November 12, 2010

Michael Huebner

The Birmingham News

 

Unless you are fluent in Tibetan, you might have missed many of the nuances Thursday at a performance by the Drepung Loseling monks at the Alys Stephens Center. But that would not likely hinder appreciation for this fascinating glimpse into Tibetan music, ritual dance and customs.

 

Among the world's cultural arts, this is one of most evocative. The combination of the discordant wail of two nasal, double-reed gyalings with the low, massive blasts of a pair of 10-foot-long brass horns is unmistakably Tibetan. Add vocal multiphonics, which produce a wide spectrum of harmonics above a throaty bass, with a drum, clashing cymbals and bell-like finger cymbals, and the former Himalayan kingdom becomes vivid in the mind's eye.

 

A large representation of the Potala Palace in Lhasa provided a visual backdrop, along with Tibetan and Buddhist flags and a shrine and picture of the Dalai Lama -- an image no longer allowed in Tibet.