Uni High Gargoyle Staff Blog

Last night I decided to go to a concert with my parents instead of working on my English paper as I had been planning to do. The concert was of Rajasthani folk music, a type of music that I haven’t had much exposure to, and since it was free, I didn’t mind changing my mind at the last minute

The concert was at the Spurlock Museum in a small auditorium that seated about 200 people. Even though we got there half an hour before the concert was supposed to start, it was pretty crowded.

Most of the people were senior citizens so I felt a little awkward as I sat down. But after quickly scanning the audience I saw that there were some young children and a few who looked like they were about my age.

When the MC went on stage to introduce the artists, the performers, showing true Indian pride, were not backstage. It is standard for Indians to show up for parties and functions at least 20 minutes late, which we call Indian Standard Time. A man sitting in front of me joked in Hindi that they must have gone out for tea.

But the artists only kept us waiting for five minutes. They sat down cross-legged on a mat that had been laid out for them. When I looked at their names on the program I was surprised to find most of them had the same last name. My mother later explained that they all probably came from the same tribe.

All seven of the artists were men, and they all were wearing brightly colored turbans. They each had shawls on with intricate patterns on them. Three of the artists were vocalists, one was on the dholak, a type of drum, another was playing the khadtal — two clappers which are held in each hand — and the other two played string instruments for the most part, although one of these also had a variety of other instruments, such as a double flute called the satara.

The concert was rather slow to start. But once it did it engaged me very much. The vocalists had strong, powerful voices that reverberated throughout the hall, and I enjoyed watching their wide arm movements, which made it look as though they were giving a speech.

The dholak and the stringed instruments provided background music, while the khadtal occasionally added an interesting rhythm to the piece and kept my foot tapping in time to the music. Often the musicians looked at each other to mutely communicate when to speed up and when to stop as all of this was improvisational.

My only complaint was that the program was very short. In all it lasted for a little over an hour, and they only played one song that included everyone. But still, I enjoyed it to the last note, and when I got home I looked up some of the instruments on the Internet. I had never heard of half of them, even though my parents like to take us to Indian concerts whenever we can go.

I guess I have a lot to learn.

— Avanti Chajed