Priti Paintal's Secret Chants


This March, the Daily Classical Music Post will introduce you to some of the most wonderful music ever composed—and, yes, it will all be by women composers!


https://youtu.be/aNWpUGd6U6c

 

Priti Paintal (b. 1960) is an East Indian composer. She was the first Asian and first woman to receive a commission from the Royal Opera, an opera based on the life of Stephen Biko (1992).

 

Paintal mixes Eastern and Western music in her compositions. In 1993, she said: "In general, close familiarity with Western classical music among Indians is still rather unusual. My experience of it came through my mother, who was introduced to it by her father, he being an orphan had been adopted by a German missionary and put in a German Missionary school in the Himalayas. This in itself was quite unusual, and made him feel a bit of an outsider in India. However, he embraced Western culture with such enthusiasm that all his children grew up having to learn piano and Western classical music. . . . When I was first approached to write opera my initial reaction was to refuse since I felt I had no links with Western form of opera as I knew it. However, I decided to explore the medium a bit further, and after having finished my first chamber opera Survival Song I realised that I was approaching 'opera' differently from my western counterparts. My writing for voices was influenced rhythmically and modally by Indian tribal and folk music, and my instrumental rhythmic language was influenced by African music. This I was able to further develop in my full-length opera Biko, where the singers were asked to sing as naturally as possible, and not in a Western operatic style."

 

Paintal founded ShivaNova, an ensemble that brings together Asian, African, and Western instruments and voices, resulting in an extraordinary global sound. The 2009 premiere of Secret Chants was a collaboration between ShivaNova and the Philharmonia Orchestra. There is an improvisatory element to Secret Chants, and the mix of different traditions—all of which Paintal understands so well—leads to an exhilarating and magical work.

 

My classical music post for today is Priti Paintal's Secret Chants.

 

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