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Musical notes from Europe
Eager to build cultural bridges, La Compaignie Passagi, an all-women group from France is in India, performing and educating Indians on ancient European music. The group performed in Hyderabad last Friday. Four French musicians who are also students, Solane Michon (Linguistics), Florence Nowak (PhD in Anthropology of Music),
Eager to build cultural bridges, La Compaignie Passagi, an all-women group from France is in India, performing and educating Indians on ancient European music. The group performed in Hyderabad last Friday. Four French musicians who are also students, Solane Michon (Linguistics), Florence Nowak (PhD in Anthropology of Music), Nolwenn Tardy (Music) and Pauline Schill (part-time student, musician and teacher) came together owing to their interest in classical music.
The group specialises in Renaissance and Baroque music of the 15th - 16th centuries and 17th – 18th centuries respectively. It is following these two periods that classical music, which is synonymous with musical greats like Beethoven and Mozart, came into existence. The four women are on a mission to revive and popularise ancient music, which is true to their heritage.
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“I was able to find some similarities between European and Hindustani music, particularly in the wooden instruments,” says Florence who has studied in India for many years. Despite having some commonalities, the music is quite varied. Pauline explains, “While our early European musical pieces are probably 3 minute long, Hindustani renditions are about 30-40 minutes long! But we got to meet and listen to Rishab Prasanna, son of famous flute player, Rajendra Prasanna and it was beautiful.”
On their experience in India so far, sipping a chai, Nolwenn says, “We have all enjoyed it so far but unfortunately, some of our string instruments, which are models based on ancient instruments, got a little damaged due to different weather conditions. The weather is something we will have to keep in mind for our next trip to India.”
Passagi in French means passage or bridge, hence the name of their group. Solane plays the viola da gamba (similar to a cello); Florence pays the flute, traverso; Nolwenn plays the barrocco violin and Pauline plays the drums. All of them except Solane are singers. The group will be leaving for Delhi on August 6.
By:Elita Enoch
