Argentine
composerMaestro Martin Palmeri, who was one of the first teachers of the current visiting professor and
conductor of the Goa University Choir, Maestro DrSantiago Lusardi Girelli,
visited thecampus of Goa University (GU) for a choral workshop and The Tango
Music Language – an open lecture that concludes today. He will then be
performing The Misatango Concert at National Centre for the Performing Arts
(NCPA), Mumbai with the Goa University Choir and the Symphonic Orchestra of
India (SOI) on November 13, 2018. This is the first time that an Indian
university choir will offer a concert with the SOI, the only professional
orchestra in the country. Hence, this concert will be a historic landmark for
the Goa University Choir in particular, and the Goan Western music scene in
general.
Martin Palmeri is a Argentine composer who has stood out for
fusing tango with scared music and has created works, operas, masses and
cantatas that are already part of the musical corpus of classical music of the
West, such as his famous work ‘Misatango’ that has been performed in more than
twenty countries.
He started playing music when he was 10 years old. At the age of
14, his mother introduced him to a professor to study about music. At the
beginning of his career, he decided he wanted to become a composer. Martin Palmeri
first started with classical music, before focusing on the music of his country
i.e. folk music. He reveals that he chooses to work with traditional
instruments rather than electrical instruments as he prefers to play without
amplification.
Martin’s music
follows two paths, one being academic music with the choir, which is more
traditional European music. The other is his love for tango, where he usually
works on very old melodies of tango, mostly dating to the early 20th century.
He seeks to combine choral music and tango music in an artistic way via the
international choral language of Latin.
Speaking about being
a good composer, Martin Palmeri opines that “In this moment of history of
humanity, it’s better to look at the future of your own country. The music
should connect you to the earth and with your land.” it’s only when the music
appeals to the listener’s heart rather than their brain that it becomes easier
to understand, he adds.
Regarding the
workshop, he reveals that carrying on such activities is a revolution in itself
as this has not really been done before. Despite this, he believes that it can
yield effective results as the choir is talented, disciplined and made up of
passionate musicians. He adds that the work he does did not begin with him.
“The work I do is possible because many generations have worked before me to
build this tango. Even what I do now is possible because of the people working
with me.”
The
Goa University Choir was founded in August 2013 under the baton of Maestro Dr Santiago
Lusardi Girelli, visiting Research Professor under the Western Music Chair of
the Goa University. The GU Choiris an innovative artistic project, and is most
probably the very first university choir in India. Associated with the Anthony
Gonsalves Western Music Chair, the GU Choir, under the baton of Dr Lusardi
Girelli, has achieved important goals such as the performance of the big choral
repertoire from the West, singing in more than twenty languages. The choir has
achieved also goals as the performance of the ‘St Matthew Passion’ by Johann
Sebastian Bach at the Ketevan Sacred Music Festival in collaboration with more
than 40 artistes coming in from Europe and America in 2017, the performance of
the ‘Cantata Misericordium’ by Benjamin Brittin. The 2017 GU Choir has recorded
original soundtracks for the documentary on the life of Goan activist Aquino
Braganza. It is now working on their second album production with the original
contemporary choral music. The Goa University Choir is a living institution,
where students, faculty and people from the Goan community meet to archive
beauty through the ancient and novel practice of singing.
