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The RAJHANS ORCHESTRA
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The Rajhans Orchestra is a unique
project because of the merging of two different cultural music identities within one orchestra. With the creation of Rajhans orchestra, music and
performers
are merged in a most splendid way, its underlying technics enabling each musician to operate
and
interact from within his own cultural background and tradition.
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Foundation instruments
Melody instruments
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The name " Rajhans " in itself is already a symbiosis of two cultures: " Raj " is an Indian name meaning: " king ", while " Hans ", a Flemish and Indian name means: " Swan " (the swan is also connected with the history of our West-Flemish capital of Brugge). Raj + Hans equals to: " Rajhans " = " Royal Swan ", the celestial vehicle of the Hindu supreme God Brahma. |
When one speaks about "orchestra" You have to know that this actually means: a group of musicians unfurling themselves as one unity as one sound; keeping in mind that in order to achieve this goal, the individuality of every member has to yield to team-spirit.In this team the leading role of the composer/conductor is very important because of the first-hand interaction between composer and performers. This last point is important viewing the non-orchestra traditions of the Subcontinent.( obviously compared to European ensembles ) A careful selection of musicians and a profound briefing to involved musicians is likewise of crucial importance. A multi-cultural orchestra also implies unity in spoken language. When combining two different groups, both are equally important. There must be a mutual language enabling musicians to maintain social contact also outside the rehearsals/concerts, while it is equally of great significance that the project leader should have a basic knowledge of his musicians mother-tongue ( languages as Hindi, Tamil, Bengali - European languages as Flemish, English, French, German ). Do not forget I am not referring to jazz or popmusic but to music operating from a "score" and which can be repeated over the years exactly as it was written. |
| The music for the Rajhans orchestra is composed by Hans Vermeersch in close co-operation with the involved musicians.The rules of raga tala and european music theory are closely observed and implied wherever necessary and/or possible. One must not forget that the music of the Indian subcontinent is basically monodic with a supporting and interacting line of percussion , while European music is basically melodic, harmonic and contrapuntal with far less percussion interactions build in. I try to present a musical composition in which a Asian or Western musician can recognize him/herself, making it much easier to defend the score.. The reaction of a Asian or Western audience towards the music is also very important. It is far to easy to create music successfully for a Western public, and then facing a total disinterested Asian public or vice-versa. |
I started the orchestra-project in the Carnatic flavour, in order to present India's Southern instruments which deserves far more attention. Basically everyone has heard of "tabla and sitar" but whenever mentioning a Southern instrument..... ignorance strikes. I decided to compose a concerto for Veena using carnatic raags and tala's. This included the use of instruments as mridangam, ghatam, kanjeera, veenu, karnatic violin. It was very
pleasant
to get information by eminent musicians as Smti E. Gayathry, B.V.
Raghavendra
Rao, Chitti Babu (deceased 1996) and professor T.N. Krishnan. The orchestral suite "Ramayana", based upon the famous Hindu epic presents all the orchestra's colors aligning with the story's episodes.
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| In 1995 I had the blue prints ready of this multi-cultural orchestra and submitted the project to KLM's international contest "Bridging the World"; a contest about human achievements covering every aspect of society (arts, science etc.) and incorporating people from different parts of the globe. I was honored with a 2nd Prize, out of 12000 global projects ! |
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| This Prize enabled us to present our
first concert ever for the United Nations in New York USA ( Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium ) on
6th of july 1995. The concept of the Rajhans
Orchestra
proved to be a huge success.
In august 1995 INDIA, ( Madras, Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi) where the success of Rajhans was overwhelming !. October 1996 BELGIUM, (Knokke, Brussels, Ghent, Leuven, Ypres, Antwerp...) October/november 1997 PAKISTAN ( Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi ) on the occasion of the celebrations of Pakistan's Golden Jubilee (organised by the Royal Belgian Embassy, The Ministry of the Flemish Community of Belgium and The Pakistan National Council of Arts ). |
| February 2000 performance in the London
Barbican Center together with Chandru Chandrashekhars "Strings of India" ensemble. May
2000 onwards the project got a major breakthrough by the discovery of the music of
Rabindranath Tagore (
1861-1941 ) and Qazi Nazrul Islam ( 1899 - 1976 )
Equally important was the
performing
of Western "India related" music from the end of the 18th century till present
day. In 2001 we presented for the first time music around the
"General and Imperial Ostend East India Company" and in specific a
concert around the
sailing of the eastindiaman St-Carolus under captain Cayphas
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