The Colby Echo

Issue date: 2/16/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Courtesy of Stephen Nuss

If you are interested in exploring foreign culture through music, go to the concert at the Lorimer Chapel on Saturday Feb. 17 at 7:30 p.m. The College's new artist-in-residence is Aditya Verma, a renowned musician of the North Indian classical tradition. From 1987 through 1999, Aditya studied Hindustani music (North-Indian classical music) in Delhi and Calcutta, India, with the legendary sitar player Pandit Ravi Shankar and sarod master Ustad Aashish Khan. This semester Aditya will share with us the sounds and ways of Hindustani music and Indian culture. Aditya will be teaching a class called "North Indian classical music," where he will try to adapt students' Western ears to the theory and practice of an Eastern musical tradition so different from the classical music they are familiar with. He has performed for thousands all over the world, from the U.S. to Canada to Europe to Asia, so do not miss out on a chance to hear world-renowned musicians in such an intimate concert setting.

In terms of performing forces, the classical Indian concert calls for a melodic instrument, a percussion instrument, and a drone (a constant sounding of a few tones which provides the harmonic foundation for a composition). For the concert on Saturday, Aditya will be playing a melodic instrument called the sarod. With origins dating back to 1st century Asia, the sarod is a fretless stringed instrument related to the sitar and the guitar. The sarod's abundance of strings (more than twenty) contributes to the uniquely rich and dense sound quality of Hindustani melodies. The percussion will be provided by the tabla, which consists of two drums, one for each hand, played with the fingers and palms. A distinct sound of the tabla comes from adjusting the tension on the drum head to change the pitch of the instrument.

The Hindustani musical tradition is rich, in its sonic beauty as well as in its role as an ancient cultural rite, passed down aurally through centuries. For each Hindustani composition the melodic instrument plays in a specific raga, similar to a Western scale. Each raga evokes a particular mood or sentiment, from romance to humor, to anger, to fear, to peace. Unlike western classical music, most of Hindustani music is improvised, allowing the creative imagination of the performer to guide the music. However, while much of the music seems free and spontaneous, there is an underlying structure that forms the basis for each composition which trained listeners can identify instantly.

So now that you know a very small amount about a musical practice that has been studied by millions of people for thousands of years, come hear Aditya Verma and friends play live Hindustani music in the chapel. This is a great opportunity to take advantage of the Colby experience and hear music from the other side of the world. That being said, at 7:30pm on Saturday Feb. 17, leave your comfort zone, come to the chapel and hear brilliant musicians take your mind to wonderful and far away places with North Indian Classical music.

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