Adrian McNeil

Adrian McNeil used his fellowship to research notations published in a collection of music books sent to Victoria by the Bengali aristocrat Sourendra Mohan Tagore in the late 19th century.

The collection included musical instruments, notably a number of hybrid inventions, such as one in which the sitar neck had been combined with a violin body. The musical instruments are currently housed in the music archives at Monash University. The various songs notated in the books were equally unique, and similarly embraced intercultural themes and elements.

Adrian's project revisited these notations and arranged them for an intercultural ensemble put together especially for the project. 

The performance was held at the Library on 29 November 2014.

• Visit Adrian's website
• Watch a video of Adrian leading an ensemble of musicians playing the music of Tagore in our Library Fellows gallery