In this solo performance piece, which sound artist Marina Rosenfeld called "phenomenal" and poet Anselm Berrigan
deemed "pure prosody," composer/ vocalist Samita Sinha excavates stories from tarana sounds using the range of
her voice and body. Drawing from her deep grounding in khayal (contemporary north Indian classical singing;
literally means "thought" or "imagination"), Sinha employs improvisation within structure in Cipher, and
communicates intention via a single melodic line. She ventures far beyond the inflections and forms of Indian
classical music, however, adding electronic elements and drawing inspiration from early blues and pansori to
create a new form, entirely her own, that combines tradition and experiment.
The language material used in Cipher comes from tarana, a type of composition in Hindustani classical vocal music that uses words and syllables based on Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit phonemes. According to legend, tarana was created by Amir Khusro in the 13th century as a fusion of the different musical forms that existed in medieval India. It is generally believed today that tarana is a composition of meaningless syllables, though other stories indicate that these sounds encode mystical meanings. One legend, for example, says that Sufi mystics invented this language as a way of speaking the truth in disguise, so as not be persecuted—while initiates received the meaning, the uninitiated believed tarana to be simply a meaningless song.
Sinha accompanies her voice with 3 microphones and 3 boxes, including electronic tabla and electronic tanpura, instruments that have trapped a centuries-old tradition of acoustic finery into convenient, portable boxes. Together with a looping device and a range of microphones, Sinha uses these boxes as instruments in their own right, creating soundscapes that collapse past, present and future, and adding layers of meaning to the palimpsest-like sounds of tarana.
For bookings contact Samita Sinha at info@samitasinha.com.
Solo vocal pieces
(composed and arranged by Samita Sinha)