The first Indian to have composed Caprices for Western solo violin.
Has arranged practice level Indian pieces (Geetams) for primary and mid-level Western classical or jazz instrumental students.
Ravikiran has sought to share the sophisticated brilliance of Carnatic music and
at the same time widen his own horizons, by composing for and collaborating with musicians from various cultures such as the US, the UK, France, China, Brazil and Ghana. After a few years of 'jamming' with stars from different world music systems, he felt the need to create more meaningful music with his global partners.
The fundamental difference between the melodic and harmonic approaches to music makes it challenging to compose in a manner that is true to both systems. This stirred Ravikiran to come up with his concept of Melharmony, a melding of Indian melodic principles with Western harmonic ones. Melharmony received critical acclaim when first premiered at the Millennium Festival in UK with members of the BBC Philharmonic orchestra in the year 2000 at the behest of the Bradford-based Kalasangam. This collaboration at the Millennium Festival was awarded a special encore as one of the top 5 performances among 2000 international events. The BBC magazine, in its cover story titled BBC Melharmonic, described the concert at Manchester thus: "Judging by the audience reaction after the end of tonight's show and the extent to which the melharmonious tones of 'KK Suite' is ringing in all of our ears for a considerable length of time afterwards, it's a real buzz".
Since then Ravikiran has composed several Melharmonic pieces which have been presented by Western Classical/Jazz/World music orchestras and ensembles in USA, UK, Canada and India. In April 2012, he became the first Indian composer to create Caprices for Solo Violin.
His first Melharmonic concerto for chitravina and flute, 'Ujjwal', was presented at the India Gate Festival, New Delhi in Oct 2003. It was also released as an audio album in early 2004 with additional sections rendered by string artistes of the Cleveland Opera.
In his own words, Ravikiran has sought to "not merely popularise Indian concerts but Indian concepts". His Melharmonic compositions in ragas like Jyotiswaroopini, Deepakam, Janaranjani, Dhavalambari, Kadanakutoohalam, Saraswati and Nattai, have brought several new melodies to the Western classical and jazz world. However, his rhythmic structures have often challenged several musicians. Ravikiran has also woven concepts such as shrutibhedam (modal shift of tonic) and korvai (melo-rhythmic cadenzas) and suggestively used sarali, jantai and alankaras in some of his compositions.
Collaborating with composers such as Robert Morris, Timothy Sullivan and Charles Demyunck on various
of Melharmonic creations, Ravikiran has constantly endeavoured to improve his own perspectives of music from various parts of the world. By his own reckoning, Melharmony is still in a stage of infancy and he plans to work on it over the next few decades.
|
