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 Press Coverage |
Raga meets rhythm
SELINE AUGUSTINE
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
The Doon School student choir-orchestra put its best foot forward, while jamming with ace drummer Sivamani. A report of the concert held in the city recently.
THE DOON School choir and orchestra in Chennai? Images of sweet singing boys producing great harmony spring to mind. Given the standing of the Dehra Dun school, one even hoped it would be like the desi version of the Vienna Boys' Choir. But it was not to be.
The fare on offer on Friday last at the Music Academy was from the Hindustani sangeet tradition. The concert got up by the old boys of the Doon School in Chennai began with a video presentation of the institution. The proceeds from the performance were for a charitable cause.
Gursharan Singh, an old student, was the conductor of the choir and orchestra. The students began with "Raag jazzmala", an interplay between the choir and orchestra with marked movement from one taal to another, which lasted over half an hour.
The orchestra included a digital piano, electronic keyboard, sitar, sarod, besides violins, flutes and guitars. The violinist and flautist were good, while drummer Vivan Somdutt deserved praise. What sustained interest was the percussion section. Besides Somdutt, tabla players Mohit Arora, Apurva Joshi and congo player Prasan Chawla helped the orchestra with crisp changes of rhythm.
Considering the age of the musicians and the enormity of the compositions they were handling, the students were good. However, care should have been taken about the tuning of the stringed instruments. The 25-strong choir sang enthusiastically, though it lacked the finesse expected of a choir.
What followed was an hour-long dramatic solo performance by Chennai's ace drummer, Sivamani. In his own words, he took the audience "on a journey of different elements, rhythms Indian and Western and mixing them together".
Starting with meditation, then using his bare hands, moving on to shakers and finally wielding the sticks, he made music with bird sound, whistles, bells including what looked like a cycle bell. Calypso, bhangra, karagattam, African rhythms... the variety was amazing. He not only played drums, but also made use of modern technology to the hilt, right from amplification to producing tones of the guitar, steel drums, slap bass on his drum pads. The second half of the programme began late in the night with R. C. Bhargav, chairman of the board of governors of the Doon School handing out the cheques to the beneficiaries. The second package, Chand-a-rang, saw Sivamani jamming with the student choir-orchestra. The boys, must hand it to them, were not cowed down by his showmanship or skill. Even well past 10 p.m., they were singing with unflagging energy.
This is the school choir's third major concert, the last one being in Mumbai in 2001.