Name: Marianne Svašek

Nationality: Dutch-Czech
Occupation: Dhrupad singer, sarangi player
Current release: Marianne Svašek's Marwa is out via Thanatosis.
Recommendations: Raga bhairavi, rudra veena by Bahauddin Dagar; Short tribute (10 minutes) to my teacher Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar (take care: the film starts with a loud beep!)

If you enjoyed this interview with Marianne Svašek and would like to find out more about her music, visit her official website. She is also on Facebook.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences?

Since I was three years old, I wanted to play violin, something I started much later, when I was 20.

During childhood I listened a lot to eastern European folk and gypsy music, because of my Czech father.
 
What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

I travelled to India when I was 22 and met a violin teacher. The slides and precision of intonation, what happens in between the notes, drew me closer to the classical music of India.

So I started to play sarangi and sing Dhrupad during my study at the Indian music department of the Rotterdam Conservatory in the Netherlands.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

Indian music is modal music, listening for one hour to the same scale, sometimes only 5 notes: it gives a transparency of sound, a peaceful awareness of melody.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

As an artist I like the challenge of letting go what we learned and just be in the sound, in the moment.

In the beginning, we follow the teacher, learn ragas, and learn the structure of a performance. All is improvised within strict rules, so how can we move within this system without getting lost ... And then, eventually, becoming totally free from it all.

Slowly I am returning to that one sound, getting to know it, noticing how it is moving and behaving – understanding how to get lost in it, discovering its beauty.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

For me, music is a way to get to know myself, to develop myself. The depth of one sound can open up a lot within oneself.

As a listener and musician, I am looking for that quality in music: music which is in the moment and not really about pleasing an audience – but still about sharing with an audience.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

The key ideas in music are for me to be totally aware of what one sings or plays, note by note, phrase by phrase and at the same time to let all ideas go. It feels like a paradox, but to me is a dialectic process, with two extremes: to know exactly what one does and to totally let go of all ideas until all is embedded in oneself.

This process is a continuum, endlessly we learn.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

The music I sing is very traditional. As a classical singer I keep the traditional approach to music. At the same time, I do use the Indian voice or musical ideas in other projects.

As for timelessness, traditions are embedded in a society and societies develop. So in that sense a tradition moves too.  

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

I am playing the tanpura as accompaniment when I sing, an instrument which is nowadays often replaced by an electronic one. This is, according to me, a very sad development since this instrument gives one all.

To tune it, which is not easy, teaches an incredible development for the ear.
To learn to listen to the overtones broadens the awareness of sound.
To play it while singing shows the path of intonation, variations of intonation.
To feel and become aware of the vibrations of the different notes deepens one’s music.

So this instrument plays a major role in learning and understanding Dhrupad.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

At 7.00 I start a morning practice called Kharaj, which means singing long and low notes for one hour. After this a basic scale practice of one hour, singing from very slow to very fast.

After that somewhere during the day I practice a raga, singing fully through it and a composition with the pakhawaj (drum) accompaniment. Or I study a new raga, by listening and practicing. Further I teach different students.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

Indian classical music – and Dhrupad in particular – is a solo(ist) music. The vocalist builds up the alap (three parts) alone, this can take 30 to 45 minutes. After this, the composition starts with the pakhawaj player (drum) joining, a section during which we play together, reacting on each other. Sometimes I perform in a duet, then there is an interaction between the musician from the start of the performance.

Both are nice to do, though I prefer to sing and create my own musical story.
 
How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

Music for me is a medium to meet and share.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

Music strongly reconnects me with a place within myself where I feel good, with silence and timelessness.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?

Creative thinking is useful in science just as the abstract thinking of science is useful in music.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I think that everything done with awareness can bring a deeper connection with oneself and with other beings.

Not what you do but how you do it is important.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

Everything is vibration. So anything can give a potentially deep message.