Loving Mozart, Living With Beethoven

It is that moment now. You wanted to go for the IPL but Neville Billimoria wouldn’t have any of that nonsense. Instead, you are inside Jamshed Bhabha Auditorium at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai, seated right between the Billimorias and the Wadias. The atmosphere has all the electricity of a Tata annual general meeting.

And then the musicians, all elegantly dressed, walk in, to enthusiastic applause. They sit down and start tuning their instruments. Sounds of gravitas hang in the air. Neville looks at you, his face contorted in utter delight and says: “Such warm…” And you say: “I know! Bloody air-conditioning isn’t working!” Neville completes the sentence: “…tones of the double bass and the cello.”

Inside Neville’s head, you are now in a box marked ‘Philistine’.

Here is how to climb out of it. A little bit of preparation would have helped but now that you are already at the concert that must wait. Focus on the concert now.

First, a quick tour of the instruments.

The classical music of the West is much like the economics of Adam Smith. It is about division of labour and specialisation. In an orchestra, each instrument or a voice is expected to perform a specific role.  The backbone of the Western orchestra is the string instruments: The harp, which is plucked, and the violin, viola, cello, and double-bass, all played with bows, and which, between them have a range of five octaves, The high tones of a violin will be at a pitch 16 times higher than the low tones of a double-bass! That’s an awesome range of expression. Then there is a whole range of woodwind instruments, including the double-reed piccolo, flute, oboe, English horn and contrabassoon, and the single-reed clarinet and saxophone. But the big guys, who can overwhelm the entire orchestra, are the brass instruments like French horn, trumpet, trombone and tuba. The percussion section includes the
drums, cymbals, and a variety of other things one can strike with different degrees of force. And the keyboards include the piano and the more rarely seen celesta, technically a percussion instrument, but played via a keyboard.

You might also have human voices, as soloists with the musicians, or en masse, as a choir (sometimes referred to as a chorus or chorale), which is a bunch of singers divided usually into four parts, soprano, alto, tenor and bass.

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is one famous piece of music that requires a full orchestra, vocal soloists and a choir.

Now is the time to turn towards Neville and say: “The violins are lyrical, but isn’t it amazing that the French horn can express a range of five octaves all by itself?” That’s got him thinking.

Now, it's time to take a quick look at the programme guide.

A quartet? That means you’ll see and hear four instruments; usually a string quartet (violin, viola, cello and double bass). A quintet has five instruments, and usually includes strings, plus another instrument (with a clarinet, it would be a clarinet quintet, with a piano, a piano quintet). Also common, are wind quintets. Other common ensembles include the duet (two musicians), trio (three), sextet, septet, octet, nonet and dectet. Larger groups, up to 50 musicians, would be called a chamber orchestra. And the really big ensembles, around a hundred musicians, sometimes more, are orchestras. Don’t let anyone confuse you with the difference between ‘Philharmonic’ and ‘Symphonic’, It is the difference between ‘one’ and ‘uno’. They are the same! Choirs and soloists can perform with orchestras, or independently.

On to the genres.

Chamber music is for two or more instruments, one player per part. Orchestral music is for many instruments;  at least two or more instruments are playing the same part. Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 needs 30 violins, 16 playing one part 14 playing another!

Symphony! Now that’s a musical form, as are sonata and concerto. All these forms are multi-movement works, which means three or four distinct parts. The first movement lays out a musical theme, the second is the exposition, the third is development (and also where the composer shows his imagination and variations). The fourth part is recapitulation of the theme, and end. Sometimes composers add introductory music and an ending or coda. These are optional bits but the three or four parts are a must.

When just one or two instruments play a four-movement piece, it is a sonata. When a solo instrument — piano, violin or cello, say — and an orchestra play it, you get a concerto. When the entire orchestra plays it all, that’s a symphony.

That’s enough to be going on with for now. Let’s move to the musical experience.

 

You heard it? Did you like it? What did you like? If you heard passages that were slow and which moved you then that’s nice. If there were brilliant passages that filled you with hope and joy then that’s nicer. If you heard a dialogue between two instruments which built up to a climax, then that’s something to notice. At these time just nod to Neville, and smile as if you’ve just got your year-end bonus. Just. Don’t. Clap!

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Never clap till the entire piece is over. Why? “It is a distraction,” says Geeta Purandare, who has taught piano for over 30 years. The mood and musical location (“key”) changes as one movement gives way to next.  “If the musicians are distracted they may just miss the time or may start off with a wrong emphasis,” says Zubin Balaporia, once a part of the rock band Indus Creed, now a classical music fan. Why is Indian Classical music different? In Indian music each performance is extempore and the musician can acknowledge the appalause, wait for one time cycle to get over and pick up from where they had left off in the next cycle. In Western Classical music, the composers have determined the exact time and musical space and players have a limitation on interpretation. Balaporia says: “It is said that the five seconds after a Mozart symphony ends also belong to Mozart.” Practical tip? Wait for the
oldest Parsi in the front row to start clapping, then join in.

Right. You survived the concert. Liked it, even. And now you want to know more.

First, get rid of your deference. Chances are that you know more classical music than you think. Tom and Jerry cartoons for instance. “Whenever Tom is trying to do something nasty to Jerry or Jerry is trying sneak up on Tom, it is usually to the accompaniment of some really serious work of Chopin, Mozart or Beethoven,” says Dhanvanti Rajwade, a student of medicine and the piano. Today this music is on most mobile phones. If a ring tone goes: “Tum TUM tarara tum TUM tarara  tum…,” that’s Vivaldi. When a hotel reception puts you on hold and you hear: “Ting ning ting ning ting ning  tinini ning…”, that’s Beethoven lovely Fuhr Elisse.

The best way to get started is ask a friend who loves listening to classical and ask him to recommend stuff. “Just tell your friend to keep your personality in mind and not fob his tastes off on you,” says Balaporia. The other way is to begin with easy or catchy pieces (see box on page 99). You can even start with opera as Gautam Rajadhyaksha did (see interview) but it isn’t the easiest thing for the Indian ear. It also helps to know what sort of music you like. If you like music to calm you into tranquility, then composers like Schubert and Handel might do it for you. If you always prefer happy, upbeat music, Vivaldi will work, and so will large parts of Mozart. If you like your music angst-filled and stormy, Beethoven might be a good starting point. “Bach is very mathematical and logical and can be good way to get initiated,” says Purandare. But when in doubt pick Mozart. Nobody got sacked for choosing IBM; nobody repents after picking up a Mozart.

“The important thing,” Purnadare continues, “is to listen a little bit regularly because that goes a long way towards initiation.” Familiarity allows you to pick patterns and identify the parts you like. Says Balaporia: “The one tough thing about classical music is that it is nuanced, so it is important if you focus on the music and not let it play in the background. Once you remember parts of a piece, you will start appreciating it when you listen to the same piece in a concert.”

Ah, now that you have listened a little you will lapse into comparisons. The familiar comforts of Indian Classical music will beckon, which is fine, because that ‘foreign’ music is pretty similar. Both use a 12-tone pitch collection. (Yes, Indian music does have 22 tones but ordinary mortals can hear only 12.) Both have a collection of scales that they use to create different melodic lines. Western classical music has two types of scales: Major and minor. Major scales are bright and brilliant; minor scales are darker, more ponderous. Just like some ragas are happy and the others melancholic. Western composers have a set of 12 major scales and 12 minor scales in which to compose and inside that matrix they can create almost any sound structure that is of human interest. Perhaps the one bit that the Indian ear needs to get used to is the amount of scale and key changes that happen in a Western composition. “Hridaynath Mangeshkar tried that and you know what people said? ‘Only Hridaynath can make his sister [the venerable Lata] besur!’ But it is not besur, it is sublime music!” says Rajadhyaksha.
Off you go then. Not a moment to waste. Neville is waiting.

GETTING TO KNOW THE FAT LADY
Opera buff Gautam Rajadhyaksha talks about his passion

How did you start listening to opera?
I was the only child and a lonely child. I loved listening to music on the LPs that my father and my uncle got home.

Opera has people singing in funny voices…
From the first time I heard I liked it. My uncle Dr Joglekar explained to me that opera was quite like Marathi Natya-Sangeet. There was a story being told and enacted through sung passages.

What is it that you like about opera?
I get to hear so many different types of voices! An opera has six different types of voices on display. The hero is a tenor, villain a baritone and the old man or the sorcerer a bass. On the female side, the heroine is a soprano, the witch a contralto and the bitch (giggles) or the vamp, if you will, a mezzo-soprano.

What attracts you to a voice?
The ability to hold a musical line. How the singer progresses from one note to the next. And of course his or her ability to hit the right pitch every time.

Which opera singers are your favourites?
I like Maria Callas, a soprano. I love Jussi Bjorling. You know what a ‘squillo’ is? It is the reflection of sunlight off liquid Gold. Jussi Bjorling’s voice had that quality.

STARTER
A highly subjective selection of seven pieces with which to begin your classical music journey

Mozart’s Eine Kliene Nachtmusik: That’s “A little night music” to you and me. One of Mozart’s most loved pieces. Joyous, bouncy and goes well with beer after Sachin Tendulkar has taken Brett Lee to the cleaners.

Mozart’s Symphony No. 40: The master in top form. Full of passion and intense emotion, this music is so hummable that it gets you on the first listen. Salil Chaudhary used it to compose “Itna na mujh se tu pyar badha.” Sigh! Mr Mozart, if only it was that easy.

Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata: If the CD note says Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 14, buy it! That’s the Moonlight Sonata’s formal name. Beautiful and sad; parts of it were described by great composer Franz Liszt as a ‘flower between two chasms.’ This is pure soul food.

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6: Remember how you feel when your car finally gets out of the busy traffic of  Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore or Calcutta, out on the highway, and you hit the fifth gear and the great wide expanses whiz past? The Sixth is that feeling, bottled for eternity. If you can’t get out of the cubicle, then listen to this instead.

Debussy’s Clair De Lune: That’s the ‘light of the moon’ in French. Romantic to the hilt. Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rahman could have easily met in Kagaz ke Phool with Clair De Lune playing in the background. This is the melody that plays in your heart when you see her/him getting off the plane after an absence of a fortnight (coincidentally the time between two Forbes India issues).

Saint-Saëns’s The Aquarium: Part of The Carnival of Animals, a suite composed for children. This piece is all shimmering tranquility at the start and then turns all mysterious and full of suspense.

Shostakovich’s The Gadfly Score: Okay, okay, this isn’t a “classical” piece; it is a film music score. But it has all the features that comprise classical music. Be prepared to sway to the part called “People’s holiday”, and tap your foot to the part called “Galop”.

 

The A-List

Ready for more? Try these
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Practical joker, boy genius, musical phenomenon; it is hard to imagine how a single person could have written so much music. Mozart needs time to sample through. Once you have heard some of his more popular stuff check out his piano concertos numbered K. 595, 466 and 488. Move on to Symphony No. 25 and the Jupiter. You want more? There is his opera: The Magic Flute and The Marriage of Figaro, among others.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Virtuoso pianist, this guy continued to compose and conduct even after he went deaf.  He composed the famous “Dot-dot-dot-dash” symphony, his 5th.  His own description: “Thus Fate knocks at one’s door.” His repertoire is huge, but try the Eroica symphony, Piano Concerto No. 4, and his Sonata Pathetique. His String Quartet in A Minor is superb, as is Ode to Joy, the closing part of his Symphony No. 9.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Bach is the Rahul Dravid of Western Classical music. Strict, structured, superb on technique, yet poetic when on song.  His Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is a mobile ring tone today. The Fugue is a point-counterpoint music where on the piano, the left hand plays a line and the right hand “replies” to it, musically of course. His Brandenburg Concertos 3 and 5 have beautiful melody. He also has a host of religious music, all very contemplative.

FRANZ SCHUBERT
One of the great natural composers, he turned out some truly wonderful stuff almost as a matter of routine. He took songs and composed his work around it. The Trout Quintet is peaceful and calm and lilting. His Death and the Maiden is sad to begin with and ends with exhilaration but of a rather dangerous kind.

RICHARD WAGNER
Anti-Semite and arrogant  but that’s the man not the music. When Francis Ford Coppola sets the helicopter gunships taking off in Vietnam to the score of Ride of the Valkyries, you feel an adrenalin rush that’s hard to match. His Ring Cycle is wonderful listening, but does require getting used to.

CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Brilliant Pianist. Superb Composer. Complex musical structures. He brought musical impressionism to the Western Classical form. Check out La Mer.