Tamil Culture Fine Arts Academy Germany
graduating in carnatic arts, since 2017
At 'Tamil Culture Fine Arts Academy Germany', based in Essen-Ruhr, young carnatic musicians and dancers from within Germany are trained within an 8 year practical and theoretical program with an officially approved graduation in the carnatic music-system. Workshops and concerts by top international artists take place there regularly. Guests come from all over Germany, Denmark, France and England. 'TCFA' is networking with academies in neighboring countries, as well as with (south-) indian / srilankan artists and institutes. At its events, f.ex. at graduation ceremonies, hundreds of visitors take place.
During the traditional mridangam/konnakol lessons, the carnatic percussion-student will have to learn and memorize the rhythmic-system with its talas (35 different time-signatures as basis (from 3 beats up to 29 beats per bar)) and the konnakol-phrases: Young students, even very young children were introduced in bar-durations like 3, 5, 7, 9, (and more) in a complex, but natural multisensory way. Later the same with Triplets, Quintuplets, Septuplets.
Founded in 2017, 'Tamil Culture Fine Arts Academy Germany' supports as an excellent basis the work of Netzwerk Konnakol: An authentic, unique environment of the complex carnatic culture and the rare chance to learn and research vis-à-vis with the indian experts and their outstanding skills of handling complex musical rhythm - just 'in front of your german housedoor' in so called 'Ruhrpott NRW'. In their course-module system, 'Netzwerk-Konnakol' is offering courses that take account of both:
the traditional way - as taught to southindian students, in order to understand and play classic carnatic music
newer transfer-options (2014) - applying isolated carnatic rhythm-techniques to western (contemporary) time structures (Tuplets, Polyrhythms, Polymetres, Irregular Groupings, etc) - also inspired by the academic research in advanced southindian-rhythm techniques (i.e. Rafael Reina's far-reaching PhD-Thesis/Book)
Transfering isolated aspects of this deeply cultural-grounded rhythm-techniques evokes questions of cultural appropriation: In 2018, Johannes Winkler suggested to use the indian based thinking-figure 'Tetralemma' (Sanskrit term: 'Catuskoti' ) as a philosophical basis of 'Netzwerk Konnakol': Originated in the ancient indian system of justice, it is recently re-used today in contexts of western systemic-psychology as a deconstruction tool that supports widening perspectives in dichotomies: The following options are seen as a never ending process of parallel respecting, learning and creating:
1 - THE ONE
2 - THE OTHER
3 - BOTH (1 & 2)
4 - NEITHER 1 NOR 2 NOR BOTH
5 - NOT (NEITHER 1 NOR 2 NOR BOTH)
