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Sequeiras 'Arietta' : Hearing the Silence
Spending a quiet morning in Delhi in memory of my mentor and friend. Going down
the years thinking how much he meant to me. Helping me through are Beethovens
last 3 piano sonatas (Rudolf Serkin, pianist). How much Sequeira would have
enjoyed listening to them. As the notes cascade over each other I realise
Sequeira was an interpreter of life like Serkin is of Beethovens music. Music
moved him, pushed him, challenged him towards the absolute.
'Beethovens thirtytwo sonatas were written over almost 30 years, in the
manner of a gigantic clash between Beethoven and his instrument, in which his
creative genius expressed itself condensed, decanted, like nowhere else,
writes Andre Tubeuf. Sequeiras life too was a constant encounter with music,
whether seeing similarities between music and literature, teasing out the jazz
forms of Vachel Lindsay, or speaking on the cadence of an urdu nazm or ghazal.
On October 10, 1991 I shared the dais with him at the Golay Memorial hall at
the University of Poona, Pune. He was to speak on Literature and Music and I
on Mozart. This was to commemorate the bicentenary of Mozarts death in 1791.
Though we did play the sprightly opening movement of Mozarts 40 i.e.
Symphony Number 40 in G minor, Isaacs favourite was always Albinonis stately
Adagio for strings and organ in G minor.
In my MPhil days when he breezed in to the Department of English of the
University of Poona to speak at the refresher courses, he strode like a
colossus, having a distinct penchant for that deep blue shirt of his. He filled
the room with his presence.
Awed by his deep appreciation of music as an elixir of life -- I used to pick
up cheap cassettes of compilations of western classical music from Alurkar
music house, Karve road, to listen to, in a bid to develop my fledgling
interest. When I showed one of these to him he rubbished my purchase saying I
should listen to the entire work, not fragments of it.
We somewhat made amends by taking in 'Ghasiram Kotwal' when it was staged at
Nehru Memorial hall, Pune after which we settled down to hearty sizzlers at
The Place (Near Manneys) with Sequeira holding forth on the finer points of
venison and lamb.
In Hyderabad he helped me with my paper on The Use of Music in TS Eliots
Murder in the Cathedral (CIEFL Bulletin, 6.1 June 1994). At one of the various
sessions discussing the role of the Chorus in the play he promptly started
singing the Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) in Gregorian chant in Latin with the
emphasis at the appropriate places:
doh si doh la si sol la la
QUAERENS ME SEDISTE LASSUS
He took a keen interest in opera. But his attempts to cultivate a liking for
this form in his students met with little success as he recounted to me. All he
got once after a sublime aria was a shocked silence among the class and a brave
voice which perked up and said Sir, yeh aurat kyoon chillah rahee heh?!
When I moved to Delhi in 2000 and worked Sundays as an announcer on AIR I used
to host the Music for Leisure slot in the afternoon. Oftentimes if we were
broadcasting a piece I knew hed enjoy, I used to call him up and press my
mobile to the playback speakers in the studio. Vivified and in a hearty
post-prandial mood he would hold forth on the piece in question Wagner,
Delius or Brahms and garnish it with an anecdote.
Though I had begun my working life, our interaction never waned. Whenever I
used to buzz down to Hyderabad I would make it a point to see him. And take a
photo with him. And lately I noticed, depending on which side of him I was
standing, his arm used to reach behind me holding me close to his side. Yet
taking the utmost care that his hand was not caught on camera.
The infinite vision of Beethovens Arietta of Sonata No.32 in C minor, Opus 111
(CD, Sony 5128692000) helps me cope with the absence. In its melding of
polarities, from the limpid to the ethereal, it is the work of a genius.
Roughly 18 minutes, it seems to span a lifetime of purpose. A heroic statement,
a bridge across the river of time, a meditation on the lanes, between this
world and the beyond:
Only when you drink from the river of silence
shall you indeed sing
And when the earth shall claim your limbs
then shall you truly dance.
-Kahlil Gibran 'The Prophet'
brian mendonca
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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