Music
Music Sans Frontiers
Brazilian classical guitarist Arnaldo Friere.Photo: Prabir Das
Music is all about interaction, it's all about the special connect that you make with your audience in the few hours of a performance. Brazilian classical guitarist Arnaldo Friere doesn't need words to communicate with his audience nor does he have an array of instruments to display his skills. All he has is a simple guitar, and that's all he needs to transport his audience to a few hours of musical bliss.
Friere performed to a packed audience in a concert organised by Alliance Francaise de Dhaka (AFD) and the Embassy of Brazil in Bangladesh on May 9 at AFD's La Galerie. the Star Magazine caught up with the maestro to learn more about his stay in Bangladesh, his future projects and his ideas of enhancing appreciation of world music in the country.
The Serendipitous Tour
“I didn't originally plan to come to Bangladesh. I was invited to perform at the Guitar Festival in Hong Kong, and as it is quite far from Mexico, where I currently live, I decided to make the tour as productive as I could. Many social interactions begin and end on Facebook in these modern times, and so, through this social networking site, I began to communicate with musicians and music lovers from all over the world.
Incidentally, I saw a video of students from the Classical Music Academy of Dhaka perform a composition by Russian musician Tchaikovsky. I was so impressed by the beautiful interpretation that I contacted Iftekhar Anwar, the cello performer at the academy. Anwar also teaches at Alliance Francaise and he made this concert happen. So, I first played in India, then there was the festival in Hong Kong and then I performed in Bangladesh.”
Erasing Boundaries
“I teach music at a foundation that offers training for poor students in Brazil. There are over 12 students and we also have a Facebook page. So, when I came here, I asked Iftekhar to help me out by making tutorial videos that could be put up on the page. My students can learn from these tutorials and can even improvise in their own way. This is the best thing about music; you don't need to be from the same country or understand each other's language to share your knowledge with others.”
First Tryst with Music
“I was adopted, and I don't know who my biological parents are. My father was Portuguese and so there was a lot of Portuguese music being played at our house when we were growing up. However, I learnt to appreciate world music as I grew older. Interestingly, I am the only musician in the family. One of my sisters is an industrial designer and the other is a homemaker.
You know, I was not supposed to be a guitarist in the first place. When I was around 11, I asked my father to get me a piano because I was a huge fan of Elton John. He got me a guitar, instead! (laughs) I kept the guitar and learnt how to play it. And the rest as they say. . .”
Foiere regaled the audience at Alliance Française de Dhaka. Photo: Prabir Das
Teaching Vs Live Performances
“It's basically two sides of the same coin. I have more freedom in live performance, so I can improvise. As for teaching, you have to follow strict rules, you have to be disciplined and teach through examples. But that doesn't mean that I don't like teaching, on the contrary, I love it, particularly when I meet well-prepared, diligent ones, like the students of CMAD.”
Teaching and Learning
“Students from the CMAD performed at my concert here before I took the stage. We called this performance “Echoes From Dhaka”, in honour of the various sounds you get to hear in this city! I had only met and practiced with them once before the performance and I didn't even need to teach them anything; I just had to make some corrections and that was that! Their performance was pitch-perfect.
For one of my sessions with the students, I tried to teach them Samba music and assigned four people as the vocalists with each person playing a different, unique sound. They created the piece within 10-12 minutes, which was very interesting. Of course, as we say in Brazil, it was Japanese Samba (smiles) but they were still quite good.”
The Acquired Taste
“Music is without borders. Even though I didn't grow up listening to world music, I develop my senses to accept and understand music from different countries. From the last three years, I listen to music Madagascar, Tunisia, Turkish, Iran on world radio every week – it's amazing! If you have only heard Western music all your life, music from other parts of the world will sound very strange to you. You have to continue listening to world music to develop actual, holistic knowledge and interest in music. Only after repeated hearings will you be able to understand the mathematics behind a particular music culture and only then will you be able to truly appreciate music in its varied forms.”
Sounds of Music
“The music scene in Brazil is very interesting because we are a multi cultural country. Songs and compositions are inspired by the music of countries as culturally different as Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy and others. We want our people to appreciate music and thus, concerts are held here every day. However, we cater to everybody not just the elite society. In Russia, for example, concerts are organized every day as well but these are not free, you will have to pay a substantial amount to enjoy a live performance. Concerts in Sao Paulo, on the other hand, are usually priced at half a dollar and you get to enjoy different kinds of performance, starting from guitar concerts to piano recitals to chamber orchestras, opera, etc.
This sense of music appreciation needs to be improved in Bangladesh. You could begin by holding concerts featuring international musicians every month, and then gradually you could bring it to a week. This could be done with support from the government and organizations like the CMAD.”
Appreciation Starts from Childhood
“In order to develop a culture of music appreciation, it is important to develop a sense of music within children from infancy. In Europe, you learn music the way you'd learn an important language. When a child is around 10 years old in many countries of Europe, they know how to 'read' music, they know all the classical composers, thus contributing towards a richer culture. World music appreciation needs to be a mandatory subject in every school, as a country's culture can only be enhanced when its children are well informed.
Folk music in Bangladesh is very rich but I can't take this back to my country because often times I don't find the required music notes. Sadly, there is no practice of protecting old music in Bangladesh. Preserving the ancient, traditional folk music of the country is of utmost importance, as this is a part of Bangladesh's culture, its history. There are lots of good composers in this country but we often let their music just die with them.”
Coming Back
“I will next be performing in Nepal before heading off to Ukraine and then to Germany and finally to Mexico. I hope to come back to Dhaka next year with a vocalist, a percussionist and a bassist. With three to four more musicians, we could actually hope to arrange a Brazilian Music Festival here! (smiles)”
Music Heals
“My wife passed away in 2004 and my child died last year. Music helps as it requires enormous creativity and attention. When you are a musician, you are providing happiness to everyone, including yourself.”
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