently requested update created separate categories for Raga, Indian Classical, Karnatik and Bollywood, which link to both legendary giants and aspiring newcomers.

The company Raga Records distributes over 20 recordings through CDbaby, including performances by Mohan Bhatt, Nayan Ghosh, Buddhadev Das Gupta, rare Drupad performances by Zia Mohiuddin Dagar on rudra veena and the senior Dagar Brothers on vocals, and eleven recordings by the late Nikhil Bannerjee. Each of these recordings has a page linked to all the others, as well as having links to the general categories of Indian classical and to all other artists based in India. Other artists on the Indian classical page include most of the greats (Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pandit Jasraj, Kadri Gopalnath, Kala Ramnath, Sultan Khan, Veena Sahasrabuddhe, Ajoy Chakrabarty, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan) as well as many California favorites (Shweta Jhaveri, Shubhangi Sakhalkar, Deepak Ram, Nachiketa Sharma). These priceless gems are nestled cheek-by-jowl with diamonds in the rough and glitzy rhinestones, but are none the worst for it.

You can surf from site to site, listen to free samples, and judge for yourself. These samples also make great background music when you’re doing other computer-based jobs, although each sample is deliberately cut after two minutes to give an incentive for buying the whole CD. If you want to hear complete recordings, however, you need only click on the link that takes you from CDbaby to the musician’s MySpace page. Besides music, you will usually find videos, still photos, concerts, touring schedules, and links to other musicians, many of whom can’t easily be found anywhere else.

I was especially delighted to discover khyal vocalist Ruchira Kale, whose beautiful voice has never been heard outside of India, and rudra veena player Naad Chakra. This system of links has also established communication with players of Indian music from all over the world. There are MySpace pages for Indian musicians in France, Japan, and even for Japanese musicians who play Indian music and live in France. There is a community of musicians in North Carolina who have studied Indian classical music and combine it with other styles. My favorites from this community are Jay Manley, who uses his electric guitar to create sustained bends inspired by sitar meend, and Johnny Sarod with the acoustic fusion group Hindugrass. When you compare this variety to the homogenous pap available on commercial radio, it’s not hard to guess where the future of music lies. Sometimes the cure for technological problems turns out to be a more appropriate technology.

`Indian music very popular in South Korea`

Bureau Report

He is excited by the many surprises that the City of Joy and the country offer.

"There's a film crew shooting downstairs, what more can you expect!" Matt exclaims, adding, "I surrender to the flow." India calling India has been a saviour in many ways. After quitting the Big Truth Band, Matt was seeking a new direction that would reinstate his status as a Musician with integrity "There is this notion in England . that if you have not made it by 26 then you are over the hill," he says.

Drifting into Varanasi in 1996, Matt came across musicians who would not have hesitated to hurl the above adage into the Ganges. "The Dhrupad Mela had musicians who were well over 80. And they were real, experienced master craftsmen. Suddenly, I rediscovered the innocent joy of musicmaking," he notes, recalling the days when he first listened to The Beatles White Album on his grandmom's record player at 11 or when he first started singing to the trees and the lamp posts around him.

"I was singing like kids would doodle when they are five. I was a lonely child and my voice became my new friend," he states.

He befriended the guitar at 13 and then, much later, started writing songs. "I moved on to a boat in Oxford and started writing songs. Sometimes you are ordered by the creative force to express yourself," he says.

His first album, Strange News from Another Star brought togeth , er musicians who had gained confidence and popularity after play ing at the Oxford-based Catweazle Club, a performance base for aspiring artistes, singers and poets that Matt set up after returning from India.

"I lit this little candle of hope and around the flame I gathered the finest musicians in England," says the custodian, who recently put up the Arts Councilfunded Big Village. It is a company that hosts concerts by eminent musicians such as Hari Prasad and Chaurasia Purbayan Chatterjee among others, from across the world.

Last year the creative force once again beckoned and Matt retreated to his mum's home in north London to record his second album, Beyond Reason. On the move "It explores themes that are beyond the rational mind. I am trying to seek the silences between the sounds," says the self-proclaimed admirer of Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Pentangle.

Echoing the title of his second album, Matt settles down comfortably in one of his own epithets, that of being a soulful troubadour. "I am a Jew and like my people. I have been on the move for a long time," he asserts. "My songs have the momentum.. I sway in tandem with the archetype."

I don't have many fond memories of Losing Sun now. It was a lot of hard work gone waste. I don't regret anything and always wish the boys the best of luck. The last few months leading up to the split of the band were dreadful and opened my eyes to who I was in a band with.

What memories do you have of your trip to India? Did you meet any musicians here?

I did -- I visited a club where they were dancing, I was a bit drunk and so joined in to bust some Welsh Moves.
Have you ever experimented with a tabla?

Umm.. I'm not sure what that means. Is this a drug that I don't know about?

Haha, no, it's an Indian percussion instrument. Have you ever been influenced by the percussions, of say, a Zakir Hussain?

I do have a very clear Eastern influence to my style. I was heavily influenced by Sepultura for all the tribal rhythms that they had. I am still learning and still on the lookout for new influences, but as I said, percussion is only a quarter of what I do. But yes, the drumming on this side of the world is amazing. I'm very inspired by India so I will be taking some ideas home to show the people in Europe what this place is about.

Are there any other Indian musicians you'd like to work with? Danny Boyle worked with A R Rahman and both won the Oscars! EMI wants me to get involved with a few high profile Indian artistes. You will just have to wait and see what that will bring.

Are there any Indian actresses you'd like to have in any of your videos? Shilpa Shetty and Aishwarya Rai are pretty well known faces in the UK.

I would love to work with Shilpa and Aishwarya -- I remember when Shilpa was on Big Brother in the UK, I had much respect as she was by far the most intelli gent person on there.

What do you think of Bollywood music?

Yeah, of course, Bollywood has my complete attention! The creativity of India is awesome! Art and music here is huge and I love that. I want to hear more and would love to get involved.

Being from UK, you surely must have tasted Indian curry? Ever fancy writing a song about that?
I have to tell you that Indian food is my favourite! Murg Makhani from the Court Coleman manor, just up the road from where I live, in Wales, is practically my second home!

Dutch drummer Robbert van Hulzen visited India in 1998 and learnt to play the mridangam. It was a tour of discovery for the Dutchman: he got hooked on Carnatic music and also began to appreciate other Indian music traditions. As a result of this bond, he has made many trips to the country.

Sometime ago — during a ‘music pilgrimage' to India — Hulzen was struck by a strange thought. “It dawned on me that every time I took a flight to this country — mostly Chennai or Bangalore — I was leaving one world and going to another. A vast chasm of cultural and social differences separates The Netherlands and India. Between these two lie other countries that offer totally different vignettes of culture and society,” says Hulzen. “Travelling by plane, this vast diversity is lost on you.”

The drummer decided to do a motorcycle trip that would allow him to experience India in its fullness and also the other countries on the way to The Netherlands. During the road adventure, Hulzen will stop at various places and work with musicians for a project called ‘Elephant Songs'.

The title draws upon the popular allegory of the elephant and the blind men. Hulzen explains that music is approached in a similar fashion. Limited by geographical and cultural factors, musicians are clued into certain aspects of music. When they come together, they get a better grasp of the whole.

When Hulzen's long ride on a 1979 Royal Enfield Bullet ends in his hometown Amsterdam, he would have covered around 15,000 km and, more importantly, would have completed a music album. In addition, he will have a wealth of video material for a film on the journey.

Hulzen did not rush into this adventure, but prepared patiently for it. From Amsterdam, he flew to Kathmandu, where he spent a month looking for an old Royal Enfield. A 1979 Bullet with an evident gear box problem — which he set right later — was all he could find, but he nevertheless ventured into India with the bike. With his compact drum and his bags containing essential items fitted to the motorcycle, he made quite an interesting sight, especially while travelling through the rural parts of India. He enjoyed being on National Highway 76, which stretches from Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh) to Pindwara (Rajasthan). After visiting Gujarat, he was riding towards Mumbai, when he had his first brush with rash driving. “Two buses almost took me out,” recalls Hulzen.

From Chennai, Hulzen plans to go to Kanyakumari and then turn back towards North India. He is expected to get a letter of invitation from Lahore which will enable him to apply for a Pakistan visa. His route to Amsterdam runs through 14 countries, including Iran, Armenia, Turkey, Georgia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

He has already identified music groups in a few countries that he will collaborate with for the ‘Elephant Songs' project.