Orion Series in Fine Arts guest, Sandeep Bhagwati, presents the lecture:
Inhabiting Time. Towards A Heterophony of Temporalities and Traditions

To understand the world through sound we need to be able to intelligently perceive and track multiple sonic evolutions at once. We mostly use two models of multiple-stream listening and making: polyphony and heterophony. Polyphony, at its most pedantic in counterpoint and tonal harmony, is concerned with integrating different voices into one common, internally differentiated flow. In eurological music circles, heterophony is seen mostly in relation to counterpoint: as its precursor – or as a less refined cousin. This lecture is interested in one specific aspect of heterophony: it places limitations on the acceptable degree and kind of otherness.  Layering a melodic evolution sung by a dhrupad singer with one of the same melody played by a métis fiddler does not technically constitute heterophony. Nor does the voice of a soprano singing next to a bird or a waterfall. Why these limitations? Do they continue to serve us conceptually – as we look at anthropological and even trans-human dimensions of organized sound-making?

BIOGRAPHY
Sandeep Bhagwati is a composer, poet, researcher, director, and artist. His compositions and comprovisations (including 6 operas) are regularly performed worldwide. Many of his works are evening-length multi-arts projects in which he writes, directs, and conducts. He has founded, curated and directed new music festivals in Munich, Berlin and Karlsruhe, as well as long-term inter-traditional projects with Asian musicians and European ensembles [Ensemble Modern, Nieuw Ensemble, Klangforum Wien etc.]. He is a prolific writer on music and artistic research as well as a sought-after keynote speaker. Since 2000 he was professor at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe and guest composer/professor at important orchestras and universities worldwide. In 2006, he moved to Montréal as the Canada Research Chair for Inter-X Art Theory and Practice at Concordia University, where he still researches and teaches and is founder of matralab. Since 2013, he is artistic director of “Ensemble Extrakte” Berlin (2022 renamed “Ensemble Sabdagatitara”), and the first ensemble for experimental Hindustani Music “Sangeet Prayog” Pune. From 2018-22, he led the international research network TENOR -Technologies of Notation and Representation. Since 2020 he is also co-editor of the journal “Turba – The Journal for Global Practices in Live Arts Curation”. The 2023/24 concert season will be celebrated in Quebec as a “Série Hommage” — a tribute to his multi-faceted oeuvre.

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