Hitting the right note

With a series of dramatic hand gestures, musician-conductor Zane Dalal set the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre vibrating as he performed Suite from The Firebird during the rehearsals on Friday. The noted conductor was rehearsing for the last show of the autumn edition for Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) and had invited 250 children from various schools and NGOs across the city. The sight of the musicians moving their bows in a coordinated sway and the resulting sound of the double bass and cello unfolded an exciting and thrilling premise, hypnotic enough to leave the young audience awe-struck.

Zane, who is all set to enthral the audience today with a repertoire that includes Mozart’s Overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.  3 and Stravinsky’s Suite from The Firebird, is not only the master of his craft, but believes in taking music to the realm of feelings and nostalgia. He says, “The power of music, even the old songs from the 15th and 16th centuries, is such that if you would have heard them as a child, on listening again, would take you back to that moment- to the memory of love, joy and cocooning.” Adding that the composers have intended their music to be felt, he says, “It is all about the feeling, and if you don’t like it, it’s completely valid since it’s your reaction.”

As a seven year old who wanted to pick up organ as an instrument as it set the church vibrating, Zane had to initially settle for piano. However, later he did master the organ in the choir and was awarded an organ scholarship to the University of Oxford. Talking about the influence of music on children, he says, “When children learn instruments in early stages of their life, their hand-eye coordination, left and right brain working together, and their ability to comprehend the internal function of emotions improve. They can feel that music and when they make music, they know to manipulate their feelings accordingly”.  He adds that it helps them connect with the world that is bigger than them, beyond them, and of them.

When it comes to conducting, he gives his musicians encouragement and a free space to work. He says, “When I am conducting, I am not really conducting, I am just encouraging them to come when they know they should. If I need to stop them, I try not to. If there is a mistake, they already know and I don’t need to stop them.” Although, as a conductor Zane coordinates, instructs and guides the musicians to come together as a force, but he also believes that a conductor should prepare an orchestra to the point that he becomes irrelevant. “You should allow the music to get an organic life of its own. Allow them (musicians) all to experience that, hear each other and feel each other, so that they are in communion with each other. And if you have done it and set it in the right way, then you should not disturb it because it has its own life, and it has lives of everybody else’s involved,” he concludes.