Cymbals
Deep listening in the summer
For the first time yesterday, I played the cymbals in unison with four vocalists two of whom also played the cymbals, one a harmonium, and one the mridangam. I fumbled at the beginning, not keeping time accurately, not producing the right kind of sound. These cymbals, often called jhanjh in Hindi, are the smaller ones. One of the singers was playing a larger pair of cymbals or clappers, often called kartaal.
The main difficulty was in listening to the complex singing of the mahamantra along with the simple rhythmic repetition of the cymbals - 1-1-1-blank or 1-2-1-2. Soon I learnt that one cymbal was to be kept steady and still, the other lifted and dropped on it first lightly, and in the second beat heavily.
Cymbals are a ubiquitous presence across the landscape of this city and the towns surrounding it. People carry these around in their hands everywhere, they make the use of cymbals look very simple. Percussion, having played the violin alone and only in the prsence of my teacher for several years now, I realise is a social instrument. It must make space for other instruments. It must accept being taken for granted. It must retain its own rhythmic discipline but allow for the expanse experienced by the vocalist or the pekahwaj or other instruments. Its rhythm frames the boxing ring of music. It shrillness marks temoral limits, but stays at the margins of music. Its simplicity gets complicated by the fact that the person (unlike a newbie such as I) playing it simultaneously imhabits the divergent logics of the song and the percussive beats.
They urged me, “sing, sing.”
I tried but my attention deviated from the rhythmic discipline of quaver-quaver- crotchet. I have played the violin a couple of times with my friend B who is a pianist. In all those occasions, I found it difficult to parse apart my attention to the two strands of sound. So, heightened admiration today for those who play or sing in seamless collaborative arrangements - acapella, orchestra, or the samaj gayan musicians (group devotional singing) of the Braj region.
I will leave you with a taste of the sounds of Vrindavan.
