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Old Sunday, February 14, 2010
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Post Learning how to listen to a symphony BY Aakar Patel

Between February 9 and 19 is the Symphony Orchestra of India's concert season. This is the eight year that we have had this in Bombay, and I began attending a few years ago after deciding I wanted to understand this music.

At that point I had heard very little classical music and did not know how to listen to it. It took a while for me to figure out that a good way to start would be to find out what was to be played and then listen to that piece of music at home first.

This would ensure that I would not drift when unfamiliar music was being played. This drifting can happen quite easily in a symphony. Classical music rarely has choruses, which we are familiar with in Hindustani music. And the music changes as it progresses, in tempo and melody. Later, I also began to read something about the piece before listening to it so I knew what the composer was trying to do. I have a book called the Guide to Symphonic Music, which has the history of the most famous works.

The Symphony Orchestra of India's players are mainly from Kazakhstan, and that is where our music director, Marat Bisengaliev, is also from. There are about 100 players in all, of whom 11 are Indian. Of these 11, nine are Catholic. Hindus and Muslims find it difficult to play this music, and listen to it. This is reflected in the audience, which is mainly Parsi. South Bombay has 50,000 Parsis, and many if not most of them would have listened to this music at home. Of the SOI's 202 patron members, 122 are Parsi.

The orchestra sits in a semi-circle facing the conductor. The violins are to the left in two groups, led by the Principal, Marat's daughter Galya Bisengalieva. She has lovely arms and has great poise. After this come eight or so violas. These are slightly larger violins, which make a deeper sound. The semi-circle closes with the still larger cellos, which are placed between the legs. Behind them are a half dozen massive double-basses. At the back, in three rows are the other instruments, the drums and cymbals, and the wooden flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons. Then the brass instruments: horn, trumpet, tuba, trombone and timpani. Sometimes, not often, there is also a harp, which is enormous. The piano, if there is one, is placed in the middle.

Everything always happens in a sequence and can be predicted. Before the start, a man called Zane Dalal introduces the music and gives a bit of the history, and so I try to get in early.

The musicians are in their 20s and 30s, though some are older. They arrive together and are seated to applause. The Principal gets up and sounds out a string that the others tune their instruments to. This takes a few seconds. Then they are all quiet, and the conductor comes into strong applause. The conductor bows and then shakes the Principal's hand. Since this year it's Galya, the conductor kisses her hand instead.

All are formally dressed. At the gate are beautiful ushers. Slender girls in sleeveless, black dresses who ask you, gently, to consider buying the season programme guide (Rs200).

The audience is old, with an average age of between 55 and 65. The young do not like this music. I think they might if they give it a try, and it is explained to them, but there's nobody to do this in our schools and colleges.

I go alone, because I do not know anyone else interested in this music. My bookseller Shashikant likes it and understands it, but he does not come.

Tickets are quite expensive and the cheapest ones are for Rs800. I bought one of those and sat in row T, towards the back. This is because I don't know enough about the music to tell a good performance from a great one. When, and if, I can do this I shall try the more expensive seats. In any case, the view isn't bad from the back, and I cannot see how the sound would be much different.

I wear a jacket over my work clothes and remember to shave. However, I appear to have the sort of face that compels men to change places with their wives if my seat is next to theirs. Parsi women are usually dressed in sarees, which I like because they're quite sensual, else in western style dresses.

On stage, everyone wears black. Male musicians wear suits with white shirts and black bowties. Some wear tuxedos with long coattails. It strikes me that the older and better the musician, the more likely that he is dressed in coattails. The women wear gowns of silk.

The concerts are two hours long with a little break in the middle. The canteen serves light refreshment, but also glasses of wine and that is quite civilised.

I have discovered that the earlier musicians -- Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn -- are more likely to be melodic than the later ones. This makes them easier to listen to, and more enjoyable.

The programme on Thursday featured more recent composers, but it was still very good. The first item was Scheherazade, a piece by Rimsky-Korsakov. After the break was a piano concerto by Rachmaninoff, also a Russian. A concerto is a piece written for a solo instrument, with the rest of the orchestra in accompaniment. Our pianist, Jania Aubakirova, knew the difficult piece well enough to play it without the written score before her. As we entered, to my surprise there was no harp on the stage. I was familiar with Scheherazade and knew it had prominent harp parts. I realised that the programme had been inverted, and they would play the piano concerto first, which they did.

Hearing the music before often makes me anticipate interesting moments, some of which are visual. In the Rachmaninoff, the double-bass players at one point hammer their instrument with their bows like they would a drum. Being able to predict what is going to happen next makes me more involved in the music, and gives me the illusion that I'm conducting.

So far as I can tell, the conductor has only one function. This is to keep time, determining how slow or fast the orchestra plays. This is more difficult than it sounds because the beat varies through the parts of a piece of music, called its movements. He communicates this pace with his baton, though there are also those who conduct just with their hands.

Most conductors have an individual style, and some are quite animated. The Symphony Orchestra of India's Johannes Wildner is a large man but when the music starts to quicken he begins to jump in joy up and down on his rostrum, the black step-like stand of conductors. Our other conductor is Evgeny Bushkov, who is slender and elegant. His movement is like dance and I like watching him make his sweeping gestures with his long hair flying.

Bushkov began last Thursday's concert with the national anthem and that moved me.

At the end of each movement a volley of coughs and clearings of throat erupts. These had been held back out of politeness while the music was playing. The symphony crowd is different and unlike other public performances, mobile phones do not go off here. It is so quiet in the audience that even the slow and polite opening of a sweet wrapper can be excruciatingly loud and embarrassing. Nobody claps between movements and there is silence as the musicians stop and then restart. There is an explosion of applause at the end. When I first began to attend the concerts a few people would clap between movements, thinking the 'song' was over. This season, it hasn't happened once.

I like this formality and protocol and respect. There is a ceremonial and solemn aspect to attending these concerts that is available rarely to Indians otherwise in life.

A friend of mine in Delhi once spoke of a supper he went to when on holiday in England. His wife knew someone at Cambridge University who invited them to a party, where a few academics were present. My friend said everyone arrived in black-tie. They met in a room where they had aperitifs, a sort of pre-meal drink. Then they had their supper in courses in another room. They adjourned for cheese and grapes to a third, and then finally proceeded to a fourth room where they sipped port wine.

“It was boring and pointless," he said to me.

I thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world.



The writer is director with Hill Road Media in Bombay. Email: aakar @hillroadmedia.com
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