Q. What was the idea behind composing the tabla and orchestral piece, Peshkar, the first ever commission by the National Centre of the Performing Arts (NCPA) for Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI)?
A. Peshkar is considered to be the opening movement of a tabla solo recital, the word (Peshkar) also refers to an individual whose job it was to present to the king, the business of the day. Since this was a tabla concerto, it would have to present the repertoire as performed in a solo recital, beginning with Peshkar and laying the rest of the repertoire down in the order as prescribed. The handicap in this is that the tabla recital relies on the sarangi to play the lehra, which is the skeletal melody representing the rhythm cycle, played as a metronomic melodic timekeeper. The challenge, therefore, was to use the lehra as the base of the melodic content of the piece and build an interaction between the tabla and the orchestra with not only the rhythmic elements, but also the melodic and harmonic features of the orchestra. I hope that we have arrived at a desired balance of these great traditions.

Pic Courtesy/Jim Mcguire