Re: The Emperor of Sitar
barend
Why do you compare these musicians all the time? and why do you
ephazise that VK is the best?
All these musicians have their own style and are extremely good in
their own right.
It all comes down to personal taste.........so there is no best!
My favourite sitar players are Vilayat Khan, Ravi Shankar, Nikhil
Banerjee and Shahid Parvez, and I appreciate them equally....and I
don't care if they are from different gharanas.
barend
some fight together or make some comments on each other.........I don't
care for that.
If someone is a good musician people should respect that, no matter
what style or gharana.
It all comes down to personal taste.....and I hate this comparison
thing.....
Town Crier
sitar_vadak wrote while answering Keith Erskine:
> 1) Ans... ignorant people like you, ...
> 4) Ans... you are a child in the field of Indian Classical Music.
> 5) Ans... You should go deeper in our classical music. One who counts
> the waves, has no idea of the depth of the ocean...
> 7) Ans... who the hail are you to pass these nonsense comments? ...
> 7) Ans... you condition is worse than any animal, ...
> 9) Ans... any accomplished vocalist or instrumentalist can explain you this
> point, if he/she is not corrupted like you.
> , and while answering Shri:
> 2) Ans: Shame, from your statement, people comes to know , your ****
> mentality ...
> , and while answering WARVIJ:
> 1) Ans... It is better not to say any thing about Ali Akbar's recent
> performances...
> , and while answering Rajan:
> 2) Ans... the person who passed the comment, surely falls between
> these two categories...
> , and while answering Abhik Majumdar:
> 1) Ans... The people, without self confidence and dedication and
> respect for their own work will not be able to understand
> these values. Better they should keep quite.
Mr. Sitar vadak, you are indeed a master of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem (as are many others from your
gharana, I might add). Better stop wasting time on such nonsense and
start practicing your music if you hope to make an impression on
audiences in Pune.
DG
Town Crier
sitar_vadak
modern Sitar. For over six decades, Khansahib mesmerized his audience
with his magnificent gayaki-ang Sitar baaz, creating what is
universally accepted as the Vilayatkhani baaz.
Born in Gouripur (now in Bangladesh), he was the son of the legendary
Sitar maestro Ustad Inayat Khan. Vilayat's ancestors belonged to the
famous Etawah gharana also known as the Imdadkhani gharana, named after
his famous grandfather. The loss of his father and guru at an early age
only spurred young Vilayat on in his dedicated pursuit of musical
excellence. He continued his taalim from his maternal grandfather,
Ustad Bande Hussain Khan (a well-known vocalist) and his paternal
uncle, Ustad Wahid Khan. All through, he was meticulously guided and
monitored by his mother, Bashiran Begum. The training combined with his
stubborn perseverance in riyaaz and his indomitable obsession to become
the torchbearer of his great family tradition shaped him into one of
the finest Sitar maestros on the contemporary scene. In fact, even as a
young man, he rose to the status of a musical celebrity of
international fame.
A creative genius like Vilayat was not content with mere presentation
of his parent baaz. He remodelled the Sitar in many ways like removing
the second gourd, changing the strings and tuning system. His technical
contribution, exquisitely attuned to the various gradations of Raga
delineation, elucidative in practical exposition, has become a
reference point for the art of perfect Sitar playing.
Vilayat's music represents technical wizardry coloured by his
romantic temperament and a high aesthetic sensibility. He took taans to
speeds previously unimaginable and did so with immaculate precision and
clarity and at the same time, uncompromising on the raagdari. His vocal
taalim enriched his deep understanding and translation of the subtlest
nuances of the human voice on his instrument. To enhance the gayaki ang
of playing, he often burst into singing the bandish, be it khayal,
thumri or a bhatiali dhun, following it up with a precise reproduction
on his Sitar.
For his magnificent solos, his immemorial duets, Ustad Vilayat Khan
will live on in the hearts of millions for time immemorial, as the
Shahenshah of Sitar.
abhikma...@gmail.com
Town Crier wrote:
> sitar_vadak wrote while answering Keith Erskine:
<snip>
Is this from a private mail or something? I couldn't find it on RMIC
(at least, on Google Groups).
> > , and while answering Abhik Majumdar:
> > 1) Ans... The people, without self confidence and dedication and
> > respect for their own work will not be able to understand
> > these values. Better they should keep quite.
This gets even more mystifying. I'm certain some logical connection
exists between my observation about what I thought was a typo on his
site, and his inferences about my lack of self-confidence, dedication
and respect for my own work. In point of fact he is startlingly
accurate in all his surmises. Could someone please explain to me how he
worked it all out? I promise to keep quite (sic) thereafter.
Abhik
Adi Nemlekar
1) A (23 year old) know-it-all, holier-than-thou disposition
2) Near sychophantic allegence to Ustad Vilyat Khan
3) Analytical skills (complete with ad hominem as Town Crier suggested)
that rival a wet dish rag.
Anyone else see a familiar trend here...perhaps one that is
characteristic of self-proclaimed "doyens" of the
Imdadkhani/Vilayatkhani lineage? Maybe its just me...
SH
sitar_vadak wrote:
> Ustad Vilayat Khan has been widely acclaimed as the architect of the
> modern Sitar. For over six decades, Khansahib mesmerized his audience
> with his magnificent gayaki-ang Sitar baaz, creating what is
> universally accepted as the Vilayatkhani baaz.
....
> For his magnificent solos, his immemorial duets, Ustad Vilayat Khan
> will live on in the hearts of millions for time immemorial, as the
> Shahenshah of Sitar.
Well written article. Your own? The style is a little different ...
Prasad Bhandarkar
http://www.itcsra.org/sra_news_views/orbituary/vilayat_khan.html
On 10/4/05 10:39 PM, in article
1128490794.4...@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com, "SH"
sitar_vadak
THE eleven-year-old was all tousled hair and crumpled clothes. From his
home in Calcutta it had taken him ten days on several trains to stow
away to New Delhi. Sneaking past the Pathan watchman the urchin entered
the All India Radio Station with a sitar in his hand. That is where
programme assistant Zafar Husain found him. Exhaustion coul not keep
out the ringing pride in th boy's voice. "I am Vilayat Khan, son of the
late Inayat Khan Saheb."
"Beta!" cried Husain as he folded the boy into a fierce hug. 'Are you
really my guru's son? What brings you here? Alone? In this state?"
But neither to Husain nor later to AIR's director-general Z.A. Bokhari
would the boy admit anything more than that he was a truant. "If you
try to send me back I'll run away again." With that he broke into sobs.
Bokhari was no run-of-the-mill bureaucrat. He decided to care for the
fatherless child, to nurture and enrich his musical talent. After all,
young Vilayat Khan was the scion of the Ittawa gharana whose stalwarts
traced their line back to Tansen of Akbar's court. Bokhari not only
provided shelter, clearing a garage for the child's quarters but
engaged him as an AIR artiste at Rs. 10 a month. This was after he
answered the question, "Can you play the sitar you are carrying
around?" with an immediate burst of Bhairavi. Staff members gathered to
listen. Senior sitarist Hyder Husain Khan of the Jaipur gharana
exclaimed, 'Arey! Inayat Khan is still alive! Here, in this boyl"
The director also allotted two radio recitals a month to Vilayat's
paternal uncle Wahid Khan (sitarist in Hyderabad) and maternal
grandfather Bande Husain Khan (vocalist in Nahaan) to ensure their
regular visits to Delhi to coach the boy Thus the youngster was trained
simulta- neously to sing in the romantic khyal mode and to play the
more traditional dhrupad ang in the instrumental style of the sitar and
surbahar. He himself gave vocal and sitar recitals with equal felicity.
"So you see, the khyal entered my head naturally and influenced my
sitar playing. I also revelled in the whole gamut of light classical
thumri, tappa, tarana, chaiti, barsati.......
Father Inayat Khan had died too early to have trained son Vilayat (born
1928) though the child had learnt enough to accompany him on the stage.
But the father left a fire, constantly stoked by mother Bashiren Begum,
daughter of a family of eminent vocalists in Saharanpur and Nahaan.
A sprightly 68 now, Vilayat Khan loved to indulge in the virtual
reality of memories, of a past which anchored his growth, inspired his
creative departures. "Too much tradition makes for dead wood. But I
don't want so much progress as to lose my identity," he laughs as he
details the changes he wrought on his own style and instrument through
the patient years, until he made his strings replicate the vibrancy,
versatility, continuity and the emotive range of the human voice.
Did he strike a new path because he was dissatisfied with the
instrumental (tantrakari/gatkari) mode of his ancestors? "No, no,"
Khansaheb intervenes quickly. "Only Abdul Karim Khan was my father's
equal in laydari (rhythm) and surilapan (sweetness). Till today I've
not been able to play as perfectly as he did. Perhaps that's why I had
to make my own style."
When friends and relatives jeered, "I vowed to myself I would not
return until I proved to be a worthy son of my father." Khansaheb
dashes a hand across his eyes as he recalls the pain of his father's
death. It forced him to forge his path alone. With that he becomes the
caring host of a winter morning on the lawns of "Surbahar"
(MelodyGalore), his home in Dehradun. "Look beta, your tea is getting
cold."
A birdcall arrests his hand-behind ear attention. "Such a tiny bird wit
such a piercing song. It's asking "where are you?" He repeats the call
in musical notes and taps the rhythm of rustling leaves. "I am lucky to
have this beautiful, quiet retreat for four months in a year after
tours in India and abroad. Ho long will it stay unspoilt? Already have
more pollution, tourists, lorries .... the woods are gone."
"Surbahar" is bursting with life. Besides his disciples and younger so
Hidayat, there are daughters Yaman, Zillah and toddler grandson
holidaying in the Doon Valley. Puppies, kittens, chicks, ducklings and
little serving boys scamper in and out, all managed by the placid
Zubeida Begum, his second wife. The estates produce grain and oil,
include a dairy, poultry farm, orchard, vegetable and rose gardens.
Vilayat Khan's facade of simple contentment hides a volatile
temperament, artiste's ego, creative frenzy, eccentricity, and an
astonishing range of interests from carpets and shawls to Mughal
miniature paintings. Visitors are stunned by his collection of guns,
pipes from England, China and Japan, crockery from the Czar's and the
Kaiser's tables, iridescent cutglass from Venice, Turkey and Bohemia,
chandeliers painstakingly assembled by the ustad himself. In his
younger days Khansaheb had been an accomplished billiards player,
horseman, swimmer and ballroom dancer.
He picks up a curiously shaped perfume bottle and inhales deeply. He
opens his eyes - there are tears in them. "This belonged to an Egyptian
queen of 2000 years ago. Here, smell it, aren't you in a different
world now?"
Khansaheb may not remember what he played at the Festival of India in
Britain (1951) but he is still wistful about the Jaguar XK 1 5 0 he
brought back from that tripl And about every single car he ever owned.
"When I was young I was mad about speed and had many near-fatal
accidents. I don't like to think about it now. Loud clothes, big talk,
craze for fame, fast driving - all these are signs of shallowness, of
bad taste."
This self assessment is part of his musical growth. The old reviews
reveal his penchant for showmanship. "He feels it in a sensitive manner
but argues it out loudly," says one. But the natty dresser confesses,
"I tried to wash out the bad parts, become clean, look good!"
He did arrive at a mature, multishaded, subtle delicacy and lingerin
grandeur. "Whenever he managed t express exactly what he wanted, he
would look heavenward," noted a later critic. The tributes came pouring
in for "playing from the heart and singing through the sitar."
Sitarist Arvind Parikh, friend and disciple of 50 years, recalls the
difficulties, and the humiliation Vilayat Khan underwent in crafting
his original style." A Films Division documentary shows the unsure,
pockmarked teenager, but there is nothing hesistant about his music. It
was so advanced, the sounds he produced with his left hand were so
unusual, that people denounced him as a thumri player, mistaking
inventiveness for light music, intensity for virtuosity." Vilayat Khan
reacted violently to the jibes. Once at a recital, he called out a
senior critic by name to say, "Now let's see what's stronger - your
pen, or my plectrum."
Those misunderstood essays were the beginning of Vilayat Khan's unique
contribution to Indian classical music, the style of sitar playing now
called Vilayatkhaani baaj. This is the gayaki ang or full fledged vocal
style, which he innovated, perfected and passed on to a school of
disciples. He wrought a total change in the dimension and impact of the
music by modifying the base, frets, bridge and strings of the sitar.
Only then could it handle the tremendous power of the right hand
strokes, the long intricate oscillations, the lyrical fluidity, the
itiurkis of khyal as well as the thuniri, exactly as the voice produced
them. In short he gave a new direction to Hindustani music.
Khansaheb gets visibly enthused as he explains how he did it not in
clinical terms but in bursts of singing ("Chandan phool banke daroon
garwa"), interposed with "Suno!" (listen) and "Samjhe?" (got it).
Grandfather Bande Husain Khan's phrases were resplendent with glides,
contours, modulations. His taans were labyrinths of superspeed where
each note was looped with a tiny glide. The old techniques were
incapable of replicating such vocal feats. And so Vilayat Khan crafted
alternatives.
While remaining an unwavering traditionalist, Khansaheb absorbed
everything that could enhance melody. He could refract in his Bhairavi
gleams from the saxophon score of a Hollywood film ("Bathing Beauty")
he had watched the day beforel He drew easily from folk music and the
fervent Baul songs of Bengal.
Vilayat Khan slips into the vivid past again. Great artistes came to
his father's haven in Calcutta. Abdul Aziz Khan from Patiala played the
veena, so did Venkatagiriappa from Mysore. Alladiya Khan and Faiyyaz
Khan sang, Shombhu Maharaj did abhinaya, and Balasaraswati danced to
mother jayammal's song. "Oh, it was divine, Look, look at them! All
enjoying the music and the food, some a swig of bhang in the corner.
They are thrilled to be together. No one wants to show off, each become
more humble. They bless me, they tweak my car as I imitate their
music.......
His first memory of music?" I go back to 1932, to Albert Hall in
Calcutta. My father enters, everyone rises to applaud him, even the
British governor and his splendid retinue of lords and ladies. What a
challenge to match Abdul Karim Khan who had sung before him. But my
father casts a new spell. I fall asleep though I keep opening my eyes
to see yellow, yellow every- where. "Silly childl" said my father to me
the next morning. "That was the colour of raag Basant."
Failing thrice in class three, little Vilayat decided to stop schooling
and play the sitar. The red eyed father roared, "Don't you know the
sitar is a scorpion.?"
But the boy got his way. Here Khansaheb breaks into gleeful English.
"Never I got shout after that. Never I got shout for the sitar!" His
native gifts were burnished by the family tradition of fanatical
practice.
The mood changes after lunch indoors. Vilayat Khan launches into a
tirade against compromise and adulteration of music. The ustad had made
dramatic exits when the audience got unruly. He refused to allow speech
making by the President of India in the middle of a concert. "Let him
do it at the start or finish. Music is not so cheap. I don't play for
people who can't take my music. I don't want to play the Moonlight
sonata or "We shall overcome" or some film song!"
The ustad knows that younger musicians have to grapple with steep falls
in taste, but will not condone playing to the gallery. "Let them go to
film music and make more money there than in classical music," he
growls. (His own scores for Satyajit Ray's 'Jalsaghar' and Merchant
Ivory's 'The Guru' have been adamantly classical). Then he repeats his
boast, "I am the highest paid musician in this country." This
childishness goes back to the fears and insecurities of his growing
years.
"Your soul will abuse you if you indulge in fusions of American and
Indian orchestras, join rock festivals, pretend to invent new raags to
fool the people, or play on two violins with a single bow," he adds.
jugalbandis were all right if done sportingly. As for his own bitter,
competitive, revengeful displays with Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan,
"I shudder to think of them."
He decries showy drumming for the same reason. 'All this sawaljawab
razzmatazz which Ravi Shankar introduced, why, the sitarist performs,
the drummer perl'orms, even the audience performs! Alla Rhakhaji and
Zakir Husain dare not do it with me. If anyone tries tricks. I make him
sweat. Once Kumar Bose said that playing tabla for me was death. He
could not give the beat for a simple gat I played in teen taal!"
Radio and television are denounced next. "They club us with snake
charmers and bear baiters as entertainers. They spend a fortune on
cricket, give a pittance to musicians!" He boycotted AIR in protest
against its audition policy. He refused every award from the Indian
government, rejected the Sangeet Niitak Akiidemi award at age 37
because its selections were "arbitrary, indiscriminate and based on
considerations other than merit."
It is but natural for Khansaheb to cry out against institutional
teaching of music with its diplomas and degrees. In other words.
passports to jobs which degrade the art and listeners' taste.
Khansaheb as a teacher? laughs Parikh: "Don't expect system and method.
If you are alert you can unlock Alladin's treasures. He would stop you
and say, "You haven't fixed the sa and you go to pa ' , Don't say "I
felt like it." In music everything must be reasoned out." Or he'd
suggest "Use the middle finger to stress the glide. Draw the ma from sa
for Malkauns. from ga for Bageshri..."
Son and sitarist Shujaat Khan's response blends gratitude and
resentment. " 15 times you play a phrase and go wrong once, he'd still
whack you across the knuckles until you wanted to throw the sitar and
run away. Many did just that. The pressure was unbearable." The father
would tell family stories of comniitted riyaz - of how grandfather
Imdad Khan did not get up till he finished his practice of paltas even
when he heard his daughter had died. Such tales did more to terrify
than to inspire the student!
Among disciples who survived are brother Imrat Khan, sons Shujaat and
Hidayat, nephews Nishat, Irshad and Shahed Parwez, as also Arvind
Parikh, Benjamin Gomez, Kalyani Roy. Nikhil Banerji and Rais Khan came
for classes. Purvi Mukherji and Shubhra Guha are his students of vocal
music.
We are on the terrace now, with low clouds flitting through the lissom
trees around us. The ustad breaks into raag Gaarii on request. Melody
flows like liquid gold. And you wonder. with a lump in your throat, why
he ever gave up singing which seems the most natural thing for him to
do. Don't his audience long for those snatches of song in his concerts,
not quite being able to tell when voice ends and strings begin '
When he replies, the tone is tremulous with a grief of long ago. "I
could do things with my voice that could never be done on the sitar.
That's when my mother stabbed me to the core. She said I must give up
singing. I obeyed unquestioningly. Years later she disclosed the
reason. "I come from a clan of vocalists. If you become a singer I
would have been condemned as disloyal to the family of instrumentalists
into which I married. How could I face your father and grandfather in
the next world(' So you see...
Earlier she had banned the family instrument - the surbahar - for him,
reserving it for younger son Imrat, who needed that concession from his
more gifted elder brother.
Khansaheb is lost in a reverie. Who knows what images cloud his mind -
of himself training his younger brother, their duo performances for
decades on sitar and surbahar, until an iron wall grew to block all
contact between them. Rebel son Shujaat Khan, now reconciled with his
father, is rueful about it. "Father is a genius, the lion's share of
the "wah-wahs" went to him. This must have hurt my uncle. Moreover,
father demanded complete submission. I remember the good times when
father, uncle, myself and cousin Nishat played together before a
delighted Calcutta audience. But in the last ten years the estrangement
between the brothers has been total. "
Shujaat discloses that Khansaheb demands sycophancy from family and
friends, and control of everyone's orbit. He could be as possessive as
he was loving and generous. "That's why his first marriage broke up. My
mother Monisha was a college educated brahmin, too independent to kow
tow to the great man. Presumably she fell in love with his good looks
and winsome ways onthe dance floor. She left him after three children
and years of bickering... "
It is in keeping with his nature that Vilayat Khan should insist on
staying an unflinching purist, and still yearn for the mass addition
showered upon his lifetime rival Ravi Shankar 'As a gharana musician
with mastery of technique and outstanding creativity, Vilayat Khan is
aware he stands head and shoulders above every living musician today,"
says Parikh. "flow can it not gall him that Ravi Shankar has greater
national and international recognition? One-upmanship and acrimony have
marred their genuine respect for each other."
Shujaat agrees but gives other reasons. "Father admits that but for
Ravi Shankar, who was there for him to practise to excel? Their rivalry
charged and spurred him to greater heights."
The slanting rays paint the sky in twilight hues. The birds return to
make garden symphonies. Lighting a bidi from his ornate silver box, the
sitar samrat hums a pahadi dhun, free from the burdens of celebrityhood
and the safety mask. That's when you ask him, "What are your happiest
moments at home,"
Catching sight of the little boy clearing the teii things he says, 'At
night all these garhwali children from the servants' quarters come to
my room. We talk, laugh and sing together. What we gharana musicians
take an hour to build up - that same raag and ras, why. these children
can do it in a split second, just like that! I feel a rapture then..."
That is Vilayat Khan, unpredictable, quicksilvery. In whom elegance
vies with ruthlessness, kindess with aggression. A life long rebel who
cannot tolerate other protestors. Guardian of his heritage, and
innovator supreme. A musician's musician. The future will rate him as a
great son of' fndiii who epitomised his country's living culture in an
uncompromising search for excellence.
Adi Nemlekar
Ever heard of plagerism? This is really annoying. Stop searching for
articles on Vilayat Khan on the internet and posting them here as your
own. 'Cause quite frankly:
1) Most of us here have already read them (the latest "post" is a
copy-paste job of an article on MusicalNirvana)
2) Most of us don't give a rats rotten rear
Why don't you go practice a gat or something...
sitar_vadak
Even after days of his passing away, the notes of Ustad Vilayat
Khan's Sitar can be heard in the air, says SUNITA BUDDHIRAJA.
I was just about five or six years old. My mother would drag me to the
annual Shankarlal Music Festival in Delhi, organised in the open air
grounds of Modern School. Most of tjem were all-night programmes.
Although I have memories of listening to various artistes, I learnt
their significance of these artists and their instruments much later.
On one such night, I saw a tall gentleman in white kurta and churidaar
pajama, holding something like a round box that had a long wooden trunk
with a number of metallic strings tied to it. This was my impression of
the instrument. My mother told me that the gentleman was Ustad Vilayat
Khan and the instrument was Sitar.
He took position on the stage and touched the strings of Sitar,
creating a whole universe of love, nature and bond.
Forty years later I recall that it was the first recital during which I
did not go off to sleep. I kept absorbing the sound being generated
from Sitar. I could sense goose pimples appearing on my arms. Both
Sitar and Ustad were singing! Ustad Vilayat Khan played Raag Darbari
Kanhada. This was my first real introduction to music.
I began compering concerts and interviewing artists for my articles. I
would see Ustad Vilayat Khan playing Sitar and day dreamt, will I ever
be able to compere his recital too.
Swami Haridas Sammelan was held in Brindavan every year around Radha
Ashtami - the birth date of Radha, and as if on the inspiration of Lord
Krishna, I was invited to compere the four day festival. Artists for
that year included Ustad Vilayat Khan. In the wee hours I saw him enter
the green rooms. Wearing a dark silk kurta, holding Sitar with love and
passion, he was smoking a bidi. I touched his feet and he blessed me,
'khush rahiye beta.'
Accompanied by Pandit Samta Prasad on Tabla, Ustad Vilayat Khan played
Alap, jod, jhala, and gat in Raag Basant Mukhari and a dhun in
Bhairavi.
Another opportunity came my way in Hyderabad in mid nineties, to
present Ustad Vilayat Khan for a recital. Though I had developed into a
good listener with a keen sense of music, I knew it well that I was too
small a person to introduce him.
Gathering my courage, all I could say was something that his music did
to me. "Ustad Vilayat Khan's music is the music that makes our
thoughts disappear, there remains only one feeling, one emotion and
that is the introduction to God."
Ustad Vilayat Khan was listening when I poured my heart out, about the
impact of his music. He welcomed the audience and said, 'All the
shortcomings in my recital are mine, and whatever is good, is the
blessing of my Gurus.' He played Raag Sanjh Saravali, a composition
of a multiple evening ragas and concluded with a dhun in Bhairavi, sang
some compositions. In bhairavi, he demonstrated the gandhar and dhaivat
of Darbari.
The effect of that evening was not benign on the audience. It spread
from one person to another, from one soul to another. After his recital
when the audience gave him a standing ovation, I recited a chaupai from
Raamcharitmana's, Gira anayan nayan binu bani.
Poet Tulsidas says, 'when Ramchandra ji saw Sita ji in Janak Vatika,
he was awed to even utter a word, because the eyes that are capable of
seeing, do not have vocal ability and the tongue that has vocal
ability, cannot see. We are sailing in the same boat today. Our ears
that can listen, can not speak, our tongue that can speak, can neither
hear nor feel, and our heart that can feel can neither speak nor
listen. Ustad ji, we have forgotten to even appreciate your music.'
Ustad Vilayat Khan stopped. He kept standing with humility for nearly
ten minutes listening to every single word. Perhaps that simplicity and
sublimity are the cause why these artists attained such heights in the
world of music that was larger than life.
Ustad Vilayat Khan was a big man, a large hearted person and a great
artist. Next day he was telling the journalists gathered for an
interview, who would have given their right hand to get a quote or two
from him, 'This bachchi (girl, referring to me) was not saying
anything about me. Actually it was the music she was talking about. Do
you know, real music can be bliss. Its universe is like Vaikuntha. It
is Brahmanand. You forget your ego, it is complete surrender. Music is
my sadhana.
Real music is played in the praise of God. Will you pray for me that I
continue playing in His honor and praise?'
Once on a TV Channel, in a music show, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Girija Devi
ji, Ustad Zakir Husain, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia and many other
senior artists were together to adjudge young competitors. As is the
tradition, the TV presenter asked Ustad Vilayat Khan, 'How should we
conclude the show?'
Usually, the show concludes with a recital by the senior artists, but
to our surprise and pride, Ustad Vilayat Khan said, Let us sing Jan Gan
Man ...'
I saluted this great person, and with a lump in my throat, sang Jan Gan
Man standing in front of my television set, while all those artists
were singing the National Anthem at the television studios.
Yes, music transcends beyond any religion and cast. it is not important
to belong to a particular community to love the country. One can belong
to any caste or community. to have the pride of being an Indian. Indian
that he was, Ustad Vilayat Khan.
This is the feelings of a person about Khan Sahab
Ustad Vilayat Khan commanded the strings of Sitar, these could be seen
during the side ways deflection as if in the space, creating swaras. He
played Sitar in Gayaki Ang. Versatility of his strokes could generate
the tonal quality of a human voice.
Many a people criticized him for his creativity and departure from the
purist form of music, but his Sitar could touch the souls. No wonder
when the eleven year old Vilayat Khan was asked once in the AIR, if he
could play the instrument he was carrying, he played the notes of
Bharavi, leaving the artists who had gathered around the little boy
stunned, 'Arre, Inayat Khan (Vilayat Khan's father and a great
artist of his times) is alive, in his son, he is not dead.'
manoha...@gmail.com
MB
Daniel Fuchs
sitar_vadak
THE INDEPENDENT
24/03/2004
Vilayat Hussain Khan, sitar player: born Gowripur, India 28 August
1928; twice married (two sons, two daughters); died Bombay 13 March
2004.
Ustad (maestro) Vilayat Khan was one of the greatest figures in north
Indian classical music of the past 60 years.
The adoption of vocal style into his sitar playing, the so-called
gayaki ang, is what made him a pioneer and role model among sitar
players. This style pushed sitar technique to even higher levels, since
it demands extensive use of the lateral deflection of the string by
pulling it sideways.
Not only did Vilayat Khan avoid the intonation problems inherent in
this but he also used it to enormous expressive effect by playing whole
phrases after the string was plucked and before the sound faded away.
He further modified the sitar by reducing the number of strings,
confining the instrument to its true treble register and leaving the
very low register to the surbahar, a kind of bass sitar also much
played in his family. He also adopted a variable tuning of the drone
strings, according to the main notes of the raga, giving the music new
tonal perspectives.
His age at death was given as 76, though a slight mystery surrounded
his date of birth, some putting it as much as four years earlier. The
widely accepted date of birth was 28 August 1928, in Gauripur, part of
what is now Bangladesh.
An element of haziness also surrounded his early training. He was a
typical Muslim hereditary musician of the kind who have dominated north
Indian classical music since the great Tansen, the leading court
musician at the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar in the late 16th
century. In common with many Indian musicians, Vilayat Khan traced his
lineage back to Tansen.
His father, Inayat Khan, and grandfather Imdad Khan were distinguished
string players, and the family tradition stretched back for five
generations before him, and is continuing with his sons, Shujaat Khan
and Hidayat Khan, and also with his brother and nephews.
Training from his father was curtailed by his untimely death when
Vilayat was only 10 years old. Exactly from whom he learnt thereafter
has remained controversial but it is certain that his mother and her
side of the family played a crucial role and helped develop the
vocalist in him. Among those who did teach him or may well have done so
were his mother, Bashiran Begum, her father Bande Hussain Khan and her
brother Zinda Hussain Khan, all of them vocalists, and his father's
brother Wahid Khan and his senior student D.T. Joshi, representing the
string tradition.
The connection between Vilayat Khan's sitar playing and vocal music was
made abundantly clear by his habit of singing the compositions he was
playing and even explaining the connections to the audience. He would
also acknowledge some of the famous vocalists of his era, notably Ustad
Faiyaz Khan.
When I interviewed him, during an evening at the Nehru Centre, London,
in 1997, he underplayed his part in the creation of the gayaki ang,
suggesting that it had been part of Indian music all along. On the
other hand, he did draw attention to another inspired feature of his
style: his distinctive way of finding unusual and expressive patterns
in the raga.
Musicians trained in the Indian manner will be familiar with the
exercises based on all the available note combinations and Vilayat Khan
was able to prove his point by flawlessly reciting the 24 combinations
of the first four notes of the scale. Not only did he emphasise that he
knew all the others too but he also pointed out that such a discipline
was the very basis of improvisation.
Khan's development was prodigious. He started giving concerts when he
was six and recorded two years later. His concert début in Bombay in
1944 was dramatically successful and immediately established him as a
master of the sitar and he was the dominant force right up to his
death. At another famous concert, also in Bombay, loudspeakers had to
be installed outside for the thousands unable to get seats in the
auditorium.
As in life, so in death, Vilayat Khan attracted huge crowds. Leading
musicians and the general public flocked to the hospital before his
body was taken to Calcutta to be laid to rest next to his father last
week.
sitar_vadak
If this fellow has problem to read, then why does not he stop entering
in this topic?
Rubbish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Daniel Fuchs
sitar_vadak wrote:
>
> Who is this Adi?
Why is that important..? Who are you?
> If this fellow has problem to read, then why does not he stop entering
> in this topic?
He's right, you know...
First of all, please don't post the same stuff twice or thrice each
time. Once is enough.
Secondly, you should learn the meaning of the word "copyright". I wonder
whether The Independent appreciates what you do here...
And why do you find it necessary to post this article here now? If you
prefer Vilayat Khan, fine. But please don't act like a missionary.
> Rubbish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please buy a new keyboard, yours seems to be defective.
Daniel
bdixit
sitar players who has moved to Pune from Kolkata and who considers
himself as the "torch bearer" of the Vilayat Khan sitar baz. He does
not have to worry about copyright or other rules like that. He is all
above that! ...............................BND
Daniel Fuchs
bdixit wrote:
>
> Are you asking who this sitar-vadak is?
Actually, the question was more of a rhethorical nature... ;-)
> He does
> not have to worry about copyright or other rules like that. He is all
> above that!
Oh, then I guess he's also got a license to preach...
Daniel
SH
bdixit wrote:
> Are you asking who this sitar-vadak is? He is "one of the most talented"
> sitar players who has moved to Pune from Kolkata and who considers
> himself as the "torch bearer" of the Vilayat Khan sitar baz.
I am very happy to know that a most talented sitar vadak has been given
the torching rights to Ustad Vilayat Khan's legacy. The last I heard
there was a bitter family feud between the Ustad's eldest son and
younger brother for that torch.
sitar_vadak
sitar player of post-Independence India. The skills and technical
ability of his predecessors, including his grandfather Ustad Imdad Khan
and his father Ustad Enayat Khan, to the extent captured on the 78 rpm
shellac discs, appear elementary when compared to his.
True, Vilayat Khan did not play the rapid-fire multi-stroke taan-toda
in which his father excelled; but it can be conjectured with a fair
amount of certainty that this was because he did not want to enter an
area already developed to the hilt by Ustad Enayat Khan. The high-speed
one-stroke-per-note (ekhara) taankari or the deflected khayal-style
taankari of Vilayat Khan's heyday were probably things that none of
his recorded predecessors and their peers could have imagined as being
possible.
Apart from the old-style multi-stroke taan-toda, there was no aspect of
sitar technique in which any sitar player, including the shellac
recorded ones, could equal Vilayat Khan's mastery in his heyday..
Vilayat Khan created his own style and format of sitar playing called
Vilayatkhani Baaz. This is far more comprehensive, advanced and
attractive than the traditional ones. Since this style of sitar playing
followed the nuances of classical vocal music and called for long
deflections and fast taan movements, Vilayat Khan designed a new model
of the sitar. This was as innovative technically as the one designed by
his peer, Pandit Ravi Shankar. These two are the standard sitar models
today; having eclipsed the older models. Similarly, the Vilayatkhani
Baaz is one of the two dominant sitar styles today, the other being
that of Pandit Ravi Shankar.
The Vilayat Khan style of sitar playing and its medium, the six-string
Vilayat Khan sitar model, took into account and exploited modern
electrical (and more recently electronic) sound amplification
technology and was therefore more advanced and more pleasant sounding
than the older styles and sitar models. Helped by the amplification
technology and the specially honed sitar bridge and heavy gauge
strings, Vilayat Khan could reproduce the subtlest nuances of vocal
music by skilfully tugging the main string of the sitar laterally from
special fret positions even in the largest concert hall. The
elimination of one of the jodi strings and the bass pancham string in
the Vilayat Khan sitar model facilitated this special manner of sitar
playing. The elimination of the first increased the space between the
main playing string (called the nayaki) and the remaining jodi, thus
cutting out the jangle that tended to swallow up fast taans in the
traditional model, and the second, apart from serving a similar purpose
by cutting out the bass boom, also made room for the addition of a
thinner drone string tuned usually to the major third which, struck in
unison with the drone pancham (major treble fifth), created the effect
of the basic major triad (C E G) that sort of provide a harmonic
backdrop for the music played on the two main melody strings.
Vilayat Khan thus undertook not only the development and expansion of
the traditional sitar style to areas earlier not even thought of, but
also redesigned the sitar itself to facilitate its transmission. He can
therefore be compared to an impossible Grand Prix driver who also
designed his own Formula One racing car to suit his style of driving
and then broke all records!
In the first half of his long and glorious career, Ustad Vilayat Khan
broke all records of innovative and exceptionally skilled sitar playing
and possibly achieved the most astounding instrumental portrayals of
ragas like Darbari Kanada, Yaman, Puria, Shankara, Bhankar, Desh and
Tilak Kamod. His thumri-style projection of lighter ragas like Mishra
Bhairavi, Mishra Pilu, Khammaj, Manjh Khammaj, Panchamse Gara and
Pahadi is also now history: the kind of history that does not repeat
itself.
Since his characteristic style depended heavily on skills that were in
turn dependent on physical ability, it suffered as Vilayat Khan aged.
SH
sitar_vadak wrote:
> Ustad Vilayat Khan was definitely the most technically accomplished
> sitar player of post-Independence India. The skills and technical
> ability of his predecessors, including his grandfather Ustad Imdad Khan
> and his father Ustad Enayat Khan, to the extent captured on the 78 rpm
> shellac discs, appear elementary when compared to his.
Reproduced, without acknowledging the original as usual, from
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040315/asp/nation/story_3005855.asp
manoha...@gmail.com
MB
sitar_vadak
Reply: I am constantly being misunderstood. You can read
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.music.indian.classical/msg/735cf89fc1a63f78
SH is right. The torching rights to Ustad Vilayat Khan's legacy are
always with all the able shagrids (disciples) of this Gharana. First of
all that is with Khan Sahab's family members like his Brother, Ustad
Imrat Khan, his nephews Ustad Rais Khan and Shahid Parvez Khan, Nishat
Khan, Irshad Khan, Wajahaat Khan, Shhafat Khan, his sons Shhujaat Khan
and Hidayat Khan, obviously with Pt. Arvind Parikh, Pt. Kashinath
Mukherjee, Budhaditya Mukherjee, Dharambir Sing, Nayan Ghosh, Sugato
Nag,Ashim Chowdhury, Anjan Chattopadhyay's Abhik Mukherjee, the list is
endless. Even Shakir Bhai (Shahid Ji's son), Farhan Bhai (Rais Khan
Sahab's son), Shiraz Bhai(disciple of Rais Khan Sahab), Bijoyaditya
(Son of Budhaditya Babu) are also rising stars of this gharana. Excuse
me, if I have missed any name.
The great Ustad Vilayat Khan Sahab has inspired all of us a lot to
carry forward his legacy. All of the doyens of this gharana are great,
and I respect and adore them as my peers. They can be inspiration of
any of the young artist or music learner.
I still think myself to be a learner , which I actually am.
I neither have the capability nor have any desire to snatch the highly
discussed "Torch" from the above mentioned "Khan Sahabs" and
"Pandit Ji"s. The duty comes automatically from generation to
generation to carry forward the great tradition of Music. In this way a
"Gharana" remains alive. This is called "Guru Sishya
Parampara".
I have nothing to say about the "bitter family feud", which is
really painful for the admirers, followers and disciples of this
gharana.
Some of the postings are revealing the fact that the posters are real
masters of converting any topic to "Tamasha".
I don't want to say much of it, as plectrum is the forte for
musicians instead of pen.
Town Crier wrote
Better stop wasting time on such nonsense and
start practicing your music if you hope to make an impression on
audiences in Pune.
Who told you that I don't practice?
Adi Nemlekar wrote
...self-proclaimed "doyens" of the
Imdadkhani/Vilayatkhani lineage?
I have given answer of this.
Shree
>
> SH is right. The torching rights to Ustad Vilayat Khan's legacy are
> always with all the able shagrids (disciples) of this Gharana.
I agree. However, I just hope that the abovementioned able shagrids
keep the legacy and do not torch it. Personally, I would not like to
torch anybody's legacy, whether I have the torching rights or not.
--Shree
abhikma...@gmail.com
> Personally, I would not like to
> torch anybody's legacy, whether I have the torching rights or not.
After all, why subject the late Khansahib to further torchure?
Abhik
Sitariya
Instead of reposting old articles on VK,I would appreciate if you can
upload your recordings on your web site to let everyone here know that
you are one of the torch bearers on VK sitar baaz. I am pretty sure Pt.
Arvind Parikhji would not take any joe as his student.
BTW I agree with most of the stuff you have written. I have enjoyed
many of Vilayat Khansheb's concerts where he sang briefly specially
during Aalap. I would not forget my first VK live concert about 15
years ago. Bhimsen Joshi and Lata Mangeshkar were in the audience and
Khansaheb was in great mood and he played great ragamala for more than
hour with singing bandishes and playing them together. This is probably
the best ragmala I have heard. As for most of his recent recordings,
his singing was lot besura, specially while playing gat. Anyway I have
not enjoyed his concerts I have attended here in USA. I wish many of
his older concerts in India would be made available in recorded format.
sitar_vadak
Why are you not being able to come over from the loop of "Torch" issue?
"Debate is always welcome, as it facilitates learning, but it
certainly does not make sense to run around in circles."
sitar_vadak
> Personally, I would not like to
> torch anybody's legacy, whether I have the torching rights or not.
hanging from a vine high up and out of his reach. After expending a
great deal of time and effort trying to find a way to reach the grapes,
his is ultimately unsuccessful. He is so bitter over his failure that
he then mutters (trying to convince himself) that the grapes were most
likely sour, so he never really wanted them anyway.>
To torch any great legacy, many things are required. Most important of
them are talent, great hard work and confidence level. It is not
possible to be done by any one and every one. This "torching right"
to one is not given with a great celebration and with official
signature. This is achieved by some one gradually with a lot of hard
work.
Capability is more important here than "torching rights".
On the other hand if some one has greater capability, then he/she
should start his / her own legacy. It is a matter of question whether
that would be accepted by the world or not.
Daniel Fuchs
Regards,
Daniel
Shree
> Shree wrote:
> > Personally, I would not like to
> > torch anybody's legacy, whether I have the torching rights or not.
> To torch any great legacy, many things are required. Most important of
> them are talent, great hard work and confidence level. It is not
> possible to be done by any one and every one. This "torching right"
> to one is not given with a great celebration and with official
> signature. This is achieved by some one gradually with a lot of hard
> work.
And here I am, all the way thinking that to torch anything, all you
needed was just a well lit torch.
> Capability is more important here than "torching rights".
> On the other hand if some one has greater capability, then he/she
> should start his / her own legacy. It is a matter of question whether
> that would be accepted by the world or not.
Thanks for the valuable advice. I will strive to start my own legacy,
so that I don't have to torch somebody's else's legacy. I could then
torch it every year at the Vaarshik Samaroh. All will be welcome;
bring your own torch.
--Shree
Town Crier
http://www.panditjasrajschoolofmusic.com/jasrangi.html
They are singing two different ragas!
DG
sitar_vadak wrote:
> Oh! You are changing the direction of the discussion into a very silly
> way of "Quarrelling".
>
> I am hardly interested to talk with you in this childish way.
>
> "I could then torch it every year"...
> Be careful. TORCH can be the cause of TORTURE to the invited guests of
> the "Vaarshik Samaroh".
>
> "bring your own torch."
> That legacy is literally useless if other's torch is needed to focus
> on it.
abhikma...@gmail.com
> http://www.panditjasrajschoolofmusic.com/jasrangi.html
> They are singing two different ragas!
No no, closer to bagpipes than Jasrangi.
One of them punned on the word 'torch', which it seems the other missed
out rather thoroughly. Which is why it *looks* like they are talking at
cross-purposes.
Why bagpipes? They say the Irish gave them to the Scots as a joke, and
the Scots haven't seen the joke yet.
Abhik
Daniel Fuchs
enough...
or...@hotmail.com
Calcutta area.He played that day very very good.His executions of
meends,tans were compact and marvellous.He is a student of Pandit
Kashinath Mukherjee. Lately, if I am not wrong, he took his talim from
Ustad Vilayat Khan also. He does have a very strong and sweet hands
along with a clear conception of Raagdari. I feel he is the truly one
of the torch bearers of the Vilayetkhani Baaj.
Nil Gupta
or...@hotmail.com
Calcutta area.He played that day very very good.His executions of
meends,tans were compact and marvellous.He is a student of Pandit
Kashinath Mukherjee. Lately, if I am not wrong, he took his talim from
Ustad Vilayat Khan also. He does have a very strong and sweet hands
along with a clear conception of Raagdari. I feel he is the truly one
of the torch bearers of the Vilayetkhani Baaj.
Nil Gupta
ak2d...@yahoo.co.in
I heard you once playing at sutanuti parishad. You play good. You have
good hands and I guess a good future in the music field is awating. So,
why do u waste your time talking to all those self announced pandits
who are very much busy to look after the department of quality controls
of today's music. U always keep this in your mind that the music world
is big with plenty of listeners.This is not a small, clumsy and mean
world with the presence of these biased pandits only. So go ahead.
Ignore all these chowkidars and select your own way. Do good practice,
get good talim and do good music .There are many people/ good
organisers there in this world those who can appreciate your recital
and co operate you gladly. You have nothing to loose if u start
ignoring these people.
Ashok Datta