It was a unique experience I want to share. I went to perform in a glass temple in Baranagar in 2004 or 05. The pakhwaj player wanted atta (wheat flour ) to put in his instrument and they gave him some. But a little while later he did not feel the desired effect and it was quite oily, so we asked about the flour and they answered that it was dough made for luchi. So we had to remove all oil and then put the correct flour and then perform.
Another experience was that I was playing veena in Vivekananda society in Maniktala in 2004-05. It was a hurriedly assembled lot of musicians, a tanpura, harmonium and pakhawaj player was their own. Sarat Ghoshal in pakhawaj, Sudip Ghosh in tanpura and I can’t remember the harmonium player’s name. I play in G sharp scale, it was quite high but the other instruments collided and kept a lower scale. I played raga Maya Vasant and recorded it on my own player. I came home and replayed it and I heard Raga Kafi was being played. I did not play that raga. I know it but I did not play it. So, I heard quite keenly and still it was raga kafi. Because of the scale difference the other instruments became prevalent and I played with their scale and I played raga Kafi.
Residence of Pt. Manilal Nag, 13G Gobinda Mondal Lane, Kolkata 700002
About the speaker
Manilal Nag is a renowned sitar player and an exponent of the Bishnupur Gharana of Bengal. His sitar recitals have been featured in many National Programmes of Music & Akashvani Sangeet Sammelan since 1954. He is a recipient of several prestigious awards including Sangeet Natak Akademy Award in 2001 and
Government of West Bengal’s Highest Civilian Award, Banga Bibhushan in 2015.
Tags
Gokul Nag, vocal music, dhrupad, sargam, riyaz, practice, repetition, bol, sargam, right hand, left hand, reflex action, Mita Nag, 6-7 year old, beating, 1945, 1946
Father used to teach us how to sing before he would teach us how to play the sitar. We learnt Dhrupad. Once we picked up the raaga, he showed us the sargam on the sitar and asked us to play. That is, he asked us to do riyaaz. We had to play the same thing for a long time, accompanied by bol or sargam. So, for instance, in case of sargam it could be: “g? re s?, g? re s?, g? re s?, m? g? re m? g? re m? g? re, p? m? g? p? m? g? p? m? g?, s? re s? g? re s?, re g? re m? g? re, g? p? m? g? p? m? – inverting it – s? g? re s?, re g? m? re s? g? re g?, s? g? re g?, re m? g? m?, re m? g? m?…”
– How long would you play these?
Pt. Manilal Nag
– For a long time.
– Two hours? One hour?
– No, not one or two hours on every occasion. Forty times, thirty times. Then we changed it again. It’s not like we played the same thing for an hour.
– Was the riyaaz different for your left hand and right hand?
– No. If the right hand moves, the left hand will move automatically.
– Okay.
– The rule is that if the right hand moves well, the left hand will follow suit. I didn’t do anything special for the left hand. If the right hand moves, so will the left.
– You know, I think it is reflex. For every person, the matter of riyaaz is different depending on the reflex.
– I wanted to find out about his.
– I think reflex is the main factor.
– How old were you when you father was training you?
– I was around six or seven years old.
– Even at that age you had a rigorous riyaaz?
– Yes. Otherwise we’d get a beating. I’ve been beaten up many times.
– Beating doesn’t aid in the process of development.
– He was kicked from the first floor and fell to the ground floor because he played football. Such stories are there. He still has a mark on his arm.
– I used to play football. There was a rajbari in Uttarpara where there was a football ground. I was addicted to sports. I played football. At that time Salil Manna’s shots were famous. I stopped that shot. My wrist was dislocated. I had to figure out what I had to do next. I couldn’t go home and say I broke my wrist playing football. If I said that then father would get angry and give me a good thrashing. So, I came up with a plan. I was already quite mischievous by then. So, I made a loud noise and screamed that I had fallen down. Otherwise, I would have received a sound thrashing!
Associated to All India Radio, Kolkata. He presented several eye-opening discussions on Indian classical music. A poet, writer, and music connoisseur.
Tags
Mahajati Sadan ,1955-60, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Mian Ki Todi, Gurjari Todi, Taan, Bandish, Tarapada Chakraborty, Halak Taan, Dhaibat, Meer, Gandhar, meend
In classical music circle a commonly used word is mood or mijaj. In Bengali, we use this word negatively, as someone having a bad mood but in music world it is connotative of his aesthetic sense and beauty of rendering his music. They have a humour of their own which cannot be perceived by common people but when they convert it into their music it became tangible and we can see their world a little.
Mahajati Sadan
I will tell you one such story. I cannot confirm the year, but we can say, 1955-60. Ustad Bade Ghulam ali Khan was performing in Mahajati Sadan. It was almost dawn and he was singing Gurjari Todi and he was a master in that raga. I can still hear his voice “bhor bhai tori bat kataka piya”. It was such a difficult Bandish. There is perhaps no one tossing the Bandish itself, except one. Pt. Tarapada Chakrabarty once sang us the difficult Bandish of “Mahmod Shah durbare Niyamat Khan diyat taan”. This song had a Halaak taan which creates waves of ocean in our heart. Now this song I was referring, Bade Ghulam Ali saab was creating the taana as a mountain stream in rain, coming down upon us in full force. He was creating magic through Gurjari Todi, he went to dhaibat from madhyam, suddenly a cow mooed out of nowhere and the whole magical mood was shattered. But here we are talking about a master and he suddenly changed his tone and through a meer he went from Dhaibat to Gandhar and somehow, he manages to mix his tone with that mooing sound. And the magic was recreated. Everyone cheered because the beauty remained unchanged.
Now I want to discuss something, in our classical musical texts it was said that every note was formed from some animal sound. But I believe it is a tendency in our culture to mark everything through a metaphor. I have recorded personally the different animal sounds to prove that. But it is not true. I have the recordings of cuckoo’s song; it goes from one note to another. Now in this case, gandhar was supposed to be the sound of a goat. Goat and cow are both herbivores, that much we can conclude but only a single sound cannot be identified as a note. You have to have a reference point to denote or identify a note. But anyway, Ghulam Ali Saab had that aesthetical knowledge and training to combine his voice that with the mooing and it was a delight to hear that ethereal music on that pre-dawn moment.
Residence of Pt. Manilal Nag, 13G Gobinda Mondal Lane, Kolkata 700002
About the speaker
Manilal Nag is a renowned sitar player and an exponent of the Bishnupur Gharana of Bengal. His sitar recitals have been featured in many National Programmes of Music & Akashvani Sangeet Sammelan since 1954. He is a recipient of several prestigious awards including Sangeet Natak Akademy Award in 2001 and
Government of West Bengal’s Highest Civilian Award, Banga Bibhushan in 2015.
Pt. Manilal Nag Talks on His Musical Lineage and Some Tips on Riyaz
Our forefathers had their ancestral home in the town of Bishnupur and later on they settled in the town of Bankura. My grandfather Gobinda Chandra Nag lived in Bankura town only, where my father Gokul Nag was born. I am the fifth generation in my family where music began in an amateurish way since my great grandfather Nafarchandra Nag’s time. His son was Bauridas Nag. My grandfather was the son of Bauridas.
Bishnupur was then a great seat of music. I heard a story about Jadubhatta, who was singing Dhrupad when all activities in the town literally came to a halt. The court proceedings closed as everyone flocked to listen to Jadubhatta.
My father, as a little boy was playing sitar before an audience in Bankura, when his would-be guru Ram Prasanna Bandyopadhyay heard him. He was impressed and accepted my father as his disciple.
My father was always very very strict as a teacher. If I remember his day to day life I saw him immersed in music, in sitar playing, almost all the while. But when he taught me, he was very strict. As a child, I was naturally fond of playing. I used to run out of doors to play with my friends. My father caught hold of me by the ears and made me sit for riyaz.
He sat before me with the tabla. He himself played the tabla and put me to practice for 8 to 10 hours a day. If I ever asked him to show me some technique by the hand he used to insist me that I listen and try to imbibe the sound. “Listen and play, why should I point out?”, he rebuked.
I later on realized how this training of the ears had been a sort of boon for me. In my later years it was so true that I regularly listened to vocal music and imitated the expressions by exploring different techniques on the instrument.
When I am asked how my reputation in playing so singular a jhala came about, I don’t think that there was any special technique behind the practice. I played the 4 stroke Da chi chi chi in a regular tempo foe a long time, emphasizing the third syllable every time, da chi chi chi and so on.
When asked how I could play taans in so fast a tempo, and how it remained melodious all through, I just remember that I practiced a lot of paltas and meends for hours. Another thing, my father was very particular regarding my riwaz with the table. Unlike today when it is difficult to find a laydaar tabla player even once a week for practice, there were many table players in my younger days who simply came to practice with us. They were not renowned artists but they came with their love for music. Four tabla players a day, someone in the morning, another one in late morning, may be again in the afternoon and in the evening. And this went on for days without a break, you could say almost all the days in a year, so that the laya would just get ingrained in your reflex system. Tehais would pop up spontaneously without preparatory rehearsals before concerts. Such tabla players were there during my childhood and boyhood days in Uttarpara, where we lived before coming to our Bagbazar home.
In Bagbazar, Shankarda (Pandit Shankar Ghosh), Shyamalda (Pandit Shyamal Bose) used to come regularly at our home during those early years of my career. Then we used to practice at a stretch for three to four hours.
Paraphrased in English by Mita Nag
Data processed at SAP-DRS Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University.
Residence of Pt. Manilal Nag, 13G Gobinda Mondal Lane, Kolkata 700002
About the speaker
Manilal Nag is a renowned sitar player and an exponent of the Bishnupur Gharana of Bengal. His sitar recitals have been featured in many National Programmes of Music & Akashvani Sangeet Sammelan since 1954. He is a recipient of several prestigious awards including Sangeet Natak Akademy Award in 2001 and
Government of West Bengal’s Highest Civilian Award, Banga Bibhushan in 2015.
Tags
Laya, accusations, frog, north Calcutta, fighting, abusing, Vilayet Khan, Rais Khan, knife, Tarun Sangeet Sammelan, Sanatan Mukherjee, Alla Rakha, Jog, Tarapada Chakraborty, Sunanda Patnaik, 1964, 1974
Language
Bengali
Pt. Manilal Nag speaks:
Data processed at SAP-DRS Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University.
Residence of Sri Debabrata Mukhapadhyay at Tarashankar Sarani, Tala, Kolkata
About the speaker
Associated to All India Radio, Kolkata. He presented several eye-opening discussions on Indian classical music. A poet, writer, and music connoisseur.
Tags
Nitai Bose, Mustaq Ali Khan, 1965, Arjun Shejwal, Pakhawaj, Akashbani, Rabindra Sadan, Ajodhya Prasad , Pratap Narayan Mitra, Fahimuddin Khan Dagar, Enayat Khan, Stretched Membrane Instrument, Frequency, Baya, Dhrupad
Language
Bengali
Sri Debabrata Mukhapadhyay Speaks :
Text Version:
Nitai Basu, the disciple of Ustad Mustaque Ali Khan, was a very learned, gentleman and his house was an abode of classical music performed by masters. He liked me a lot and came to visit me often. He didn’t like my way of comparing musical notes with mathematics yet we got along fine. It was in 1965 that I heard Arjun Sejwal’s solo Pakhwaj performance.
Pt. Ayodhya Prasad
I had heard Pandit Ayodhyaprasad and Pratap Narayan Mitra’s pakhawaj but it was quite another experience to hear Arjun Sejwal. Later I came in contact with Ustad Fahimuddin Khan Dagar, but it was another story. Anyway, I was a bit sceptical about solo performance of pakhawaj but it was an opportunity to watch this quite closely, so I went. Arjun Sejwal was not looked like an artist rather he had the physic of a wrestler. His wrist was mascular and strong. It was a tradition in classical music in our country that pakhwaj players must learn wrestling well because they had to carry almost 60 kg weight of their instrument. But his smile was beguiling; he was quite young then, 35 years maybe. The performance was was quite homely and simple. It all happened in a small room of Nitai Basu’s house. Here I first watched the astonishing job of putting whole wheat in a pakhwaj. Pakhwaj is an Indian instrument with stretched membrane loaded at the centre (if I may use the physics jargon). Pakhwaj had a very low tonal quality basically and a thick layer of whole wheat (atta) had to be used. When the left side of pakhwaj was being played it gives a very bass sound and it prepared the serious atmosphere for Dhrupad.
Pandit Arjun Shejwal
Arjun Sejwal played this difficult instrument so easily as if he was doing nothing. A smiling face and his hands flew with practised ease it was a feast to the eyes. The beauty of music is not only in listening but also in viewing. In our ancient script it was written about knowing the soul. Soul is omniscient, so how one can understand one’s soul. So, you should think about it, listen to it, view it and meditate it, the perfect mix of all the external experiences will lead you to know your soul. I think, Indian classical music is just like that.
Residence of Prof. Sanjoy Bandopadhyay, 3/1/1D, Padmapukur Road, Kolkata 700092
On Irfan Muhammad Khan
Irfan Md. Khan is an established Sarod Player. The scion of Lucknow Shahjanpur Gharana Sarod player. He represents the Lucknow-Shahjahanpur Gharana which has produced eminent Sarod players like Ustad Enayet Khan (1790-1883), Ustad Asadullah Khan Kaukab (1852-1919), Ustad Karamatuilah Khan (1848-1933), Prof. Sakhawat Hussain Khan (1875-1955), also his illustrious father Ustad Umar Khan (1916-1982) and his uncle Ustad Ilyas Khan (1924-1989) the famous Sitar player of Lucknow.
Key-words
Imdad Khan, Tarab strings, taraf, Puriya, haren Sheel, Sil, Kaukab Khan, Kaukabh, Marwa, Mand, Surbahar, 1910, Marwari Hospital, Jorasanko
Language
Hindi [also include some English and Bengali sentences.]
Ustd. Irfan Muhammad Khan speaks:
Paraphrase:
This is an embarrassing story, a tongue in cheek situation that happened in the house of Haren Sil. It was probably 1910 or 1912. Haren Sil’s house was on Chitpur Road, near Jorasankho Thakurbari that is now famously known as Rabindra Bharati University. Haren Sil’s house was like a sanctum where legendary musicians regularly visited, so almost every day Baithakis took place.
In this Sil house, once an incident happened with Imdad Khan, the legendary Sitar and Surbahar player. Imdad khan used to tune his Surbahar in all 12 notes so that he could randomly access any Raga in a bit moment. Actually he had a very rare power to start from any note. If he could take Tibra Madhyam as his first note, then Bhairavi would come very naturally. He always in a very modest way asked his audiences to request him any Raga of their will. Then he could immediately start that Raga very effortlessly. That was his unique technique, his charisma to mesmerize listeners.
One day in a very casual mood Imdad Khan was playing Puriya and asked his audiences for any raga. Kaukabh Khan, the legendary Sarode player was present at that time before Imdad Khan in Sil house. He told Haren to request him for Marwa. Now that was the most difficult situation for Imdad to turn on Marwa from Puriya. So he very calmly started playing Maand. Kaukabh Khan felt very insulted and began to scream on him that he had asked for Marwa and not Maand. He also scolded Imdad Khan that he should not brag of playing any Raga instantly when he could not do such things in reality. But Imdad Khan went for a tricky answer. He politely stated Khan Saheb that Maand came as his heart’s choice. Kaukabh Khan was very short tempered person. He immediately ordered Haren Sil to snatch his Surbahar and Haren Sil silently obeyed his order. Kaukabh Khan kept that Surbahar for three to four days and after he calmed down he asked Haren to return back that one to Imdad Khan.
This is one of the several stories that buried in Haren Sil’s house, North Kolkata which is now a Marwari hospital.
Paraphrased by: Dr. Suranjita Paul
Data processed at SAP-DRS Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University.
Rajeev Goenka is a noted connoisseur of Indian Classical Music and is a passionate music collector. He is the founder and protector of The Rajeev Goenka Music Academy at Dundlod, Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. He is closely attached to Kolkata’s music scenario.
Tags
HMV,Gramaphone, Evening Raga,Casset , Godhuli, Morning Raaga, 1990-92, Darbari,Yaman, Bageshree, Long Playing Records, Kishori Amankar, Roshanara Begum, Records, Shyam Ganguly, Rasoolan Bai, Sidhweswari Devi, Bismillah Khan, Extended Play Record, EP, Ravishankar, Ali Akbar, Nikhil Banerjee, Indian Classical Music
Language
English
Sri Rajeev Goenka Speaks :
A small video clip
Text Version:
I was associated with the gramophone company. They took me as an adviser of classical music, so I gave them various concepts, like I asked them to take evening Ragas and we titled the cassette, at that time there were cassettes, there were four cassettes in one box, so I titled the compilation ‘Godhuli’, and on the box we wrote the details, that what is ‘Godhuli’ and what are the Ragas of Godhuli, then I made a cassette called morning Ragas, then I made the cassette of evening Ragas.
The approximate time frame if you could also mention of the release of these cassettes of ‘Godhuli’ and the morning ragas and others?
Yes, ‘Godhuli’ is the evening time.
No when did you produce it? The publishing year? Approximately?
It would be 1991-92, then I took the major Ragas, like Darbari, Yaman, Bageshree, in which I gave all old long playing records, because when I took over, long playing records were off, and cassettes had come, and H.M.V have not published the LPs into cassettes. So the conversion also took place, and the artists of 1940’S, and 50’S, came on the cassettes, so like when I did Bageshree, I gave the Kishori Amankar’s LP in that cassette, I gave Roshanara Begum’s Bageshree in that cassette, so like that the four cassettes pack would have eight pieces, a two cassettes pack would have four pieces, then I made, I mean in my personal collection, I had those Eps, those extended play records, which played for seven minutes each side, so those extended play records,
I took my own records to H.M.V and transferred them to tape, so like Shyam Ganguly of Kolkata, Rasoolan Bai, Sidhweswari Devi these extended records were not on the roster of H.M.V, so they got those seven minutes recordings, Bismillah Khan Sahab, Ravishankar ji, Ali Akbar they had also made, Nikhil Banerjee they had also made these seven minutes records, which were not there in the market, in the publicity domain, I mean the old connoisseurs who had these records but that by then those record players were been extinct. So therefore those records were not available, so I brought it in cassette so my library also became up to date, and preservation of those extended play and 78rpm records came to good use and revival of classical music happened.
Prof Sanjoy Bandopadhyay and Rajeswary Ganguly Banerjee
Date
27th September, 2016
Place
Ashoka Road,Alipore, Kolkata -700027
About the speaker
Rajeev Goenka is a noted connoisseur of Indian Classical Music and is a passionate music collector. He is the founder and protector of The Rajeev Goenka Music Academy at Dundlod, Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. He is closely attached to Kolkata’s music scenario.
Tags
Kolkata, Music Programme, Maniram A. Kanan, Debu Chowdhury, Manilal Nag, Performance, Baithak, Muktaram Babu Street, 1950-60, Jasraj, Goenka House, V.G. Jog
Language
English
Sri Rajeev Goenka Speaks :
Data processed at SAP-DRS Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University.
