Universalism in Music and the Politics of sound
November 16, 12:00 PM
Description of Work
“Metaraga”, built on a meta-mathematical foundation, is a musical journey without east or west. The following take from the multi-Grammy award winning director of the Turtle Island String quartet David Balakrishnan gives a context from the western musical perspective: “The study of the overtone series is well-known as a foundational point of origin among western musicians who are drawn to explore the cross-civilizational integration of Indian classical music. Based on the work of Herman Helmholtz in the 1850s and further elucidated for the modern era with specific application for musicians by W.A. Mathieu’s book, Harmonic Experience, this fundamental theoretical basis led to the creation of the Turtle Island String Quartet in 1985. When Prof. Purnaprajna approached me with the idea of working together on his Metaraga system, I immediately realized its potential. I further perceived clear congruities in his theoretical framework to not only the approach taken in W.A. Mathieu’s book, but also the work of western music giants such as Arnold Schoenberg and John Coltrane.”
Presentation Details
Over the last century, there have been serious attempts in some circles to exert influence to determine what constitutes classicism in South Indian Classical music (Carnatic) and what does not. These influences have given rise to a variety of exclusions and homogenized what were largely heterogenous musical paradigms spread over several parts of South India. Some scholars have traced these to institutions, social cliques and even colonialism. Others have recently seen this devolution from a purely sociological perspective, as well. This talk argues that the above approaches are insufficient and that we must explore a more complex symbiotic relationship between the sociological and the structural aspects of music itself, each feeding the other. We will begin by viewing the classical systems in terms of a prioris. There is a large measure of consensus on the primary set among the cognoscenti, but secondary set, usually affected by personal aesthetics and sociological parameters such as caste and capitalism, can vary giving rise to varying soundscapes. An exploration of the geography of the resulting soundscape shows that there has developed “centrism” of certain kinds over time. The result is a truncated concept of classicism that is marginalizing, homogenizing, elitist and less inclusive than what it ought to be, and even used to be. We believe a measure of anarchism and universalism is a good antidote to a system of injustices. In this talk, we introduce one such universal approach called the Metaraga System; a path to universalism through meditation on structures of the particular.
About the Speaker
Purnaprajna Bangere is a mathematician and a musician at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. He obtained his PhD in mathematics from Brandeis University in Waltham, MA, under the supervision of the well-known mathematician David Eisenbud. After an early instruction in vocal music under T. R. Srinivasan, Purna started rigorous training in violin under the eminent south Indian violinist and a teacher of great repute, HKN Murthy. HKN Murthy is a disciple of the legendary Indian musicians Parur Sundaram Iyer, M.S. Anantharaman and M. S. Gopakrishnan. Purna has been invited to give solo recitals in prestigious music festivals such as the Learnquest music festival in Boston, the Cleveland Music festival, and the Toronto Music festival, among other well-regarded venues. In recent years, he has come up with a meta-geometric framework, inspired by mathematician Alexander Grothendieck’s work in algebraic geometry, as a foundational base for the so-called “Metaraga system”. Together with the multi-Grammy winning director of the Turtle Island string quartet David Balakrishnan, he has formed the Purna Lokha ensemble. This ensemble was featured in concerts at the MSRI Berkeley, the Asian Museum of Art at San Francisco, the Lied Center of Kansas, and the 1900 Building in Kansas City, among other places. The ensemble’s first CD “Metaraga” was released by Origin Records in January 2020. He is a professor of Mathematics and a courtesy professor of Music at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.