Niemandslandhymnen: breaking down musical borders

Sandeep Bhagwati is not a big fan of borders or anything that impedes the free exchange of creative ideas.

His new creative work, Niemandslandhymnen (Anthems for No-Man's-Lands) that premieres at Usine C on May 18, is a testament to everything that crosses borders: wind, clouds, water, networks, cultures – and performance disciplines.  

He calls it a ‘ritual performance’ that incorporates singers, musicians, a dancer and electronic sound, ambient light and new technology all of which come together as a visceral reaction to global political turmoil and the recent rise of right-wing nationalist movements.

“There’s a sentiment that somehow having borders will save the world, but I don’t think so,” says Bhagwati. “The entire earth is a no man’s land. It doesn’t belong to man. I want to draw attention to those factors in our lives that know no borders and affect all of us, whether positively or not.”

A work that combines poetry, music and performance

Bhagwati is the composer, director and poet of this complex work, which was commissioned by the Sociéte de Musique Contemporaine de Quebec as part of their 50th anniversary season.

Niemandslandhymnen is composed of thirteen movements based on a series of poems, all which touch upon the theme of borders. One poem, Clouds, is composed of obscure words. Another, Radiation, employs repeating lines whose music radiates outwards. Diaspora involves trios of musicians shifting around in the room where the audience see performers in front of them, but hear their music from behind them.

The performance at Usine C takes place in a large space for 200 spectators who may choose to either sit or stand amidst the performance as they watch the musicians and dancer – faculty member Angelique Wilkie – bring the poems to life. The audience will engage with thirteen performers who come together together and move apart, resolve conflicting tasks and negotiate the multidisciplinary composition with one another.

“The public will hear this negotiation. Each movement give a very different impression of the space you are in. That helps define each movement. The musicians will feel differently and play differently because of that.”

‘It is a kind of a crowning achievement’

Both Bhagwati’s 4-year SSHRC grant body:suit:score and his the Canada Research Chair for Inter-X Arts have combined to make this work happen.

“Anthems for No-Man's-Lands really comes form the richness of these two grants over the past four years and is kind of a crowning achievement.”

Years of research at Concordia’s Matralab and from international partnerships with musicians and composers from around the world have contributed to this event.  

Comprovisation is a core element of Bhagwati’s research: a mix of composition and improvisation, where musicians receive partial instruction from a conductor, but not everything is predetermined.

“I am interested in bringing in all the tools of a thousand years of music history about the coordination of musicians into this environment.”

‘It’s like learning a language in which we can converse’

Bhagwati does this through new technology and intercultural musical collaborations.

Bhagwati’s Matralab team has developed a wearable body metronome that transmits pulses to musicians and enables greater comprovisation. With this intelligent wearable, a conductor can manage groups of musicians who can’t see or hear one another to play together. It will be used in this week’s performance.

“It’s like learning a language in which we can converse,” explains Bhagwati. “Some of the musicians will wear it and they will play at different speeds. Each one receives a different pulse and their pulse changes over time.”

As Canada Research Chair for Inter-X Arts, his goal is to develop innovative ways for musicians of different cultures to work together as an ensemble. Niemandslandhymnen brings together many musical traditions – Indian, Chinese and jazz, experimental voice, early music tradition – physically and artistically, through many visiting musicians. 

And perhaps finally, it is through comprovisation that Bhagwati aim for a kind of musical Babel, where different musical traditions can interact on major projects with less defined scores.

“In other cultures, reading notation is not the standard. Indian musicians do not read notation. Chinese musicians do read notation, but not the notations we do. I wanted to work with these musicians. Why should I be constrained to work with conservatory trained musicians?”

And so in thought and in deed, his latest show aims to break down another musical border.