“The real merit of music on the global stage is the ability to teach the listener about the qualities of the maker”

“The real merit of music on the global stage is the ability to teach the listener about the qualities of the maker”

Musicologist
Bob Gilmore describes American born Ned Mcgowan’s music as one which “strives
for an idiom in which various musics – American popular, European classical and
avant-garde, Carnatic, a fascination with proportionally intricate rhythms, the
use of microtones in the search for new subtleties of melody – and many others,
rub against each other and generate new meanings.

Ned McGowan was
a part of the Center for Soft Power’s Yoganiyoga project. He is a composer,
teacher, flautist, improviser and curator. His works have been performed
throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia. Ned McGowan teaches composition at
the College for Arts, Media and Technology in Hilversum, Netherlands.

Ned studied to play the Carnatic flute for
several months in Bangalore, with MK Pranesh and it influenced him to learn
more about the Gamaka or the ornamentation on a note. “However, to play
Carnatic flute is as climbing a very tall mountain and I had already climbed
several other mountains in my life, so I stopped practicing.”

However, he did take back Indian rhythm with
him. As a professor of Advanced Rhythm and Pulse at the Utrecht Conservatory,
and the creator of the International Rhythm Course he says his methods all
start with the South Indian syllable system to learn subdivisions and
groupings. “Carnatic music has a great method for combining composition and
improvisation. I love the approach to ornamentations and rhythm.”

Ned McGowan was a part of the Center for Soft Power’s Yoganiyoga project. He is a composer, teacher, flautist, improviser and curator. His works have been performed throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia.

For his PhD research he is exploring the ‘identity
of speed in music, from the compositional, performative or pedagogical
perspectives.’ “The speed of rhythms in live acoustic music, literally the
velocity at which notes are sounding, can be defined in absolute terms based on
clock time. But there is also the perceived speed that, in the simplest terms,
states that musical material can seem fast, slow or some other relational
quality.”

“Speed is
articulated by sounding rhythm. Rhythms, however, manifest themselves through a
myriad of various implicit and explicit frames, depending on the musical
context, including tuplets, meters (traditional and’irrational’), tempo,
polytempos, pulses, polypulses, polyrhythms (superimposed frames), additive
frames, divisive frames, metric modulation, time brackets and other structures.”
In his PhD he is researching the current practice, precise identities and
possibilities of the various time frames in music and the bearing they have
individually and in combinations on the speed of the music.

In 2016, he
released his album The Art of the Contrabass Flute, an album
dedicated solely to this amazing instrument. “A phenomenal technique
and flawless feeling for rhythm and sound, he knows how to use it perfectly in
his compositions,”
said Luister Magazine.

A strong facet of Ned’s influence is Carnatic
music. He believes that his instrument works well for South Indian music.
“Contrabass flute has a full low expressive tone, but it can also play fast
articulate rhythms.”

Over the past decade, he has collaborated and
performed regularly in India and Europe with Indian musicians Dr Mysore
Manjunath, Mysore Nagaraj, Dr Suma Sudhindra, Pravin Godkhindi, Jahnavi
Jayaprakash, Ronu Majumdar, B.C. Manjunath, M.K. Pranesh, Anoor Anathakrishna
Sharma and Giridar Udupa. “What fascinates me is the Carnatic use of rhythmical
complexities developed through a tradition of performance.”

Works exploring Indian forms from a European
perspective include Chamundi Hill, for flute and harp, Alap
for voice and ensemble, Stone Soup for jazz
ensemble, Tusk for ensemble and Three Amsterdam
Scenes 
for voice, viola and keyboards. About his association with
India, he says, “I love India, it’s people, it’s food, and the musicians from
there are some of my best friends!”

In a research paper on whether music is a universal language, he questions whether the same piece of music can the same thing to people from different cultures?

“The answer, in my opinion, is a clear no. To give a small example, I’ve taken friends from India to classical concerts in Europe and watched them fall asleep while the European audience was elated. Vice versa, I’ve watched Europeans fall asleep during Indian classical concerts while the Indian audience remained in rapt attention.

Further, music isn’t universal even to all the people from the same culture. Not everyone in India understands or appreciates Indian classical music and the same is true for Europeans of European classical music. Think about the common observation that the youth don’t attend many classical concerts, if at all. So if music cannot communicate the same to people within the same culture, how can it communicate equally across the globe?

“What fascinates me is the Carnatic use of rhythmical complexities developed through a tradition of performance.” - Ned McGowan

Of course, these examples are not based on scientific research but merely observations. There has been in depth research, though, done on the ability of music to communicate across cultures. In a study carried about in Montreal, groups of Canadians and Congolese Pygmies were played music from each other’s cultures. The results indicated that while there were similarities in how the two groups responded emotionally to the basic musical elements of tempo, pitch and timbre, there were also broad differences in the preference of music, the judgement of quality (good or bad) and extra-musical associations. This goes to show that perhaps the question of universality does not receive a simple a yes or no answer, that the truth lies somewhere in between the two.”

In order to understand which aspects of music are universal and which are not Ned suggests that we break music up into three parts: the universal, the cultural and the personal.

“The universal elements of music are indeed the ones mentioned in the above study: tempo, pitch and timbre, and they each relate to physiological processes. For example, music in a faster tempo will inspire more movement in the listener than a slower tempo, just as reflected in dance music around the world. Further, human ears are calibrated for the range of the human voice and thus music in that octave will speak more clearly to any human, such as how one can understand the excited quality of a singer even while not understanding the lyrics. Similarly with timbre, a shrieking sound will be dramatic to anyone.

Relating to tempo, the use of rhythm in different cultures provides an interesting analogy to this question of universality, I believe. Think of the common square rhythms in 4 of European classical, jazz and pop compared to the Indian classical rhythms making regular use of lengths of 3, 5 and 7. Or of rhythms in 12 of Africa to the gestural rhythms used in Japanese traditional music. They are all very different in character yet make similar use of sparse or dense rhythms, slow or fast tempos to create lower or higher energy levels in the music. There are indeed universal truths to rhythm, I believe, which are explored differently by each culture.

The 2nd component inherent to all music is cultural context, and it is precisely that context which defines its contained influence. For example in India there are some ragas which are only played at certain times of the day. If one grows up listening to these ragas at their designated times, the association becomes strong. Hearing a morning raga, even in the evening, will still evoke images of sunrise and birds chirping. One who did not grow up or learn these associations will likely not have those same images. Likewise organ music often has religious associations in Europe because organs mostly exist in churches. But for someone from one of the many countries where there are few churches, the sound of the organ would not necessarily bring the worship of god to mind. Lastly, another clear example of the musical barriers between cultures is the lyrics of vocal music. In this respect music clearly mimics the regional quality of spoken language. If only Google translator could also translate musical meaning!”

"The 2nd component inherent to all music is cultural context, and it is precisely that context which defines its contained influence. For example in India there are some ragas which are only played at certain times of the day." - Ned McGowan

He adds that an intensification of the cultural context is found in the musical element of ornamentation, due to its geographical and historic specificity. “The way jazz in the United States is ornamented today is different than 80 years ago and also different between the east coast and the west coast. Likewise, Carnatic gamakas have also evolved over the last eighty years and there are certainly differences in their execution throughout local traditions in southern India. Perhaps the differences in ornamentation occur similarly to differences in accent of spoken languages, which vary locally and over time.”

At the third level, he says music exists on the personal level. “Every individual musician has grown up with a set of experiences which are his or her own. Even two musicians of the same age within the same culture will still have their own unique perspectives, feelings and thoughts. Their identity is exclusive and this is the reason why new voices in music always sound fresh, even within standard repertoire. Just as no two humans are alike, so is every musician unique and that comes out in their music, whether as performers or composers.

This component also refers to listeners, whose perspectives are also coloured by their individuality. To experience this fact, just ask your neighbour at any concert what they thought and understood from the music. While there may be some common opinions, there are always also some differences in perspective. So when we multiply the individual expressions of the musician with the individual experiences of the listener, it is no wonder that music is often considered to be subjective in nature.”

Ned stresses that the more one learns about the music of a different
culture the more one can understand and appreciate it. “This, I feel is the real
merit of music on the global stage: not its ability to speak the same to
everyone, but its ability to teach the listener about the qualities of the
maker.”