Article on Pannalal Ghosh
Abhik Majumdar
positively ugly, but the article itself is a nice read, pretty
informative besides. For a change it seems to've been written by
someone who has a background in music:
http://bit.ly/ruwhzC
Abhik
naniwadekar
>
> http://bit.ly/ruwhzC
>
Calling Nikhil Ghosh 'one of the most influential musical figures of
the twentieth century' is quite an overstatement, but the article is
quite well-written.
Pannalal was a cursed figure. He died early, his wife Parul stopped
singing rather too early, one of their daughters did not live long;
and the other one (Shanti-Sudha), while her son Anand Murdeshwar did
become a flute-player to continue the family tradition, died while
Parul Ghosh was still alive. Anand Murdeshwar himself died at a very
young age.
- dn
vinay
instruments like the flute. not having played one myself it appears to
me to be impossible to do on any instrument with discrete stops
( holes in this case). perhaps its by sliding the finger over the
stops??..just guessing...
Shree
sliding, or both. The embouchure can also be used for bending the
pitch by over a half note.
In fact, it can be relatively hard to play 'discrete' notes on a
bansuri if scale involves half notes (E.g, playing bhairavi thaat
notes on a bansuri tuned to Yaman thaat). On such occassions, most
flautists (esp.in the light music genre) either
- shift the scale (e.g., shifting Sa of bhairavi thaat to the Ni of
Yaman thaat),
- play a differently tuned bansuri (i.e. changed thaat),
- use cross fingering where possible (e.g., carnatic flute),
- play a keyed flute like the Boehm flute (esp. for western style
music).
--Shree
vinay
scurrying to wikipedia to learn more about the terms you used, but now
i think i get it.
much obliged
vinay
Nandu Kulkarni
second is not entirely accurate, unless of course you are talking of a
different kind of flute.
The wooden flute (or more correctly, the bamboo flute) that is
typically used by Indian musicians is not tuned to any thaat as such,
but to different scales (Kali 2, Safed 3, etc.) and different octaves.
Skilled players, especially those who play light music often use the
same flute to play in different scales, but that involves a fair
amount of acrobatics.
The "standard" bamboo flute has six holes. As Shree has explained,
meend is produced by sliding the finger on a hole, or controlled
opening of a hole, or changing the blowing angle. Pannababu is
credited with one variation, adding a seventh hole at the lower end to
play tivra Ma by closing all holes, including the seventh one with the
little finger. Another variation has an eighth hole at the top for the
thumb (i.e., closer to the blowing hole) for playing Pa by opening all
holes. These additional holes facilitate a seamless meend from, for
example, Ga to Pa in an aroha, or Dha to Tivra Ma in an avaroha.
Nandu
vinay
just two bamboo flutes, unless they bring different ones to each
concert! so the long "meend" you describe is achieved by sliding the
finger across several holes? i should probably just sit close to a
flautist and see what he is doing.
Shree
> On Sep 28, 5:02 pm, Shree <maza...@gmail.com> wrote:
that 'the bansuri gives a Kali 2, etc. when the top 3 holes are
closed' - ('top' being the embouchure end).
A typical hindustani style bansuri is tuned such that, with all holes
closed, gives the Sa (tonic note) for Bilawal thaat (scale). However,
flautists normally fix the Sa at the top 3 holes closed, which gives
the Yaman scale by Moorchhana. But flautists are free to use (and
they indeed do) any other combination as the tonic note - top 2 holes
closed =Khamaj, 4=Bhairavi, 5=Kaafi and so on.
However, as I said before, it is not also not uncommon for the
hindustani bansuri to be tuned to a different kind of tuning system or
scale.
--Shree
Shree
not uncommon for the hindustani bansuri to be tuned to ...."
Vivek Datar
play Yaman cannot be used to play, say Bhairavi? Is the tuning done just by
ear, or do you have ratios used to tune compared to Sa?
Thx
-Vivek
"Shree" <maz...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:b362491f-6340-4e74...@t16g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...
Nandu Kulkarni
> Kali 2, Safed 3, etc are pitches, not 'scales'.
>
You are right.. I meant pitch and not scale. Apologies for loose usage
of the term.
> A typical hindustani style bansuri is tuned such that, with all
holes
> closed, gives the Sa (tonic note) for Bilawal thaat (scale). However,
> flautists normally fix the Sa at the top 3 holes closed, which gives
> the Yaman scale by Moorchhana. But flautists are free to use (and
> they indeed do) any other combination as the tonic note - top 2 holes
> closed =Khamaj, 4=Bhairavi, 5=Kaafi and so on.
>
> However, as I said before, it is not also not uncommon for the
> hindustani bansuri to be tuned to a different kind of tuning system or
> scale.
>
> --Shree
OK. Let me try to define some terms (the way they are commonly
understood.) It will need a slightly long winded explanation but it is
worth it. A picture of the flute would have made it easier.
The tonic (Sa) of the bansuri is (defined as) the note produced when
the top three of the six holes are closed. So the Sa of a Kali 2
bansuri is the note produced when it is played with the top 3 holes
closed. The tanpura and accompanying tabla are tuned to this Sa.
- When the third hole is also opened, you get Shuddha Re
- When the second hole is also opened you get Shuddha Ga
- When you open the first hole you get Tivra Ma
- With the third hole partially open you get Komal Re
- With the second hole partially opened you get Komal Ga
- The first hole partially opened you get Shuddha Ma
- When all holes are closed you get Pa
- Shuddha Dha and Ni are obtained by opening the sixth and fifth hole
respectively. Opening the sixth and fifth hole partially gives you
Komal Dha and partially.
The precise microtone required is produced by controlling how much of
the hole is covered, and the blowing angle.
Hence, with this Sa you get the Kalyan Thaat when each hole is opened
fully (i.e.,no hole is opened partially.) All raags can be, and are
(usually) played in this fashion.
While your statement that you get the Bilaval Thaat by taking the note
produced by closing all holes as the Sa, etc. is true, Hindustani
Classical performers normally play with the top three holes closed as
the Sa. Depending on the composition, performers often play a raag
like Bhairavi with a bansuri with the tonic tuned to the Madhaym on
the tanpura.
Flautists playing light music often do what you have said, i.e., play
with different tonics on the same bansuri.
I think the above addresses Vivek's question as well.
Nandu
Nandu Kulkarni
- Shuddha Dha and Ni are obtained by opening the sixth and fifth hole
respectively. Opening the sixth and fifth hole partially gives you
Nandu
Shree
> Can you explain the different tuning. Is it true that a bansuri tuned to
> play Yaman cannot be used to play, say Bhairavi? Is the tuning done just by
> ear, or do you have ratios used to tune compared to Sa?
>
> Thx
>
> -Vivek
>
A lot of bansuri makers use electronic tuners while tuning bansuris.
As mentioned before and further elaborated by Nandu, the scale of a
modern 'standard' bansuri is diatonic (Bilawal), with the Sa fixed at
'all holes closed'.
The notes and microtones of all indian ragas can be played on the
'standard' bansuri, and changing the bansuri between ragas is not
necessary. However, as playing vakra swaras involves partial closing
of holes, it can be difficult to play fast passages with clarity in
ragas that have a lot of vakra swaras (e.g, bhairavi). On such
occassions, some flautists may
- change Sa position (which also changes the available range of the
instrument),
- or change to a bansuri that can give vakra swaras with fully opened/
closed holes, just to make life easy for the flautist's fingers, and
keeping the available range of the instrument. This webpage explains
this idea in detail : http://www.anubodh.com/bansuri_catalog_order.htm.
A lot of flautists (e.g., Raghunath Seth, Rajendra Prasanna, Shashank)
use a set of bansuris tuned differently and/or of different tonic
notes
- to increase the range within a single presentation
- for ease of meends over register-breaks (also assisted by additional
holes for pacham at the top underside, and tivra & shuddha madhyam at
the bottom).
E.g., to play mandra Sa, a super bass bansuri with only 4 finger holes
may be used. More popularly, you may have noticed Hariprasad Chourasia
in concerts using a large bansuri as well as a much smaller bansuri in
a single presentation, usually a thumri ang or folk styled piece.
Also check this web page : http://www.shashank.org/www.shashank.org/flutepapernew.html
- although Shashank plays the carnatic flute, the concepts are the
same .
I think this topic would be explained more concisely and quickly with
a demonstration, than doing a writeup. Youtube has a set of 4
videos demonstrating bansuri making, which may interest you. This is
the first in the set : www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBIBVJw6MVY
--Shree
Vivek Datar
news:c7ce30f0-7b43-4226...@g23g2000vbz.googlegroups.com...
vinay pande
> Thx for the explanation Shree, and Nandu.
>
> -Vivek
>
Abhik Majumdar
redirecting you. If the link does not have an http before it, Google
manages to mangle it. Try out the same link with an http added at the
beginning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBIBVJw6MVY
Abhik