Pierre de Fermat was born in in the first decade of the 17th century. He was an amateur mathematician, but one who became very famous for his “Last Theorem”: no three positive integers a, b, and c can satisfy the equation an + bn = cn for any integer value of n greater than two. This deceptively simple theorem, eluded a formal proof from the most gifted mathematical geniuses for over three centuries. The theorem was not proven until September 1994, when Andrew Wiles finally achieved his lifelong ambition and proved it.
Once a mathematical theorem is proved, it becomes like a law of nature. Plants are green, the sun is yellow, the square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is the sum of the squares of its two sides, and so on. There is no mystery about it, it doesn’t engage our minds any longer because there is nothing to engage, only to learn. Once you study it sufficiently to learn it, there is nothing else left to learn. Fermat’s challenge to humanity lasted over three centuries, but it is a challenge no longer.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in January 1756. He is world famous for many of his compositions. Over 250 years later, his compositions still continue to baffle listeners. We can study a composition and learn it, but it will continue to engage us and we will find there is yet more to learn. Our learning of great compositions is never complete.
Mathematical truths are eternal and timeless. But the genius mathematicians who discover them for the first time are distanced from that truth. The beauty of the truth does not belong to the discoverer, it belongs to the universe.
Musical compositions are eternal and timeless too. But the genius composer who creates them remains an integral part of them. The beauty of the truth in great compositions belongs as much to the composer as to the universe.
Mathematical beauty is innate to the Universe and gifted to mankind. Musical beauty is created by man and gifted to the Universe.
In my culture, when a prospective bridegroom visits a prospective bride in the context of an “arranged marriage”, it is a custom for the girl to prepare “kaande-pohe” and the guy is supposed to then assess her cooking skills based on how good they have been prepared. (“Kaande” is Onions, “Pohe” is flattened rice). This is a custom that has been followed for generations, so much so, that we urban boys when joking about prospective couples just mention “kaande-pohe” and the rest is understood.
I have always been curious why it is this particular, specific preparation that has come to be associated with this marriage ritual. The answer, as always, lies in the agricultural and economic roots of Maharashtra.
This is a region where rice and jowari was plentiful. On the other hand, wheat was a delicacy. “Poha” is flattened rice, that was used by battering rice at home in ancient times. It was readily available anywhere you went. Chapati, on the other hand, is made out of wheat, which was a luxury few could afford. Also, one family visiting a prospective family was not a close enough acquaintance for a full-fledge meal, in which cooked rice, and Bhakri would be served. Families often went scouting for multiple brides in one day.
Onion (“kaanda”) and Pohe were guaranteed to be available anywhere you went. The need of the hour was for a simple snack, easily affordable, whose ingredients were available universally, irrespective of economic status. Thus, the ritual of the girl preparing “Kaande-Pohe” became the ‘norm’.
I keep hearing this often from adults who get nostalgic about their childhood, want to be a child again, and lament at the supposed “loss” of childhood that today’s kids encounter. As an example, take this post from my Twitter friend Haroon Bijli. This post was inspired from a conversation on Twitter with @Bijli and @LyricalMutiny.
Consider:
I never experienced in-house cattle like my parents did for unlimited milk-supply. Kids these days need to be taught where milk originally comes from.
Unlike my elder siblings, I did not learn swimming in a huge village well from elder cousins.
When I grew up, there was no computer, no iPad. When my dad grew up, there was no calculator.
And so on. You get the picture. Now:
My kid will never get the experience of drawing water from a well in the village.
My kid may never taste raw milk drawn from a buffalo live in front of you.
My kid will never know the joys of collecting Jungle Book stickers from underneath soft-drink bottle caps.
My kid who has tried flying a kite will probably have a kid in future who will probably be flying a remote-controlled UFO.
Point is, I did not have the childhood my parents had. My kid won’t have the childhood I had. Does this make any one childhood better or worse than the other?
My kid may one day lament about how her kid doesn’t have the childhood she had.
One valid point was raised in the conversation on Twitter, about kids becoming couch potatoes. All kids seem to do these days is watch TV or play on iPads and do nothing else. No physical activity, whatsoever.
If that is the case, it is certainly bad. But it’s not the kids’ fault. No kid is born to be a couch potato. One becomes a couch potato only by learning from parents.
Are you actively engaging your kid in playing outdoor games? Are you practicing a musical instrument along with your kid? Are you practicing the dance steps your kid has learnt in school? And so on. Your kid will always do what you normally do, as a way of life. If one’s way of life is a couch-potato, one’s kid will be the same.
Today’s kids will never do what you did as a child. You did not do the things your parents did when they were kids. Should we keep thinking that our childhood was somehow great and it is lost forever for future generations?
Aren’t we being myopic and self-centered? The world changes and so should we. Each and every childhood is special. We’re just too grown up and inflexible to realize and adapt to change, which is a constant of nature and life in general.
Why should you care about periods and eras in WCM? Because they’re invaluable if you wish to appreciate a WCM work in perspective historically. On a broad level, WCM has evolved through the following eras:
Baroque (1600 — 1750)
Classical (1750 — 1830)
Romantic (1830 — 1940s)
Modern ((1940s — Present)
Yes, as simple as that. But these four periods cover over four centuries of music. Eras in music parallel man’s evolution in many ways. Societal norms are reflected in each milestone. Let’s look at each era in some detail.
Baroque
Music in the Baroque era was primarily an individual hobby. The concept of music to be used to entertain or embellish an occasion was not yet widely practiced. Hence, Baroque works are like an individual creating, refining, and continuing to refine his own artistic work. I often think of musicians of this era as iconoclasts and introverts, who used music as the dimension of existential life that these unsociable souls turned to in order to fulfill their intellectual and creative abilities.
As a result, music of the baroque era tends to be mostly intellectual, intertwined with musical constructs that parallel those in mathematical equations. The fact that emotion can be involved in music wasn’t discovered or appreciated during this era, hence it is largely devoid of emotion. Music was a subject of intense study, not entertainment. Groups of musicians performing together was a concept that was born during this era, unheard of before, leading to some of the first trios & quartets. Thus, it was in the Baroque era that Chamber Music was born.
Do not equate historical progression of the evolution of music with the ability to appreciate it. Baroque works are often the hardest and most difficult to appreciate though they predate other works, like from the Romantic era, that may be much easier on the mind and ears.
In many ways, Baroque music mirrors the Baroque architectural style — embellishments and adornments all around for each theme. Also, most of the Forms we discussed earlier were developed and formalized during the Baroque era.
The most famous composer of the Baroque era was Johann Sebastian Bach. The sheer brilliance of his work makes him a towering figure in music even today, remarkable for the intellectual depth and artistic clarity of his compositions. To me, he epitomizes Baroque music. Recommended listening for J. S. Bach:
Brandenburg Concertos (Sample):
The Well-Tempered Clavier (Sample):
The Art of Fugue (Sample):
Classical
The Classical era is when music flourished and flowered while still remaining restricted within strict, formal rules of composition. Classical music departed from Baroque ornamentation, leading to simple melodic tunes without intellectual embellishments. Emotion was still not the driving force behind the composition — it was form, and form that classical composers held up on a pedestal as the goddess of music. The musical forms and styles we discussed in earlier posts, like the sonata, the symphony, and the concerto, were all developed during the Classical period. The defining element of Classical music is balance — try balancing a piece of stick on a single finger for a while, and that’s what classical music is all about — combining multiple instrumental voices into a melodic harmony, expounding on its thematic abilities, while balancing it within rigid rules of form.
The indisputable masters of this era were Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Here are some interesting and entertaining facts about Haydn you must read. At a time when Mozart’s father (a huge influence in his life) was questioning his son’s career path, in 1785, Haydn said to Mozart’s father Leopold:
Before God and as an honest man I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name; he has taste, and, furthermore, the most profound knowledge of composition.
Haydn was a father figure to Mozart and their friendship is very well documented.
Haydn is considered, justifiably, to be the father of the symphony and the string quartet.
Recommended listening for Joseph Haydn: Symphonies 103, 104 (Sample):
It was Franz Schubert and Ludwig van Beethoven who started as classical composers and helped evolve music into the next era.
Romantic
Socio-political changes brought about one of the greatest evolutionary changes in music history: the introduction of emotion in music. For the first time, music broke its rigid shackles of structure and form, giving prominence to individual expression roaming wild and free. As stated before, Schubert and Beethoven lived this transition, but it is Beethoven on whom the spotlight shines as the pillar of this enormous transition. Other masters of this era who need to be mentioned are Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, the god of piano Frédéric Chopin, Hector Berlioz, and Franz Liszt. It makes me cringe to write all these names in a single sentence, for each of them is responsible for a body of works so vast and huge, that to be able to appreciate them all in a single lifetime is virtually impossible. Believe me, you can spend more than one lifetime just attempting to plumb the depths of Chopin’s works — a genius who made the piano transcend from a mere instrument to a medium for inexpressible emotions.
Here is one of Chopin’s most popular Nocturne, of which he composed not less than 21.
Most of Chopin’s works are best appreciated alone, in the dark, at night.
You must have listened to Schubert’s “Serenade” numerous times, without knowing it:
Observe how the music doesn’t follow any of the Baroque/Classical forms or structure, it is free flowing, as and where the artist’s heart and mind wandered. This is the essence of Romantic music.
The Romantic era is also the one where opera flowered thanks to Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi. Having only a single lifetime, I confess I am not an expert in Opera hence can’t write much about it.
Finally, a special mention goes to the two Russian geniuses, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky was a closet gay who has created monumental works, and his death remains a mystery even today. And anyone who has not listened to Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto has not lived at all. Here is Sergei himself playing it, thanks to a 1929 recording:
Modern
Before delving into the Modern era, let us give a little thought to the exponential growth of complexity in music. Let us take the symphony as a barometer of the creative work of a composer:
Haydn composed 106 symphonies in his lifetime
Mozart composed 41
Beethoven composed 9
As time passed, each composer felt obliged to put in more and more complex thought in each of his compositions. Johannes Brahms kept a bust of Beethoven overlooking the table he composed and took 20 years to compose his first symphony. 20 years! He ended up composing 4 symphonies in his lifetime.
As composers struggled with creativity, there evolved two schools in 20th century music. One followed the same tonal foundation based on centuries of prior work, while the other broke the boundaries of tonality altogether. The latter gave rise to atonal music, where there is no central key around which the composition rests. The most famous composer of this school is Arnold Schoenberg, who invented Serialism as a unique foundation of composition. On the other hand, within the tonal school of composition, Igor Stravinsky broke new ground with his sometimes shocking compositions, especially those involving dissonance for the first time in WCM.
I am not at all familiar with most of modern music, and Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” remains the only work that I enjoy from this period. Works such as “The Rite of Spring” are really meant to be listened to live in front of the full orchestra, to appreciate the nuances and the dissonance. I have been fortunate to attend two live performances of this unbelievable work. It is a work of about 30 minutes, but those 30 minutes transport you to a different world altogether. This is how Disney’s artists interpreted it in the classic “Fantasia (1940)”:
Summary
Different people like WCM from different eras. You may like Baroque and hate Classical. You may fall in love with Romantic and hate Baroque. The point is, there is centuries of music for you to pick and choose when it comes to WCM. Do not give up if one particular form or genre from one particular era doesn’t suit you — try another. These eras are also instructive in learning about how music evolved through the centuries. Happy listening!
The pace of psychological science has not kept up with the pace of technological progress, leading to a whole slew of issues surrounding our so-called online identities.If you follow psychology as far as it flows into mainstream media, you must have observed the studies surrounding online addiction, marriages, suicidal behavior, and so on. But, these are extremities, and the numerous surveys and research studies don’t address what the rest of the 99% are going through. Yes, there is indeed a conflict we are all experiencing as our digital personae become as or more pervasive as our real ones were never destined to be.
It is a conflict that needs deeper study.
Even in our real lives, we struggle to understand our real self. This illustrates the situation pretty well:
(I am not sure where this abstraction comes from – Carl Rogers comes close)
In essence, we are neither who we think we are, nor are we what others think we are. Our real “self” is embedded in some shadow. Discovering this – our “real self” – is the magic that has spawned generations of godmen and mystics. This quest for the search of our true “identity” has continued for centuries.
What happens when you introduce online identity? This:
The quest for identity has gotten much, much more difficult thanks to the Internet. We are no longer just real human beings living in real lives, visible to sound, sight, and touch – we are now a Twitter account, a Facebook account, a Google Plus account, and so on.
These online accounts are identities in themselves. Whether one chooses to associate these online identities with one’s real identity is an individual’s choice. (Reminder – there are over 7 billion people on this planet). But many do, and when they do, there is a conflict. Online and Offline collide in ways one had never thought of before. Yes, they do, just like this.
How does it look when your online persona is very different from what you really are?
The more different you are online than in your real life, the more stress you will feel.
Some people are true to themselves to such an extent that their real life identities match closely with their online identities.
These are folks who experience harmony, with their digital and real self entwined together.
Another way to think about this:
No wonder millions of people are trying to solve the puzzle.
When I was a kid growing up in the Mumbai suburb of Ghatkopar, our Dad always used only one cobbler for all our family’s footwear needs. This cobbler, Mr. Karande, worked at a small shop ahead of Shivaji Park in Dadar. Both my parents, and three of us kids’ footwear needs throughout school were serviced by Mr. Karande over a span of 30–35 years. He hailed from the same native place as my father — Kolhapur — which as you may know is famous for the Kolhapuri chappal.
Sewing school leather boots for us children involved two trips — one where he mapped out our feet sizes and shapes onto pieces of paper, and the other to try out the new boots. There were plenty of ready-made shoes available near home as were many other cobblers, but my Dad wouldn’t have any of them. It was a painstaking 3-4hr journey to visit Mr. Karande each time, but it had its rewards. The footwear almost never needed any repairs, it was so tough and durable. It was highly comfortable, because it was individually personalized. Mr. Karande even knew our individual usage patterns, such as which parts of the bottom were more likely to be overused, and designed the footwear accordingly, strengthening or thickening different parts.
It was a relationship that transcended footwear. When Mr. Karande’s son decided to venture into the transport business and wanted financing for his first vehicle, my Dad, the banker, arranged a loan for him. Whenever either my parents or Mr. Karande made a pilgrimage, the prasaadwould be shared at our next meeting. A few years back, I came to know from my parents that Mr. Karande was no more. On one such pilgrimage, he knelt in front of the deity and never got up. It was the end of an era.
A couple of months back, the joint between the toes of my footwear broke. For two months, I did nothing about it, continuing to suffer the inconvenience. Once, while attending a music festival, we had to walk quite a bit and I almost sprained my leg as a result of the broken footwear. I was too lazy to go out and buy a replacement, and I didn’t know if there was a cobbler near where we live.
Today, I asked around and located a cobbler on the main street, within 5 minutes walking distance from our home. For the past six years, we haven’t ever noticed him. I walked up to him and asked him if he could repair my broken footwear. He didn’t even look up, didn’t bother to reply, just took it and started repairing it. As my Dad’s son, I have been trained to first negotiate a price and then proceed with the contract and I felt a slight remorse at not doing so. Then again, as my Dad’s son, I wondered how much he will swindle me for this small job. (One of the reasons for having one and only one vendor for each of his needs was that Dad believed others would charge much more for the same). I decided that Rs. 10 would be the right price for this kind of job.
As I watched him work his magic, I was mesmerized by his skill. He weaved his magic with intricate care and a lot of skill. When it was over, he just returned the footwear, said Rs. 5, continuing to not look up at me even once. I took Rs. 10 from my wallet, handed it to him and told him to keep it. It was then that he looked up at my face. He was too stunned to say anything. But for that one brief moment, I was no longer just a pair of legs with footwear — in the eyes of the cobbler, I became a human being.
Today, I relived an infinitesimally small part of my Dad’s relationship with his cobbler. But it made my day.
Earlier in July this year, I reproduced a short essay I had written in Marathi back in 1993, along with my first attempt at translating it to English. Here is my English version, again (just in case you’re too lazy to click and read the earlier post Skip this if you’ve read it already )
The Sky had spent many days harboring its sorrows within itself. There were many clouds over its usually clear, light and cloudless frame of mind, due to the weight of many days of conflict.
We often find a unique representation of our emotions in many facets of nature. The pangs of despair and the ache resulting from it had found symbolic representation in the lightning that ensued.
The sudden, unexpected, short-lived, but blinding lightning was slashing against the Sky’s heart. The cruel, savage lightning turned the helpless Sky into a wounded soul.
The Wind was conveying the state of this wounded Sky everywhere; it was running in all directions, frantically searching for help. But no one listened. The flora and fauna on the Earth couldn’t look at this depressed state of the Sky, and wanted to help, but they were rooted to the Earth. They were not free to leave the confines of their Mother Earth. The trees were swaying listening to the story from the wind, trembling in vain attempts to reach out to the Sky, but they couldn’t move.
Notwithstanding all this, the torture of the lightning continued. The Sky’s pains and anguish grew. There were thunderstorms. The Sky began to shudder. After crossing its limit for grief, the Sky, already drawn to the point of tears, began crying. Teardrops began to fall. As if it was pouring its heart out in crying, rain began to fall.
The Earth, who had been witnessing all this silently, ran to the rescue. The Earth’s soil emanated that unique fragrance, reaching out to the Sky, offering a shoulder for it to cry. The Sky was outpouring all its grief that it had held for a very long time, and kept raining, seeking the warmth of the Earth. The essence of this embrace between Earth and Sky was symbolized by that unique fragrance, where they met and caressed each other…
Now, my dear friend @Asuph who practices the Fine Art of Imbalance, has graciously translated my original Marathi essay into English and posted it in the comments of my original post. Here is his version:
The sky was worn down by the baggage it had carried for a long time. The conflicts of those days had overclouded its otherwise clear, uncluttered mind.
Many a times our emotions find uncanny parallels in nature. The lashing pains and the despairing grief, pent up within for days and weeks, found their embodiment in the lightning. The pangs of grief, unanticipated, acute, blinding, tore at its heart, left the hapless sky bruised.
The wind spread the news of the plight of the sky in every which direction, frantically searching for help. But no one offered to help. Down on earth, the trees watched the sky helplessly. The tales of the wind moved them, they shuddered, and swayed. In vain, they tried to break free. But rooted too strong in their world, they could not break free — to run to the sky, and offer it some solace.
Unbecoming, the lightning continued its torture. The sky was now engulfed in waves of unbearable pains. Encouraged, the lightning stepped up its cruelty, roaring, and thundering. The sky shuddered, and then, when the pains crossed a point, tears escaped it. A trickle gave way to a downpour, as the sky opened up.
The earth, which was the silent spectator, now offered her solidarity. As she imbibed the first teardrops, the wet earth let out a unique scent. Aided by the wind, it reached the sky, a token of the earth’s compassion. It was as if the earth had put her arm around it. That touch was all the sky needed, to let go. As it cried its heart out, the downpour lasted for a while, releasing all the pent up agony. Even when it finally stopped, the essence of their communion lingered on through the scent of the wet earth.
How much smoother it reads! How naturally it flows! It is as if it were written like this for the first time. Are translations best when done by others? Is an author too shackled with the words he used in his original that he can’t let go of them when translating? I think there’s a certain element of truth to this, what do you think?
After looking at some of the Forms used in WCM, let us look at some of the popular Genres or Styles that make up the world of WCM. Note that as music evolved, composers increasingly began to exercise their freedom and creativity, to the extent that at times they even broke away from these styles.
Orchestral vs. Chamber Music
WCM works can be broadly differentiated as either being ‘Orchestral’ or as ‘Chamber Music’. Orchestral works are those performed by a full orchestra, comprising dozens of different instruments being played by dozens of performers. Several performers may play the same instrument. Chamber Music comprises of works performed by a small group of performers, each playing a different instrument. The reason for this terminology is historical — the occasion and purpose behind the two genres was different. Orchestral works were performed for the public; chamber music was meant to be performed as an accompaniment inside homes of royal families who financed and supported music composers. For obvious reasons, Chamber Music is also referred to as Ensemble.
Additional Genres may be defined as Instrumental for solo instruments, Choral for group of singers (choir). What follows below is a generic description of several ‘Styles’ that lie within these genres.
Concerto
The Solo Concerto is an orchestral work composed in three movements, performed by the full orchestra and a solo instrument. Typically, concertos are written for the piano, violin, cello or the flute. The interplay between the solo instrument and the orchestra is the defining element of the Concerto — this is the closest in WCM to the ‘jugalbandi’ in Indian Classical. The Concerto has also survived centuries of musical evolution and remains popular to this day, with many accomplished solo instrumentalists showcasing their virtuoso skills while performing in this genre.
Here is Sergei Rachmaninoff himself playing his Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Philadelphia Orchestra:
This was recorded in 1929, so there’s no live video. If this music seems familiar to you, it was used in David Lean’s 1945 film ‘Brief Encounter’, Billy Wilder’s 1955 ‘The Seven Year Itch’ starring Marilyn Monroe with the famous skirt shot, and also in Clint Eastwood’s 2010 film ‘Hereafter’. See how classical music is timeless? You can read more about Rachmaninoff and his Piano Concerto No. 2 here.
Conventional concertos have the first movement in Sonata Form, the second may be sonata or free-flowing, while the finale is typically a Rondo or simply a ‘Theme with Variations’.
Symphony
A Symphony is an orchestral work, typically composed in four or five movements. Like the concerto, symphonies have been a mainstay of WCM for a very long time and have been very popular. A typical symphony conforms to the following structure:
Opening movement is fast-paced, with a solid thematic character. This movement is usually in the Sonata Form.
Second movement is slow, sometimes melancholy or solemn. This movement may use the Sonata, Rondo, or a simple Theme with Variations form.
Third movement is a Minuet or Scherzo, moderately paced. A minuet is meant to accompany dance, the Scherzo replaced it in later eras, with much faster tempo. Both follow the ‘Ternary Form’ (ABA…).
The Fourth movement is the Finale, which is again a fast-paced movement in Sonata or Rondo form.
Many symphonies reverse the 2nd and 3rd movements. Beethoven evolved the form further by even introducing the choir in the famous ‘Ode to Joy’ finale of his 9th Symphony. Here is a sample, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, in the 1977 New Year’s Eve concert of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra:
You can sense the incredible power of the full orchestra. If any person is not moved by this spectacular music, there is a soul missing.
Sonata
A ‘Sonata’ is a work for one or two instruments, composed in three or four movements, very similar in Form to the Symphony (discussed above). You might say that a Sonata is a Chamber Music version of the Orchestral Symphony. Most sonatas were written for the Piano (solo) or the Violin (often accompanied by the Piano).
For a typical WCM lover, about 70–80% of time is consumed by Concertos, Sonatas, and Symphonies, all of which employ the Sonata Form as their basic foundation. So if you’ve not spent time understanding Sonata Form, please do so, by reading the previous post again.
Opera
The Opera is full-fledged theater — a drama performed by actors who’re singers, accompanied by a full orchestra, involving a storyline, costumes, sets, etc. It is one of the most endearing and popular genres of WCM with a rich history of evolution.
‘Opera’ means ‘work’ in Italian (opus = work), possibly referring to the labor involved for the performers in singing, acting, and dancing. The text of the drama is the ‘libretto’, while the songs are the ‘aria’.
This is the ‘Queen of Night’ aria from Mozart’s Magic Flute:
Listen to the incredible vocals starting from 0:45. Unbelievable composition!
Singing in an Opera is a difficult skill, since the human voices had to be heard without electronic amplification over and above the full blast of the orchestra. Different male and female voices are classified into bass/tenor/contralto/soprano/etc. according to their voice types. The music of an opera is sufficiently a work of art in itself, that can be enjoyed and appreciated without the theater. The instrumental work performed by the orchestra before the curtains open is the ‘Overture’.
Trios, Quartets, Quintets
As their name implies, these are works for a set of three, four, or five instruments. These works comprise a vast majority of Chamber Music, and are a delight in themselves. Chamber Music is more nuanced and intimate than Orchestral Music, and needs a finer ear and appreciation. They might seem deceptively simple at first, as they don’t overwhelm the ear like Orchestral works, but actually, they’re complex and serious, requiring greater ‘mind listening’. The most popular among these is the String Quartet, which is performed with two violins, one viola, and one cello.
There are other works in Chamber Music that are performed by trios, quartets, etc. but are termed differently, like ‘Divertimento’, ‘Serenade’, or ‘Nachtmusik’. For example, Mozart’s Divertimento in D Major, KV 136 is a mini-symphony for the string quartet, one of my most beloved works. Here’s the first movement, conducted by Yehudi Menuhin:
I have previously described how I spent 16 years to find this Divertimento composed by a 16-year old, over two centuries ago.
Rhapsody
A ‘Rhapsody’ is a single movement work that is free-flowing and doesn’t follow any form or structure. It typically has contrasting shades of mood and tonality.
Here is George Gershwin with his Rhapsody In Blue, which straddles the Western Classical and Jazz genres:
From Tom & Jerry cartoons to music albums, from advertisements to movies, this work has had a huge impact on music in all spheres of life.
In the next post, we shall look at how Western Classical Music evolved through history.
After being born and brought up in Mumbai, I left it in 1997. Over the years, many people have asked me about why I shifted from Mumbai to Pune. It is time I wrote about it.
For me, life in Mumbai was all about traveling through the suburban local trains. The first time I started traveling alone on the local trains was when I was 10 years old. I travelled from Ghatkopar to Charni Road to attend Yoga Classes during the summer vacation. I remember even as a child, instead of sitting on seats inside the women’s compartment, I used to stand in the door. I remember some elder women scolding me for doing that as I was just a small kid.
After growing up a bit, next set of memories are of travelling through the local train in the early morning at 4:30am to attend “Agarwal Classes” during the 11th/12th grade. By then, I had a “First Class” “season pass”. Even at 4:30am in the morning, there was no place to sit, so I travelled standing in the door. Life continued as the years flew past.
By this time, after travelling so much by standing in the door, I knew every pillar and obstacle that came too close to the door as the train passes it. There was a story associated with each pillar and obstacle – how a friend’s friend had his head smashed by it, and so on. I could never travel “inside”, as I needed fresh air, so always traveled standing in the door.
A strong memory comes from college days, when I was the youngest member of an amateur Astronomical Group, ‘Khagol Mandal’ in Sion. We used to travel to Vangani for full-night sky observations. In order to carry our huge telescopes, we needed to board a Karjat train at Victoria Terminus (VT). Imagine doing that, when each seat in the train is booked using a handkerchief well before it comes to a stop on its way in, 10 minutes before it starts on it’s way back.
After that, came the working years. Travelling to VT every day for work. 9:51 was my regular fast train from Ghatkopar to VT. Avoiding watching people from hutments defecating alongside the train tracks was a regular routine to which I was very well accustomed to by then.
By this time, I was a proud “Mumbaiker”. After the 1993 blasts, I remember getting goose-pimples and swelling in pride the next day when going to work, seeing billboards that proclaimed in huge letters: “Friday: Bomb blasts. Saturday: 93% attendance in Offices”.
Then, something happened. I was once traveling in a train standing in the first door behind the driver’s end. I liked to watch the surroundings go by from that “first person” point of view. Between Sion and Chembur, a girl, screaming, tried to jump in front of the train. Someone pulled her back at the last instant. It is a memory I will never forget.
On a different day, some years later, I tried to board a fast train from Dadar for Ghatkopar. I could not get in, even in the “First Class”. I became desperate, and decided to be adventurous. I climbed the window, with my fingers on the rain channel at the top of the carriage. Yes, I travelled from Dadar to Ghatkopar, for about 30 minutes, holding on to dear life, while my fingers and hands were in excruciating pain, while the train was hurtling along at 85 kmph. An unforgettable experience.
And then on a usual day to work, I was waiting for my daily 9:51 at Ghatkopar. The train could be seen in the distance, approaching the station, when it suddenly stopped. Someone suicidal jumped ahead of it and was killed. So the train was delayed. Does anyone think about the life of Mumbai’s local train drivers? They face such situations all the time. And whenever it happens, they’re not able to sleep at night.
My response? Like the innumerable number of other passengers waiting for the train, my response was of irritation and anger at getting delayed for work. I was not concerned about the loss of human life, my only concern was about getting delayed to work. My dehumanization was complete. When I later thought about it, I decided that I needed to leave Mumbai. I did and have never regretted it. I am a human again, and value human life the way I wasn’t able to, when I lived in Mumbai.
Skip this if you’ve read it already )