MELHARMONY FESTIVAL IN MADISON. USA FOCUSES ON INDIAN AND WESTERN ICONS

The 11th edition of the Melharmony Festival in Madison, USA on the October 19-20 weekend highlighted the works of two trailblazing composers - India's Oottukkaadu Venkata Kavi (1700-1765) also known as OVK or Venkata Kavi, and his no-less illustrious Western contemporary Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 -1750).

- GANPATI RAMANATH

This two-day festival was organized by the Melharmony Foundation and curated by its Executive Director Vanitha Suresh.

More than 100 performers and hundreds of connoisseurs of Indian and Western classical music were immersed in a smorgasbord of 20 individual miniconcerts, 5 ensemble presentations, a musical play with live Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam dance, a grand Melharmony concert by Chitraveena N Ravikiran with legends V V Subrahmanyam (VVS), Trichy Shankaran, the versatile Apollo Chamber Players, Patri Sathishkumar and others, culminating with a Carnatic violin duo led by VVS and Sankaran. For me, as a performer and participant, the Melharmony Festival 2024 was a treat to the ears, nutritious and sumptuous food for the heart and soul, and an inexorable inspiration.

MELHARMONY IN WORLD MUSIC The Melharmony concept was discovered and articulated by Ravikiran in mid-2000 during his collaboration with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and subsequently developed from a Western standpoint by Robert Morris of Eastman School Music, NY, USA. Melharmony explores chords and counterpoints based on melodic progression in highly evolved systems such as Indian classical music. This approach sharply contrasts the traditional Western approach centered on harmonic progression.

The result is a powerful amalgamation of the Indian framework of ragas based on sequential notes with Western style harmony anchored on multiple notes played simultaneously.

Melharmony's aesthetic appeal is supported by a strong theoretical foundation, and has enchanted multicultural audiences totaling nearly 50,000 in major events.