MusicTibet.com

Editorial – Tibetan Music Awards 2005

Music and how To Make good Music

Music may be defined as sound flowing in rhythm that gives pleasure to listen to. So, it has to be produced! Music may come from anyone but great music comes from talented and those artistes who work hard.

We have noted that most of our young artistes go to studios in Katmandu for making their albums and the result: all the music that is made from there sounds the same. From 20 albums produced so far this year, 17 are pop albums, so the genre is mostly pop, but nothing that is really new.

Our mailing list has about 70 Tibetan artistes. Only about 10 artistes replied to our invitation email. This reflects the lack of awareness of the importance of communication - an essential component for an artiste's survival. It further shows the deficiency in well-rounded education of our musicians today.

It is important that an artiste has the talent to perform and the knowledge of the academic side of the art, apart from education in general. Our institutions should set certain standards in recruiting artistes or provide academic education as well. Training in modern technology should also become part of the curriculum. Or, at least, a few artistes should be trained to become professional sound engineers using softwares such as Sonar 4, Cubase or DigiDesign, that are doing wonders in music world.

Traditional music, of course, should remain as the source of inspiration. Ama Dachung travelled all the way from Bylakuppe in South India to Mcleod Ganj for the event. The Dharma Bums travelled here from New York. We would like to sincerely thank them.

On the good note, Yadong, the most celebrated Tibetan singer, survived a near-fatal stabbing in April. He is completely recovered from the attack and is back in action with concerts. The reason for his stabbing remains unknown but the pathetic act of trying to destroy him was understood to be out of jealousy.

Finally, the exiled Tibetans have a very small market. Illegal trade makes the market even smaller. It is hurting our artistes. Please support our own artistes and buy only originals.

I hope this editorial will be taken as a challenge thrown before our artistes and institutions related to music, rather than taking the piece as malicious personal attack.

— Lobsang Wangyal