The Colby Echo

Issue date: 2/23/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Liz Pfeffer

The concert in the Lorimer Chapel last Saturday night was no "ordinary" classical music performance. There were no tuxedos, violins, cellos, wands, erect postures and audience members physically terrified of clapping at the wrong time. Instead, there were spectators relaxing as they lay sprawled out on a carpet, students drawing pictures in the balconies, a young girl dancing as if under a musical spell or in some sort of trance, and three shoeless musicians using instruments to make the chapel walls chime.

For Saturday's performance, Aditya Verma, Samir Chatterjee and Avi David '09J played two hours of Hindustani (North-Indian Classical) music for Colby. Verma displayed his great talent and virtuosity on the sarod, an Indian ancestor to the guitar with over twenty strings. While the sound of the Indian sitar is more "wooden" (as it is made out of wood and gourds), the sarod is made partly out of metal, which creates a sound noticeably distinct from that of the sitar and guitar. The metallic sounds of the Indian sarod could be compared to the rich sounds of 12-string and steel guitars, used for instance in songs like Led Zeppelin's, "That's the Way." Verma expressed his ability to play the sarod, but he also offered a glimpse into his creative imagination in the way he improvised and explored Indian melodies (ragas).

For me personally, and I believe for many others, the most striking part of the performance was the connection and communication between Verma on the sarod and Samir on the tabla. Though the two musicians had never performed together prior to the concert, their inherent knowledge of the Indian musical tradition was evident. Each time the performers connected on the first beat of the rhythmic cycle (called the sum), they smiled in satisfaction. It was during these musical moments of anticipation and prediction that anyone watching could see how much the performers were truly enjoying themselves. It was as if the two were fluently speaking another language, or even hiding some profound secret from the crowd who knew so little of the Hindustani musical tradition.

It is likely that before last Saturday's performance, there were some people in the audience who had never heard Hindustani music before. But judging from the powerful applause and the standing ovation at the end of the show, it is safe to say that the Colby community really enjoyed the concert and gained a greater appreciation of Indian music in general. Whether or not the listener had an understanding of how and why the performers could anticipate each other's musical gestures did not matter. The fact is, the music was really good, and so the people really liked to hear it. Congratulations and thank you to Verma and friends for a wonderful performance last Saturday. And for those of you who missed this amazing show, Verma is Colby's artist-in-residence for this whole semester and we may be so lucky as to hear him play once again.

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