Rajasthan sings songs of peace and hope at Jodhpur RIFF 2023

Estonian musicians Kärt Pihlap and Katariina Tirmaste performing at the Rajasthan International Folk Festival in Jodhpur being held from October 26 to 30.

As a new dawn broke over the rocky venue of the Rajasthan International Folk Festival (RIFF) in Jodhpur, the two flautists serenaded a traditional herder's song much to the delight of a packed audience. The peace and hope for a better tomorrow was as palpable in the air as the playfulness of the catchy folk song from Estonia.

Kärt Pihlap and Katariina Tirmaste, the two Estonian musicians who played folk songs with improvised traditional motifs on their western classical flute, were no stranger to troubled times in history. Their Baltic nation had seen its peace-loving population come under the rule of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union before and after the World War II.

"My grandparents were sent to jail in Siberia after the Soviet occupation," says Tirmaste, who lives in Tartu, Estonia's second-biggest city after the capital Tallinn. Tirmaste, who joined Pihlap, a resident of Tallinn, two years ago to form their music collaboration, also remembers her parents joining a historic human chain from Tallinn to Lithuanian capital Vilnius formed by the peoples of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1989 to protest Soviet Union taking away the independence of the three Baltic nations.

"Everybody in the human chain then sang folk songs. People say we sang us to freedom. We sing a lot as Estonians," says Tirmaste. "It was called a singing revolution then."

Like Estonia's singing revolution in 1989 (the country would eventually win its independence two years later after the break-up of Soviet Union) the role of artists in connecting communities and cultures was evident in the world's vast repository of oral musical heritage exhibited by their custodians from as far as Cape Verde and Colombia at the Jodhpur RIFF this year.

"Artists offer new possibilities to the world," says Melbourne-based dancer-choreographer Raina Peterson, who presented an Andal (Tamil poet-saint)-inspired performance of Narasimha: Man Lion that explored gender diversity and sexuality to the music of fellow Australian musician and visual artist Marco Cher-Gibard at the Jodhpur RIFF being held from October 26 to 30 in multiple venues at and around the 15th century Mehrangarh Fort in the Blue City.

"I love the striking imagery of Andal's poetry. Narasimha is an experimental work exploring a poem by Andal," says Peterson, a disciple of Mohiniyattam and Kathakali exponent Tara Rajkumar (who studied under the legendary dancer Kalamandalam Kallyanikutty Amma) about her show that combines the classical Mohiniyattam with contemporary dance.

Marcello Smigliante Gentile, Irene Scarpato and Gian Marco Libeccio of Neapolitan music trio Suonno D'Ajere (Dreams of Yesterday) play popular songs from the 19th and 20th century Naples.

Among the highlights of Jodhpur RIFF, one of the biggest roots music festivals in the world first held in 2007 with The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger as its international patron, this year are the Neapolitan music trio Suonno D'Ajere (Dreams of Yesterday) comprising Irene Scarpato, Marcello Smigliante Gentile and Gian Marco Libeccio, who played popular songs from the 19th and 20th century Naples, Tunisian violinist Jasser Haj Youssef, tropical grooves of Bogota-born Afro-Colombian Nkumba System and Cape Verdean multi-instrumentalist Miroca Paris known for his presence in Madonna's tours.

Rajasthan's Langa community's rising stars Asin Khan, Sadiq Khan and Zakir Khan collaborated with Kathak dancer Tarini Tripathi at the festival.

The rich folk music tradition of Rajasthan is represented this year by Ghevar Khan and Darre Khan, the master Manganiyar musicians of the Kamaicha, the Langa community's rising stars Asin Khan, Sadiq Khan and Zakir Khan, who collaborated with Kathak dancer Tarini Tripathi on the second day, Bhallu Ram and Mala Ram, the eminent musicians from the Meghwal community, Khartal player Bundu Khan Langa, an iconic figure in the Langa community, and Bade Ghazi Khan Manganiyar, a Manganiyar maestro and one of the creators of Nimbooda Nimbooda song from the Hindi film, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

Traditional musicians of Rajasthan playing the Kamaicha, a string instrument unique to the Manganiyar community.

"Kamaicha is a string instrument unique to the Manganiyar community," says Jodhpur RIFF festival director Divya Bhatia. In its 16 years, interrupted during the coronavirus pandemic, the festival has presented over 1,000 Rajasthani folk musicians and facilitated and produced several collaborations between the state's musicians and artists from within the country and abroad.

Other highlights this year include performances by Rajasthani folk singers Sundar Devi, daughter Ganga Devi and Sumitra Devi, Hindustani vocalist Barnali Chattopadhyay, Sufi singer Smita Bellur, dhol players Swarangi Savdekar and Yaminee Khamkar, and the Colombian ChontaDJ aka Alejandra Gomez, familiar with audiences at the Glastonbury festival in Somerset, England for her captivating traditional and modern South American music.