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Orchestrating different sounds
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Gautam Mitra, a Bangla singer, who teamed up with Frenchman Patrick Portella for an event combining Einstein, Rabindranath Tagore, Baul and a string quartet spoke of his efforts in the field.
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MUSICAL INHERITANCE: Gautam Mitra
ALMOST EVERYBODY who read the announcement about Entre le Temps et l'Éternité were initially stuck by the nature of combinations — Tagore and Einstein on the one hand, a Bangla singer and French composer on the other, and finally, Alliance Francaise and CCMB together organising it.
The silence in the hall and the rapt attention of one of the largest audience (as the artistes confirmed later) proved the experiment was a success. Pondicherry-based Bangla singer Gautam Mitra shared his views about the event, its conception, music, sound and `cacophony'. He was joined by Patrick Portella (from Marseilles).
"I was born in Bhagalpur, in Bihar," informs Gautam. "I had my formal education at Sri Aurobindo Ashram, a boarding school in Pondicherry. As far as my interest in art goes, it is in the family."
"My father, a doctor, also choreographed plays and dance-dramas in Bhagalpur. He used to listen to folk songs sung by a famous Bengali folk singer, Nirmalendu Choudhury. I sang one of my first folk songs (by Nirmalendu) when I was 18. My taking to folk music also helped in my acting — in modulation of voices."
About their coming together, Gautam said, "Patrick came here six years ago. He came home one day and introduced himself. He had been looking for `an intelligent musician, artiste' who acts and sings, and with whom he could relate. He felt traditional artistes were not willing to experiment. I told him I did not believe in the way Vishwa Bharati made one sing Rabindra Sangeet — in a deadpan way. I sung Ekla Chalo, in a very folk style. On hearing that he said `maybe we can work on that some time.
VIVE LA DIFFERENCE: Patrick Portella. — Photos: P.V. Sivakumar
He initially wanted to work with Tagore's songs, but was afraid to take it up due to copyright problemsIn France, he was browsing the Internet when he chanced upon these excerpts between Einstein and Tagore, and picked up some. He chose Bengali songs mostly because Tagore happened to be a Bengali, and was very heavily influenced by Baul. Lallan Fakir had a major influence on him and they interacted a lot. Of course, the virtual Quartet music that he works with was also used. These different entities came together — Einstein, folk songs and Tagore. I actually sing the first song almost as though I am giving a sermon, elaborating the song."
In a previous project, La Reverie de la Resonance, Gautam played a priest, "standing in the centre of a place called Chapel de Puget in Marseilles, chanting out the vowels and consonants. It was based on Tiruppavai of Andal. In that there was acting. I believe in singing through abhinaya. The chapel was resonating — with eight speakers, and the Tiruppavai translated into six languages; with a Tibetan gong and sound of water droplets. Patrick orchestrated the whole thing."
Gautam has also been part of a production called Impressions of Bhima. "I was a singer - drummer. It was directed by Vinapani Chawla and Vinay Kumar. I had to sing different kinds of songs — in ballad form, garba, jazz, Bhavai — there were many shades of singing. We performed in Pune, and in the Darpana Academy in Ahmedabad. It was my high point when Mrinalini Sarabai came up to me and talked to me about my singing."
Portella speaking about Entre le temps said, "it was interesting; these two personalities — a scientist and a philosopher ahead of their times in their thinking. I read a lot, researched, listened to various kinds of music and songs. Tagore was interested in the Occident. Hence the String Quartet which is very English, and represents that part of Tagore." About the creative process, he said, "I am all the time listening to music, sounds, reading, and then, there is the phase of sitting quiet over it. The residue of sounds remains in my mind. I don't make music at all for that period."
For both Gautam and Patrick, music lies in recognising different kinds of "wild sounds."Patrick adds, "there is polyphonic sound all around us — that is music. Maybe, it is cacophony but you recognise the sound. Gautam says, "it is about opening oneself to the chemistry — to understand the work. We cannot go with the effort to try and understand our kind of music, which is radically different... It is like learning a new language." Patrick thinks that "sometimes cultures are fascist — people find it difficult to accept all cultures."
Gautam adds, "Patrick creates music in defiance of the laws of music." Patrick put it succinctly when he said, "paintings have had a century of exposure, but not contemporary music." The show was a differently conceived, radical one of what it means to listen to sounds that one is not culturally trained to listen to, given our prejudices about what music is. It can also make one think!
R. UMA MAHESHWARI
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