In the east there now is a faint luminescence,
A hint of pearly tones etch the edges of the tree crowned hills;
Strong and tall they await the coming,
Of a new day, filled with promise.
---From Cherokee Dawn, a poem by an unknown Native American
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Guru Rewben Mashangva.
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KNOWING MUSIC, KNOWING NATURE
As Rewben erects milestones with his experimental music, he can not forget the umpteen visits made to Ukhrul district and how he burrowed through the hills and dales looking for enlightening interactions with the gradually vanishing traditional folk crooners of his tribe. Each of these interactions had given him immense folk wisdom which would have otherwise been hidden or extinct. He embarked on several fact-seeking trips to the interiors where he learned about these folk arts and instruments. Rewben remembers folk experts Shamphang of Nungshang Village, Akhothing of Phungyar, Shimeingam Shinglei and Stephen Angkang who had all imparted rich insights on different folk art forms and the use of indigenous musical instruments to him. While researching for over a decade on the traditional folk instruments he uses now, he had also inadvertently re-discovered the delicate relation between the people and bamboo which is called the green gold for the Northeast region. With all seriousness he says, “The livelihood of most communities in the region entirely depend on the rich varieties of bamboo grown here. The plant provides not only construction materials for human shelter and other handicraft products but also food and musical instruments.”
Perhaps, it is Rewben’s uncanny knack of understanding the relation between music and nature that has made his mission so vibrant and arresting. He has gained copious amount of knowledge on human being’s harmonious as well as destructive relations with the land, forests and animals and the associative values attached to these very relations. Right from his first music album produced by the Naga Cultural Development Society in 1999, his passion and love for “ecology” has been unmistakably evident. While longing for a “Green Green Home”, he is also disturbed by the wanton destruction of the forest land and calls for an awakening “To save our land from vanishing”. Rewben sings, “Like a romantic man I just stood there…Smelling the mild sweet fragrance…Dying to hold the flirting wind…If I should die may it be here…Under this deep red burning sky…I don’t want to lay my head…under some strange foreign sky…Set me free, set me free…Where I belong…Under this deep red burning sky…May be I’m just a real great fool…Or may be I’m a real dreamer…Just beholding the empty sky…When you’re busy loading your guns…Slaughtering the wild beasts that you make…I need a land of love and peace…Under this deep red burning sky.” It is indeed a feeling so deep that no critics can do justice just by inking a rhetorical piece. One is free to make an attempt at portraying the “man” but the risks involved are enormous too. For instance, while just enjoying Rewben’s kind of music, no one can do away with the intrinsic politics of poetics ubiquitous in all his songs, lyrics and the sound.
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Sunday Post reviews Rewben Mashangva's performance in GIR 2000.
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Unlike many who believe in just showcasing talents without even enabling themselves and others to know that there is a “twine” that binds all forms of sounds with nature, Rewben has gone ahead to give an unequivocal statement that human-made or even the “amplified sound” can harmoniously exist with nature and also cement peace between human beings. Through his interactions with the aged and experienced great folk artists, Rewben has not only revived passion and interest in the age-old tradition but also created an innovative space for himself. It was not just a sense of joy and relief he experienced while commencing a musical voyage. If Rewben has received high accolades for his experimental folk music from the critics, he should also be credited for showing the way and inspiring many young artists towards innovative ways to preserve and develop folk music.
Continued ...
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