William Skelton

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 10 Oct 2009, 00:50

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2009/10/09/stor ... 230400.htm

appu · Post by **appu** » 10 Oct 2009, 01:15

Very interesting read. Robert E Brown, grandfather of south Indian music is another such person, Marc Rossi, a professor at Berklee College of music is another such person who has imbibed south Indian music to its fullest.

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 10 Oct 2009, 01:39

I wish to share two stories both involving the great Nadaswaram maestro Sheikh Chinna Moulana Sahib whose 1973- after the LGJ-RAMANI TOUR- was the first Nadaswaram tour of N.A. & arranged by EAST WEST EXCHANGE of which I was a member.
BOB BROWN whom I consider to be the person responsible for Carnatic music to be initiated in the North American continent suggested that instead of having Sheikh's concert in a regular auditorium to have it mid-day-during lunch time at Union Square in San Fransisco- where close to more than a few thousand show up with their Lunch bags; Sheikh played without amplification & enthralled the large throng! Bill Skelton an accomplished Nadaswara Vidwan himself- his wife wrote the BEST recipes of South Indian FOOD!- & arranged for a PROCESSION around Clogate University where Sheikh & his party was accompanied by students like our wedding processions the night before a Madras wedding. The whole event was televised by the campus TV! I still have a photo on my wall with my carrying my son like in Madras wearing a Dhoti! They stayed in the Colgate University President's guest house & at night there was a GALA event of The Indo-American Society with the big guns wearing a formal coat& tie affair. I BET even in India such an honour is rarely bestowed- at least I have not seen one-& the ONLY joy I have is as a member of the Dr.Chinna Moulana Trust I along with his grand sons S.Kasim& S.Babu were able to honour Bill Skelton a few years back in NY CITY area (Of course he was honoured in Cleveland)......BOTH GREAT SOULS with IMPECCABLE EXPERTISE & TASTE! Bob Brown is yet to be honoured even in a minor fashion..... VKV

appu · Post by **appu** » 10 Oct 2009, 03:51

VKV sir, Honoring Bob Brown has to be in another janmam. He passed away a few years back in his home in San Diego. Their was a wonderful obituary written by Prof. Lewis Peterman for the San Diego tribune which I cannot seem to find now in their archives.

appu · Post by **appu** » 10 Oct 2009, 04:42

Here is alink on Bob Brown on Wikipidea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Brown

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 10 Oct 2009, 06:08

Dear Sri. Appu,
I have been SINGULARLY unsuccessful in getting ANY organisation here or in INDIA- Its not for not trying- to get his contributions RECOGNISED. If I continue to fail I WILL DEFINITELY do it on MY OWN as I am doing with Remembrance Days for MMI & S.RAMANATHAN IN CHENNAI on a yearly basis. Its a SHAME...Incidentally ALL HIS PAPERS & COLLECTIONS have been donated to UNIV OF ILLINIOS who I am sure will take better care of his contribution& collections like the Hawaii Hindu Temple preserving S.RajaM'S PAINTINGS.....VKV

Sundara Rajan · Post by **Sundara Rajan** » 11 Oct 2009, 03:10

I also understand that Bill Skelton was quite good at cooking Indian dishes. On my visit to his home with Geetha Bennet, I had the pleasure of tasting his "morekuzhambu" that was quite good !

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 11 Oct 2009, 05:42

YES! His wife was even better at south indian cooking.Have to check with Geetha if her recipes are retreivable. Worth publishing in as a book.....Also I think very few know he was a pilot in world war two of B-29 the type of plane which carried the Atom bomb....My Best recollection of him is when I had to be M.C. for a KVN Concert at Syracuse University & also play Thambura for the FIRST(&LAST) TIME in my life in a concert arranged by Dean Boatwright- disciple of TNK-. I just could not hold thambura for 2-3 hours vertically & Bill always made fun of me about it because I had to introduce him so many times as it happened! HIS eyes which twinkled&smiled brilliantly & anyone who has experienced will never forget it!......I wish someone would write the story & history of GIANTS like Brown, Skelton, Powers, Higgins & a few others whose contributions are what is continuing the greatness of Carnatic Music.....VKV

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 11 Oct 2009, 08:33

VKV,
I echo your sentiments. Their love for CM and their involvement in it made it accessible to the world. What would have seemed to the rest of the world as an obscure canvas lying in the attic of some remote place got framed by the efforts of these men and was on display. CM became visible to lovers of music in many parts of the world to a large extent, due to them.
The Navaratri singing from Wesleyan music students is on Youtube, and we can view it on the forum. What a joy it is to watch! When east and west come together like this, when music has its magic, differences fade and give us hope for humanity.

makham · Post by **makham** » 14 Oct 2009, 15:12

I ran into William Skelton on the corridors of Music Academy during 1968 (if I remember right). At that time I was toying with the idea of reproducing CM using a PDP-8 (or was it PDP-11) computer and told him about it. He successfully talked me out of such futile attempts and argued that CM is beyond being amenable to automation. He taught me the significance of anuswaras and how between shudhdha madhyamam and prati madhyamam we can have infinite madhyamams. It was a strange conversation - Skelton having the upper hand on knowledge about CM and I perhaps being more comfortable with Assembly level programming !!

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 14 Oct 2009, 20:19

makham: I am sure William Shelton meant well. That is the mainstream opinion that any attempt at automation of art is futitile. I tend to see it that way also but technology has a role to play in the perimeter of the art and so such endeavors are not to be completely dismissed.

It will be easy for me now to say you should have pursued your ideas but the power of opinions of people with 'upper hand on knowledge' is quite formidable. Most of the time we tend to operate at either end: Be completely independent and relearn the same old lessons ( painful, inefficient but with occasional great achievements/personal satisfaction ) or be a slave to other people's opinions/life experiences ( avoid pain, avoid mistakes of the past and also avoid possible great discoveries/personal satisfaction ). It is a tough thing to decide when to unshackle oneself from others' opinions and when not to. That is wisdom indeed.

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 14 Oct 2009, 20:34

Skelton was the FIRST person who actually codified ALL the ragas, composers, compositions & performers in the Music Academy- exactly when they were rendered & by whom- using the computer. He also TOTALLY recorded the 1968 TIRUVAIYARU FESTIVAL- in 1968!-Gavel to Gavel- & tho' promised me a copy of these I never got them....I live in Los Alamos, NM & if some one close to Hamilton NY- near Syracuse, Ithaca can find out where they are or what the status of his collections are SOON we may get enormous amount of data already mined. James Rubin had a huge collection which is now gathering dust& deteriorating at Harvard......They just did not have confidence in persons they dealt with- I DO NOT BLAME HIM- & the ones they had confidence had no time!....VKV

makham · Post by **makham** » 15 Oct 2009, 17:46

WS was not against technology. He wanted to use computers for database applications in CM , the kind vkv has referred. His view was that manodharmam plays a big role in rendering CM and technology can not be expected to play (even the best artificial intelligence or artificial neural network algorithms) any big role there.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 15 Oct 2009, 21:54

makham: Understood.

>He taught me the significance of anuswaras and how between shudhdha madhyamam and prati madhyamam we can have infinite madhyamams.

I have some thoughts to share about this but this is not the right thread, we will pick this back up elsewhere at a different time.

makham · Post by **makham** » 20 Oct 2009, 22:30

vasanthakokilam:

A new post under the thread " Technical discussions" has been initiated to enable you share your views