Writings about Music

You Surrender Yourself

Michael Robinson (Los Angeles)

 

You surrender yourself. You drop your ego. Then something happens.

You should not copy. You must create your own style.

Have reverence for the music. Do not go too fast all at once. Allow your body to acclimate.

The above are thoughts like clear ringing tabla bols, derived from listening to Swapan Chaudhuri explain his approach to music, including concepts learned from Ali Akbar Khan.

Every instance is fresh and different whether it be a new composition or known raga. You enter and do your best to engage fearlessly with the always one-of-a-kind nature of the moment guided by instinct, knowledge, and previous experience.

One abstract way of suggesting all the above, voiced by Charlie Parker, is somehow allowing the instrument or medium to play you, perhaps the ultimate extreme of becoming One with music, even conjuring the nebulousness of numinosity.

 

The Alap (touch a color) of Lotus-Pollen is a spiritual reunion of bliss with Pandit Jasraj.

 

The Vilambit Gat (slow composition) of Lotus-Pollen is a procession into a wondrous realm.

 

The Madhya Gat (medium composition) of Lotus-Pollen is a playful time.

 

The Drut Gat (fast composition) of Lotus-Pollen is sometimes heard as a rainforest jungle filled with joyous effusions of birds, insects and animals.

 

- Michael Robinson, January 2021, Los Angeles

 

© 2021 Michael Robinson All rights reserved

 

Michael Robinson is a Los Angeles-based composer and writer (musicologist).