A Silk Road That Leads Somewhere Truly New
By MELINE TOUMANI

The New York Times
April 10, 2005

When Yo-Yo Ma began work on the Silk Road Project
seven years ago, the music world stood by with a
mixture of curiosity and skepticism. Why was Mr. Ma,
known for his cello interpretations of Bach and
Brahms, suddenly jumping on the world-music bandwagon?
Would the involvement of musicians from China to
Turkey and everywhere in between be some kind of
marketing gimmick, a “We Are the World” minus Michael
and Tina? Would the classical – ahem, Western
classical – music community be practicing cultural
imperialism by experimenting with Eastern traditions?

Yet most critics, after due scrutiny, were delighted.
And audiences can judge for themselves today at
Carnegie Hall.

Mr. Ma, for his part, tuned out cynics from the start,
and he remains passionate about one goal: to
continually combine or – dare we say it? – fuse
different musical traditions to create something new.
“There is no tradition that exists that was not the
result of successful and sustained invention,” Mr. Ma
said recently. He argues that the more “authentic” a
piece of music sounds, the more likely it is to be an
amalgamation.

Take, for example, tango. Quintessentially Argentine,
right? Sure, Mr. Ma says, apart from the fact that its
star instrument, the accordionlike bandoneón, was
invented in Germany and taken to Argentina by Italian
immigrants. Tango’s characteristic rhythm is said to
have originated in the drumming of African slaves
enlisted to entertain their Argentine overseers. Throw
in a Jewish violinist, Mr. Ma suggests, and it becomes
clear that a style of music closely associated with
one country was not inevitable.

So it follows that great musical traditions remain to
be developed, if only one experiments long enough.
“What are the preconditions of creativity?” Mr. Ma
asked. “What happened in a historical era that gave
rise to something magnificent?” In pursuit of an
answer, the Silk Road Ensemble engages in deliberate,
systematic experimentation.

Its latest venture looks to other art forms for
inspiration. This month, the Silk Road Project will
move its offices from Manhattan to Providence,
R.I.,where ensemble members are working with faculty
and students from the Rhode Island School of Design.
The collaboration began last weekend, with a workshop
inspired by a figure of the Hindu god Shiva, from the
school’s museum collection. The Shiva story is one of
destruction and re-creation for the greater good, a
principle that could describe the Silk Road Ensemble’s
approach to music-making.

While the ensemble tinkered with this theme, students
from the illustration department engaged in a visual
improvisation on large canvases. The goal, according
to the school’s provost, Joe Deal, was “an
interdisciplinary jam session” through which artists
and musicians might find new ways of approaching their
work.

The ensemble has just released an album, “Silk Road
Journeys: Beyond the Horizon” (Sony Classical),
featuring music from, or inspired by, China, India,
Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey. Much of it is a
slow burn; thick layers of sound from string
instruments – cello, pipa, kamancheh and many others –
support spare, floating melodies.

The exceptions are the “Akhalqalaqi Dance,” a vigorous
Georgian-Armenian folk melody, played on the oboelike
duduk by Gevorg Dabaghyan; and two Azerbaijani songs,
“Kor Arab” and “Shikasta,” with gorgeous vocal
elaborations by Alim Qasimov. These tunes sound more
distinctly representative of their national traditions
than others here. They are also the most fun to listen
to. Might it be that a kind of clarity of origin, even
if it is an illusion, is part of what makes music come
alive?

Another piece, “Oasis,” is a group improvisation. But
how can musicians from different countries, speaking
different languages and playing different scales,
perform together in free style?

Mr. Ma explains that after many awkward, funny,
confusing rehearsals, ensemble members have developed
efficient ways to communicate among musical languages.
Within two hours, he says, they can explain to a
musician with Western classical training the basics of
how to participate in, say, the six-beat cycle of a
composition by the Indian tabla player Sandeep Das, or
an update of a seventh-century piece by the Chinese
film composer Zhao Jiping. Mr. Zhao weighed in during
rehearsals, using handwritten placards that read “hen
hao” (very good) and – seldom, one hopes – “bu hao”
(not good).

YO-YO MA / Silk Road Ensemble: Two concerts at
Carnegie Hall today: a family concert at 2 p.m. and a
regular concert at 8 p.m.

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