When one thinks about his own music…

If you listen to this Yaman Kalyan, you might realize what Pt Kumar Gandharva meant by saying, "Music is not just craft, it's also art. So, don't practise endlessly, but also think about your music."

Pt Kumar Gandharva, as quoted by Vasundhara Komkali in an interview given to Deepa Ganesh, The Hindu, 20 Oct, 2006

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NQYB4rZZNbQ

This Suha Sughrai is intoxicating

‘Latafat Khan, who lived in Bombay and was a distant nephew and disciple of Faiyaz Khan, rushed to Baroda when the ustad’s death was announced on the radio. Recorded music followed the announcement on November 5, 1950. On the train to Baroda, Latafat Khan met Rajab Ali Khan, ‘Hai hai,’ said Rajab Ali. ‘What a musician, what a gawaia! You will not hear the like of him in a hundred years. Sharab unko le gayi. Alcohol killed him. What a great loss!’ Having said that he brought out his bottle of country liquor and finished it in an hour. This was of course canard, for Faiyaz Khan died of diabetes and TB, and in old age he scarcely drank much of his favourite Scotch’

(Kumar Prasad Mukherji, The Lost World of Hindustani Music’)

Rag Suha Sughrai: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjTYppXPyUk

(Good quality transfer from vintage 78 RPM)

A Milky-Way Jaijaiwanti

A Milky-Way Jaijaiwanti 

This dazzling ‘Jaijaiwanti’ came to me as a surprise when I was searching for variations in the interpretation of the raga in different Gharanas. Pt. Tadapada Chakraborty (1909-1975) is considered as the master builder of ‘Kotali Gharana’, a blend of different Gharanas and ‘mainly influenced by Abdul Karim Khan of Kirana Gharana and Jnanendra Prasad Goswamy of  Bishnupur Gharana’ ( Oxford, The Music of India, 1066-67). A bio-sketch given in the official website of Pt Tarapada Chakraborty says:

‘Tarapada was a maverick. His individual and ethereal style has etched a unique place for him in the realm of Hindustani Classical music. His adroit mastery of the dominant gharanas of his time drove him to an inimitable style of his own. This style bears the mark of the maestro’s masterly vision-- a vision committed to the interrelationship between man and nature. His emphasis was upon the textual authenticity, austerity, self-realization, depth penetration and sonographic design of the text structurally articulating his kriya siddhi, opus achievement. The Kotali Gharana was established on the strong bases of the inheritance of his family culture and his own achievements of musical progression in the realm of Hindustani Classical Music. In truth Sangeetacharya Tarapada Chakraborty is the prime architect of the Kotali Gharana’

Raga Jaijaiwanti http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK7JNKw_Kh4

To read more: (http://www.tarapadachakraborty.com/biography.html)

Image: Pt Tarapada Chakraborty with wife Prabhabati Devi

A Day for Two Maestros

A Day for Two Maestros

Yesterday was beautiful for many reasons, and one was an opportunity for viewing the Malayalam film ‘Nizhalkuthu’ (Shadow Kill-2002) by Adoor Gopalakrishnan, for a second time. The film, a profound statement in Cinema on capital punishment, is a masterly work. After a fruitful day at workplace, I came home and wanted to fill the rest of the evening with any maestro’s voice in order to give the day its logical culmination. Many names were in mind and I have decided to take out Voleti Venkateswarulu’s vocal music (Carnatic style). As a devoted music listener and a dear friend friend, Mr. Kulkarni, wrote on Voleti, his music is like “‘a nightingale hidden among the branches of the tree, proclaiming that all is well with world – by singing for himself.’ (bolg: rasayanakarnatic.wordpress.com).

Voleti Venkateswarulu (1928-1989)- Raga Todi- Duration: 44’22”-https://soundcloud.com/sekharam/voletti-venkateswarulu-12

How much heritability in an artist’s genius?

How much heritability in an artist’s genius? 

A friend has sent this video of Pt Kumar Gandharva singing at the age of ten. I, with my very limited experience of listening to music, feel that we can sense the traits of the later Kumar Gandharva in this 1934 rendering. Whether these traits come to an artist through genes, or only though her/his childhood environment? Professor David T. Lykken, Psychologist with University of Minnesota, says in his article “The Genetics of a Genius” :
“It is meaningless to ask whether Isaac Newton's genius was due more to his genes or his environment, as meaningless as asking whether the area of a rectangle is due more to its length or its width. But if a certain group of rectangles vary in width between 1 and 10 inches but vary in length from 1 to 100 inches, then we can say, for the group, that the variation in their areas is more affected by the variation in their lengths than by the lesser variation in their widths. Similarly, for people in general, it is meaningful to ask whether their genetic differences are more or less important than their differences in experience in producing the variation we observe in the traits involved in genius. The proportion of the total variation in any trait that is associated with genetic variation is called the heritability of that trait”

Pt Kumar Gandharva: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJL_b0hxEdU

My ears and sound of many generations

Last day I was talking to a friend, a well-known playback singer in Malayalam films, about the metamorphosis happening to the singing voices because of the interference of the sound designers at different levels. It is almost impossible; of course there are exceptions, to listen to the natural voice of the artist in the end-product. Possibly, ‘natural’ human voice may not be that important when it comes to the end-product which ultimately has become a creation of the ‘song-designer’ these days. I am not complaining about this evolution as we know, music has undergone many changes after the introduction of a microphone between the singer and the listener.
I was reading an interesting article by Richard Barrett titled “A Century of Microphones: Implications of amplification for the singer and listener” and the essay handles carefully the development of electroacoustic technology and the changes in the landscape of the singing profession for both performer and listener. The article led me to listen to different renderings of a particular composition in Carnatic music in different periods and the music that I chose was ‘Intha Soukhyamanine’, a Tyagaraja composition in Raga Kapi. The renderings speak volumes about how most of our ears are now tuned for a studio, microphone-friendly sound rather than a sound which was trained in a pre-microphone era.
Intha Soukhyama- Kapi- Renderings from two generations
1. Madurai Mai Iyer:
http://gaana.com/song/intha-sowkhya-madurai-mani-iyer 10 minutes
2. K.V. K.V. Narayana Swamy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d0rDKrxc4s
3. N. Ramani: Flute:
http://play.raaga.com/carnatic/song/album/Serene-Moods-CL00681/Intha-Soukya-72847
4. T.M. Krishna Raga Kapi 11’30”
https://soundcloud.com/bvb07/tm-krishna-intha-sowkyamani

Remembering a 1962/63 spring on the strings

I don’t have words to thank Jenny Bharadwaj for uploading a 50 year old recording of an amazing Jugalbandi by Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (Hindustani- Sarod) and Mysore Doraiswamy Iyengar (Carnatic- Veena). Bharadwaj comments on details of the recording as:

“This was a private concert held at the residence of Shivram Ubhaykar in Bangalore during 1962 / 1963. 
The percussionists that day were Vidwan Ramaiah MS on the Mridangam and Pt. Chatur Lal on the TablaKaapi (the Carnatic raaga) was played in the second half of the concert. I do not have the recording of the second half of the concert. Maybe it is with one of Shivram Ubhaykar's relatives”

Raga Kalyani (Yeman): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm-ZWLwz5cA