By the end of this month, Bengalureans will be able to get a preview of what the first-of-its-kind Centre for Indian Music Experience (IME) has in store for them.
The IME Trust, which is developing the interactive music museum in JP Nagar VII Phase, is preparing to open its Sound Garden to public on July 29.
Visitors will be able to create a humming sound by rubbing the ‘Singing Stones’ and strike the ‘Flower Gong’ to generate the ‘sapta swaras’. One can experience how different natural materials like wood, stone and metal produce sounds of varied pitches by playing with the large xylophones installed here.
“We wanted visitors to have a preparatory experience before they entered the museum. The exhibits and the galleries in the museum are about music as art. In the sound garden, visitors can experience music as sound,” said Manasi Prasad, project director at the trust. The Sound Garden was conceptualised in 2009 as part of the centre, with the idea of making music fun and approachable for a lay person.
“With traditional instruments, it takes years to be able to produce good music. But the instruments in the sound garden are tuned so well that even someone who does not know music can produce pleasant sounds,” said Manasi.
The Trust took help from Svaram Musical Instruments and Research in Puducherry to create instruments in the sound garden. The social enterprise conceptualised the instruments in the garden and Foley Designs in Bengaluru gave them a contemporary look. “For example, the wall reed concept was from Svaram but the idea to have it in the shape of a wave is from Foley,” Prasad explained.
Through these and other installations like the Humming Stone, Reed Rail, Tubular Bell and Spiral Chime, visitors can experience concepts of vibration, resonance and sounds of different pitches. “Even if all the instruments are being played at once, someone passing by will only hear pleasant sounds. The garden is designed and tuned in such a way that it will never sound like cacophony,” said project executive Rohini Ramamurthy.
The Sound Garden and a cafe will open by the end of July. However, the museum itself will take a few more months to be ready for the public. Once completed, the museum will have interactive displays to take you through the history of Indian Music, covering everything from folk music to Bollywood music.