Memory Space

This evening, featuring musicians from Berlin and the South Indian metropolis of Chennai, explores cultures of musical memory and their creative and political implications. With his “Gamaka Box”, composer and singer Ramesh Vinayakam developed the first comprehensive notation system for classical South Indian music. This is both an innovation and a break with tradition, confronting a century-old auditory-oral musical culture with far reaching questions and causing controversial debates in India.

In the face of changing global power relations, “Memory Space” enters a space of encounter which must be newly negotiated: between oral and written cultures, different forms of learning, cultural expansionism and isolationism, tradition and modernity.

Part 1

Claude Vivier
Learning
for four violins, percussion and tape (1976)

Alvin Lucier
Love Song
Acoustic duo for two violins, joined at their bridges by a long length of music wire (2016) GP

Part 2

Alvin Lucier
(Berlin-Chennai) Memory Space
interpreted with flutes bass clarinet, tabla, percussion, violin and viola (1970) GP

Giacinto Scelsi
Manto
for a singing viola player (1957)

Ana Maria Rodriguez
Chennai Scenes
for bamboo flute, bass clarinet / double bass clarinet, mridangam and city sounds (2016) GP

Discussion with Ramesh Vinayakam and musicians of the Ensemble KNM Berlin,
moderated by Lydia Rilling

Part 3

Jeremy Woodruff
Construction with Boismortier & Sankarabharanam
for bass clarinet, violin, viola, mridangam/tabla and tanpura (2016) GP

Ramesh Vinayakam
Svara Varam-Boon of Notes
Composition for voice, bamboo flutes, mridangam, bass clarinet violin, viola and tanpura (2017) WP

Carnatic Music
for bamboo flute and mridangam

Ensemble KNM Berlin
Theo Nabicht, bass clarinet / double bass clarinet
Theodor Flindell, violin
Lisa Werhahn, violin
Grégoire Simon, violin
Susanne Zapf, violin
Kirstin Maria Pientka, viola
Alexandre Babel, percussion

Ramesh Vinayakam voice
Shantala Subramanyam bamboo flute
Ana Maria Rodriguez keyboard & live electronics
Jeremy Woodruff tanpura
Anantha Krishnan mridangam/tabla