The month of September offered an opportunity to celebrate the centenary of a successful lecture tour by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). It was organized by Dutch citizens with whom he shared a commitment to a cultural dialogue on eye-level. A Dutch press report highlights Tagore’s “silver voice” that conveyed his admiration for the songs of Bengal’s […]
Category: english
Therefore I ask you to have the strength of faith and clarity of mind to know for certain that the lumbering structure of modern progress, riveted by the iron bolts of efficiency, which runs upon the wheels of ambition, cannot hold together for long. Collisions are certain to occur, for it has to travel upon […]
Text: Ludwig Pesch | Art: Arun V.C. The flute has played a key role in India’s artistic life since antiquity. This is evident from writings on dance-drama, mythology, sculptures and paintings. Its playing technique must have been highly developed for a very long time. Different names are used for it, for instance kuzhal (pronounced like “kulal” or “kural”) in Tamil speaking regions; and bānsurī […]
The mockingbird’s elusive complexity still sounds like a code waiting to be cracked. It may be harder to answer the question of what birds sing than why! Think of the power of mantras, Hindu incantations that on the surface are composed of nonsense syllables but when internalized lead the soul to higher spiritual states. So are the […]
Satish Kumar is Editor Emeritus of Resurgence & Ecologist | Read his full article Voice of The Earth in Resurgence & Ecologist (Issue 320 May/June 2020 Stubborn Optimism)
Read this publication online or download it for free on archive.org >> A Theatre for All Sittrarangam—the small theatre Madras by Ludwig Pesch with a Foreword by Himanshu Burte Download the epub-version for offline reading, printing or getting read out on the Archive.org website >> eka.grata publications © Amsterdam 2002 (print version), 2016 (ebook versions) Digital […]
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english
The ability of finding joy in the joy of others – voilà: the secret of happiness – Bernanos(quoted by Frédéric Lenoir in La Puissance de la joie, Le Livre de Poche) AIUME encapsulates our way of building bridges in an atmosphere of mutual respect: Adapting Indian Universals in Music Education. This is about providing access to […]
For up-to-date publishing details please check the catalogue of worldcat.org >> [Print editions, sorted by “published date, newest first”] “Thinking and learning in South Indian Music” in: Cslovjecsek, Markus, and Madeleine Zulauf. Integrated Music Education: Challenges of Teaching and Teacher Training, 2018. “Raum für Ideen? Zeit zum Spiel! Zum Sinn eines unbefangeneren Umgangs mit der ‘klassischen’ Musik Indiens” […]
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The tambura (tanpura)
Text: Ludwig Pesch | Art: Arun V.C. The tambura – also known as tanpura – has long served as India’s most important accompaniment. It accompanies vocal and instrumental performers as well as dance musicians. It has embellished the salons of nobles, merchants and courtisans long before its arrival on the modern concert stage. Its present form with four strings […]
by Ludwig Pesch Published by Shankar Ramchandran on behalf of Dhvani Ohio Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License For this musicologist and author, there are good reasons to believe that Carnatic music matters, perhaps more than ever and almost anywhere in the world. So why not perform and teach it in the service of better education for all, […]