As I sat down in my seat in Bailey Hall, I had no idea what to expect from the performance ahead. My parents had persuaded me to attend an Indian-classical-music concert, and my experiences with such shows had in the past generally led me to doze off or my attention to wander from the performance. Nonetheless, I open-mindedly attended, and as soon as Zakir Hussain walked onto the stage with a slight swagger and a twinkle in his eye, I knew it was going to be a great show.
The concert I attended was part of the Cornell Concert Series, a year-long collection of internationally renowned artists’ performances at Cornell’s Bailey and Barnes Hall venues. The performance I went to was headlined by Zakir Hussain, an Indian-classical-music superstar who is regarded as the world’s best player of the tabla, an instrument that consists of two wooden drums with goatskin heads. The part of the concert I attended also featured Niladri Kumar, an ascending new talent in the world of sitar performance.
The virtuoso Hussain sat down on a raised dais on the stage, as is customary of any Indian classical performance, and joked around with the audience for a few minutes, displaying his quick wit and relatable demeanor while Kumar tuned his melodious sitar. Many hilariously believed his admittedly sweet-sounding tuning to be a part of the raga he was about to play, and there was a slight smattering of applause when he finished to which both artists responded with great amusement. A raga is essentially a melodic scale which includes many intervals and which has several rules regarding its performance. It is a far cry from the major and minor scales used in Western classical music and was completely foreign to many audience members. It is the job of the performer to use this tonal scale as the base of their performance, and to improvise upon this to showcase their abilities.
Kumar began the concert with a half-hour long solo performance of a particularly gentle raga which had a repeating baseline and had a structure similar to the familiar guitar chords of a work of American folk music. The tone of his sitar was simply gorgeous, with each accented pluck resonating throughout the hall. However, the calming nature of this work was short-lived, as Kumar began to perform increasingly irate and rapid improvisations over the tonal scale. Some of his improvisations were so magnificently jarring that the audience began to boisterously clap after the conclusion of each improvisation. After this cycle repeated itself a few times, he good-naturedly told the audience to hold their applause until the end, and when he concluded the piece with his most fast-paced and impressive improvisation, he was met by a thunderous and appreciative roar.
The next part of the concert was even more exciting; the talent we had all been waiting for, Hussain, provided a brilliant accompaniment to a piece in the same melodic scale Kumar’s solo had been in. At first, Kumar still was the center of attention as he provided solos which were somehow speedy and melancholically beautiful at the same time, while Hussain gave a repetitive accompanimental rhythm. However, Hussain soon began to showcase his full range of abilities. He utilized various techniques, striking his two drums in various manners such as sliding his hands across the skin to give a scratching noise, hitting his tabla in various positions to change the tone of his playing, and giving abrupt blows with the side of his hands, all of which created tension and excitement amidst his repetitive rhythmic lines. The most fun parts of their duet were a few short moments of call-and-response in which the sitarist played a short solo and Hussain attempted to match it with the tonality of his tabla. Towards the end of their combined performance, Hussain finally demonstrated his masterful technique. He delivered an astounding solo during which, for a few minutes, his hands hit the tabla at a ridiculously fast pace, allowing him to both maintain his rhythmic line and play a melodic and articulated solo line on top of it. I found it incredible that as he did this, his face remained calm and smiling, and he didn’t once look down at his drums during the solo. Once he finished, I can say that I was in awe of his skill and speed, and this sentiment was reflected in the animated and riotous applause he received.
Although I was unable to attend the rest of this magnificent concert, I was truly amazed by the music I heard. I wasn’t an Indian-classical-music fan going in, but after witnessing this once-in-a-lifetime performance, I became more receptive to the unique genre that I can attest is starkly different from any music common to America. Needless to say, I will be attending more of such concerts in the future, and I would highly recommend that you do the same.