Akshaya Avril Tucker: Three Songs (2018) - I. Saiyan
"Three Songs for Hindustani Vocalist, Soprano and Sinfonietta" (2018) by Akshaya Avril Tucker. Live recording with Hindustani Vocalist Saili Oak and the Prismatx Ensemble in Bates Recital Hall (Austin, TX) on March 21, 2018.
.
1. Saiyan / Fantasy on a Song by Shobha Gurtu (1925-2004): This song is a fantasy on Shobha Gurtu's Hindi thumri (semi-classical song) “Saiyan Nikas Gaye," and is based on Raag’s Mishra Bhairavi and Pratiksha. Throughout the song, the singer describes the plight of the body as its soul, represented as the primordial lover, departs. According to the belief that the soul departs through one of the ten openings (“doors”) of the body, this poem describes a feeling of total passivity, total surrender. Throughout, the ensemble returns to my theme of the ten doors of the body opening, using an expanding contrary motion gesture of five notes. I was writing this as my grandfather’s health steadily declined over the course of a year, and the simplicity and soulfulness of the song comforted me. My fantasy on “Saiyan” takes the drama of the text and shares it with the orchestral instruments — hopefully a translation of perception that explains what I hear in “Saiyan” and Saili Oak’s beautiful singing, and how I respond to it.
.
Saiyan nikas gaye mai na ladi thi
Na kachu boli na kachu chali
Sar ko jhukaye mai to chup ke khadi thi Rang mahal ke das darwaaje
Na jaane kaun si khidki khuli thi
Kahat Kamaali Kabir ki beti
Aise biyahi se to kuwari bhali thi
Kamaali (c.15th Century)
.
My love is leaving, but I do not resist
In stillness, without my notice, she slipped away.
My royal palace has ten doors
Who knows who opened that window, from which she flew...
As its beloved departs, the mortal body grieves,
Said Kamaali, daughter of Kabir.
Transl. Saili Oak & Akshaya Avril Tucker
Watch video Akshaya Avril Tucker: Three Songs (2018) - I. Saiyan online without registration, duration hours minute second in high quality. This video was added by user Akshaya Avril Tucker 13 March 2019, don't forget to share it with your friends and acquaintances, it has been viewed on our site 836 once and liked it 8 people.