Some riveting stories in the realm of Hindustani classical music are born outside India. Dutch cellist Saskia Rao-de Haas is one of them. The 51-year-old musician, who has been living in culturally rich Delhi for decades, has seamlessly integrated the cello—an Italian bowed-string instrument of the violin family—with Hindustani music since her Indian debut at a concert in 1999. Over two decades, her journey has been enriched by several collaborations, including a duet with world-renowned sitarist and husband Pandit Shubhendra Rao.
Their music struck a different audience in the last decade—the world of education. They have taken music as an element of education to make learning richer. They have also taken music to schools. For both, they have come up with books, notations, activities, lessons, interactions and performances in music through Sangeet4All, a music curriculum programme conceived by the Shubhendra & Saskia Rao Foundation in Delhi. Haas has written 10 books on Indian music for children under Sangeet4All. Her latest book Shastra is about India’s rich music history, and dwells on the contemporary scenario of classical and world music.
The cellist’s vision to give Indian schools a music curriculum involves an ambitious and meticulously woven plan that comprises listening, learning and reading. The Sangeet4All programme, which she started in 2014, provides access to classical music to all, outside the boundaries of the concert or a conventional classroom. Haas says, “Shastra is for children in middle to high school, the young-adult range, but is also written for all musicians, music lovers and teachers, who would like to know more about the basics of India’s classical music traditions and how to transfer that knowledge engagingly.” Creating a generational experience in music via orchestration and a multi-disciplinary approach comes naturally to her, whose gurus were Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia and Pandit Ravi Shankar.
Music and musicality are a subject of deep exploration and interrogation in Indic sacred texts. Usually, these treasures can be unlocked only through or during formal music training. Children need
a connection between learning and the visual experience to understand heritage in terms of what they are listening to at a concert, or what they would want to learn in music within a classroom. Shastra, like other books from Haas, builds that connection. The 96-page book is meant to be read out to children by a musically inclined storyteller. The text is laid out over conversational illustrations. By blending several elements of music and musical instruments from different eras of India’s cultural history, Haas covers the past and present in music throughout the book.
How did she strike a balance in presenting information, history and deeper nuances of music? She says, “Although research and dialogue between scholars in the arts foster deeper understanding, it is equally important to pass that knowledge to a wider audience. I believe it’s when we can explain complicated information to a child that we have grasped the essence ourselves.”
Haas noticed that the space for education via music was largely vacant in India. With some support from artistes and her audience, she brought together insights aimed at helping children understand and create music. Her books provide musical notations, which can be used to learn different instruments, including percussion, non-percussion and wind instruments.
Indianising a Western instrument is a process replete with challenges. Haas, known as a ‘rebel’ by her listeners and peers, would turn them into practice, persuading her cello to dwell upon the ragas. A concert in Amsterdam in the 1990s changed her musical idiom. The iconic vocalists Dagar bandhus were performing at the Tropical Institute. Haas, a musician of Western classical music back then, was in the audience. She got drawn to Dhrupad, the Indic musicality, improvisation expanse in Indian classical music and other aspects. She decided to learn and practise the genre. To do so, Haas had to bring alterations to her cello, sitting style and playing techniques. In her evolving practice, she encountered challenges that gave the cello new explorations in sound and character. Now, she is building an educated audience and redefining journeys.
ON A HIGH NOTE
Page-turner:
Illustrations by Colin Campbell
Breaking the norm: Stalwarts introduced in postal stamp format
Text strengths: Musicologists, gharanas, music and taal notations
Thought propellor: Chitrasena’s assignment