Jewel of Srivijaya (for Mridangam, Tabla and Orchestra) by Tony Makarome

This piece was inspired by a dream I once had about living in Singapore during the era when she was a part of the Srivijaya Empire, which controlled much of Southeast Asia from the 7th to 12th centuries. I imagined that there was probably a very strong musical influence from India and attempted to capture this flavour when composing this piece. The listener will be treated to melodic and improvisational elements that derive from classical Indian Carnatic music as well as rhythmic and phrasing devices widely used in mridangam and tabla performance practice. This piece represents my humble attempt to blend Indian classical music with the Western orchestra medium in a way that is enjoyable to listeners familiar with either or both musical traditions.

We begin with a melody in the Gambhira Nattai raga (tonal mode), a popular pentatonic scale often employed in invocational compositions like a Mallari, which is a type of religious processional music and usually performed on the nadaswaram, a South Indian double reed wind instrument. This sets the scene for the mridangam and tabla to then showcase their own distinctive styles through how they accompany the main theme “sung” by the orchestra. The middle section features a contrasting theme set in a raga that is better known to Western classical listeners as the natural minor scale (Aeolian mode). I modelled the overall musical structure and interactions between the individual voices of the mridangam, tabla and the orchestra after the jugalbandi (literally “entwined twins”), which is a type of performance in Indian musical practice where two soloists of equal stature and presence are showcased over a common underlying musical texture. Examples of famous combinations in this tradition include the pairing of the violin and sarod (as in the case of Lalgudi G. Jayaraman and Amjadh Ali Khan), and the mridangam and tabla (Patri Satish Kumar and Zakir Hussain).

In this context, it’s also important to point out to the casual listener that while the mridangam and tabla are both instruments of Indian origin, they originated from, and continue to be used in, two distinctly different Indian musical traditions – Carnatic and Hindustani respectively. In spite of this, a commonality in both traditions is that their performers are always required to improvise and embellish at specific points within a set musical framework, and so in the same vein, every performance of this piece will be different depending on the improvisations of the two soloists.

However, towards the end of the piece there is a short percussion solo section (Thani Avarthanam) that is fully written out, an ironic twist to this improvisational tradition and a tribute to my mridangam gurus! (Programme note by Tony Makarome)

Recorded at the SSO National Day Concert 2019, 10 Aug, at the Esplanade Concert Hall.

Nawaz Mirajkar, tabla
V.M. Sai Akileshwar, mridangam
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Joshua Tan, conductor

TONY MAKAROME (b. 1960)
Composer, conductor, and bassist Tony Makarome is an Associate Professor at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (NUS). His educational achievements include a D.M.A. (Orchestral Conducting) from USC and a B.M. (Composition) from Berklee College of Music. He is currently a mridangam student of Guru Chettiharaveetil Haridas Sreekanth (Singapore Indian Fine Art Society). He was assistant conductor of the Columbia Lyric Opera (South Carolina), and music director of the NUS Wind Symphony. His recent premieres include Rain Konnakkol (2018) in Baltimore, What Pattern? (2016) in New York City, Scifi Lounge (2006) in Bangkok and Name with No Street in Shanghai. As a bassist, he performed with Louis Bellson, Tony Bennett, and Quartet West amongst others.