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Shillong/Agartala, Dec. 30 (IANS): The northeastern region of India with its multiplicity of around 400 tribes and sub-tribes along with varied music, songs, dances and cultures, is an anthropologist's delight.
The region, comprising eight states, is also a paradise of ethno-musicians. Both the devotional, folk or purely recreational play a very important part in the day-to-day lives of the people in the region.
Among the musical troupes in the northeast, Shillong Chamber Choir and Summersalt are household names in ensemble singing for a few decades, earning name and fame across the country and abroad.
The Shillong Chamber Choir (SCC), which has received many international recognitions and awards during the past over two decades, has also collaborated with the several globally acclaimed groups and its Christmas album in 2011 became India's highest selling non-movie music album.
The Choir had performed at the Rashtrapati Bhavan when former US President Barack Obama and the then first lady Michelle Obama visited India in 2011.
In 2010, the Choir won the reality TV show, 'India's Got Talent'. In 2017, the Central government had appointed SCC's founder Neil Nongkynrih as a member of the Central Board of Film Certification.
Though founder of the SCC, Neil Nongkynrih, a Padma Shri awardee, died at the age of 51 in January this year in Mumbai after a brief illness, the current leaders and performers are confident that the Shillong Chamber Choir would further grow in the years to come as Nongkynrih has set up a strong base with trained artists, singers, expertise and excellent network.
Nongkynrih, an alumnus of London's prestigious Trinity College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, taught music in England before returning to Meghalaya in 2001 to set up the Shillong Chamber Choir, which gradually became a popular music troupe across the country and abroad.
The lead singer of the Shillong Chamber Choir, William Richmond Basaiawmoit, while talking to IANS said that future of SCC is very bright as we have lot of projects in our hands, we have just finished two televisions shoots, we have just finished recording songs for a big Bollywood movie besides six albums.
"In January we have five important engagements. We have eleven singers, six bands, 33 numbers western orchestra, besides we have many engineers and technical persons. For staging a major show around 100 persons comprising singers and music artists are involved," he said.
Regarding the involvement of the young performers, Basaiawmoit said that a life time dedicated involvement is required and this is not a part time work.
SCC's repertoire includes songs in close to 40 different languages (regional and international), from opera to rock, folk to jazz, Hindustani classical to current chart toppers.
The SCC staged a specially curated 75 minute performance, with over 50 people onstage and in 10 different languages for the 90th General Assembly of the INTERPOL in Delhi.
The SCC also staged performances in Europe, the UK, North America, the Middle East and South-East Asia.
After the Shillong Chamber Choir, the Summersalt, is another famous music troupe in Meghalaya.
"We represented India in Germany last year. We toured Europe including six cities in Germany and one city in Denmark to take the music of the hills to the world.We represented indigenous identity of hills of India comprising northeastern states, Darjeeling, Uttarakhand and other mountainous places of the country," managing member of the Summersalt band Kit Shangpliang told IANS.
He said: "World wants to know the culture, music, tradition of the hills of India. People wanted to know about our foods, clothes, music and arts. Through the music, we wanted to go to our roots."
About the involvement of the new generation, Kit Shangpliang said that despite the emergence of social media and technology, there is a natural resurgence of highlighting traditional culture and this is very good for the society also.
"We have started our journey 15 years ago. Highlighting the cultural nitty-gritty undertook a musical movement involving the young people. Working out of Shillong, Summersalt is essentially a folk-fusion band whose energy depends on the indigenous music sitting on the laps of the Khasi hills in Meghalaya," the renowned singer, who is also a communicator, said.
Kit Shangpliang said that the songs (both in Khasi and English) contain wit and humour while the instruments are a mix of standards and some less known house tools of the indigenous group.
Summersalt band was part of a Bollywood collaboration working with the industry's best personalities like Javed Akhtar, Usha Uthup, Farhan Akhtar, Shankar Mahadevan, Loy Mendonsa Ehsaan Noorani in production of the musical drama 'Rock On 2' released worldwide in November 2016.
Besides, the iconic personality and Bharat Ratna Bhupen Hazarika who straddles the musical world like a colossus, and also Sachin Dev Burman, young Zubeen Garg, Kalpana Patowary and Papon (Angarag Mahanta) who belongs to the region, too, are making waves in the music scene, on a very impressive scale.
Besides Bihu songs of Assam and Manipuri numbers, around 400 tribes and sub-tribes found in this region have their own unique and traditional music, dances, as well as their accompanying songs.
In the absence of a written script, songs were used in several of the hill states, especially, as a medium to encapsulate their rich oral tradition.
Songs have often been a means of expressing and communicating history and mythology, the melody serving as an aide memoire to the words.
With a pluralistic, multi-lingual, multi-religion society, the northeastern region is a huge, rich storehouse of music, both traditional and contemporary.
The musical legacy is only now slowly opening up to the rest of the world, and providing insights into its uniqueness and luminous beauty.