Indian Navy strikes a musical note

Spectators at Pondicherry University were left spellbound by the performance of the naval band

Striking a chord:The Naval Symphonic Band performing at Pondicherry University on Saturday.— Photo: T.Singaravelou

The Indian Navy struck a chord with the audience at Pondicherry University as a band of sailors provided a musical treat as part of the Navy Week – 2016 celebrations here on Saturday.

The Navy Band Concert of Military Music, comprising 30 sailors under band director Lieutenant Commander Satish K Champion, left the audience spellbound with their wide-ranging musical performance.

Beginning with a rendition of ‘20th Century Fox’ from the fanfare genre, the band sailed the audience through a wide array of musical genres including classical, light classical, English and Tamil pop music and Carnatic fusion before moving to the soul-stirring song ‘Tamizha Tamizha’, scored in-house with military band instruments by leading musician R. Manivannan.

In keeping with military tradition, the Naval Symphonic Band commenced their concert with a popular quick march titled ‘Old Comrades’, also known as

Alte Kameraden, by German composer Carl Tieke.

The audience even got an opportunity to hear a story behind the Old Comrades. The story goes that Tieke made several compositions for the marching band of the Grenadier Regiment. When bringing his newly composed Alte Kameraden to the regiment, the Kapellmeister simply told him that they have got plenty of musical marches and asked him to put his composition in the back burner. “Since he did not do it, we have the pleasure of witnessing this delightful march,” the band recalled.

The march was followed by opera music from the second act of The Triumphal March, which was played when the Egyptian Army returned home after their victory over the Ethiopians. After this, the audience were treated to xylophone from Joyful Skeleton, composed by WG Lemon, followed by a beautiful waltz composed by Franz Lehar.

Much to the surprise of the audience, the Naval band played ‘Adiye Koluthe’ from the popular Tamil movie ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’. People cheered and applauded as the naval band’s notes struck the right tone, infusing intrinsic feelings of joy, bravery and valour. Following the peppy music, they played ‘Vande Mantaram’ and also paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi with a rendition of ‘Vaishnava Jana To’.

Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy and Consul General of France in Puducherry Philippe Janvier-Kamiyama were present on the occasion.