Travel»
Blending of west and east inevitable to boost
- Nepali music
DEC 21 - Almost intuitively, we Nepalis, presume that anyone with a guitarin his hand will have nomore to offer than a piece from a western number or a rap single of the Afro-American genre. So is the case with Kishor Gurung, a popular classical guitarist of Nepal. It is not surprising that some people tend to dismiss his avocation as being anti-nationalistic and even damaging to the Nepali folk culture. But Gurung, also an ethnomusicologist by education, believes in the contrary."The western methods of analysing and studying music are time-tested techniques that has evolved through hundreds of years. It may be years if not decades before we can even come close to inventing our own methods for studying music." he says. He further argues that it would mean saving a lot of time and resources if the existing methods are used in earnest for academic research works.
Gurung is also very sceptic about the notion of an unadulterated music that is truly Nepali in all regards. "Nepali folk music has been influenced by various genres in the past, with some influences dating back to the Vedic times. Even the ragas, the very basis of the Nepali classical music structure, have been derived from the Vedic chanting. On a larger scale though, all the ragas are incorporated into what is now known as Shastriya Sangeet." he says. "More recently, as Nepal’s exposure to the wider world increased following the end of the autocratic Rana regime in 1950s, our music has had to adopt the use of various western instruments such as the harmonium, the piano and the guitar. And it is this fusion of classical Nepali techniques with modern music that led to today’s adhunik geets." Indeed, nobody in their right senses would deem, adhunik geets as being non-Nepali.
So are we to accept the encroachment of foreign influences as all part of a natural process? Well, Gurung thinks that, our entire perspective on what is classical music has to be changed to answer this question. "We generally regard murchunga (Jaw’s harp), damphu (frame drum), bansuri (flute), tungna (plucked lutes), chyabrung, dholak (two-headed drums), sarangi and madal as instruments of Nepalese origin and believe that only these instruments can create Nepali music. But this is where we are going wrong.", he opines. He further adds to his point, "Our Madal is found throughout central India and in Bangladesh, where it is called modal or mondal. In the same way our sarangi is of pan-Islamic origin and exists in many other countries. The Flute is played in every part of the world and is more or less of the same makeup. The instruments are merely ingenious devices, which more often than not are determined by the limits of our anatomy and environment. It is the musical characteristics that are unique and need preservation."
Another of his major concerns is that the Nepalese music industry has not been able to create music that has appeal to the listeners other than Nepalis. "The themes of our songs are almost always confined to Himal, Danfe (lophophorus), and Laliguras (rhododendron). But Nepal has many more things to offer other than these part and parcels of the nature. It is high time we broaden our thinking and start creating music that is mellifluous to ears the world over." he added.
Onto the end of his exclusive interview with The Kathmandu Post, he expressed his desire to make the new generation of Nepali artists more aware about globalisation. "If we cannot catch up with the wave of globalisation now, we will lag behind forever as we have lagged in the field of technology", he explains.
It is not necessary that we introduce western elements to the Nepalese music, rather we should adopt their methodology of studying various forms of music and use it to analyse and interpret our own music, in turn, to disseminate it in the world before it is lost forever.Posted on: 2003-12-22 04:30
Headlines
Advertisements
