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Music with a message
by Outspoken on Tue May 13, 2008 5:32 am
Music with a message
The Merasi, from India's class of untouchables, get respect as they play in other countries.
By RAY ROUTHIER
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
Sarwar Khan can speak three languages, but he doesn't know how old he is. The government of India won't issue him a birth certificate.
His prowess as a musician has allowed him to perform around the world to grateful audiences, but in his hometown he can't walk in the marketplace with a tourist without being harassed by police.
As a member of India's lower class, Khan was not allowed to go to school. Yet on Monday, he and six other musicians from the desert region of Rajasthan were at Waynflete School in Portland to teach about 500 students something about their culture and the injustices of India's caste system.
And about some of the little things people in a free society take for granted.
"When I come here, I get a dignity and a respect from people that I cannot get in my own country," Khan said minutes after Waynflete students, from preschool to high school, gave his group a rousing ovation. "We are hungry for dignity and respect. We get that every place we play here."
The musicians are members of a group in India called "the Merasi" ("the storytellers"), and that's what they call their musical group.
They led workshops for students and gave an hour-long concert at the school focusing on their musical tradition, using instruments that are deceptively simple and outwardly crude – wooden drums with animal skins, thin pieces of wood clapped together, a wind instrument made of a gourd, a high-pitched, one-string instrument fashioned from a can and a piece of wood.
In the hands of the Merasi, the instruments created complicated rhythms that at times sounded like they came from a 10-piece drum kit or the percussion section of a jazz orchestra.
Their songs, most with a toe-tapping rhythm and joyous, high-energy singing, were stories and celebrations of everyday life. One was about the birth of a baby, another was about the strength of rural Merasi women who carry giant jugs of water on their heads for miles at a time.
Khan and his group are on a tour of the United States sponsored by a New York-based nonprofit group, Folk Arts Rajasthan Inc. The group's educational director, Caitie Whelan, is a Waynflete graduate and Maine native.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=187405&ac=PHnws
Photos by John Ewing/Staff Photographer
The Merasi, from India's class of untouchables, get respect as they play in other countries.
By RAY ROUTHIER
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
Sarwar Khan can speak three languages, but he doesn't know how old he is. The government of India won't issue him a birth certificate.
His prowess as a musician has allowed him to perform around the world to grateful audiences, but in his hometown he can't walk in the marketplace with a tourist without being harassed by police.
As a member of India's lower class, Khan was not allowed to go to school. Yet on Monday, he and six other musicians from the desert region of Rajasthan were at Waynflete School in Portland to teach about 500 students something about their culture and the injustices of India's caste system.
And about some of the little things people in a free society take for granted.
"When I come here, I get a dignity and a respect from people that I cannot get in my own country," Khan said minutes after Waynflete students, from preschool to high school, gave his group a rousing ovation. "We are hungry for dignity and respect. We get that every place we play here."
The musicians are members of a group in India called "the Merasi" ("the storytellers"), and that's what they call their musical group.
They led workshops for students and gave an hour-long concert at the school focusing on their musical tradition, using instruments that are deceptively simple and outwardly crude – wooden drums with animal skins, thin pieces of wood clapped together, a wind instrument made of a gourd, a high-pitched, one-string instrument fashioned from a can and a piece of wood.
In the hands of the Merasi, the instruments created complicated rhythms that at times sounded like they came from a 10-piece drum kit or the percussion section of a jazz orchestra.
Their songs, most with a toe-tapping rhythm and joyous, high-energy singing, were stories and celebrations of everyday life. One was about the birth of a baby, another was about the strength of rural Merasi women who carry giant jugs of water on their heads for miles at a time.
Khan and his group are on a tour of the United States sponsored by a New York-based nonprofit group, Folk Arts Rajasthan Inc. The group's educational director, Caitie Whelan, is a Waynflete graduate and Maine native.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=187405&ac=PHnws
Photos by John Ewing/Staff Photographer
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
