S.A.P. Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University, B.T. Road Campus.
About the speaker
Renowned Sitar Player and Torchbearer of Bishnupur Gharana.
Tags
House Concerts, Manilal Nag, 1960, 1970, 1980, Musicians, Performance, Bagbazar, Naina Devi, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Keramatullah Khan, Meera Bandopadhyay, Prasun Bandopadhyay, Gokul Nag, V.G. Jog
Language
English
Ms Mita Nag Speaks:
Text Version:
When I was growing up in my family, I remember in my childhood, I have seen many house concerts taking place and at that time, my baba Pt Manilal Nag, it was his prime time, that was in sixties, and seventies, into late seventies and even in late eighties and I used to see once or twice in a year, like when there were major concerts, in winter,in or around Kolkata, many musicians from the city and from other cities, they used to come over to the town for their performances, and with such musicians with whom my baba had very cordial relations, because he got familiar with them while travelling everywhere around the countries for many years, so they just used to you know, gossip together, and they used to go to concerts together, and sometimes travelling together so, like it was a kind of a kind of ‘Adda’, musical ‘Adda’.
Naina Devi
My baba just asked some senior musicians and junior musicians and they used to come to our home at Bagbazar, and rendered their performances, so in my childhood like in seventies I remember, Smt Naina Devi ji, I also remember buddhajethu, that Pt. Buddhadeb Dasgupta, but that was off course much later, early eighties. even remember Ustad Keramatullah Khan, and they all came to our houses, I mean our home and the adjacent home where there was a big hall, or hall room on the first floor, so the concerts, when like there was some very very renowned musicians coming, then we used to shift the concerts to that place so that more people can be accommodated, so they came and I also remember that I used to call her ‘Pishima’ meere pishima, that is Bidushi Meera Banerjee, and Pt Prasun Banerjee, Prasun Pishemoshai, like they all had used to have a very cordial and friendly relation with my grand father and my father, and beside that we also used to have house concerts, sometimes the concerts were nightlong concerts, Pt V.G.Jog performed duet in our house concert with baba. So these were really interesting time, may be I don’t remember the music with that in details, because I was too young to remember, but I can recall the atmosphere in the house, and my mom used to be in the kitchen, she was cooking with the other women at the house, and sometimes our lady students, like they were cooking dinner for these artists, sometimes they were arranging, like for their rest, like some artists after concerts used to come to the concerts and relax in one of our bedrooms,
Pt. Gokul Nag
so this was the atmosphere which I have seen in my family and I grew up like this, Other thing that I should mention that these musicians like they really built a ‘Adda’ that was that when they came, they didn’t take any honorarium for their performances. They came as a sort of friendly gesture and off course they had a great respect for my ‘Dadu’ Sangeetacharya Gokul Nag, and they knew my father so well, at most they just had dinner in our house, or we arranged for their transport, so those were really good times and we enjoyed a lot.
I have accompanied with kheyal many times though I have realised that the audience loved my accompaniment more with Thumri rather than Kheyal. I want to share my experience with two artists of BenarasGharana. In my early years of performances I have accompanied VidushiGirija Debi several times. She generally preferred to perform kheyal at the beginning of her performances. It was almost 15-20 years ago. She used to sing khayal first and then go for thumri, dadra, chaiti, kajri and other semi classical forms in the Concerts which was a specialization of BenerasGharana. She had a very unique voice, though sheused to avoid variations and embellishments those were commonly applied in Thumrirecitals, but on a sudden she often rendered some beautiful variations with hercontrolled gayekiwhich turned the whole recital into a new level. She always allowed her accompanists a fair chance to perform. She gave equal importance to harmonium and sarangi. She always granted one full abartan(one time circle) for harmonium, another for sarangiand then she would take one full avartan for herself. During her later performances sheusually allowed her disciplesto sing one whole avartan as she could not sing continuously because of her age. But giving a chance to her accompanists to express themselves independently in the concerts between her singings was a regular event since her initial days of performances.It was her style. So, I got enough space during accompanying her. During her performances when she rendered I used to follow her, and then sheused to give me clues to play on my own. I used to play freely but I had always kept her style in mind.
Vidushi Purnima Choudhury
After Girija Devi when Purnima Choudhury came to Kolkata, I became her regular accompanist till her last breath. It was almost10 to 12 years. She was also from Beneras gharana. If it is back calculated then the time must be 2001 or 2002. Sometimes I played with both of them during that time period. Though both of them were from Benaras gharana still Purnimadi’s style was different from Girija Devi. Her style of singing was little bit swift moving but she had established her signature style so fascinatingly that not only the connoisseurs but also the masses couldenjoy the renditions. She encouraged me lot. We used to travel together and formed a strong bond. She sometimes took Sarangi as an accompanying instrument. Once we were performing in Madhusudan Mancha where she had not taken Sarengi. There she gave me the opportunity to play at the beginning and then she started to sing. Sometimes she would openly comment in between the rendition that if I played so nicely then audiences might not listen to her any more.She used to joke a lot.
Once in a programme in Ballygunge where my wife was present she was singing a thumri on Khambaj raga named Mrignayani. Suddenly, she stopped and said that Debubhai is in a jovial mood as his Mrignayani is present right here and then pointed at my wife. Such was her sense of humour.
Pandit Debaprosad dey first started learning from Amiyaranjan Bandopadhyay during the days when he was a student of Rabindra Bharati University. He had taken private tuitions for the five years probably from 1973 to ’78. At that time Sangeetacharya Amiyaranjan Bandopadhyay used to live in a flat opposite to Rangana theatre and Sarkarina hall in North Kolkata. Later he also continued his talim when Amiyababu shifted to another flat in Vivekananda Park. Sangeetacharya Amiyaranjan Bandopadhyay had a very unique method of teaching specially presenting a bandish in 48 matra or time beats that many musicians are lacking of. He could knit any bandish so beautifully in a calculative way that anyone would present it without putting his effort onto it. Actually the beautifully arrangement of words lied beneath the setting of the bandishes would make the movement or chalan of the bandishes smooth in 48 matras so that the mukhra or the initial part of the bandish would come automatically in framed time cycle. It happened both in sthayi and antara of each bandish. We also used to write down those bandishes as the notation form covering whole 48 matras.
Ustad Amir Khan
Amiyababu used to carry out the style of vistar or improvisation of a Raga like Ustad Amir Khan. In spite of being a doyen of Visnupur gharana, he always took long time on elaboration by taking each note of a raga gradually and represented it with proper embellishmentsfollowing the style of Kirana gharana much like Ustad Amir Khan. His father was a renowned Dhrupad singer, Sangeetacharya Satyakinkar Bandopadhyay who is supposed to be the last one to represent the actual form of Visnupur gharana, though his descendants like Amiyaranjan, Niharranjan or even Santanu are much closer to Kirana gharana. Amiyababu had always consciously followed the style of Kirana gharana, that’s why he could beautifully perform tanas in fast laya and even what is more astonishing that in this old age also he is still performing such magnificent tanas with ease.
S.A.P. Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University, B.T. Road Campus.
About the speaker
Sitar Maestro, Chair Professor, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University
Tags
Ali Akbar Khan, Sarod, Tuning, Listening, Strumming, Raga, Music, North Indian Classical Music, performance, 1983
Language
English
Pt. Sanjoy Bandopadhyay speaks :
Text version:
I would like to put forward why I see Riyaz very important. To tell you about that, I must refer to one of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan Sahab’s , Ali Akbar Khan Sahab’s TV interview, where he was asked that, “Khan Sahab you are such a great Sarod player, such a great musician, how do you perform so good in music, such a good music and so beautiful music”. He said that ‘when I go to my sarod, it appears alien to me. Then I try to tune that, and if it tunes well then I go to the stage, and seat tight, start strumming, and then everything, if everything goes well, I become the listener. “
Ustad Ali Akbar Khan
So I also believe that, this is the way, we the raga music performers, at least from north India, I would say musicians from India excepting the south, those who are doing raga music, I think this is the final message. This is the best message I have ever heard. But here comes why Riyaz is important, Riyaz makes, gives you a level of virtuosity, and that makes you comfortable you know, whatever comes in your mind that gets expressed through you, without any hindrance, without any difficulties. So and to achieve that level of virtuosity, you are free from any worries, that if some expression comes to your mind, it will get expressed, you require to practice , appropriate practice, I would say intelligent and appropriate practicing. Thank You.
