Music scholar Ashok Ranade is no more
Sukesh
Ashok Ranade, an eminent scholar, ethnomusicologist and musician,
passed away on Saturday afternoon after a prolonged illness. He was 73
and is survived by his wife Hemangini. Ranade will be remembered for
his radical contemporary views on a traditional art form, as well as
for his dry wit.
Equally fluent in Marathi and English, the literature and law graduate
wrote extensively on all aspects of music. He authored numerous essays
and books on music and theatre, including Sangeetache
Saundaryashastra, 'Hindustani Music' and 'Essays in Indian
Ethnomusicology'. He also has audio albums to his credit, including
Baithakichi Lavani, Devgani and Devi Ahilyabai, a soundtrack.
Ranade was born in Pune. He met his wife when they were both working
at All India Radio. He served as the first director of the music
department at the then Bombay University. The multifaceted artiste-
scholar was also chief coordinator of the Theatre Development Project
under the NCPA. He trained under Gajanrao Joshi of the Gwalior and
Jaipur gharanas. He himself had numerous students; those interested in
learning the secrets of voice culture would regularly troop to his
quiet residence in Bandra east.
"We have all benefited from his invaluable guidance," says tabla
player Aneesh Pradhan. "Shubha (Mudgal) and I have received so much
from him over the past several years. He was always full of ideas and
curiosity-about what people were doing, or even the latest
developments in software."
Deepak Raja, musicologist, says that he is shattered at the loss of a
mentor. "Any time I had a tricky problem to solve, I would go to him
and never come back disappointed. I remember I had a very unorthodox
Vilayat Khan recording to analyze. He just gave me one clue, which was
to concentrate on the essence of the raga, or the raga tatva. I did,
and it turned out to be one of my best essays. He showed you the path
without taking you to the destination."
In 2004, speaking at the launch of a rare Kesarbai CD, Ranade had
said, "Kesarbai's music in this compact disc shall bring back musical
style and idiom into circulation again. That is why this kind of
exposure is important. Listening to music! Listening and hearing are
two different things. Otherwise music is overheard today."
Sitar maestro Arvind Parikh, who had worked closely with Ranade,
especially during the annual ITC music seminars, said, "He was a
radical. He was bold enough to differ from established thought in a
convincing, analytical way. He had a great sense of humour. Only
recently, I had received an email from him saying: I have done a
survey of Mumbai hospital ICUs, but I am getting better and we will
start harassing the music public of Bombay very shortly."
=======================
Ramkrishna Das
I knew Dr Ashok Ranade personally. Our first interaction was when I
went to his house to give my copy of the book, Sangeet Raga Kalpataru,
which he was looking for. This began a series of wonderful meetings.
His profound lectures and presentations could enhance any music
lover's
knowledge. He was always the best speaker and added humour to even the
most serious subject.
He was a great singer with vast knowledge of voice culture, and knew
254 ragas.
H always said, "I'm a musician first, a musicologist later." He shaped
the department of music at the University of Mumbai into a tremendous
place of learning.
One of his particularly well-known books, On Music and Musicians of
Hindoostan, evaluated the musical richness of the great masters of
North India. I consider his 'Concise Dictionary of Hindustani Music'
the best dictionary of Indian music.
He knew English, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati and even Russian,
and owned many Russian books.
He was a friendly and encouraging person. He would congratulate me
after a good performance and push me to work hard. I respect him a
great deal. It is a great loss to Indian classical music.
(Ramkrishna Das is a Hindustani classical vocalist and researcher)