HYDERABAD: Ever since I heard about the new music museum opening up in Bengaluru, I wondered why it was being called Indian Music Experience (IME). I mean why the term ‘experience’ and not ‘museum’. After visiting it last week I finally understood why. The IME is the first and only interactive music museum in India which showcases the vast diversity and depth of Indian music. Most importantly, it invites visitors to engage with its components — making it experiential.
The visit also provided a moment of pride for me, as an Indian. I have visited countless music museums and instrument collections worldwide and often wondered why we did not have anything like that in India, considering our incredibly rich musical heritage. Now, the IME gives us Indians, bragging rights too!
Fittingly, IME has been invited to join the prestigious Grammy Museum Affiliate Program, a network of exclusive music museums and universities around the world which have collaborative programmes.
The museum is an initiative of the Indian Music Experience Trust, and the brainchild of its founder M.R. Jaishankar, Chairman and MD of the Brigade Group. An art-lover he was particularly inspired by the Experience Music Project he saw in Seattle, USA.
Jaishankar reveals: “I dreamt of having something like that in India too. I particularly wished that children and youth be acquainted with our musical heritage. Also, I strived to make it a world-class institution because the great Indian music tradition deserves the best.” Jaishankar invited distinguished specialists from India and abroad as consultants and advisors. Two respected musicians were made hands-on experts. Manasi Prasad is the Project Director and renowned vainika Dr Suma Sudhindra is Director, Outreach.
The IME has music from all genres –folk and classical (both Hindustani and Carnatic), film and rock, find representation here and with their regional variations. Also featured are the legendary personalities that created and performed the music and the technology and media through which music is produced.
The Sound Garden has 10 installations or music sculptures from which visitors can make music!
The notes of the ragas Mohana and Shankarabharanam emerge beautifully from the first set when they are struck with mallets! We saw delighted children realising how the other installations too bring forth sonorous sounds in different pitches and ranges. As Manasi puts it, “This part of IME explores music as sound (the physics of sound like pitch, timbre, etc.) while the galleries showcase music as art”.
Inside, after watching a brief, introductory film one can begin exploring the nine galleries. Contemporary
Expressions tells you of the current rock, pop and fusion scene in India and how these draw from folk and classical music.
Living Traditions showcases the glory and grandeur of Carnatic and Hindustani classical music, famed exponents, the bhakti movement, dance-music, etc. You can savour the the music of different composers and performers through user-friendly touch-screens. Crisp and lucid write-ups provide information about music-history and music-concepts at every point. Computer-based interactive installations allow one to experience the process of music-making.
Fancy being a singer with your own album? In a recording studio, you can record your song with tunes and words provided (karaoke-like), sign your name on the album cover and presto you are a performer with a record of your own, received online!
Songs of the People is all about folk/ or Jaanapada music. The Instruments Gallery displays 108 musical instruments used in Indian music—stringed, percussion, and wind. Reaching Out traces the history of recording. Stories through Songs focuses on film music. There is a Songs of Struggle gallery too. Melting Pot is a narrative of the influence of Western music on Indian music and vice-versa.
Hall of Fame showcases images of icons from genres covered in the other galleries and includes encased displays of Bismillah Khan’s shehnai, MS Subbulakshmi’s tambura, etc. The Learning Centre imparts music education to over 100 students reveals Suma Sudhindra.
The IME is at P Nagar 7th Phase, Bangalore. Closed on Mondays. Entry fee: Rs 250. Details: indianmusicexperience.org
(The writer is a freelancer who writes on music, art, culture and travel)