'The Metaphor of the Garment': songs of the divine from Bhakti poetry by Rekha Surya
Karishma Pais
THE ATTIC 36 REGAL BUILDINGS, NEW DELHI. TEL: 23746050
saturday 28th november
6.30 pm ‘The Metaphor of the Garment’: songs of the divine from Bhakti poetry by Rekha Surya
Hindustani
light classical music bridges the gap between pure classical
and mainstream music, appealing to both the connoisseur and the
layperson.
To musically elaborate a word or phrase is the idiom that defines Hindustani
light classical music. Weaving variations of a word or phrase displays the
singer's range of imagination and distinguishes this genre.
This style of singing is associated with Benares and Lucknow, and
from Lucknow
is Begum Akhtar's youngest disciple, Rekha Surya, who has also trained
under Girija Devi. She has,
however, taken a different turn by mainly singing mystical
poetry in the romantic style of Thumri, Dadra and Ghazal. Like two sides
of a coin, most mystical poetry is both sensual and spiritual.
This evening she will sing the poetry of Amir
Khusro, Mirabai and mainly Kabir. The metaphor of the garment is used in both Bhakti and Sufi poetry and during this
concert she will present 3 such songs. She begins with a Nirgun Dadra.
Rekha Surya trained under Begum Akhtar and Girija Devi. She is from Lucknow and now lives in New Delhi. She recorded for the Archives of Sangeet Natak Academi in 1994. She has performed all over India as well as in many cities in the US, Canada and Europe. She has performed at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, Cornell University, MIT, Yale and the World Music Institute New York
