Lead, Kindly Sitar - Anoushka Shankar
Veena Nayak
May 15, 1999 issue of Femina. It may be
accessed at
I read it and I was like, this is totally amazing.
It's like, so much blather, you know whatImean?
Veena
*****************************************************
LEAD, KINDLY SITAR
ANOUSHKA SHANKAR loves playing the sitar.
Following in her famous father's footsteps
may not be a conscious decision, but it's
all written in the stars
SITA MENON
***********************************************
FUNNY thing about fame. Most people seek it
all their lives only to have it escape them
by a whisper. Then, there are a chosen few
who don't have to so much as lift a finger
and it comes chasing after them.
You'd think Anoushka Shankar's one of the
latter.
You'd be mistaken. Because it is not that she
expressly seeks fame. Nor does she toil for it.
What she does do, actually, is lift a finger.
And people flock to her concerts. She just attracts
attention along the way.
A large part of it could be because she is to be
the daughter of sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar.
But she loves it: Seeing her-self on TV, in
newspapers. Being recognised and asked for
autographs. Being under the spotlight.
More accurately, being under that spotlight,
performing with her father.
SHINING BRIGHT
Seventeen-year-old Anoushka is already being
touted as the successor to her father. She,
for her part, does not let it affect her.
If she does recognise that people expect her
to wear the mantle, heavy as it is, she doesn't
let on. What she does let on is worry - whether
she will be true to her abilities.
"I know I have the potential," she states, honey
eyes twinkling. "My father says so. He's one of
our foremost musicians, and if he thinks so, it
must be true. I know my abilities. Thing is, I
don't know if I'll live up to them."
There is also the realisation: If she has to make
a name for herself, she has to do it now. That
wouldn't have been a problem if she weren't so
keen to complete her college education.
"College would be a bad move for me, career-wise,"
the 12th grader at a San Diego high school, USA,
says, baldly. "People feel I should strike out solo
now. But I want to study - for myself. It's just a
matter of convincing Dad. But I know he'll eventually
let me do what I want."
DADDY'S LITTLE GIRL
It's in her eyes: She's always been daddy's little girl.
"He wanted me to learn the sitar, wanted to wait till I
was ready. But Mom felt it'd be better if I started soon."
So Anoushka wielded a sitar at nine. A daily two-hour
riyaaz and four years later, she'd mastered enough to
give her first solo performance. Now, four more years,
a gift of her father's 55-year-old sitar, and a series
of concerts later, she has cut her first album, Anoushka
Milestone, Rs 80).
The album contains five compositions in ragas Bairagi,
Tilak Shyam, Kirwani, Charukeshi and Pilu. The first
two are ragas created by Ravi Shankar; the third is
his Hindustani adaptation of the original Carnatic raga.
The fifth, First Love (Pratham Prem) is his composition
which Anoushka performed at her 1995 debut for his
75th birthday. "I thought it was apt - it was my first
rendition. Anoushka is my first album. It fits," she says,
smiling.
"But the most difficult was Bairagi," she says, "it has
this deep, spiritual, internal quality. And playing it
in a glass box (her euphemistic term for the recording
studio) took concentration and focusing. But I got used
to it. We took a day-and-a-half to record Bairagi. The
rest were more technical - with short alaaps and fast
gats - and easier to render."
For a raga so intense, Bairagi was a "last-minute
composition", Anoushka tells you. Even as they were
driving to the studio, it was being mentally fine-tuned
by her father.
GURU'S FAVOURITE SHISHYA
Anoushka reveals, "He's always composed tunes for me.
He has one for each of my birthdays. Last year, for
example, he composed a gat for me in shikhar taal,
with 17 beats. And once, at a concert, he picked up
the mike and sang a song he'd composed for me."
She's offering here not just a glimpse of her father,
but one of her guru, too. "I couldn't have asked for
a better teacher. He's patient, one of those teachers
who can think from the student's point of view. He's
there to show me why a particular note has to be
played the way it has to be played. In fact, he
tells me these little stories about each raga we
play - why it is composed the way it is, why it
has to sound just so. So, you know, his is a lesson
for all the senses."
HER FIRST LOVE
A synaesthetic effect is perhaps what Anoushka had
in mind for her album, too. As a look at the jacket
tells you. It has poems written by Anoushka for each
raga. Each of which represents a woman, and symbolises
an element: Bairagi was intense, slow - the earth;
Tilak Shyam was faster, fluid - water; Charukeshi was
wispy, fleeting - air.
However, First Love proved difficult to write a poem
on, she admits, "But then, it just poured out. That's it.
I didn't touch it."
Not uncommon for Anoushka: "When I write about things I
feel strongly about, they just pour out of me at one shot.
I don't touch them after that. All the poems in the album,
except the last, were written when I was about 14. I just
touched them up."
Her muse? "Most of my poems are about role-play - very
imaginative. But when I'm depressed, it just breaks loose.
There's something about depression that sets your creative
juices flowing, isn't there? I don't actually write metered
stuff. They're just an outlet for my emotions," she says,
thoughtfully.
PERSONALLY PUBLIC
Just as playing on stage: "I'm so moved when I play well.
I feel proud. But the next minute, I'm like, what do I do
next?"
But playing with her father on stage is, she admits,
"most amazing, when I feel we're closest. Being on stage
is a combination of so many things: He is my father - I
get to see what he does best. I'm his daughter - he
watches me do what I like doing. He's my guru - he can show
me off to the world. He's my favourite musician - I can see
what he is really about. And then, we love being on stage,
it's a high."
As public as playing the sitar is, the piano, for her, is
personal, private. But playing the piano isn't quite as...
liberating?... as the sitar: "Western music is written.
That changes the complexion. Written means it's, like,
there forever. You're supposed to be as true to it as
possible. Indian music, however, is about improvisation.
It's as much yours as your guru's."
A THIRD WAVE FEMINIST?
Anoushka volunteers for a feminist club called the Third
Wave Feminism on her school campus. "Actually," she tinkles
in response to your arched brow, "it's passive resistance
to violence. We help victims of domestic violence, raise
money for children suffering from AIDS through poetry
readings. We have these fora where we talk (gosh, do we talk!)."
The future is as interesting to her as the present. "Oh, I
have tons to do, places to go. For now, I may study literature
or psychology or sociology. I love working with children. I
want to write. I want to travel. And, of course, play the sitar."
And get famous? Definitely. In small doses. "I could take being
as famous as my father. Not more. Imagine being mobbed or having
your clothes torn off you. I'd just freak. But that is for
popular music. There's no way mine qualifies as popular music,
anyway." Famous last words.
*******************************************************************
WARVIJ
a long and stressful day. I, too, am, like, totally, y'know,
amazed. Some highlights of this gush-fest:
<<"I know I have the potential," she states, honey
eyes twinkling.>>
Honey eyes? Twinkling? Remember this is the musical
grand-daughter of Mr. Twinkling Honey Eyes himself,
Allaudin Khan!
<<There is also the realisation: If she has to make
a name for herself, she has to do it now.>>
Pray tell, why?
<<All the poems in the album,
except the last, were written when I was about 14. I just
touched them up.">>
Spare us, please.
And, my favorite:
<<"Actually," she tinkles
in response to your arched brow,>>
...moving right along...
I heard her play with Daddyji last year. She was relentlessly
fast and mechanically flawless, and got repeated standing
ovations. I felt rather churlish, remaining in my seat.
Warren
David Beardsley
> <<"I know I have the potential," she states, honey
> eyes twinkling.>>
>
> Honey eyes? Twinkling? Remember this is the musical
> grand-daughter of Mr. Twinkling Honey Eyes himself,
> Allaudin Khan!
I was under the impression that Anoushka is from alater second marrage
of R.Shankar not Annapurna Devi.
--
* D a v i d B e a r d s l e y
* xou...@virtulink.com
*
* J u x t a p o s i t i o n E z i n e
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WARVIJ
> eyes twinkling.>>
>
> Honey eyes? Twinkling? Remember this is the musical
> grand-daughter of Mr. Twinkling Honey Eyes himself,
> Allaudin Khan!
>I was under the impression that Anoushka is from
>a later second marrage
>of R.Shankar not Annapurna Devi.
Which is why I said "musical grand-daughter," not
"familial grand-daughter."
Cheers,
WS
Chetan Vinchhi
>
> WARVIJ wrote:
>
> > Honey eyes? Twinkling? Remember this is the musical
> > grand-daughter of Mr. Twinkling Honey Eyes himself,
> > Allaudin Khan!
>
> of R.Shankar not Annapurna Devi.
>
I suspect Warren meant what he said - "musical grand-daughter",
i.e. student's student. Fact, any student of Ravi Shankar, Ali
Akbar Khan etc. can be referred to as a musical grand-child of
Allaudin Khan.
C
sbo...@nd.edu
> The album contains five compositions in ragas Bairagi,
> Tilak Shyam, Kirwani, Charukeshi and Pilu. The first
> two are ragas created by Ravi Shankar;
<snip>
>
> "But the most difficult was Bairagi," she says, "it has
> this deep, spiritual, internal quality. And playing it
> in a glass box (her euphemistic term for the recording
> studio) took concentration and focusing. But I got used
> to it. We took a day-and-a-half to record Bairagi. The
> rest were more technical - with short alaaps and fast
> gats - and easier to render."
>
> For a raga so intense, Bairagi was a "last-minute
> composition", Anoushka tells you. Even as they were
> driving to the studio, it was being mentally fine-tuned
> by her father.
Bairagi a new Ravi Shankar composition? What about the traditional
Bhairav variant?:
Sa re ma Pa ni Sa'
Sa' ni Pa ma re Sa
A haunting and fairly well known raaga. Does the article mean that
Anoushka played a new COMPOSITION in the traditional Bairagi? Or was this
raaga itself a creation of Ravi Shankar's and I'm just mistaken in my
belief that it's traditional? Or has Ravi Shankar come up with a
different raaga that he decided to name Bairagi, despite the existence of
the traditional raaga of that name?
-s
--== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==--
---Share what you know. Learn what you don't.---
Rajan P. Parrikar
sbo...@nd.edu (Surajit Bose) wrote:
>A haunting and fairly well known raaga. Does the article mean that
>Anoushka played a new COMPOSITION in the traditional Bairagi? Or was this
>raaga itself a creation of Ravi Shankar's and I'm just mistaken in my
>belief that it's traditional? Or has Ravi Shankar come up with a
>different raaga that he decided to name Bairagi, despite the existence of
>the traditional raaga of that name?
Run a search on Deja for the keywords RAAG CONFUSION and you will
see that these issues have been discussed in some detail last year.
Warm regards,
r
Rajan P. Parrikar
>The album contains five compositions in ragas Bairagi,
>Tilak Shyam, Kirwani, Charukeshi and Pilu. The first
>two are ragas created by Ravi Shankar; the third is
>his Hindustani adaptation of the original Carnatic raga.
Raga Kirvani was being performed by Vishnu Digambar Paluskar
and his students before the eruption of Mr Shankar's first
pimple. There is a nice dohA (or chaupA'i) from the
Ramcharitamanas set to the rAga by the grand old man.
It used to be the case once upon a time that if you didn't
know the past you'd study history; nowadays why bother when
you can simply invent it?
May the force be with you,
r
Dhanishta
says so. He's one of our foremost musicians, and if he thinks so, it must be
true. I know my abilities. Thing is, I don't know if I'll live up to them."
There is also the realisation: If she has to make a name for herself, she has
to do it now. That wouldn't have been a problem if she weren't so keen to
complete her college education. "College would be a bad move for me,
career-wise," the 12th grader at a San Diego high school, USA, says, baldly.
"People feel I should strike out solo now. But I want to study - for myself.
It's just a matter of convincing Dad. But I know he'll eventually
let me do what I want.>>
All I have to say (and I've been a lurker for a while now) to Anoushka is:
Yeah baby! Go for that college education. Perhaps you might find yourself
there. You certainly need to. Otherwise, you'll end up being a blurred carbon
copy of your father, with none of the originality, and a bunch of rippling,
flashy taans, memorized tihais and almost no taste.
I saw her in Boston last year. I too stayed seated. It was frightening to me
how everybody ate up all the hype and didn't discern good music from terrible.
Someone please tell me: Why is the general janta so pathetic?
Vijaya
Bansijeff
composition of Ravi Shankar. He has claimed to have invented many rags which
he did not (some of which he learned from Allauddin Khan) but in this case, he
really did compose it. You think that it was a traditional rag because he did
it so long ago that it has become firmly established by now.
>Bairagi a new Ravi Shankar composition? What about the traditional
>Bhairav variant?:
Jeff Whittier
Rajan P. Parrikar
Namashkar. Ruminating some more on Mr Ravi Shankar and
Raga Bairagi and related matters -
There is nothing mind-bendingly creative (*) about this
relatively linear oDava rAga (its partial form (the
n' S r chant) was known to Indians much earlier).
To the extent that Mr Shankar first composed in the
scale, gave it a name and popularized it, he may take
credit. In the years following, others have imparted a
slight bhairavAnga via a grace of the gandhAr and called
it Bairagi Bhairav (Mr Shankar disowns this latter
development).
* a rAga such as Jait Kalyan, for instance, while
pentatonic, has vakra prayogas without which it
ceases to be.
Mr Shankar also claims parentage of Bairagi Todi,
another pentatonic critter employing the swaras
S r g P n (that is, the shuddha madhyam of Bairagi
replaced by the komal gandhAr to make room for the
toDi rAgAnga). However, Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang"
has also created a rAga by the same name and while it
draws inspiration from Bairagi it employs both the shuddha
madhyam and the komal gandhAr. I must remember to ask him
when he conceived his Bairagi Todi. There are other instances
of rAga-name overlaps associated with Mr Shankar and
Pandit S.N. Ratanjankar although the melodic ideas are
distinct; I have brought those to the B-Ratna's attention.
Recently in an informal chat with Dinkar Kaikini in
Mumbai, he mentioned en passant that the popular Raga Durga
of bilAval thAT (there's one of khamAj thAT as well)
was introduced into the Hindustani stream by Bhatkhande
following a cue from the Karnatak rAga Shuddha Saveri.
That may well be the case although Bhatkhande (true
to Indian tradition) takes no credit. If I correctly
recall, he has no older sources to cite for Durga (bilAval)
in his HSP other than his own Lakshyasangeet. But in
connection with it he cites the oDava Shuddha Malhar
that is note-congruent with Durga. At any rate,
Bhatkhande showed no proclivity for taking credit for
the least bit of crumb.
Another recent oDava entrant is the S r M (shuddha) P D
scale. I have heard it called by Manoranjani (Bhairav).
Ramashreya Jha has developed the scale and composed
in it and he gives it the beautiful name Vaidehi Bhairav.
Not to be outdone C.R. Vyas has conceived a nice twist
by inserting some prayogas of Raga Bhatiyar within
the same pentatonic framework and his brandname goes by
Sudh Jogiya. There's a charming composition too.
Warm regards, and may the Force...,
r
Keith Erskine
: All I have to say (and I've been a lurker for a while now) to Anoushka is:
: Yeah baby! Go for that college education. Perhaps you might find yourself
: there. You certainly need to. Otherwise, you'll end up being a blurred carbon
: copy of your father, with none of the originality, and a bunch of rippling,
: flashy taans, memorized tihais and almost no taste.
: I saw her in Boston last year. I too stayed seated. It was frightening to me
: how everybody ate up all the hype and didn't discern good music from terrible.
Please give us a concrete example of why her performance was terrible.
Certainly Anoushka plays primarily compositions & taans & toras by her father,
rather than 80% improvisation that is typical of Hindustani music.
However, does lack of improvisation make music "terrible"?
After all, these compositions ARE by Ravi Shankar himself, IMHO one of the
premiere Indian instrumental composers. Furthermore, Ravi Shankar has
composed much music for Indian ensemble & orchestra & sitar ensembles
that is predominantly precomposed. Does that mean that all of Pt. Shankar's
pioneering work in this field is "terrible"? Listen to "7 1/2" from
Ravi Shankar's 75th anniversary CD for an example of tremendously exciting
precomposed music.
I feel Anoushka performed her fathers difficult compositions extremely well
when she accompanied him at WOMAD '98, and deserved her ovation. If it
had been a solo Anoushka performance, probably her incomplete improvisation
skills would have not allowed a balanced, traditional performance.
As a staunch non-traditionalist, I find myself asking "Perhaps the audience
relates better to less improvisation & more pre-composed material". After
all, divinely inspired improvisation does NOT occur on a regular basis - I
have attended concerts with extended alaps & drut teentals where the artists
really did not create adequate interest, tension, resolution, dynamic contrast
during their improvisation. Certainly a broader library of toras & taans &
tihais would allow these artists to give their audience a better gift.
While I love improvisation, I know that my contrapuntal improvisations will
never match the quality of a Bach Lute Suite, or even one of my own
pre-composed pieces.
As a jazz musician of >25 years, the epitomy of a bad jazz band is one in
which the melody is played once, each member takes a LONG (4-5 min) solo,
the melody is repeated to close. These extended solos, repeated over and
over throughout the night, can quickly turn into self-indulgent time wasters,
rather than carefully developed thematic variation inside of structure.
I personally prefer hearing a broader mixture of pre-composed interplay,
counterpoint, & harmony between musicians, such as the jazz suites composed
by Claude Bolling, or the Johnny Smith NBC orchestra, or Duke Ellington.
Certainly improvisation is critical to Hindustani music, and I wouldn't
suggest dispensing with it. However, when music is derided as terrible
for lack of improv, I must ask "Why is improv so vital?" Is it not almost
approaching an egotistical focus on the virtuosity of the artist, rather
than the quality of the music itself? Should Carnatic music draw our
scorn for its relative lack of improv w.r.t. Hindustani music?
And as far as the statement that memorized tihais should be subject to
derision, MANY artists conclude ragas with precomposed tihais rehearsed
in unision with the tabliya to provide a thrilling climax. Does this
rehearsal make the climax any less exciting? Most artists reuse rhythmic
motifs for tihais, fitting the notes to the raga as needed - do these
memorized ryhthmic motifs make the tihais any less valid? Or are we
more concerned with the on-the-fly mental mathematical juggling by the
artists as to which matra of teental to start a tihai with phrase of 3.25
matras and pause of 0.50 matras? (ans: matra 6.25)
Keith Erskine
I don't speak for HP, and vice-versa.
Arnab Chakrabarty
Not really. Both Nat Bhairav and Bairagi might have been "re-discovered"
by Ravi Shankar and given the name. I say this simply because a scale
structure as simple as S r M P n S' /S' n P M r S could not have been
left out by the wise guys who played with ragas before we (and Ravi
Shankar) were born. Also, a purely logical question from this
nomenclature - Where is the "Nat" in Nat Bhairav?
A
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Rajan P. Parrikar
Arnab Chakrabarty <achakr...@hampshire.edu> writes:
>Not really. Both Nat Bhairav and Bairagi might have been "re-discovered"
>by Ravi Shankar and given the name. I say this simply because a scale
>structure as simple as S r M P n S' /S' n P M r S could not have been
>left out by the wise guys who played with ragas before we (and Ravi
>Shankar) were born. Also, a purely logical question from this
>nomenclature - Where is the "Nat" in Nat Bhairav?
I have already suggested that you do a power search
on Deja for the keywords RAAG CONFUSION in an earlier post.
Merely because a scale is simple does not mean the
rAga existed. There are any number of pentatonic scales
that are not yet rAgas. In the Hindustani stream there
are still some unexplored sampurNA scales.
The Nat in Nat Bhairav is in the poorvAnga. S R, R G, G M etc.
Gotta go.
r
Sajjad Khaliq
: All I have to say (and I've been a lurker for a while now) to Anoushka is:
: Yeah baby! Go for that college education. Perhaps you might find yourself
: there. You certainly need to. Otherwise, you'll end up being a blurred carbon
: copy of your father, with none of the originality, and a bunch of rippling,
: flashy taans, memorized tihais and almost no taste.
: I saw her in Boston last year. I too stayed seated. It was frightening to me
: how everybody ate up all the hype and didn't discern good music from terrible.
I should like to share my views and opinions with Ms Anoushka: go for that
college education. You may need it to fall back on. The Indian
music scene if full young sitarists. And many of them, I might add
are far, far better as sitarists than you are Ms Anoushka. Besides it will
do no harm to go to University. Look at Bhudhaditya Mukkerjee; MSc in
Metallaury from Bhopal. (Must come in handy when selecting sitar wires!).
Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, MA in Economics. Ustad Vilayat Khan's younger
son, Hidayat is attending college in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, I'm told.
As for what to study; sorry I can't offer any advice there. Perhaps
Marketing would be a good subject, as it may help you in
successfully "selling" an inferior and un-competitive product as your
music.
Best of luck.
Ashok
>
>I should like to share my views and opinions with Ms Anoushka: go for that
>college education. You may need it to fall back on. The Indian
>music scene if full young sitarists. And many of them, I might add
>are far, far better as sitarists than you are Ms Anoushka. Besides it will
>do no harm to go to University. Look at Bhudhaditya Mukkerjee; MSc in
>Metallaury from Bhopal. (Must come in handy when selecting sitar wires!).
>Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, MA in Economics. Ustad Vilayat Khan's younger
>son, Hidayat is attending college in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, I'm told.
>
>As for what to study; sorry I can't offer any advice there. Perhaps
>Marketing would be a good subject, as it may help you in
>successfully "selling" an inferior and un-competitive product as your
>music.
>
>Best of luck.
Mr. Sajjad Khaliq:
Comparing Anoushka's replies to interviewer's questions and your
writing above, at 17 she appears to be far ahead of you in maturity
and self-insight. I earnestly hope that this kind of cowardly,
mealy-mouthed, two-tongued, blatantly hypocritical, dishonest,
resentful and venomous thoughts ramain forever foreign to her.
You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Ashok
Dhanishta
father,
rather than 80% improvisation that is typical of Hindustani music.
However, does lack of improvisation make music "terrible"?>>
Of course it doesn't - there was no implication that lack of improvisation
makes music "terrible." It's a lack of style and voice, a lack of
individuality and maturity -those are
the things which make music stilted, wooden, mechanical or, "terrible."
What I meant is that she lacks her own style, her own voice, her own
experience. It is wrong to push someone on to the stage on such a major level
before he or she has developed artistic maturity. The only reason she got a
standing ovation from a majorly clueless audience is that she had both Daddiji
and a
lot of hype on her side. By all means, she can perform on stage, but it seems
too obvious
that she got her breaks because of Pt. Ravi Shankar.
It seems too blatant. She should have cut
her teeth on smaller stages and mehfils,
and then gradually moved to larger venues
in the fullness of time. This sort of publicity
can stunt a young artist who has not had the time to find her or his own style.
Eventually,
the artist comes to believe the hype and does not grow. Too much praise too
early can only lead to an early cessation of growth in artists,
unless they already come equipped with their own voice and style, which, I'm
sorry to say, Anoushka does not appear to have - yet.
<<As a staunch non-traditionalist, I find myself asking "Perhaps the audience
relates better to less improvisation & more pre-composed material".>>
Perhaps.
<<After
all, divinely inspired improvisation does NOT occur on a regular basis>>
True, oh, so true.
<<After all, these compositions ARE by Ravi Shankar himself, IMHO one of the
premiere Indian instrumental composers. Furthermore, Ravi Shankar has
composed much music for Indian ensemble & orchestra & sitar ensembles
that is predominantly precomposed. Does that mean that all of Pt. Shankar's
pioneering work in this field is "terrible>>
Ravi Shankar's compositions are brilliant and scintillating. I speak as someone
who has studied sitar for a number of years with one of his disciples. And no,
there is no question of sour grapes, because I do not perform or want to
perform very much. I just love the sitar. I love to hear different voices,
different styles, different sitar personalities. I do not like to hear
mechanical copies. She sounded like one. That is why it was "terrible."
Perhaps I should have been more euphemistic and said "unsatisfactory." So,
I'll say that. It was unsatisfactory. There was nothing that held me. I was
also disappointed, because Ravi Shankar was one of my heroes when I was growing
up, but he sounded weak that day in Boston, and she seemed like an
amplification of his style, without his brilliant spirit. I do not disrespect
Ravi Shankar. Rather, I felt sad that he was not his usual self. However, I
do not feel it incumbent upon me to pay homage, respect or adulation to
Anoushka just because she's Raviji's daughter. All I addressed was Anoushka's
sitar style, and the excessive hype.
<<I personally prefer hearing a broader mixture of pre-composed interplay,
counterpoint, & harmony between musicians, such as the jazz suites composed
by Claude Bolling, or the Johnny Smith NBC orchestra, or Duke Ellington.>>
I would agree about Duke Ellington, but not Bolling. What about Mingus? By
the way, I've played jazz too, but not for 25 years. Guitarist.
<<And as far as the statement that memorized tihais should be subject to
derision,>>
Who said anything about derision? Please quote properly, and don't put words
in my mouth - so to speak! I just meant that there was nothing memorable and
original about her playing - sure, many of us play tihais that are memorized,
but we try other things, stretch our boundaries a little, reach for the
unreachable - if that's done with courage and daring, that's what should get a
few murmurs of "daad" from the "rasikas" in the front row. Come to think of
it, perhaps the standing ovation was not for her, as much as for her father's
long and illustrious career. I hope!
Sincerely,
Vijaya
Vijaya
bdixit
remotely related to Panditji. His statements on Anoushka and her skills as a
musician should not be taken seriously. It is really amusing to read though. ...
Balwant Dixit
Arnab Chakrabarty
> Merely because a scale is simple does not mean the
> rAga existed. There are any number of pentatonic scales
> that are not yet rAgas. In the Hindustani stream there
> are still some unexplored sampurNA scales.
Agreed.
> The Nat in Nat Bhairav is in the poorvAnga. S R, R G, G M etc.
Thse are notes of Nat. The application in the 'raga' called
"Nat Bhairav" has so little in common with the other "Nat Group"
ragas - Shuddha Nat, Chhaya, Chhayanat, Nat Malhar
(Koukav Khan style) etc. The special use of R G M R -- S, R G -
(R) G M--etc etc are totally missing in Nat Bhairav from a Nat
Group standpoint.
Arnab Chakrabarty
Rajan P. Parrikar <parr...@colorado.edu> wrote:
>
> >The album contains five compositions in ragas Bairagi,
> >Tilak Shyam, Kirwani, Charukeshi and Pilu. The first
> >two are ragas created by Ravi Shankar; the third is
> >his Hindustani adaptation of the original Carnatic raga.
>
> and his students before the eruption of Mr Shankar's first
> pimple. There is a nice dohA (or chaupA'i) from the
> Ramcharitamanas set to the rAga by the grand old man.
> It used to be the case once upon a time that if you didn't
> know the past you'd study history; nowadays why bother when
> you can simply invent it?
>
> May the force be with you,
To add to that, in the year of Pandit Ravi Shankar's birth, (1920) Ustad
Mohammad Ameer Khan of Darbhanga recorded on his sarod, a firozkhani
gat in Kirwani which is still played in our Gharana (Naren Dhar, Mumbai,
1989).
sanj...@my-deja.com
> scale. I have heard it called by Manoranjani (Bhairav).
not sure how recent this is - Manoranjani is definitely the name by
which it goes down south...another one of the many "Ranjani"s that
exist in Carnatic?
> the same pentatonic framework and his brandname goes by
> Sudh Jogiya. There's a charming composition too.
which compositions are you referring to? i've heard someone local sing
a madhyalaya and a drut in "shuddh jogiya" and i was wondering if
they're the same.
--
Sanjeev Ramabhadran
Rajan P. Parrikar
Arnab Chakrabarty <achakr...@hampshire.edu> writes:
>Thse are notes of Nat. The application in the 'raga' called
>"Nat Bhairav" has so little in common with the other "Nat Group"
>ragas - Shuddha Nat, Chhaya, Chhayanat, Nat Malhar
>(Koukav Khan style) etc. The special use of R G M R -- S, R G -
>(R) G M--etc etc are totally missing in Nat Bhairav from a Nat
>Group standpoint.
In a hybrid rAga comprising 2 or more rAgas, which portion
of the subsidiary rAga(s) (and the how and how much), is added
is the conceivors' prerogative. Note that the scale of Nat Bhairav
is of the karnaTaka melakartA sarasAngi but the rAga is
clearly a hybrid of two rAgAngas. According to Mr Shankar he
picked up the essential idea for Nat Bhairav from Prof. Deodhar
but refined it further. Even then, Nat Bhairav is not treated
uniformly by everyone. Stylistic and minor structural differences
exist, primarily on the Nat 'operation.' To pick another example
from your list - Nat Malhar - some people have Nat combined with
Miya Malhar (Bhimsen Joshi, for instance) with the komal gandhAr etc,
others have Nat mating with only the key malhAr phrases (M R P, n D N)
and prayogas from Gaud Malhar. You get the idea.
Intelligent hybrid construction requires judicious choice
of constitutent rAgas (listen to the terrible Hameer-Bahar
of Bismillah for an appreciation of this remark), location of
a mating 'plane,' and - very imp - then binding the two or more
rAgas into a composite via special tonal sentences (vishishTh
sanchAris) that are not necessarily common to any of the
constituents. Only one man come to my mind who could do this
consistently to a high degree of ingenuity and skill - Alladiya
Khan of Jaipur-Atrauli.
Warm regards,
r
Arnab Chakrabarty
parr...@ferrari.Colorado.EDU (Rajan P. Parrikar) wrote:
> In a hybrid rAga comprising 2 or more rAgas, which portion
> of the subsidiary rAga(s) (and the how and how much), is added
> is the conceivors' prerogative. Note that the scale of Nat Bhairav
> is of the karnaTaka melakartA sarasAngi but the rAga is
> clearly a hybrid of two rAgAngas. According to Mr Shankar he
> picked up the essential idea for Nat Bhairav from Prof. Deodhar
> but refined it further. Even then, Nat Bhairav is not treated
> uniformly by everyone. Stylistic and minor structural differences
> exist, primarily on the Nat 'operation.'
Very true. A major role in this variance in stylistic and structural
difference is played by the fact that a wide array of performers today
approach a jod-raga without considering its constituent or parent ragas.
> To pick another example from your list - Nat Malhar - some people have
>Nat combined with Miya Malhar (Bhimsen Joshi, for instance) with the
>komal gandhAr etc, others have Nat mating with only the key malhAr
>phrases (M R P, n D N)and prayogas from Gaud Malhar. You get the idea.
In my training I have encountered three variants of this raga. The
"Bhimsen Joshi" variant is relatively modern, I'd say. What I meant by
"Koukav Khan" variant was the one which borrows from Goud Malhar. Also,
there is another version of Nat Malhar which (Sajjad Mohammed: 1887
gat-toda in tintala) combines the key phrases of Nat with some Khamaj,
Bilawal and Malhar usages, coming dangerously close to Chhaya, and
therefore is not played in our gharana.
> Intelligent hybrid construction requires judicious choice
> of constitutent rAgas (listen to the terrible Hameer-Bahar
> of Bismillah for an appreciation of this remark), location of
> a mating 'plane,' and - very imp - then binding the two or more
> rAgas into a composite via special tonal sentences (vishishTh
> sanchAris) that are not necessarily common to any of the
> constituents. Only one man come to my mind who could do this
> consistently to a high degree of ingenuity and skill - Alladiya
> Khan of Jaipur-Atrauli.
I have listened to that rendition of Hameer-Bahar by Bismillah
Khan. It failed to evoke any response (good or bad) for me. I
sat through it like a stone statue. Alladiya Khan Saheb's adeptness in
this matter goes unchallenged, but I would like to point out that there
were others like my dada-guru Radhika Mohan Maitra who created some
beautiful jod-ragas eg. Malhua Kalyan, Chhaya-Kedar. I can send you a
live concert tape of Guruji playing Malhua Kalyan at the Bharatiya Vidya
Bhavan in Mumbai.
Regards,
A
DGandikota
>In a hybrid rAga comprising 2 or more rAgas, which portion
>of the subsidiary rAga(s) (and the how and how much), is added
>is the conceivors' prerogative.
....
>Merely because a scale is simple does not >mean the
>rAga existed. There are any number of >pentatonic scales
>that are not yet rAgas. In the Hindustani stream there
>are still some unexplored sampurNA scales.
Is it that the parts are not adding up to the whole or the whole has no parts?
I don't know about others, but I'm lost.
Rajan P. Parrikar
sanj...@my-deja.com (Sanjeev Ramabhadran) writes:
>not sure how recent this is - Manoranjani is definitely the name by
>which it goes down south...
Not according to Subbarao. The M'ranjani he cites is different.
>> the same pentatonic framework and his brandname goes by
>> Sudh Jogiya. There's a charming composition too.
>
>which compositions are you referring to? i've heard someone local sing
>a madhyalaya and a drut in "shuddh jogiya" and i was wondering if
>they're the same.
I had in mind "suna ho araja mori" in druta ektAla. CR Vyas also
sings a vilambit kHayAl in tilwADA.
Warm regards,
r
>--
>Sanjeev Ramabhadran
>
FOOSBEAL
Aklbar Khan's sister)? Rumour has it that he wouldn't let her record because
she was more skilled than he.
buh...@ecn.ab.ca
: Has anyone heard performances (live) by Annapurna, Ravi's first wife
: (and Ali Aklbar Khan's sister)? Rumour has it that he wouldn't let her
: record because she was more skilled than he.
my guru has an audiotape of a concert by the two of them - surbahar duet.
it's an old recording, sound quality isn't great. and i don't think there
was any stereo separation of the two instruments. but it wasn't too hard
to tell which one was which, and mr. shankar wasn't the more interesting
of the two.
ajb
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew Buhr buh...@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca
Savour the Irony! bu...@infinity.gmcc.ab.ca
http://freenet.edmonton.ab.ca/~buhrger
sanj...@my-deja.com
> sanj...@my-deja.com (Sanjeev Ramabhadran) writes:
>
> >not sure how recent this is - Manoranjani is definitely the name by
> >which it goes down south...
>
> Not according to Subbarao. The M'ranjani he cites is different.
hmmm...i have an lp of the late m.l. vasanthakumari singing (among
other things) a kriti in manoranjani, which definitely is the raga in
question.
>
> >> the same pentatonic framework and his brandname goes by
> >> Sudh Jogiya. There's a charming composition too.
> >
> >which compositions are you referring to? i've heard someone local
sing
> >a madhyalaya and a drut in "shuddh jogiya" and i was wondering if
> >they're the same.
>
> I had in mind "suna ho araja mori" in druta ektAla.
yes, this is the same drut cheez - also, there's one in madhyalaya
jhaptaal - "sangavaa more shyaam sundara etc.", does that ring a bell?
is that also c.r. vyas' composition?
--
Sanjeev Ramabhadran
Rajan P. Parrikar
sanj...@my-deja.com (Sanjeev Ramabhadran) writes:
>> I had in mind "suna ho araja mori" in druta ektAla.
>
>yes, this is the same drut cheez - also, there's one in madhyalaya
>jhaptaal - "sangavaa more shyaam sundara etc.", does that ring a bell?
>is that also c.r. vyas' composition?
Dunno. What's the rest of the text? It may betray the composers'
identity.
Let me toss another oDava-jAti Ranjani at you. To wit,
Raga SagunaRanjani. Scalically it obtains from replacing
the pancham in the above Sudh Jogiya by the tivra madhyam.
But that little operation dramatically alters the landscape
since it is attended by the birth of the lalitAnga.
The swaras are (M=shuddha madhyam): S r M m D. The
poorvAnga (from Sa to the shuddha Ma) is treated in
bhairav-like fashion and the uttarAnga (tivra Ma to
the tAra Sa) like Hindol. At the interface of these two
rAgAngas is placed the lalitAnga resulting from the M-m
chromatic interaction. All this makes for a strange-looking
organism. Try this for size (the assumption is that one
knows how the lalitAnga is treated):
S, S r M, M m M, m D S", DS" r: S", S" D m M...
Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang" has a splendid composition
in the rAga in honour of Shiva ("sankaTa harana") which
I plan to persuade him to record. Dinkar Kaikini treats the
same basic idea a tad differently and calls it GunaRanjani.
He, too, has composed a couple of nice bandishes.
We have earlier met the other Ranjanis and noted
their quirks (although we must concede that by and
large Ranjani Saigal is well-behaved:-). SagunaRanjani
stands out even among the rest of the maverick bunch.
Warm regards,
r
Ajay P Nerurkar
: S, S r M, M m M, m D S", DS" r: S", S" D m M...
One feels the need for some sort of uniformity in the way teevra Ma is
notated by the frequent contributors to RMIC. I propose that M# be used
for this purpose. This would make the task of interpretation a bit easier
for the frequent readers of RMIC, something we all want. In notating
bandishes, where one might encounter teevra Ma of the taar or mandra
saptaks one could relapse to using m and M (with advance warning of course),
to avoid the awkward M#" etc.
Ajay
WARVIJ
>notated by the frequent contributors to RMIC.
Although I agree with the premise, I suspect that rmic-log
are a sufficiently individualistic and contrarian bunch that
notational uniformity is a pipe-dream. And I say this even
though I personally use M#!
Cheers,
Warren