A whole day devoted to World Music saw the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester come alive with music, workshops, and tours for all ages to acknowledge both the cultural diversity and musical heritage of the city of Manchester. All the music performed today, although originating from diverse points of the globe, all have roots in or live in Manchester.
Some of the artistes appearing today are represented by The Lingua Franca World Music Agency, who were the hosts of the event. Sandwiched in the middle of this however was a concert in the main auditorium of the BVG Indian Choir Of England.
But first to the start of the day, and if you wanted to try your hand a Tai Chi, whilst being accompanied on the erhu by traditional master Henry Fung, then this was the first event, whilst in the foyer / cafe bar area owner and founder of The Lingua Franca agency D J Mayeva played some of her collection of world music for the first hour to warm us all up and give us a taste of what might be in store for the rest of the day.
At 12:15 another workshop; this time Palm-Wine Singing with Papa Sam Alafia whilst the first concert of the day started in the foyer / cafe bar area at 1:00pm with Jali Nyonkoling Kuyateh. Well actually, it was later than this as he had been delayed somewhat in arriving, and so there was a hiatus which was covered with more DJ-ing!
Jali Nyonkoling Kuyateh comes from a long line of Griots; a noble tradition of oral storytelling in Gambia. A male dominated position, the griot plays a kora (an 21-stringed African bridge-harp which looks more like a backwards guitar) and sings to the villagers about the news of the day, the politics, what is happening and also gives opinions too. Here he played and sang many traditional songs in his native language. What was interesting to note here was that the kora uses the same harmonic and melodic scales as western music, but when played and with the vocals too, it starts to take on a rather more eastern flavour. It is a notoriously difficult instrument to master and Kuyateh was obviously fully at ease with this instrument; it was a shame really that the songs he chose today all sounded very similar. There was little variation in any. But maybe that is as variable as the songs are; I am unfamiliar with the genre.
Another workshop - this time geared for children to try their hand at the erhu - a primitive Chinese violin. Whilst the next concert came from Sarah The Sufi. [Sufism: mystic Islamic belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God] Sarah Yaseem (real name) sang her own compositions as well as traditional fayre but all very personal and deeply meaningful to her and her life. She used a combination of small African hand drum, guitar and in her final piece, a gopichand (a single stringed Punjabi instrument) which she used to pluck and improvise a melody over the top. Her attitude was strong and positive, but welcoming, inclusive and supportive, and her mellow and lyrical voice was actually quite hypnotic.
El Condor were next on the programme. They are a duet from Latin America (Vladimir Cativo / El Salvador and Gary Garamendi / Peru ) and together, with the help of backing tracks, play up-beat and modern interpretations of traditional and well-known music of Latin America on a selection of pan-pipes, rain sticks, and wood flutes. Dressed in home-made costumes using influences from the three major cultures of their landmass, Inca, Mayan and Aztec, they were certainly a feast for the eyes and made a dramatic impact. It was a nice idea to update the music and give it a new lease of life in their treatments of it, but personally I would have preferred to have heard the traditional tunes played in the traditional way.
The final concert of the day was after the main auditorium Indian choir concert, and was once again produced by the Lingua Franca Agency. From The Seychelles, and now an international recording artist, Golty Farabeau has created his unique reggae style and sings in both French and English. Farabeau presented himself as a confident, intelligent and caring human being, and although his musical style is not something I would normally listen to; I had to admit that his talent and his musicality were impressive and I did find myself bopping along to the beats quite subconsciously. A lovely finish to the whole event.
At 5:00pm in the main auditorium was the showpiece concert of the whole day. Bhartiya Vrund Gaan (BVG) and The Bridgewater Hall presented Swaranjali. This was a concert of Indian choir music sang by BVG:The Indian Choir Of England and SHIVA; The Indian Youth Choir Of England.
The stage was set with tabla (traditional drums) on one side, and a small shrine (to Shiva?) as well as the harmonium, violin, flute and piano, whilst the centre of the stage was strewn with petals and small candles.
Both choirs are the first of their kind in England and BVG is based in Manchester, although their membership comes from all over the country. They perform traditional songs from various regions of India, and sing in those regions' native tongues; and although it all sounded the same to me, I am sure that anyone able to speak any Indian language would have been able to understand which was which.
The Shiva Youth Choir started the concert with several songs on their own before being joined by the adults to end the first half of the concert. The youngsters, a=ranging in age from 8 - 15 (14 girls and 5 boys) were dressed in traditional Indian clothes looking uniformed and smart. Sadly though they appeared nervous and insecure and their songs felt under-rehearsed. They seemed uncertain of when to enter or come-off certain phrases. All their songs started with an extended solo before the whole choir joined in; each time the solo being given to a different girl. The young girl who started the whole concert was for me the most confident. After the interval, and after an address and thank-you from the Lady Mayor of Manchester, June Hitchen, it was the turn of the adult choir to sing without children.
The whole concert was narrated / announced by one of the choir members, but sadly it was almost impossible to understand what she was saying, and without programme I was very lost. There was a large screen above the choir which did give the titles of the songs and their composers etc, but for the majority of the concert the screen showed a map of Northern India, photos of flowers, mountains and birds, and typical ancient Indian art works. I only was able to understand / read a few of the titles and so unfortunately I felt somewhat alienated by the whole experience, it being all completely outside of my own cultural knowledge. With a programme, I would have been able to have read and understood more about the music and the background to the music at my leisure and also be able to write a more comprehensive report on the concert. As it is however, it left me a little cold, and since the whole concert had a very ad-hoc, laissez-faire attitude to it, I left feeling disappointed by the whole experience.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 1/9/18
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