Among the first few institutions of Higher Education in India to offer a bachelors stratum in Western classical music in combination with Psychology and English studies, Christ University, Bangalore, is defended to situating practise-based learning at the cadre of all disciplines. The triple major program offers a curriculum that synergises the analytic, creative, and stimulating aspects of the three major disciplines.
The undertow combines music notation, theory, ear training, sight singing, constructive practice and performance uneasiness skills and builds on this by subtracting practical uses of tonal harmony wideness all western tonal styles and the art of interpretation. The undertow then culminates in cadre skills which contextualise the history and philosophy of Western Music. Students major in voice or piano for six semesters. Music transcends academics, and the programme is structured so as to enrich lives, thus making a difference through music to unzip integrity through stimulating performance.
While the students of the Western Music department are trained through a meticulously planned curriculum and a rigorous pedagogy that combines theory with praxis, the University encourages polity engagement as part of its transferral to experiential learning. The Madras Musical Association (MMA) Chennai, orchestra and voices were the platonic polity partners for a collaboration of this magnitude. The students of Christ University’s Music department had the rare opportunity and wits of performing with a string ensemble.
Collaborating wideness two cities, conductors Augustine Paul, Andrey Morozov and Jay Rajendra Raythatha conducted a 170 strong ensemble that consisted of members ranging from the age of 12 to 74. The concert was held in Bangalore (6 November 2022) at the main auditorium of Christ University’s Central Campus and the pursuit weekend, in Chennai (12 November 2022) at Womens Christian College auditorium. In a triumph of Western classical music, the concert included J.S. Bach’s Magnificat in D, a rarely performed piece in the Indian context and W.A. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12 in A Major by pianists Azriela Maben and Jeremiah Christopher, slantingly Bachs Brandburg concerto and other choral works performed by the guest choirs in the respective cities.
To promote wangle to a conventionally niche genre of music through a novel wits both educational and enjoyable the concert was self-ruling of cost, by registration only. Drawing an regulars of a tropical to two thousand this objective was definitely met.
“Ceaseless work, analysis, reflection, writing much, uncounted self-correction, that is my secret. Johann Sebastian Bach
It was in the spirit of these words that the performance of Magnificat was conceived.
A herculean task such as conceptualising, visualising and executing an endeavour of these proportions required meticulous planning and began as early as in March 2022 in a meeting between Augustine Paul, the Music Director of MMA Choir, Chennai and Prof. Jay Rajendra Raythatha, Christ University, Bangalore. Both the University and the MMA benefited mutually from this venture experientially and in the promotion of Western classical music. Rehearsals were held in each municipality with students and professors travelling on weekends to rehearse, strengthening ties built on a shared passion and quest.
Going forward the department of Western Music wishes to foster a tradition of yearly performances where students interreact with other musicians, providing them with a live wits of performance spaces and processes and build sustainable network and provide the sense with performance space towards the notion of Teacher Practitioners.
By Jay Rajendra Raythatha. A classical Pianist and a Music Educator, Jay Rajendra Raythatha specialises in Classical and Romantic eras piano repertoire. An Assistant Professor and the Head of Piano at the Department of Music – CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, he graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London, UK with a Master of Music stratum in Piano Performance and Research. With a stratum in Engineering and a musician by passion Jay has given various performances wideness London and India, which includes solo piano recitals, performances with the Indian National Youth Orchestra, to name a few.
