Live Musical Experiences

So we ended up watching Jagjit Singh perform live at (the unfairly maligned) Esplanade yesterday. Quite a mesmerising performance, really, and not just for Mr Singh's or his troupe's talent, but for the manner in which he got the audience to participate in his creative process.

Indeed:

"When you sing a song in a studio, the style remains the same. If you sing it as it is, there is no andaaz [individual style]. On a live show, you get an opportunity to present each song differently. The audience reaction and sound effects make it possible. Sometimes I try and sing the same line six different ways."

Which is precisely what made the concert so beautiful yesterday. I'm too sleepy to expand on this at the moment, but there was a clear demonstration of some fascinating Saussure-ian concepts at play last evening. I could, perhaps, expand on these thoughts tomorrow.

Let me just say this for the moment though: it is, clearly, our tragic misfortune that we chose to ignore our manifest role as audience to re-code the performers' messages; we have, sadly, not healed enough to not feel cynical about messages of love, whether unrequited or not.

Remains to be seen what sort of an effect AR Rehman's Third Dimension Tour will have on us when it comes to Singapore this September. Something funny about this one, frankly; isn't anyone on stage in front of you in, by definition, three dimensions?