The music of Arun Ramamurthy and Trina Basu not only presents new views of ancient musical systems, but also unravels the possibilities of music as a whole. The duo recently performed at the Bangalore International Centre. | Photo credit: Gayatri Shrikesh
The visual story of ‘Nakshatra’ – a concert performed by violin duo Arun Ramamurthy and Trina Basu at Bangalore International Centre, featured the two musicians sitting together on a dimly lit stage, the auditory narrative spread out a richly detailed, vibrant canvas of music that could be as big as you wanted it to be. Arun and Trina’s music had a now-you-see-them-now-you-don’t-see-them influence on their individual playing styles and musical backgrounds.
The duo brought their music to Bengaluru from Brooklyn (New York) during a visit to India with their family. Visiting Kolkata and Bengaluru in their first Indian concert series as a violin duo, they performed excerpts from their first album in addition to other musical compositions. Their music not only presented entirely new views of ancient musical systems, but it also pointed to the overall potential of music if music education in India is institutionalised like in the West.
Arun and Trina began their concert with a composition dedicated to Lenapehoking, where the region’s indigenous people lived in harmony with nature before colonization. | Photo credit: Gayatri Shrikesh
The concert began with a musical piece dedicated to New York’s Lenapehoking (Lenape Land) or Prospect Park, where the indigenous people of the region lived in harmony with nature before colonization. Trina said Prospect Park “provided a wonderful refuge during the pandemic, when the only sounds heard were the sounds of birds and ambulances.” The composition, based on the popular raga Abheri, was based on important ecological and ethical concerns, which will be a recurring concert theme.
His next composition ‘Tempest’ had the touch of clarity that comes after a storm. Woven from ragas Gauri Manohari and Vachaspati, for me, it raised the question of how music derived from so many different places could sound so unified. ‘Migration’, in Mohanam raga, was inspired by his families journey from Bengaluru and then Calcutta to the US.
The next two pieces examined the elements of nature and erratic weather patterns. While the progressive notes of Raga Hemavathi evoked the spirals of the Fibonacci sequence, the duo’s harmonious arrangement of ‘Sri Kamalambika’ in Sri Raga highlighted how SRMP and MPNS can become a blended musical delight when played together. The duo’s reimagining of this composition by Muthuswami Dikshitar brought to mind the history of the violin, once a purely Western instrument, which is credited with being adapted to Carnatic music by their brother Baluswami Dikshitar. Arun and Trina’s shared musical vocabulary took that adaptation to new heights. Subsequent musical pieces were influenced by American folk, Carnatic, jazz, and film music, among other genres.
Arun Ramamurthy. | Photo courtesy: Gayatri Shrikesh
After being introduced to each other in 2007 by Arun’s Carnatic music teacher Mysore Manjunath (after Trina spent a year training in India), Arun and Trina played together in the local Carnatic music group Akshara shortly after. As Trina puts it, “a shared musical chemistry” led to two years of “practising together, sharing stories, musical ideas and approaches to the instrument,” Arun says. They “started composing and performing together as a duo around 2012.” Trina says their intention is to “make music from the heart and push the creative possibilities,” while Arun says he hopes to “make music that addresses real-world issues.”
Trina Basu | Photo Credit: Gayatri Shrikesh
Trina says, “Experimenting with elements and techniques present in different violin traditions (Indian raga/taal, Western chamber music, counterpoint, harmony, fiddle/folk) has given us a wide palette of colours to compose with. This is a big win for us!” Arun is inspired by “the feeling of letting go and letting the subconscious take over” in his musical collaborations, which he sees as an attempt to “look inward and create meaningful music” for himself and the audience.
Both professional musicians with independent careers, they use their home as an “office, rehearsal, teaching studio and family living space”, Arun says, learning to deal with the “challenges associated with partnership and parenting”. Trina says they cope by trying to “stay focused, organised and accepting of the pace” of their work’s development. Yet, none of these challenges were heard in their music, allowing different types of music to communicate intimately without condemnation or judgement.
Published – September 11, 2024 03:06 PM IST
