Between Two Worlds: Shankar and Takemitsu’s Other Classical Music
Western art music is certainly not the only ‘classical’ music in this wide world. As Michael Church details in his excellent book, many countries, particularly in Asia, have centuries-old court, theatrical or religiously-connected classical traditions that permeate their cultures and histories as much as European ‘classical’ music does in the West. Indian virtuoso sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar and Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu sought to bring the classical traditions of their native countries to their compositions. Forest Collective will explore this inter-cultural musical influence in their upcoming concert Shifting.
The journeys of Shankar and Takemitsu could not be more different. This is especially true of their relationships with their own indigenous musical traditions. Shankar was immersed in North Indian (Hindustani) classical music from a very young age, and championed this tradition on an international stage at a time when India was revelling its newfound independence. Takemitsu is widely recognised for the influence of Japanese classical music in his compositions, yet this was something he utterly rejected as a young composer. It was not until years later, after encountering the music of John Cage, that Takemitsu reconsidered his native country’s classical traditions.
As Indian classical music is predominantly an unwritten tradition, Shankar was trained in the traditional way: through a close relationship with his teacher or guru Allauddin Khan. This close relationship is necessary because of the highly improvised nature of this music. North Indian classical music is organised around the rāga (pronounced “rahg”), which is derived from the Sanskrit word for “passion”. The scholar Richard Widess describes a rāga as “a map of melodic terrain that lies between a scale and a tune”. In truth, a rāga is neither a scale nor a tune, rather it is a kind of framework that provides the basis for elaboration and improvisation. For those who remember undergraduate music theory, it is similar to a Schenkerian reduction, which is then elaborated and unpacked.
The rāga unfolds in sections, like a baroque keyboard suite: firstly through a slow and rhythmically free prelude or ālāp, then the jor where a sense of rhythm enters and develops. Then follows the gat where a drum enters to support the rhythmic mode or tala, before the piece accelerates into the final jhala.
North Indian classical music differs from Western classical music in its focus on rhythm and melody, rather than harmony. This is reflected in the microtonal tuning and complex ornamentation available to the individual performers, who become immersed in a semi-meditative state during the rāga. It is said that the rāga then speaks through the musician, rather than the musician playing the rāga.
Shankar describes music as “a spiritual discipline on the path to self-realisation”, which leads musicians and listeners to moksha – a spiritual liberation from the confines of humanity.
Indeed, the vibrations of music are considered to be akin to the ritual mantras and Vedic prayers that connect human beings with the Gods. These vibrations are even said to affect the physical world, bringing rain and helping flowers to bloom. Different rāgas are associated with certain times of year, or even particular times of day or night. These sounds are the foundation and sustenance of the universe, following the traditional teaching of nada brahma (“Sound is God”).
Raja Ravi Varma’s painting of Saraswati - the goddess of music and knowledge.
From the 1950s, Shankar brought North Indian classical music to a western audience, while also incorporating elements of Karnatak (South Indian) classical music into his repertoire. Touring extensively through the US, Europe and Australia, Shankar’s performances influenced the likes of George Harrison, Terry Riley and John Coltrane.
Shankar had been interested in cross-cultural collaboration for a long time, having been aware of western classical music since his teenage years, when he toured Europe as part of his brother’s dance troupe. He recalled attending concerts given by Arturo Toscanini, Pablo Casals, Fritz Kreisler and Jascha Heifetz during that time. In 1967, he recorded his Grammy Award-winning album West Meets East with Yuhudi Menuhin, which melted the boundaries of genre, combined virtuosic sitar and violin playing. Later, his fiendishly difficult sitar concertos would break new ground in this continuing inter-relationship of centuries-old traditions.
Shankar’s Sonata for Harp and Cello was written in 1998 for his good friend Mstislav Rostropovich. The work, which is imbued with the rāga tradition and structure, was premiered in 1999 by Rostropovich and Czech harpist Jana Boušková. The work will be performed at Asia In Focus by Forest Collective core members Sam Ramirez and Rosanne Hunt.
Takemitsu, on the other hand, rejected Japanese classical and traditional music in the aftermath of the Second World War.
He had been conscripted into the Japanese army in 1944 at the age of 14, and recalled the experience as “extremely bitter”. After Japan’s defeat, the Japanese classical music tradition, known as koten or hogaku, was shunned by all levels of society under Allied occupation. During this time Takemitsu threw himself into the world of Western art music, remarking that hogaku “always recalled bitter memories of the war.”
In contrast to Shankar, Takemitsu was largely self-taught as a composer, seeking to free himself from the old world. In the 1950s, he became a founding member of the avant-garde group Jikken Kōbō (‘Experimental Workshop’), which rejected musical academia and embraced mixed-media, multidisciplinary collaboration. His international career was launched with the success of his sweeping Requiem for String Orchestra (1957) – a piece that contains no recognisably “Japanese” character or style.
Ironically, it was Jikken Kōbō that indirectly led Takemitsu to a rapprochement with Japanese traditional music and culture. As the group explored the experimental works of John Cage, Takemitsu was taken with the American composer’s engagement with Zen Buddhist philosophy and aesthetics. Takemitsu himself stated that “it was largely through my contact with John Cage that I came to recognise the value of my own tradition.”
Hasegawa Tohaku’s Shōrin-zu byōbu (Pine Trees screen) is a perfect example of ma in Japanese art.
In particular, Cage’s view of “silence as plenum, rather than vacuum” resonated strongly with Takemitsu own thoughts. The concept of ma (間), which can be described as dynamically tensed negative space, is central to Japanese music and art. Indeed, many pieces of traditional Japanese music have no pulse or metre, leaving the silence between notes to be judged by the performer’s own sense of ma. Now able to view his culture from an outsider’s perspective – beyond his reflexive aversion, born of the horrors of war – Takemitsu began to study hogaku in earnest, incorporating its elements into his compositions.
A geisha plays the shamisen in 1870s Tokyo
As well as his rich use of ma, Takemitsu’s compositions often reflect the strong focus on tone colour found in hogaku, embracing the greater timbral scope this music affords. Japanese classical music features a variety of extended instrumental techniques (though only considered ‘extended’ from a Western viewpoint) that were not heard in Western art music before the 20th century. These include muraiki – a dramatic, pitchless blast of air on a shakuhachi flute; sawari – a buzzing sound made on the lute-like biwa or shamisen; and percussive sounds made by striking the bodies of the biwa or the zither-like koto.
In this vein, Shakuhachi-playing Zen monks, known as komusō, also spoke of attaining enlightenment with a single sound. They would imbue single notes or short phrases with changing tone colours, subtle pitch inflections and changes in dynamic.
Takemitsu’s music often features this kind of timbral exploration, prioritising it over melodic development. In this way, Takemitsu’s work links the influence of hogaku with those of German composer Anton Webern, whose own pointillist compositions broke new ground in the early 20th century.
For Asia In Focus, members of Forest Collective will perform Takemitsu’s Waves (1978) and Rain Spell (1982).
The unique sound worlds of these two Asian composers is, in many respects, born of the ancient classical traditions of India and Japan. These traditions have different systems of tuning, instrumentation, musical priorities and considerations, and different philosophies about what music fundamentally means. But Shankar’s and Takemitsu’s skill in weaving these musical influences together in their compositions is, perhaps, only matched by their ability to navigate their relationship with these different musical traditions. So often, the world seeks to categorise and pigeon-hole artist. So often, this also becomes a question of race, prejudice and cultural chauvinism. Shankar and Takemitsu have transcended this, and are rightfully recognised as two incredibly significant voices in 20th century music.
Forest Collective is very excited to include their works in Shifting.
Shifting 1
Thursday 24 February 7 pm
Saturday 26 February 2 pm
Shifting 2
Friday 25 February 7 pm
Saturday 26 February 7 pm
Industrial School, Abbotsford Convent
1 St. Heliers Street, Abbotsford VIC
Tickets from $25
