Asian Music Circuit Comes to Monmouth

The last Merlin concert in the Blake Theatre saw three Indian music players come to give an evening North Indian Classical Music. Most people in the audience had never seen any Indian music and seeing Tarun Jasani come on stage, sit cross-legged with a 25 stringed sarod and begin to improvise, took most people by surprise. The sarod (which is plucked and held like a guitar) was the melody instrument for the first half.  During the music, all three of the performers explained what was happening as best they could, although this is very difficult because of the way Indian music is largely improvised using raga, a type of scale or ‘mood’. In the first chapter Jasani explained that the notes to be used were slowly introduced and were mainly weak notes because he was anxious at having to explain what he was doing. Much of this music is unmetred and so had a mystical feel. Then the Tabla (two drums producing many different sounds), played by Hanif Khan, began giving the music pulse as the mystic atmosphere gave way to something more exotic. It is amazing to think that the whole performance is improvised and no notes seem to be out of place.

Hanif Khan’s improvisation on the Tabla accelerating the beat, provided an amazing finale. The second half introduced us to the sitar, the most popular Indian instrument, which was played by Mehboob Nadeem. The sitar has a long neck with a gourd at the bottom; it is performed much like the sarod. The more familiar sound of the sitar used the same structures as the first half but managed to sound quite unique because different moods and speeds had been chosen. The performance ended with Mehboob Nadeem singing a beautiful Indian prayer which was transfixing and he held the audience in his hands. It is rare to hear Asian music of any description but this was something special; one of the best yet in the Blake Theatre.

J. Thomas