Indian music in intercultural education – ISME Glasgow

Whatever we understand and enjoy in human products instantly becomes ours, wherever they might have their origin – Rabindranath Tagore*

During this presentation, musical figures from several distinct traditions were explored in a practice-oriented manner. The figures selected are appealing beyond South Asia where they originated many centuries ago and continue to play a key role in classical and applied music.

Our shared goal was to enable young and old to collaborate in a memorable learning process that blends seemlessly into any chosen subject, academic and otherwise.

The criteria for selecting a particular figure were (1) its flexibility as for combining it with another subject, for instance mathematics, geography or history; (2) its appeal going by prior experience with learners from different age groups; and (3) its scope for variation, movement, visualisation and analysis in accordance with learners’ specific needs and abilities.

View or download this lesson for free (PDF with mp3 audio and other links)
Scope

As part of integrated music education, Indian music enables even complete strangers to share a useful learning process. This calls for a natural and playful approach to melody, rhythm, hand signs and body movement. In this manner we are prepared to include newcomers – children and adults lacking a common language – to instantly participate in music.

Indian music is valued for fostering memory, analytical thinking, concentration, and cooperation among peers. Its basic concepts are exhilarating and liberating whether or not there is scope for studying Indian culture in its own right. This is a boon in circumstances where verbal or written instructions fail to engage learners. Rather than resigning in the face of such formidable challenges, educators are free to experiment and spread solidarity through instant inclusion – the essential joy of “creating” music oneself. This aspect addresses a common fear among learners, namely to be left behind (again!), be it in music or other subjects – a fear that is all too often justified in competitive modern society.

To help educators to overcome such fears, we build lessons around simple figures that bind tunes, rhythms and movements together into a rounded whole. Some of these may appear familiar enough to “break the ice” if needed; and others are so fresh and mind-boggling as to trigger further experimentation among peers in informal settings – anywhere and anytime. For this to happen, we dispense with technical resources of any kind.

Adaptation is the key to rapidly changing learning scenarios wherein cultural stereotyping, a known stumbling block for educators all over the world, must be overcome. This is easily achieved by integrating Indian music into discussions of academic concepts, or by letting its rhythms enrich social and outdoor activities. Such activities are by definition location specific and all-inclusive.

Educators from Canada, Finland, Germany, Hungary, India, Singapore and Switzerland were among the eleven participants in this one-hour session. They explored a time proven method suited to the needs of a wide range of abilities and learning goals; and this irrespective of participants’ cultural roots.

Date: 28 July 2016 | photos by courtesy of Dr. Tony Makarome, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Singapore

Abstract ISME World Conference (Glasgow)

“Yours figuratively: Indian music in intercultural education””Yours figuratively: Indian music in intercultural education”

Music counts among the proverbial “64 arts and skills” of ancient India where it became synonymous with “leading a fulfilled life”. Thus, having evolved along with other pursuits, Indian music is an interdisciplinary concept that connects people irrespective of age and cultural background. It is in this context that we explore the world of musical figures: figures that convey subtle meaning while symbolizing the very joy of participating in music making of a high order.  Rather than borrowing sounds from a supposedly exotic culture, we apply the building blocks of Indian music for several good reasons: for their accessibility in the context of intercultural education and, of course, for their intrinsic value and beauty.

Learners tap into the mind-boggling world of India’s musical ideas. Tiny musical figures are adapted in a manner that has stood the test of time. While being fun on first hearing they also lend themselves to being visualized and analyzed for non-musical purposes.

This teaching method lends itself to classroom and lifelong learning across the entire social spectrum: it adds colour to other school subjects like maths, languages, geography or physical fitness; and requiring no more than voices, hands and open-mindedness, it kindles communication where there is a lack of time and resources, or even a common language. Figuratively yours, ours truly!

Ludwig Pesch studied at Freiburg University from where he went to India in order to be trained and perform as bamboo flautist. Since then he develops intercultural activities that suit the needs of children, music students and teachers; and also for museum education (e.g. family programmes for Museum Rietberg Zurich in conjunction with Indian art exhibitions).

He authored The Oxford Illustrated Companion to South Indian Classical Music and among other writings, contributed to the journal of the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung (Goettingen University “Music | Musics. Structures and Processes“) and to Integrated Music Education. Challenges for Teaching and Teacher Training by M. Cslovjecsek and M. Zulauf, forthcoming). Among his research projects are “Sam, Reflection, Gathering Together!” (Bern University of the Arts in collaboration with Natanakairali, Research and Performing Center for Traditional Arts in Kerala). His ideas on collaborative work are summarized by the acronym AIUME for “Adapting Indian Universals in Music Education“.


Find publications by Ludwig Pesch on worldcat.org >>

A Musical Lotus Pond – ISME World Conference (Thessaloniki)

Purpose
Probing the depths of Indian sounds and symbols both for their interdisciplinary potential and intrinsic value.

Content
We pool musical, visual and numerical motifs. Sounds, hand gestures and movements link two school subjects within a single session; and more subjects wherever this approach lends itself to being integrated into a curriculum.

Method
The “Musical Lotus Pond” is a biotope where beauty flourishes in unexpected ways. Each participant embellishes a sheet of paper containing numbers and shapes. These form the basis for musical activities. At the conclusion, the sheets are folded into small cones resembling the “school cones” traditionally used to entice European children to attend school. Children will spontaneously share their experiences with peers and family members.

Application for integrated education
Analytical thinking, self-expression and teamwork are cultivated. For this purpose, motifs derived from Indian music are combined with those belonging to subjects as diverse as visual arts, geography, biology, physical education and maths.

Pure maths is a religion and in the East, valued for more than merely its technical applicationNovalis (1799)

Background information
Indian culture is permeated by synesthetic associations that make learning both enjoyable and (cost) effective. Moreover it fosters concentration and teamwork. It is therefore no coincidence that the ubiquitous lotus motif symbolizes the aspiration to rise above the ordinary and beyond predictability.

The presenters work with the motto “Adapting Indian Universals in Music Education”; and this in response to the needs of children and music students. Contributions to exhibitions (e.g. Museum Rietberg Zürich and Royal Tropical Museum Amsterdam) complement their artistic and scholarly pursuits: one is a singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist; the other trained and performed as flautist in India, and authored The Oxford Illustrated Companion to South Indian Classical Music.

I surely know the hundred petals of a lotus will not remain closed for ever and the secret recess of its honey will be bared. – from Gitanjali by Nobel Awardee Rabindranath Tagore

Indian music for all: Music at all ages: ISME World Conference (Bologna)

Date: 23 July 2008 9.00-10.00 – Venue: Academia Belle Arti, Bologna (GAC 1) 

Workshop by Ludwig Pesch and Manickam Yogeswaran

In the Blue Rider Almanac, one of the most influential art publications of the 20th century, Nikolai Kulbin declares that “water, air and birds don’t sing according to our notes, but use all the notes that they find pleasure in – and with that, the laws of the natural music are observed exactly.” (Der Blaue Reiter, 1912) Minute intervals, such as those found in Indian music, not only lend “colour” to music, he continues. As they are not even difficult to discern, they provide the key to free and truly expressive music. But conventional signs cannot convey the required subtleties. They also stifle spontaneity and creativity.

Flexible methods are needed more than ever before wherever intercultural education is happening. We work with a “toolkit” that provides combinations of hand gestures and exercises based on sargam solmization. It is designed for classroom and workshop situations. In India’s arts – music, dance, drama, painting, sculpture and film – both these key concepts have been applied with success to express feelings and evoke specific moods. Having evolved since antiquity, these methods tend to be practiced separately and as part of some specialization or other, seldom by outsiders.

In tune with the ISME motto “Music at all ages”, we seek to fill every available moment with the joy of making music together irrespective of our cultural roots. Expressive gestures with matching sounds and rhythms serve to establish rapport, visualize tonal shades, improvize and express a particular feeling. They are invaluable for promoting learning progress beyond music in terms of concentration and memory training.

As specialized knowledge is not the issue here, immersion in Indian music is achieved in a hands-on manner using one’s natural voice and hands. An innovative adaptation of the Curwen / Kodaly method of hand signs is introduced. It facilitates the singing of notes associated with raga based tunes. A keen sense of timing is inculcated through “audible” and “silent” gestures based on tala cycles.

Indian music has always been associated with the celebration of life and beauty irrespective of one’s religious outlook. It is valued for fostering a spirit of sharing and scientific inquiry while stimulating the faculty of imagination. These values deserve to be rediscovered considering that Western interest tends to focus on exotic musical instruments and theories, mysticism or the training of prospective performers.

References
Vaitari: A musical picture book from Kerala. A publication for children and educators; didactic concept and teachers’ companion by Ludwig PeschAmsterdam: Ekagrata Publications, 2006.

Less is More and More is More: Why Indian music should find its way into General Education by Ludwig Pesch. Indian Folklife 20 (July 2005). National Folklore Support Centre. Chennai.

“Sam, Reflection, Gathering Together!” presented by Ludwig Pesch at ISME 2006 in Kuala Lumpur

Introduction:  Sam, Reflection, Gathering Together! World Conference (Kuala Lumpur)

Sam, Reflection, Gathering Together! (*) is a music education research project initiated at the Bern University for the Arts (HKB, Switzerland) in collaboration with Natanakairali, an institution for the performing arts in Irinjalakuda (Kerala, India). It was first presented at the biannual conference of the International Society for Music Education held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (ISME 2006) in order to explore the vast potential for applying Indian music in general education and music therapy.

The need for such an awareness stems from the fact that a majority of children in most countries have little or no opportunity to experience the joy of making music together. Members of the elites of every civilized country in the world are, however, fully aware of the scientifically proven benefits of music making, so much so as to ensure that their own children are musically educated in some way or other.

If you are interested in specific aspects not yet covered in the English section of this website, feel free to contact the project initiators for more information (see Contact on the left). >> About the word sam in project title >>

(*) Officially titled Sam, Sammlung, Zusammen! Stimmen und Hände im Umfeld des traditionellen indischen (Tanz-) Theaters; English subtitle: Voices and hands in traditional Indian (dance) theatre, January 2005 – December 2006

*Rabindranath Tagore in a letter to C.F. Andrews; quoted by Amartya Sen in The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity. London: Penguin, 2005, p. 86.

Audio | Homage to Max Mueller: cultural programmes & seminar

A radio programme by Christoph Hahn with German introductions and explanations © 2000 Bayerischer Rundfunk

Excerpts from live programmes and report (click Download >View to listen/read)

Sruti Magazine (India’s premier music and dance magazine, PDF 560 KB):

Excerpt

1974 stamp of India Wikipedia

Max Mueller Bhavan (German Cultural Institute) in Chennai organised a clutch of cultural programmes and a seminar during 28-30 November 2000 to mark the death centenary of Max Mueller, a great Indologist. Born in 1823, Mueller died when he was 77.

Mueller is remembered for stimulating widespread interest in Indology, mythology, philosophy, comparative religion, linguistics and social criticism. The special cultural relations between India and Germany are largely attributed to his works.

Mueller never visited India. But, had he come to India, he would likely have sought the company of musicians and scholars in the field of the performing arts, considering that he wanted to become a musician and belonged to a family that considered music and poetry a way of life. His first love was indeed music which he would have taken up as a profession but for the unfavourable climate for such a pursuit in his days.

The famous Indologist is best known all over the world for the publication of the Sacred Books of the East (51 volumes), amongst several other works. He was an ardent promoter of Indian independence and cultural self-assertion.

Max Mueller Bhavan, Chennai, entrusted Ludwig Pesch, a German who has spent years learning and studying Carnatic music, with the task of planning a befitting programme of tribute in Chennai in the wider context of a major German festival under way in India. Hundreds of German artists and scholars are presently touring India but Pesch was to help mount a celebration of a different kind- primarily with and for South Indian participants.

Dr. Eleonore Rahimi (Institutsleiterin, Max Mueller Bhavan Chennai) & Ludwig Pesch

Ludwig Pesch felt that this presented him with an opportunity to highlight the manner in which Max Mueller would have wanted the manifestations and contributions of other civilizations to be recognised, and to explore cultural achievements connecting people from different periods and places. In the event, he sought and secured the cooperation of several renowned performers and scholars, and the students of Brhaddhvani, to be Max Mueller’s guides on ‘a cultural tour’ of South India.

The celebrations began with an invocation and ended with a Musical Journey, both presented by Brhaddhvani’s students.

The morning and afternoon sessions organised at the Max Mueller Bhavan consisted of lecture demonstrations by the artists of four public programmes held at the MMB and at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan auditorium.

There were also lectures and lecdems by several eminent scholars in accordance with their chosen fields of specialisation: Dr. K.V. Ramesh (Patronage in South Indian Performing Arts: Evidence from Epigraphical Records); Dr. Premeela Gurumurthy (Harikatha Kalakshepam: A popular multicultural art in the 19th and early 20th centuries); Nirmala Paniker with her daughter and disciple, Kapila (Mohini Attam: About the research conducted at Natanakairali); P. Nanda Kumar (Dance music in Kerala: edakka with mizhavu players of the Natanakairali ensemble); Dr. Prema Nandakumar (References to South Indian Performing arts in early literature); Dr. V.V. Srivatsa (Language in Indian Art); Vidya Shankar (Sanskrit and Music); Rajkumar Bharathi (Bharatiyar’s contribution to the South Indian music repertoire); T.R. Sundaresan with Pakala Ramdas (The beauty of Yati patterns); S. Rajam with disciples and T.R. Sundaresan (Max Mueller’s great musical contemporaries in different parts of South India: Parameswara Bhagavatar, Patnam Subramania Iyer, Ponniah Pillai, Vedanayakam Pillai, and Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar).

Considering that theatre was the original performing art which also comprised dance and music to varying degrees, the first day was entirely devoted to theatre and Harikatha. The second was devoted to dance, and the third to music to reflect the evolution of these arts in their own right.

G. Venu, Founder-Director, Natanakairali (Irinjalakuda) gave the opening lecture-demonstration titled ‘Koodiyattam, the Sanskrit theatre of Kerala: Research, training and presentation in the tradition of Guru Ammannur Madhava Chakyar’. The story of this small, but famous cultural centre is fascinating and unique in having quietly worked with minimum resources, but successfully so, for the revival of Kerala’s traditional performance traditions over a period of 25 years, this being the silver jubilee.

Source: HOMAGE TO MAX MUELLER IN CHENNAI: PRESENTATIONS OF MUSIC, DANCE & DRAMA
Sruti, India’s premier music and dance magazine – Issue 197, February 2001
Read the full report:

More about Max Mueller on Wikipedia

Freedom expressed by Rie Cramer: Illustrations for Rabindranath Tagore’s “The Post Office”

By the time of Tagore’s 1920 visit to the Netherlands, his favourite play Dakghar had been translated into English and Dutch as The Post Office 1 and De brief van den koning, in 1912 and 1916 respectively.2 This play won international acclaim and was soon staged in other countries and different languages. Its theme became even more relevant in the context of peaceful resistance in the face of despotism:

Dakghar is one of many works, including several plays, wherein “Tagore uses the notion of freedom to decry narrow nationalistic boundaries, governed by myopic ambition and greed […] which bring out different facets of his broader abstraction of freedom.”3

In 1920 the very purpose of his lecture tour was to promote education on an ever more ambitious scale, one unheard of in modern history as regards any private citizen’s initiative: to build an institution called “Viswa Bharati”. Unlike any institution Tagore knew first hand – including London University College in his youth, and later Oxford University as guest speaker – its mandate was (and remains) this: to foster a free exchange of knowledge systems that, in his view, belong to all of mankind. Similar ideas have since evolved in many places, be they inspired by Tagore as in Dartington Hall4 or otherwise (think of the Wikipedia foundation and demands by scientists, that they be allowed to freely share their research findings rather than seeing them subject to profit oriented patent laws).

So the very name “Viswa Bharati denotes Tagore’s hopes for the success of his most ambitious project, namely to find supporters that would guide its evolution into nothing short of a World University; and at the same time adhere to its uniquely poetic motto: “Where the world makes a home in a single nest”.5

More specifically, the university’s mission statement reiterates Tagore’s vision: “Visva-Bharati represents India where she has her wealth of mind which is for all. Visva-Bharati acknowledges India’s obligation to offer to others the hospitality of her best culture and India’s right to accept from others their best.”6

This context for the 1920 lecture-cum-fundraising tour poses the question what Tagore may have regarded as “best” for the institutions he built and inspired, in terms of knowledge, experience and ethical standards worth sharing and defending, while questioning any assumption in the critical spirit required by academic institutions.

The answer cannot be found without considering his conviction that good education integrates many disciplines and domains; informally for young children, then with proper instruction by trained teachers7 – all this without losing sight of that we now associate with “lifelong education”:

“A most important truth, which we are apt to forget, is that a teacher can never truly teach unless he is still learning himself. A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own flame.”8

While dealing with practical and funding issues he never tired to remind his listeners and readers of shared values that needed to be inculcated from an early age even in the face of class-based peer pressure: as part of a learning process that does sideline scientific nor overlook personal differences. Beyond the struggle to end injustice, he saw the need for constructive, persistent and peaceful struggles to establish and protect civil liberties and human rights for all world citizens, locally just as internationally:

“When our self is illuminated with the light of love, then the negative aspect of its separateness with others loses its finality, and then our relationship with others is no longer that of competition and conflict, but of sympathy and co-operation.”9

A Dutch press report highlights Tagore’s “silver voice” that conveyed his profound admiration for the songs of Bengal’s village mystics, besides the deep and lasting impression his personality left on listeners who attended his lectures in large numbers.10

He spoke as a private citizen among peers, not as delegate on behalf of any institution or group, and that in a large venue built as meeting ground for a “Free Congregation” (Vrije Gemeente). Like many of us today he had reasons to be alarmed by the policies adopted by the growing trend of nation states to “legitimize” the oppression of large sections of their own populations – not merely “minorities” or “immigrants” – more often than not as to justify self-interested aggression against other states. Then as now this has caused famines, disease and mutual suspicion among populations of different faiths that previously coexisted peacefully be it as states with shared interests like natural resources, trade, or as neighbours whose mutual reliance prevailed over the ideological and theological considerations now used to “divide and rule”.

In Tagore’s younger days this had already resulted in violent confrontations, so for him these were major issues long before and after his 1920 lecture tour. His unwillingness to be coopted by the elite – and thereby to remain a mere onlooker, even beneficiary – when something needed to be done to prevent even greater suffering – is evident from writings that include the lectures first published in 1916 under the title Nationalism.

Given the challenges to human rights even to the world’s largest democracies – in the very year when we should celebrate the foundation of the United Nations 75 years ago, on the ruins of World War II – Tagore’s warnings are worth pondering again:

“And the idea of the Nation is one of the most powerful anaesthetics that man has invented. Under the influence of its fumes the whole people can carry out its systematic programme of the most virulent self-seeking without being in the least aware of its moral perversion – in fact it can feel dangerously resentful if it is pointed out.11

Similar sentiments fuel demands by concerned citizens, to remove monuments of former “national heroes”.12

Going by the difficult choices he faced both in the public and private spheres, “freedom” was more than an ideal or abstract concept for Rabindranath Tagore. As member of the land owning zamindar class he had reminded his son that their privilege was inherited and depended on the exploitation and further marginalization of rural communities under their control. This sounds all too familiar in the context of current debates on “meritocracy” vs. “inherent wealth”. We should hardly be surprised given the frank admission by global trading agencies that profitability for many follows the assumption that there may be “no trade without war, no war without trade.”13

Tagore’s irrepressible sense of freedom in the personal sphere is evident from many of the poems he hand collected and translated for the benefit of foreign friends (whose enthusiasm led to his nomination for the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature), soon published under the title Gitanjali; and even more explicitly in a letter written a few years later, addressed to his friend, the poetess Victoria Ocampo whom he had sought to honour by using her name in the Sanskrit equivalent “Vijaya”:

“Whenever there is the least sign of the nest becoming a jealous rival of the sky [,] my mind, like a migrant bird, tries to take … flight to a distant shore.” 14

Seen in the light of the above, like the successful Dutch staging and illustrated publication of his favourite play “The Post Office”, it hardly surprises that his passionate appeals for greater cooperation caused a sensation. This shows the value ascribed to the range of topics he covered during the 1920 lecture tour. Yet Tagore chose to inaugurate this tour with a talk titled “Some village mystics of Bengal”, on 23 September 1920 in the monumental “free congregation” hall into the prime venue for popular music when the City of Amsterdam bought it in the 1960s, since then known all over the world by its new name Paradiso. This choice can hardly be understood without taking the sister institution for Viswa Bharati into account, the centre for rural reconstruction named “Sriniketan” which is yet to acquire the status he hoped for, and reflected in songs wherein he expresses gratitude for everything he received and learned from local people.

“Tagores bezoek maakte diepe indruk en bracht in Nederland een ware rage teweeg.”15

What Are Human Rights?
“Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination.” 
Learn more : Human rights | United Nations >>

  1. For its continuing relevance and a synopsis see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Post_Office_(play) []
  2. The six colour plates displayed here are sized 10 by 10 cm in the Utrecht edition. The were created by Rie Cramer (1887-1977), a Dutch writer and prolific illustrator of children’s literature. To help fugitives she joined the resistance against nazi occupation in the 1940s and published anti-German verses in Het Parool, “the largest underground resistance newspaper in the Netherlands”.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rie_Cramer []
  3. Bhaswati Ghosh in “Freedom in Tagore’s Plays — an essay”, Parabaas Rabindranath Section:
    https://www.parabaas.com/rabindranath/articles/pBhaswati.html []
  4. Schumacher College, the International Centre for Ecological Studies regarded as “the legacy of the Elmhirts who travelled to India and were deeply influenced by the poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore. ‘In the 1920’s the Elmhirsts had the same concerns as we have today – quality of life, the purpose of existence and the values which transcend mere material prosperity.'” – David Nicholson-Lord in “An Earth Academy”
    https://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/learning-resources/an-earth-academy []
  5. English translation of Viswa Bharati University’s motto, Sanskrit Yatra Visvam Bhavatyekanidam
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visva-Bharati_University []
  6. Official website http://visvabharati.ac.in/index.html []
  7. The international headquarters of Montessori Education AMI has a letter addressed to Dr. Maria Montessori requesting her guidance prompted by their personal meeting in New York. []
  8. Visva-Bharati and its institutions–Santiniketan 1961, p. 28 []
  9. Tagore in his foreword to S. Radhakrishnan’s The Philosophy of Upanishads quoted by Bhaswati Ghosh
    https://www.parabaas.com/rabindranath/articles/pBhaswati.html []
  10. “‘Met zilveren stemgeluid leest dr. Tagore de rede, die hij te voren op papier heeft gebracht. Hij vertelt van de dorpsmystici ginds in Bengalen, van mannen en vrouwen wier godsdienst het Hindoeïsme is en die in religieuze devotie het dagelijksche gebeuren rondom hen vertolken in liederen van zeldzame bekoring.’ Tagores bezoek maakte diepe indruk en bracht in Nederland een ware rage teweeg.
    https://www.amsterdam.nl/stadsarchief/stukken/immigranten/tagore-amsterdam/ []
  11. p. 63 in the 2010 paperback edition of Nationalism
    https://www.worldcat.org/title/nationalism/oclc/1099200491 []
  12. Here in the Netherlands also those associated with the slave trade and genocide, e.g. in a recent article titled “Slavernij en wreedheid bezoedelen Hollandse helden” by Sander van Walsum (de Volkskrant, 16 June 2020)
    https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/slavernij-en-wreedheid-bezoedelen-hollandse-helden~bfb02762/ []
  13. Careers in the Dutch VOC trading corporation were certainly not hindered by proclamations by its overseas representatives, as illustrated by the motto flaunted by a particularly notorious 17th century overseas administrator (and national “hero” until quite recently), Jan Pieterszoon Coen who regarded war and trade as inseparable: “No trade without war, no war without trade”; quoted in a book review of Koloniale oorlogen in Indonesië. Vijf eeuwen verzet tegen vreemde overheersing by Piet Hagen: “Jan Pieterszoon Coen vatte dat handzaam samen in zijn devies: ‘Geen handel zonder oorlog en geen oorlog zonder handel.’” (Co Welgraven in Trouw, 24 juni 2018)
    https://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/piet-hagen-schreef-een-indrukwekkend-boek-over-de-koloniale-geschiedenis-van-indonesie~ba1798b9/ []
  14. Rabindranath Tagore quoted by Amartya Sen in The Argumentative Indian (London 2005), p. 103 []
  15. Website of the Amsterdam city archive, “the largest – and many say the most beautiful – city archive in the world.” (post updated 18 September 2020)
    https://www.amsterdam.nl/stadsarchief/stukken/immigranten/tagore-amsterdam []

Enriching town and village life alike: Suitable, ecologically responsible venues with local materials and expertise

“To talk about the future is useful only if it leads to action now … with new methods of production and new patterns of consumption: a lifestyle designed for permanence.” – E.F. Schumacher in Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered, p. 16 (Abacus 1984 ed.)

“If the town life was rich, the village life was equally so. … The villagers were not altogether cut off from the activities of town life. … The monotonous life of the villager was often enlivened by rural amusements of varied character. Every village had a common dancing-hall (kalam). Even the village women took part in these public performances like the tunankai, a kind of dance .” – V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar, The Cilappatikaram (Tinnevelly: The South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society, 1978), chapter on “Village and Village Life”, pp. 61

More Things I recommend: Worldcat.org >>

Download, read in full screen mode or listen to A Theatre For All: Sittrarangam—the Small Theatre Madras by Ludwig Pesch (open domain) on Archive.org >>

Bibliography >>

Unity in Diversity, Antiquity in Contemporary Practice? South Indian Music Reconsidered – Free download

“Unity in Diversity, Antiquity in Contemporary Practice? South Indian Music Reconsidered” by Ludwig Pesch (Amsterdam) in Gardner, Matthew; Walsdorf, Hanna (Hrsg.). Musik – Politik – Identität / Music – Politics – Identity. Göttingen: Universitätsverlag, 2016 (Musikwissenschaften) | Abstract and contents >>

ISBN13: 978-3-86395-258-7

Softcover, 17×24, 218 S.: 24,00 € Online Ausgabe, PDF (3.681 MB)

To download this essay (PDF 500 KB) for free, click here >>
(Creative Commons licence Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International)

Other publications, book chapters and articles by Ludwig Pesch: WorldCat.org list >>