I am currently working on few very interesting International projects, composing original chamber music and symphonies for some amazing orchestras and talented artists.
My first full fledged chamber orchestral piece was the ‘Spirit of India’, I was commissioned to write that piece for the Scokendia Ensemble by the Glasgow Culture for the culral events during the Glasgow Commonwealth Games at Scotland in 2014. The piece is largely based on Indian Raga Hamsadhwani, known as the ‘Festival Raga’ in India. Its more like a minimalist music, like a painting, which is telling a story with interesting characters walking within the theme. The mood of the piece is precisely based on the celebration – celebrating the beauty and uniqueness of an ancient nation called India. In this piece, every instrument has its individuality within the subtext and builds along telling the story of the spirit of India.
In Indian traditional and classical music, ‘Jugalbandi’ is a famous style, which means ‘question and answer’ based performance between two soloists. I tried to portray that in an orchestral fashion. The Violins and the Flutes have number of areas shared with questions and answers – the ‘Jugalbandi’. Lastly, the percussion – Indian folk music cannot be written without the Indian and Arabian-origin percussion instruments such as Tabla and Dhol. For a western orchestra, I wanted the Tambourine and Cajon do the job with the support of Snare Drum and Bass Drum. I tried to create the typical Indian folkish percussion pattern with these four percussion instruments to bring out the adequate sound aura. In brief, it’s an Indian-themed piece written for the western orchestra and needs to be performed with dancing spirit and singing mood. We can call it a long instrumental anthem interpreting the vast characteristics, colours, diversity and the very spirit of India.
