College of the Holy Cross professor of music and composer Shirish Korde hopes for a “synthesis” in “Svara-Yantra,” his concerto for violin, tabla and orchestra.
As the names of the two instruments might suggest, the concerto is a work that brings together two musical cultures. How often do you hear the classical Western violin and the Indian tabla (as well as a full orchestra) together? In “Svara-Yantra,” you do.
Korde talks about musical bilingualism and enriching the contemporary Western idiom with Indian classical music, two musical fields where Korde has walked very confidently during his career.
Theoretically, this might sound imposing. Listening to “Svara-Yantra,” however, you are swept into a highly atmospheric and enthralling musical landscape. Meanwhile, Korde, while no doubt capable of running rings (and reams) of musical theory around a visitor to his office at Holy Cross, is good, amiable and amusing company.
“I’m trying for a synthesis,” he said of “Svara-Yantra” — which will have its United States premiere Wednesday as the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra comes to Mechanics Hall to open the 148th Worcester Music Festival.
“Fusion,” Korde added. He paused. “I don’t like the word fusion so much. I hope it doesn’t end up as confusion.”
Wednesday’s concert, presented by Music Worcester Inc., will also feature Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera’s “Variaciones concertantes” and Ravel’s transformation of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” Benjamin Zander conducts (he will also give a pre-concert talk in Washburn Hall at 7 p.m.), while the soloists for “Svara-Yantra” are the orchestra’s concertmaster, violinist Joanna Kurkowicz, and tabla virtuoso Samir Chaterjee of India.
Asked about the inspiration for “Svara-Yantra,” Korde said, “first of all, these great musicians.” The admiration has to be mutual because “Svara-Yantra” was commissioned by the Polish-born Kurkowicz, a supporter and advocate for new music. The work was first performed by the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, Poland, in 2005. The orchestra has recorded a CD. The concerto was also previously performed this February in Wellington, New Zealand, by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra as part of the Asia Pacific Festival, and in June in Poland by the Koszalin Philharmonic.
“Svara-Yantra” was described by one reviewer as “a haunting work, richly imbued with Indian colors and musical tradition, which offers something unique and powerful with all manner of exotic and imaginative texture and color from both soloist and orchestra.”
Korde said the title of the piece is derived from the Sanskrit words “savara,” meaning “notes,” and “yantra,” which in this instance refers to a diagram of seven intersecting triangles that is used for meditation in all the Asian and Buddhist traditions. The work itself is in three movements or “sonic mediations,” each of which is dedicated to a master of Indian music.
As the work combines and intersects elements of Western music with instrumental techniques, rhythms and scales peculiar to the music of India, the soloists also have to be part of the syntheses. “The violinist (Kurkowicz) had to learn ornamental techniques, and the tabla (Chaterjee) had to learn to fit in with the orchestra,” Korde said.
This is the first time in recent memory that a work by a locally connected composer has been featured as part of the opening of the Worcester Music Festival.
The Boston Philharmonic’s presentation of the piece is being facilitated by Kurkowicz, and performances in Boston are scheduled Oct 18, 20 and 21. The orchestra has also been a regular visitor to Worcester in recent years and opened the music festival last year in an acclaimed concert and was booked for the honors again this year.
“It happens to be a very nice thing. A coincidence — but I’m very happy for it,” Korde said of having his concerto make its U.S. debut here. “It’s a great hall, so I’m really looking forward to hearing it there.”
Asked how he thinks his work will fare with the Mechanics Hall audience, Korde said, “I have no idea. The people in Poland liked it. The people in New Zealand liked it. I hope the people in Worcester will like it, and Boston also.”
He’s been told that his work “speaks to people.” On the other hand, “I don’t know how purists — in the sense of new music purists, I don’t know how they would respond.”
Korde, 62, lives in Cambridge. A widower, his son is a lawyer. Originally from India, he lived in East Africa for a while and came to the United States in 1965. Starting out as a jazz saxophonist, Korde was inspired by Stan Getz and used to perform his music. He was playing in a small club one night when “a gentleman walked up and I had the fright of my life.” It was Getz.
The jazz great encouraged Korde to study jazz at the Berklee College of Music, which he did. Then his interests started to veer more toward music composition and theory. He went on to study at the New England Conservatory, and then Brown University, where he studied ethnomusicology — especially Asian music and Indian drumming.
He has been at Holy Cross since 1977, where he is a professor of music. Korde has been praised as one “of a few contemporary composers who have been deeply touched by music of non-Western cultures, jazz and computer technology and who has created a powerful and communicative compositional language.”
It has been a musical journey, and Korde speaks very candidly about the experimental but also highly systemized new or contemporary music that he was once involved with.
“We don’t need ugly music anymore,” he said. “So to purists I say frankly, ‘I don’t write ugly music anymore,’ “
So did he write ugly music?
“We all did,” he replied, quite disarmingly.
“In the ’70s you had to write your screeching soprano. It’s a much healthier time in that sense. It’s not as doctrinaire. We’ve gone beyond the point where it had to fit a different system.”
So rather than system, think synthesis. An earlier musical phase saw some Western composers and musicians merely translating Indian classical music. “I think the new phase is where people understand and are practitioners of both cultures and employ musicians from both cultures.”
Is that where Korde is at?
He smiled.
“That’s where I am, yes. I can feel totally at home and talk to both, and it inspires me.”
