The Early Music Show - Brighton EMF Mantra

Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of a concert recorded at the 2009 Brighton Early Music Festival. The Orlando Consort were joined by the tabla player Kuljit Bhamra, Jonathan Mayer on sitar, and the singer Shahid Khan, for a project called "Mantra". The project is inspired by an historical musical encounter 500 years ago when Portuguese missionaries settled in Goa, and introduced western instruments, plainsong and polyphony. In turn, the missionaries had chance to learn about eastern music, and this developed into a remarkable collaboration between the two diverse cultures. The music in the project and from this concert are a mixture of old and new; music by Escobar and Guerrero are examples of the sort of vocal polyphony that travelled East. As there is no precise account of the type of music sung or played during this collaboration in the 16th century, some works in this concert have been written by members of the Orlando Consort and Kuljit Bhamra, Jonathan Mayer and Shahid Khan to explore and imagine how their music-making may have sounded. PLAYLIST: All music performed by The Orlando Consort with Kuljit Bhamra, Jonathan Mayer and Shahid Khan, and recorded at the Brighton Early Music Festival. Chant / procession Segue to: PEDRO DE ESCOBAR (arr. Orlando Consort & Shahid Khan): Absolve TRADITIONAL: Veni bahara FRANCISCO GUERRERO: Quae est ista DONALD GREIG: Pada Segue to: DONALD GREIG (text: Bobbie Wason): Bhangra limo DONALD GREIG: Salve raga KULJIT BHAMRA: Tabla talum ANGUS SMITH & KULJIT BHAMRA: Henna night [ Music also available on the CD 'Mantra: Musical Conversations Across The Indian Ocean', due for release in March 2010 on KEDA records, catalogue number KEDCD68. ].