Making stones sing and turning bells into musical wings? Auroville's Svaram brings rare old sounds to life

Bengaluru: What happens if windchimes are tuned to I Ching hexagrams, an ancient Chinese divination text, or raga Hamsadhwani? Or if glasses were made to sing at the slightest touch? Or if stones could vibrate in pentatonic scale?

For the past 20 years, Auroville-based Svaram -- an organisation that began as a grasroots community and is now into research and innovation of musical instruments -- has been creating a new soundscape not only by feeding eastern knowledge of tuning into materials such as stone and glass, but also by innovating existing traditional instruments into forms more convenient for modern times.

For instance, making the traditionally straight Austrian Aboriginal instrument didgeridoo into a spiral shape, not only for a new sound but for convenience of carrying as well. Or merging the droning strings of the Indian tambura with strings tuned to a pentatonic scale -- like in the Japanese Koto -- to create a new instrument called the Tambura Santoor.

Svaram’s efforts are led by Aurelio C Hammer, an Austrian who moved to Pondicherry’s experimental township in the 1990s.

“It all started with wind chimes, really. And my fascination for the ancient tuning system of the Chinese and the Indians. They predate the western ones used for pianos and guitars. My search led me to various parts of the world," Aurelio said.

"I had the opportunity to spend time studying indigenous cultures. I learnt to make rattles with natural materials like seeds and shells from the Aborigines of Australia and a Japanese monk taught me to make clay flutes or whistles called ocarinas. When I was travelling in Korea and Japan, I realised the profound use of wind chimes. In old temples there, they catch wind and turn it into prayers that resonate within us. So, I started to tune wind chimes and tubular bells for a deeper sonic impact on listeners,” he added.

When Svaram took roots officially, Aurelia says wind chimes, tubular bells and ocarinas were the first to be explored. Today, Svaram boasts a range that spans from gongs and bells and intricate string instruments to resonating percussive innovations.

“One of the first unique instruments that Svaram made is what we term a friction instrument. You see, for long, in my travels, I heard of magic singing stones. In China particularly, there is a belief that when stones start to sing, a new era is upon us. I was searching for such stones for long. And then serendipitously, while supervising a construction project, I came across a granite tile with amazing resonance. Thus were born lithophones,” said Aurelio.

Given that India is bottomless when it comes to musical traditions, more innovations became the norm. A deeper study into “veena”, for instance, gave way to Svaraveena.

“Originally, the term veena was used in India for any kind of string instrument, including different types of harps, zithers, and lutes. For our Svaraveena, Kantele (a Finnish folk zither) lent its shape and playing method," Aurelio explained.

Svaraveena represents a whole class of ancient and folk string-instruments that had an important place in sacred ceremonies, healing rituals, recitations as well as in the celebrations and beautification of life, Aurelio elaborated.

He said many of these first string instruments in different cultures share the same, often symbolically elaborated configuration of a number of strings (from 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 to 21 and more), enhanced through diverse resonators. Each string stands for a single note without the possibility of altering the pitch through frets. "Svaraveena is the first step in the possible reconstruction of these ancient instruments,” Aurelio said.

Svaram found fame when in 2014 it became a part of one of the largest public art installations curated by artist Rajeev Sethi for Terminal 2 of Mumbai airport. "We had installed about 400 tuned wind chimes and tubular bells, the biggest of which was about 12 feet, shaped to look like the huge wings of a bird. Naturally, the raga we chose to tune the chimes and bells was the Carnatic gem Hamsadhwani,” Aurelio noted.

On June 21, which is celebrated worldwide as Music Day and Yoga Day, three-time Grammy-winning musician Ricky Kej showed the world a sample of what these new-age musical instruments could do for a song by releasing a tweaked version of his composition 'Wonders of Life'.

Originally, 'Wonders of Life', a song from 'Divine Tides' -- a follow-up album to the Grammy-winning 'Winds of Samsara' -- had featured traditional instruments like veena and flute, along with Kej himself on keyboards and former drummer of the band 'Police' Stewart Copeland on drums, accompanying singer Rasika Shekar.

In the new version, 'Wonders of Life' swaps known traditional accompaniments for the sounds of glass and stones arranged like a xylophone, a variety of rattles used in different cultures -- including some reimagined in newer materials, strings rearranged differently and tuned metals plates shaped as gongs and drums.

Kej says the experience was a real delight. “It is always a pleasure to work with young minds, especially so when they come with the knowledge of a unique community like that of Svaram."

The almost six-minute video that accompanies the song is a revelation. It widens the viewers’ perception of music, giving a peep into instruments such as the strikingly beautiful bamboo rattle Angklung from Indonesia.

“Angklung was part of my collection of instruments from around the world. I collected them when I was part of Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Art Research, another one of the Auroville projects. We used these instruments for theatre soundscape,” said Aurelio.

Kej's video also incorporates footage of the making of the instruments unique to Svaram.

“That is only appropriate since Svaram began as a grassroots community, a rural development project in Tamil Nadu, to provide employment to the highly talented local artisans such as carpenters and tuners, who were rendered jobless. It is one of first 50 projects worldwide of the UN Initiative ‘Music as a Global Resource” Aurelio said.

According to him, today Svaram comprises 75 local artisans apart from 15 young professionals from around the world doing internships at any given time. “We have people from various backgrounds -- from sound engineers and psychologists to architects -- as interns,” he added.