Celebrating India's independence with music
Patriotic music is hardly a new concept as it has been used across nations and time to rally people to act as a focal point. But when the notes are strung together across borders from several cities that involves careful coordination, then the music takes on a different meaning.
'Vande Mataram', a new song composed by violin maestro Dr L Subramaniam, which will be released on the anniversary of India's 73rd Independence Day, is truly special. Involving the collaboration of 38 instrumentalists from Europe, as part of the 'European Recording Orchestra' recorded in lockdown from Sophia, Bulgaria, the orchestra was conducted by the noted Irish born conductor Derek Gleeson. He said that they had received the written score for each instrument from Dr L Subramaniam and recorded their piece in around half an hour. He also shared that his interaction with Dr Subramaniam till then had not involved collaboration and this was their first musical collaboration.
"Dr L Subramaniam has also been invited to teach the Indian violin at the prestigious postgraduate music institution, the 'Film Scoring Academy of Europe' next year," said Gleeson.
The stirring words of the song 'Victory to thee, motherland our salutations; Bharat is my belief, I sacrifice my heart for Bharat, the most beautiful Bharat; I bow to thee, Mother I bow to thee" were penned by playback singer Kavita Krishnamurti Subramaniam. She said, "It feels wonderful to sing as a soloist with an orchestra as I have had the opportunity to perform with major symphony orchestras in the past. To be able to do something like this during the pandemic period could not have been possible without the complete cooperation of so many artists."
The brief five minutes song features several popular playback singers including Kavita, Sonu Nigam, SP Balasubramanyam, Shreya Ghoshal and Kumar Sanu. It also includes film stars Hema Malini, Juhi Chawla and Mohanlal joining in the chorus. Celebrated Indian classical instrumentalists including guitarist Debashish Bhattacharya, flautist Ronu Mazumdar, violinist Ambi Subramaniam and tabla player Tanmoy Bose are part of the impressive lineup of artists.
Concepts like Nationalism have come under attack, especially amongst a younger generation, who argue against its non inclusivity in a global world. Bindu Subramaniam, daughter of maestro L Subramaniam, who has also sung 'Vande Mataram', gave the perspective of her generation needing to compose music with a patriotic theme.
Bindu said, "As a family, we are grateful for the opportunity to travel the world (under normal circumstances) and that gives us a great respect for what we have at home. I'm tremendously proud to be an Indian and I think a great way to share that is through music. It has been a passion project for my father, who visualised everything in great detail - right from the type of costumes people would be wearing, to the video editing and of course the music - everything. I love the way 'Vande Mataram' has come together with the orchestra, thespians, vocalists and instrumentalists."
Dr L Subramaniam confessed it had been a mammoth task to coordinate. While getting in the music and videos from all over, editing had taken more time than composing the music.
