Kate and Indian Music

["Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@ingr.com>]

A snippet of melody keeps floating in and out of my 
head as I continue on the adventure through Indian 
culture and music.  I finally realized that it is "Watching 
You Without Me" from the Ninth Wave.  While vaguely 
aware that this has an Indian lilt, sort of a morning 
raga in eight, I had never stopped to listen with new 
ears acquired from the research.  Kate is really a 
master of adaptation.  Indian movie music is heavy 
with strings that parade through the melody like a 
bandleader or drum major that constantly walks 
through a marching band of drummers.   The melodies, 
particularly the high sopranos of much Indian music 
are very hard to reproduce without training because 
of the microtonal scales.   Kate takes little bits 
of these elements and places them throughout the 
piece never overindulging or going over the top 
with the techniques.   She uses the melody of her 
voice and the strings in suggestive but subtle 
call and responses that are found everywhere in 
Indian music.   

>From the dulcet multitracked 
low alto washes she starts with, the barely audible 
but so effective "huh" she hits the downbeat of 
the opening melody with, she keeps the piece 
light and ghostly yet full of tiny timbral events 
that completely fill the piece.  The bass which 
is often lacking in Indian folk music is used 
in the places an Indian composer often uses 
the Shanai (sort of an oboe).  I can't figure 
out if the "whoop" in one section (where the 
percussion fills up and the voice begins the 
high soprano chorus) later duplicated by the 
bass are her voice or the fairlight or both (sampled).

This is very suggestive of Indian movie soundtracks, 
but ever so gentle and completely brilliant.

In awe of this woman's work...as always.

len