Description of Cultural Influences in Improvvisazione, cammino e canto
During the next few meetings I had with Dr. Ramelli over the course of 2022, he explained to me the different influences that were inspiring the work he was writing. He was very interested in how I interpreted music and would ask me to send recordings of myself playing (either improvisations or short scores that he sent me). The range of influences of the work can be seen in the mindmap that he created in relation to the composition process (figure 1). In this mindmap, Dr. Ramelli documents the fascinating ideas that describe the different sources of inspiration that he was working with. I shall briefly describe each inspiration in this mindmap (based on conversations between Dr. Ramelli and I) from the top working clockwise.
With this series of directions, Dr. Ramelli is incorporating the concept of meditation in the performance of the work. Meditation is an important part of religious practices in India, especially Hinduism and Buddhism8. A key skill within meditation is the awareness of breath - a concept discussed extensively in the hindu scripture, The Bhagavad Gita9 - and this is explored further in within the piece itself. Before I perform the commisioned piece, the ritual indicates that I preface the work by performing the short piece, Mappa per l'ascolto ("Map for Listenting"), also by Dr. Ramelli. This piece is based on a poem of the same name by Chandra Candiani. The poem expresses the spirtuality connected with the act of true meditative listening and this short piece works at representing this theme through the same kind of breath and silence that is part of the meditation of this ritual (see figure 3 for the full score to this piece). Upon playing this work, there shall be a moment of silence before performing the commisioned work Improvvisazione, cammino e canto. Translated from Italian, the title of the piece is "Improvisation, camino and song". Throughout the work, Dr. Ramelli uses certain musical devices to express the concept of meditation and breath. Two of these musical devices are: silence and the use of pedal notes (drones). At certain points in the piece, there a full bars of rest which, like Takemitsu's representation of Ma (Chapter I, Part I), encourage a feeling space, awareness and breath in the same way one would approach meditation (figures 4 and 5). The use of pedal notes creates the idea of meditation on a single note and the resonance of these deep bass tones creates a uniformity in sound that encorages the performer to be aware of the the sound they produce on one single string and one single note (the bass drone is present throught the whole of the camino section of the piece - bar 25 - 112, see figure 6 for the full score).
Dr. Ramelli's score aims to capture the spirtuality of meditation in this work, encouraging the performer to be aware of breath in a present way. The variety of Indian cultural influences that have informed this compositional process all stem from the source of meditation. During one our of my meetings, Dr. Ramelli wanted to stress this point: despite being inspired by Indian culture elements, the concepts of meditation and the themes of breath and space in this piece are fundamentally, deeply human. These themes are a part of all cultures. I think this is a really beautiful way of understanding this whole research topic. Although we look towards cultures as sources of inspiration, ultimately, every cultural element that we categorise as art is "an instrument of communication"10. Communication across cultures. This is something that music certainly can do and being "the universal language of mankind"11, music may allow us to connect cross culturally through philosophies common to all cultures and humans, in this case - meditation, breath and spirtuality. I look forward to premiering this work on the 30th March, 2023 at my presentation during the Research Symposium at the Koninklijk Conservatorium, The Hague.
One of the first decisions that I had to make when I began working on this research was the choice of composer for the original work, for solo classical guitar, that would have an Eastern cultural influence. I sought a composer who's musical language is adaptable and ecletic in a way that draws inspiration from any source; a composer who deeply understands the intricacies and techniques of the guitar such that writing for the instrument is not an obstacle but a mode of expression; and a composer who's intellectual awareness of culture informs their professional approach to art. Without hesitation, I approached Dr. Marco Ramelli, who was kind enough to oblige. Dr. Ramelli, in my opinion, is all of these things and much more. His impressive ouvre of work as a performer, lecturer, composer and musical director show his dedication to the field and how active he is in the promotion of research, new music and performance practice in the classical guitar world1. I have had the immense pleasure of knowing Dr. Ramelli for over 10 years and he is an artist, educator and composer whom I admire greatly2.
From the top of this mindmap, the first influence is a quotation by classical guitarist, Julian Bream, which describes how the majority of plucked string instruments come from Eastern cultures (for more on this see Introduction) and the philosophy of plucked sound being a series of "births and deaths" due to the sound of a plucked string not having sustain5. Towards the bottom right hand side of the map, we see the influence of Tagore's poetry, with Dr. Ramelli including the poem The Gardener 85. In this poem, Tagore discusses the timelessness of art whereby any artwork can be experienced at different times and trascend the timespan of a human lifetime. This idea of artistic 'time travel' and the travel between East and West is an important influence within this composition. Dr. Ramelli, then visits an idea that provided a new persepective to this idea of Eastern cultures; the East being a relative term. Depending on one's location on the globe, the East will represent different cultures based on geographical orientation. For example: for Dr. Ramelli, East would be the culture of Takemitsu. For Takemitsu, East would be the culture of John Adams. For Adams, East would be the culture of Claude Debussy. For Debussy, East would would be the culture of Ramelli. Of course, this is a technicality and within a "Western" context, the East has come to represent regions and cultures in Asia, East of Europe (this is largerly in part due to the rise of the term "Orientalism" in Western literature)6. However, this is an eye-opening idea that shows the circularity of the concept of the East. Inspiration goes round and comes round and perhaps Eastern cultural inspiration may be percieved as something that encircles itself. In relation to this thought, Dr. Ramelli includes a recording of John Adams' Eros Piano (1989), a piece inspired by Takemitsu, another example of a work (this time for orchestra and piano) with an Eastern cultural influence7. The next influence is the similarity that Dr. Ramelli noticed between the oration of the poets Tagore and W.B. Yeats. Both seem to speak with a spaciousness and resonance when reciting their works or essays and this fascinated Dr. Ramelli. The idea that two poets from different cultural hemispheres could speak with a similar sense of presence was something that Dr. Ramelli looked to represent within the work. Both speak with a gravitas and authority that is perhaps indicative of their immense wisdom. Here are the videos Dr. Ramelli included in his mindmap, notice the similarity in recitation of the two men: the spacing between words and the pacing of their phrasing.
The Ritual
The bottom left-hand part of the mindmap then looks at the structure that the piece will take. As mentioned, Dr. Ramelli decided to use Indian culture as the source of inspiration since my cultural heritage presents a connection to the culture. The implementation of this cultural influence is partially personal as Dr. Ramelli draws upon the experience when my family and I invited him for dinner in 2019. My parents prepared a series of traditional Bengali dishes for Dr. Ramelli to try and one thing that he noticed during the evening, and something he has noticed from other aspects of Indian culture, is the role of ritual. The dishes were presented in a particular order and discussions during that evening involved a sharing of culture with my family describing the different rituals common to Indian households (religious and cultural). In India, ritual is a very present part of the culture since there are many different ceremonies, events and beliefs coming from the variety of religions celebrated in the country (Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism, Christianity, etc). Dr. Ramelli represents this cultural element by creating a ritual for the performance of the piece. In this ritual, I would be wearing something orange since Dr. Ramelli always notices me wearing this colour on some accessory or item of clothing whenever I meet him. There does exist a cultural signficance, to me, when I wear this colour because, as a child, I was very impressed by the stunningly bright orange garments that Hindu priests would wear during religious ceremonies (figure 2). Since childhood, I have always been drawn to this colour and the source of this preference is actually the result of my Indian cultural heritage. The beginning of the performance ritual is as follows:
Initial Stages
In the first conversation between Dr. Ramelli and I (27/09/21), I outlined the nature of my research and described why I was pursing this topic. During this conversation I explained that the Eastern cultural influence of his composition could be any cultural element from any Eastern culture. This could be the implementation of musical theories, imitation of traditional musical instruments or use of philosophical concepts from an Eastern culture (like in the solo guitar works by Takemitsu - Chapter I, Part I). It could also be the inspiration of a popular or folk melody from an Eastern culture (like the arrangements of Dyens, Yocoh and Koseki - Chapter II, Part I) or even an iconic legend or narrative from an Eastern culture (as with Sun Wukong's Tocatta - Sergio Assad - Chapter III, Part I).
In November 2021, Dr. Ramelli described his first thoughts and ideas about how the work would be structured and the nature of the Eastern cultural influence. The idea of Indian culture being the cultural influence of the work was proposed by Dr. Ramelli, a prospect I was very enthusiastic about. The reasoning behind this was in relation to my own cultural heritage. Dr. Ramelli felt it would be more suitable to approach Indian culture as a source of inspiration since I am connected to this culture and so this culture, he felt, could be drawn upon in a more authentic manner since he is collaborating with an individual that has connections to Indian culture. This brings me back to a point that was discussed in Chapter III, Part II, where "individuals from one culture will be hesitant to seek inspiration from another for fear of harmful appropriation "3. In this case, Dr. Ramelli is being sensitive towards the issues and fears of harmful cultural appropriation and choosing to be inspired by a culture where there is exists a connection to a source of the culture, i.e., my cultural heritage. This indicated, to me, Dr. Ramelli's strong desire to capture the true essence of a culture in its most authentic way by working with the culture in a direct way. Dr. Ramelli has composed previous works with cultural elements that have been influenced by the performers he has collaborated with. Moon for guitar and voice is a work "inspired by the verse of the persian mystical poet Rumi" written for Scottish soprano, Alison McNeil, and guitarist, Dr. Sasha Savaloni, who is of Persian heritage4. Another work of this type is Im Nebel, a homage to the Japanese sculptor Kengiro Azuma5. The work is dedicated to guitarist Sean Shibe, an artist with Japanese, English and Scottish heritage. Not only does this show the importance that Dr. Ramelli gives to the collaboration during his compositional process, but this also reveals that culture is an area of interest for the composer: working with different cultural influences by collaborating with individuals that have connections to that culture through their own heritage.
Figure 4a
- I suggest Sam (me) wears something orange
- He begins by breathing, together with the guitar, listening to the end of the sound, accompanying it in silence.
- Sam plays each string three times listening to the breath
- Feeling how each gesture affects the sound, and each breath lives with the sound
- The atmosphere must not be tense, but light, empty, open to being able to take whatever happens
Figure 5b
