Pandit Kumar Gandharva Passes Away
Ashwin Honkan
It is with profound sadness that I announce to this group of Indian
Music lovers that the one and only, innovator and creative genius,
Padmavibhushan Pandit Kumar Gandharva has passed away. This news was
broadcast on the All India Radio on the morning of January 12th. I do not
have any further details except that Kumarji had lately been ill.I believe
he was born in 1923.
Kumarji learned music in an unorthodox way. Unhappy and dissatisfied
with the traditional style of vocal music, Kumarji developed his distinct
and unique style of singing. He refused to be labelled after any Gharana and
it is indeed impossible to categorize his singing as being influenced by any
single Gharana.
Kumarji suffered many personal tragedies in life, including the death
of his first wife, a severe illness that forced him to absolute silence for
a period of five full years (during which he had to refrain from singing as
much as a single note) and another illness that left one of his lungs
severely affected.
His style of singing, consisting of short, superfast bursts of intricate
yet forceful taans either endeared him to devout followers (like myself) or
made the lovers of traditional singing turn up their noses at this rebel.
Among music lovers, there are only two categories with respect to Kumarji:
those who worship him and those who just don't like him at all.
A simple man who stayed away from politics and never tried to lobby for
official recognition (he invented dozens of raagas, but none of them were
named 'Indira Kalyan' or 'Priyadarshini' like those named by the Teen Murti
Bhavan regulars), Kumarji lived and breathed music. During his silent period,
he listened to folk music and a lot of his raagas trace their roots
to folk music rather than the usual royal courts.
On this sad occasion, the heart-rending taan from his incomparable Todi
is reverberating through my mind ... 'Devo Mohe Dheer ... Maaee'
May His Soul Rest In Peace ...
Ashwin Honkan
Jawahar Tembulkar
> It is with profound sadness that I announce to this group of Indian
>Music lovers that the one and only, innovator and creative genius,
>Padmavibhushan Pandit Kumar Gandharva has passed away.
Yet another giant, whose music cannot be easily categorised/compart-
mentalised passes from the scene.
> His style of singing, consisting of short, superfast bursts of intricate
>yet forceful taans either endeared him to devout followers (like myself) or
>made the lovers of traditional singing turn up their noses at this rebel.
>Among music lovers, there are only two categories with respect to Kumarji:
>those who worship him and those who just don't like him at all.
Just a note to music lovers. The "title" - Kumar Gandharva - was
bestowed on him because of the tremendous potential he showed as a
younster. The Gandharwas in Indian mythology are proficient in the
arts. In this century, the title of Gandharwa was first bestowed on
the legendary figure of the Marathi stage. This luminary ( whose
name I cannot recall ) used to play the women's roles ( since women
performimg in plays was taboo ).
The title of - Chhota Gandharwa - was also bestowed on yet another
musical prodigy.
>During his silent period,
>he listened to folk music and a lot of his raagas trace their roots
>to folk music rather than the usual royal courts.
I have two 90 min. casettes of Kumar Gandharwa's Bhajans. One is a
rendition of Kabir's bhajans. They are quite simply put, awesome.
> On this sad occasion, the heart-rending taan from his incomparable Todi
>is reverberating through my mind ... 'Devo Mohe Dheer ... Maaee'
> May His Soul Rest In Peace ...
>
>Ashwin Honkan
Talking of Todis, I have a rendition by Vasantrao Deshpande that is
unforgettable. Deshpande's claim to fame rests mainly in his memo-
rable performances of "Natya Sangeet" in Marathi theatre. However,
he is a trained classical music artiste of no mean calibre. The
Todi is absolutely wonderful.
Regards,
Jawa
--
* Statutory Disclaimer : These are merely my views. *
* Jawahar M. Tembulkar, Computervision, R & D, *
* 9805 Scranton Road, San Diego, CA, 92121, USA. *
* UUCP : uunet!calmasd!jxt voice : (619) 587-3078 *
Jay Naik
In article <39...@calmasd.Prime.COM> Jawahar Tembulkar writes:
>Just a note to music lovers. The "title" - Kumar Gandharva - was
>bestowed on him because of the tremendous potential he showed as a
>younster. The Gandharwas in Indian mythology are proficient in the
>arts. In this century, the title of Gandharwa was first bestowed on
>the legendary figure of the Marathi stage. This luminary ( whose
>name I cannot recall ) used to play the women's roles ( since women
Bal Gandharva was the first in that line. He founded the theater troupe,
"Gandharva Nataka Mandali". The great Tabla player, Ustad Ahmad Jan
Thirakwa once belonged to it.
The second "Gandharva" was Sawai Gandharva (1886-1952), whose given
name was Rambhau Kundagolkar. He was the disciple of Ustad Abdul Karim
Khan, the doyen of the Kirana Gharaanaa. He was also an accomplished
actor on the Marathi stage, and played male and female roles in various
plays, mostly mythological one's, such as, Subhadra, Tara, Krishna, etc..
Some of his illustrious disciples are Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandita
Gangu Bai Hangal and Feroze Dastoor.
----------------------------------------------
Pandit Kumar Gandharva was born in SuLeBhavi town near Belgaum. His
given name was Shivaputra Siddharamappa Komakali. One account of his
biography ('Hamare Sangitha Rathne', 1984) says that, at the age of five,
he attended a concert of Sawai Gandharva, came home and sang a Bandish
in raga Vasanth, that he had just heard at the concert. His father,
Siddharamappa Komakali, himself a vocalist of some repute, was very
delighted and encouraged his son to pursue a formal training in classical
music. He gave a public concert in Belgaum at the tender age of nine,
and such accomplishments brought this child prodigy the name of "Kumara
Gandharva". Prof. B. R. Devdhar (a disciple of Vishnu Digambar), took him
in as his student and Kumara Gandharva made his mark at a music conference
in Bombay in 1936 (he was 12 then). .......
(The rest of his biography are in Parrikar's posting from G.N. Joshi's
book).
Kumara Gandharva's passing is indeed a great loss. During my recent
visit to India in May '91, I saw an hour-long concert of his, on Doordarshan.
It was, I think, a live concert (during Rajiv G.'s mourning), his voice had
mellowed down some, but vigorous as ever. The Bhajan's that he sang (I was
fortunate to record the concert on my video camera off the TV) were
simply grand, his lifetime of Sadhana clearly evident in his music.
His Bandish in raga Goud Sarang, "Piya Basera Ghar Aali.." is one
composition that I will never tire of listening to, over and over again!
(like now..).
A few months ago, I bought two cassettes of his, produced by Alurkar Audio
Video products of Pune (1986). Quite good. Ragas Bahar, Kaamod,
Dhanabasanti, Jeevanpuri, Deshkaar, Gunakari, Bilaskhani Todi.
Kumara Gandharva composed many new ragas, especially during his long
convalescence. Some of these were, Bhaavamath Bhairav, Ahimohini,
Maalavathi, Saheli Thodi, Lagna Gaandhaar. These and others were published
in a compilation, "Anooparagavilas". A great soul indeed...
--------------
Jayant Naik
Todd McComb
Malahari. The recording apparently originated in 1974, and the sound
quality is not the best, but the playing is excellent.
The reason for my posting is that the liner notes are only in Japanese,
and I was hoping some knowledgeable person could tell me something about
him and the instrument he is playing. The back says 'veena,' but it
looks more like a sitar than a rudra veena. Thanks.
--
Todd McComb mcc...@turing.cs.rpi.edu [128.213.1.1]
Saumyen Guha
><MAJUMDAR-ALOKE...@garnet.CS.Yale.Edu> writes:-
> I've been told that Living Media (the publisher of India Today) has a
(Stuff Deleated)
>1) Does it exist on CD's?
First Series : No.
A Collection of 16 cassettes. Four for each Morning ,Afternoon,Evening
and Night Ragas. Each 60 min. Main Artists are:
Jasraj,Shruti Shadolikar and Padma Talwarkar (Vocal)
Ud. Amjad Ali Khan(Sarod)
Hari Prasad Chaurasia (Flute)
Shahid Parvez (Sitar)
Second Series: Yes
Total 15 , I believe. Not all are available on CD.
Title: Maestro's Choice
Each featuring one artist for 60 min.
Some of the artists are:
Bhimsen Joshi, Jasraj , Gangubhai Hangal , Bishmillah Khan etc.
>2) How does one order albums?
Dunno. I got these from some person in edison and Northern Philly.
I believe , they have an address in NY area for mail order. I have to
look thru my files to find out , if I have that. I'll post if available.
No promises. It's a common address for India Today and Living Media ...
>3) What is the general standard of the collection, musical as well as recording
>quality?
Excellant. Particularly , when compared with good (:-)) old HMV
cassettes. CD quality is very good.
>Aloke Majumdar
Saumyen
Srini Pichumani
>
>The reason for my posting is that the liner notes are only in Japanese,
>and I was hoping some knowledgeable person could tell me something about
>him and the instrument he is playing. The back says 'veena,' but it
>looks more like a sitar than a rudra veena. Thanks.
>--
>Todd McComb mcc...@turing.cs.rpi.edu [128.213.1.1]
I have heard the CD you are talking about. The artiste, S.Balachander,
plays the South Indian veena (aka the Sarasvati veena); he uses an
electronic pickup, as do most modern veena artistes of the South, while
playing for an audience.
[You might be able to hear Nageswara Rao, either live or on records, play
the veena without electronic pickup]
The South Indian veena's counterpart is the North Indian rudra veena
in the sense that both instruments have fixed frets unlike a sitar.
(exception -- Zia M. Dagar seems to have introduced movable frets
in his instrument).
Balachander plays the raaga Malahari on this CD. The raaga Malahari
is a raaga with the following ascent and descent:
Sa Ri(k) Ma Pa Da(k) Saa
Saa Da(k) Pa Ma Ga Ri(k) Sa
where the k in parantheses stands for "komal". It is a janya raaga of
the melakarta Maayamaalavagowla i.e Bhairav Thaat in Hindustaani music.
Malahari in Sanskrit
literally means the remover of dirt (malahara, to be more accurate,
has this meaning).
Incidentally, the first melody taught to beginners in Carnatic music is in
this raaga (after the preliminary scalic exercises in Maayamaalavagowla
) -- it is a composition of
Purandaradaasa -- it goes as "Sri Gananaatha Sindhoora Varna".
Balachander has played raga alaapana of Malahari, followed by a
taanam, which is kind of like the jor/jhaala of North Indian
stringed-instrumental music (in that there are movements with a
delicate cadence), followed by a kriti of the great composer
Muttusvami Dikshitar in this raaga. The kriti, i.e the composition,
goes as "Pancha Maatanga Mukha Ganapati Naa Paripaalitoham" and
is set to Tisra Eka Taalam of Carnatic music. This kriti is an invocation
to the elephant-faced God, Ganapati, who is the remover of obstacles. The
raaga mudra or the name of the raaga occurs within the text of the kriti
itself in the phrase "kali malaharEna" (lit. the remover of the dirt of
the Kali age)
The sleevnotes do not say this in English; the CD is only indexed
into 2 parts 1)Raagam and 2)Taanam. The composition that I refer
to begins about 17.5 minutes into the Taanam.
--Srini.
Saumyen Guha
>In article <l0t...@rpi.edu> mcc...@cs.rpi.edu (Todd McComb) writes:
>>
>Balachander plays the raaga Malahari on this CD. The raaga Malahari
>is a raaga with the following ascent and descent:
> Sa Ri(k) Ma Pa Da(k) Saa
> Saa Da(k) Pa Ma Ga Ri(k) Sa
>where the k in parantheses stands for "komal". It is a janya raaga of
>the melakarta Maayamaalavagowla i.e Bhairav Thaat in Hindustaani music.
Equivalent in Hindustani:- Rag Jogiya or Joghiya , I beleive.
Any coments?
-Saumyen