The Sangit Europa-India media information exchange

Active members for the project preparation: Daniel Schell (Brussels). Dhruba Ghosh(Bombay). Mr Chandramouly (Liège, Belgium). Ludwig Pesch (Hamburg, Germany)

1. Objectives

Encourage a two-way diffusion of knowledge and information on the performing arts.

1.1. Steps of the project

- Building a cultural and media Europe-India Network . Searching for partners.
- Research into the state of intellectual property between India and Europe
- Helping the production of artistic media and events

 

2. Intellectual property in India and in Europe

2.1. A short description of the state of intellectual property and the research to be done

- The intellectual property, mainly in the field of traditional musical composition, is not really clear in the mind of Indian musicians and subsequently for the Europeans who assist them. Most of the Indian performers recording a media will sign their work with a 'raaga X' without any real idea bout their rights or real ownership of the intellectual material. This is mainly due to the state of guru-shiksia (master-disciple) transmission of knowledge and compositions which has been a pillar of the tradition.


- India has passed legislation in the fields of Copyrights, according to the International Intellectual Property Association. ( a description is to read in "Intelectual property rights in India" by Mr Kanthi Tripathi, Minister (Commerce), Embassy of India, Washington DC.). A 1994 amendment to the act of 1957 provides protection to all artistic, litterary, musical, films, sound recordings, etc. Recent changes bring other sectors such as computer software or satelite broadcasting under Indian copyright protection.
Further research conducted by our team should investigate these matters.


- There are Indian Societies in charge of protecting the copyright. The IPRS (Indian Performing Right Society, Bombay) and the PPL (Phonographic Performance) are two of these.


- These societies have sometimes agreement with European Societies. These agreements are in progress.


- For instance the Sabam (Belgium) has an agreement with the IPRS (Bombay), through the PRS (London). Furthermore this agreement covers only the performing rights. Concerning the mechanical rights, there is no agreement (and no protection).


Our team wishes to  investigate the state of relationship between the various European and  Indian societies.

 

3.  The cultural and media Europe-India Network

The aim is to develop a network of information exchange for performers and students of the performing arts .
The list of the members of the network, can be obtained through Clic Music. In the future, we wish to contact the media publishing companies of Europe in order to include them in the Network.


The steps are:
- a list of the members of the Network
- to facilitate the access to- and the exchange of information on member's activities
- to allow for a better organisation and facilitate their two-way projects

 

 

4. Organisation of Seminars

Since 1993 we have been organising seminars and workshops in the field of Indian arts. Subjects were music, dance, social and philosophical activities as well as cooking and daily life. These seminars are organised in accordance with well known local organisers such as the Académie d'été de Wallonie, the centre Culturel de Rossignol of Courcelles.

 

 

5. The production of artistic media and events

In this section we describe in some details the activities of the Sangit Academy, our projects, and artistic topics.

5.1. Media

5.1.1. The book 'The practice of Indian Music"

Publishing of the book: The book has had many reprints since 1992.
- Translation: The book is currently translated in French.
- The book contains basic information on te practice of music in North India. We plan to publish a volume on South India and different addenda specialised in a given subject such as sitar, tabla, vocal, etc.
- It was recently updated by the department of Asian Studies, University of Leuven, Prof.Winand Callewaerts. It contains now a full index in devanagari.

- It will, in the near future, be released by Musnshiram Manoharlal, in New Delhi.

5.1.2. Production of recordings on other audio and visual media (CD, CD-Rom, DVD)

Given the success of the book and the Seminar, we have now demand for pedagogy using other media. Our plan involves:

5.1.2.1. Media  lessons: First steps in Music

We plan to produce some introductory lessons:
Subject: The subjects will be related to easy introductory, monographic, subjects covering topics usefull to the music amateur both in India and in Europe,
Media:  both on Audio and video CD . The duration would be aproximately one hour. In a first stage on the following subjects.
 

5.1.2.2. Indian subjects for Europe

Daniel Schell is preparing a series of books on Indian music and dance:

Bansuri, by Harsh Wardhan
Sarangi, Indian Solfege, with Dhruba Ghosh
Tabla, with Sandip Banerjee. The book is finished and is published by ID Music, Paris.   An English version is to  be published soon my Munshiram Manoharla, Delhi.
Vocal with Pandit Jasraj, and/or Shaila Piplapure
Violin by Kala Ramnath
Danse, Bharat Natyam with Natacha Volodina
Kathak
 

5.1.2.3. European subjects for India

Presenting European  music and instruments to the Indian  audience
Western solfege, graphical notation for the Indian Musician. Daniel Schell comparative Indian & Western solfege.
Europeans in Indian Music.
    Ludwig Pesch, on South Indian music.

5.2. Events

5.2.1. Concerts

Concerts with concerned artists are produced in accordance with the Seminar. The members of the Sangit Academy are happy to act as counselors for the concert and events organisers.

5.2.2. Summer and other seminars

The Sangit Academy organises every year its European Summer Seminar of the Indian Arts. Teaching include music, dance (bharat natyam), solfege, films, cooking. Other topics (litterature) will be included in the future.

Report written by Daniel Schell

 

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