RMIM Archive Article "293".


From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian

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# RMIM Archives..
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# Subject: Music that went straight to the hearts - Hari Prasad Chaurasia
# Author: Saeed Malik
# Source: The Nation Midweek (Pakistan)
# Contact: Khawaja Naveed Aslam (knaslam@paknet1.ptc.pk)
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Good music, soulfully rendered by an accomplished melodist, as has appropriately been observed, casts its spell on cultivated listeners, astute connoisseurs and lay music buffs, not excluding the profane and puritan members of a society, mesmerising them to various degrees, with its sonic depth and effervescent appeal. If a proof was needed, the September 4th presentation by flutist Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia provided it. Music, it is also claimed, transcends political, geographical, religious, ethnic and all man-made barriers, as melodies produced and enlivened by the intensity, warmth and feeling of the musicians create an enduring impact on the listeners. So did the music of the visiting Indian musician, whose haunting melodies, brimming with emotional outpourings, created an aura of ethereal ambience, which kept the audience spellbound for about three hours. Fifty-nine years old flutist Hari Prasad Chaurasia, is one of India's most gifted, seasoned and internationally-renowned classicists who, like late Pakistani maestro, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, has contributed, albeit to a lesser extent, to the globalisation of Sub-continental music. He was recently in Lahore, as he put it, "to make pilgrimage to a city which is known as the fountainhead of melodic wisdom". Pandit Chaurasia came to our city in a vini, vidi, vici manner on an invitation extended to him by the Sanjan Nagar Institute of Philosophy and Arts, Lahore, and gave a concert of his serene, mesmerising and spine-tingling music, arranged in the spacious hall of a local five-star hotel (courtesy Indian Council for Cultural Relations) and predictably drew a large number of astute connoisseurs, professional gharana musicians and votaries of classical music, not to forget the mentioning of the usual motley crowd of socialites who wish to be seen at such functions. It was the first-ever performance of the Indian flute maestro in Lahore, the city of music lovers. Among frontline Pakistani gharana melodists who attended the concert in a fraternal gesture of goodwill for the visiting Indian maestro were vocalists Ustad Ghulam Hassan Shaggan and his son Qadir (Gowaliar); Ustad Sharafat Ali Khan, representing his ailing father Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, and the duo of Imtiaz Ali Khan-Riaz Ali Khan (Shaam Chaurasi); Hamid Ali Khan (Patiala); Mirza Nasiruddin (Delhi) and Ustad Mohammad Hafeez Khan (Talwandi); and composers Wazir Afzal and Altaf Hussain Tafo, (who is also Pakistan's Number One Tabla-player), in addition to scores of practitioners of the melodic arts currently working for film, radio and television orchestras. It was one of the rare melodic moots held in the city which attracted the attention of so many top Pakistani professional musicians. The articulated presentation of ragas by Pandit Chaurasia came up to the expectations of Pakistani melodists and musically vivacious people of Lahore, who appreciated every minute of the hauntingly sweet, emotionally-charging, intellectually-stirring masterly expositions of ragas Hemawati (an uncommon raga) and Chander Kaus. This scribe was sitting at the far end of the hall and could not properly hear and understand the introductory remarks made by Pandit Chaurasia due to poor amplifying arrangement. It is his educated guess that what was uttered by Chaurasia sounded like Hemawati, a misharmail (mixed) raga made up of at least two classical formulations. What the visiting Indian artist rendered on his flute sounded like a composition in which the shudh (natural) nikhad (seventh note) had been changed to its komal (flattened) variation. Other characteristics of the raga sounded like those of madhvanti. If, a komal gandhar (third note) is added to raga Sarswati, it will sound like the one played by the learned Pandit Chaurasia. During the course of presentation, a lady sitting next to my seat seemed to have gone into a trance. When asked whether she understood the esoteric music of Pandit Chaurasia, she replied in the negative, adding, "I don't know as to exactly what he was doing (on his flute), but I was completely overwhelmed by the sound waves which floated through the air in the hall and touched my ear-drums. Academically, I am not in a position to explain the why and how of this phenomenon, but his music created a hypnotic spell on me. It went straight to my heart as, I am sure, it must have reached the deep recesses of the hearts of other listeners". Such was the magic of Pandit Chaurasia's music. Strange are the vicissitudes of life! The wrestler father of Hari Prasad wanted his son also to learn the art of self-defence. However, little did he know that this son of his (out of the three) would opt for a career which was not even remotely connected with the martial arts, which were almost anti-thetical to his son's latent yearnings for finer things in life. The Allahabad born, bred and raised Hari Prasad secretly practised the art of flute-playing in a self-teaching process by re-creating popular film songs of those days. But whenever he chanced to listen to the sophisticated music of the ustaads of that period, he would make attempts to reproduce their melodies through his flute which indeed was an uphill task, often leaving him in a state of dejection and utter frustration. However, his failure in re-creating the music of the great masters did not dampen his enthusiasm. In fact, it strengthened his resolve as, without the knowledge and permission of his father, he accepted a lowly job of a musician at All-India Radio, Cattuck, Orissa, which did not fetch him enough money to easily keep his body and soul together. When, against his wishes, young Chaurasia was transferred to Bombay (where he played flute in the orchestras of such renowned composers as Madan Mohan, Jaidev and Roshan), things appeared a little brighter for him. His association with film music, and the influences of sensitive composers changed the course of his profession. He played their melodies feelingly and learnt much from those experiences which are now reflected in the emotion- charged, meditative alap of the ragas which he plays on his flute. The improvisations and bole-making in his alaps are reflective of the cries of a tarnished soul, the pangs of separation suffered by the lovers, and their longings for a reunion, which are the by-products of an intelligent emotive use of music in films. Here I am reminded of two sitar-players who have had similar experiences and background of working with film orchestras under the batons of highly creative composers like Master Ghulam Haider, Naushad Ali and others. They are the late Rubabia Ustad Fateh Ali Khan and the living Ustad Raees Khan. Chaurasia's contacts with Bombay-based composers (now his home town) seem to have contributed significantly in the chiselling of his melodic personality. But the one person who radically altered Hari Prasad's life was Mrs Annapurna Shankar, the estranged wife of Pandit Ravi Shankar (and the sister of sarod-maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan) who, after persistent pleading, cajoling and beseeching by Hari Prasad, agreed to accept him as her student of classical music. He spent several years under her tutelage and practised daily for 18 hours under the watchful eyes of his sitar-playing, highly disciplinarian Gurumata (lady teacher). It was only after he had practised for several years, and acquired enough knowledge and performing skill that she allowed him to appear in public concerts of classical music. Now, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia is one of the best, if not the best, flute players of India, whose recitals command as much respect and attention as did the presentations of Pannah Lal Ghosh, the late flute wizard from Bengal. The warmth, tenderness and incantatory nuances of his music create such a lasting impact on his audiences that they don't get tired of listening to his expositions of ragas. A true follower of the gaiyki-ang baaj (singing style) of sarod maestro Alauddin Khan (which Chaurasia learnt through the daughter of the late master), his visit to Lahore offered local music buffs a chance to listen to someone who, although not young in age, possesses the expertise and confidence in playing flute which have the exuberance, freshness and verve of a young artist. At the age of 59, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia demonstrates a penchant for bold innovations and shuns total reliances on traditions and rigidity, a weakness which sometimes reduces the impact of the music of even seasoned classicists. It was evident in abundance from the way he got himself immersed in an ocean of music during the slow, meditative and progressive delineation of raga Hemawati's theme. Gradually but surely, he raced up to a breath-shattering pace during a sitar-like jor and jhala (the second and third parts of the solo elaboration of a raga on a string instrument) phase, creating a flurry of music which did not in anyway jarred the ears of the listeners. During that particular phase of his presentation, his flute sounded like a sarod, especially in its breezy flourishes, producing the most intricate graces and glissandos. While playing the gut, he used a nine-matra (beats) taal (time measure) which does not commonly accompany main compositions (asthai-antras) of the ragas. And he acquitted himself admirably by improvising and composing melodic phrases within the trappings of this difficult taal. Not an easy task, indeed. It pointed to his versatility in impromptu improvisation as also his skill in remaining within the confines of the uncommon time measure. Again I failed to catch the name of the taal which Chaurasia mentioned in his introductory remarks. Perhaps, he called it Chander taal although there are a couple of other 9-matra thekas which are known by the names of Nusrik taal and Chandkraira taal. For Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia (as it is with other committed musicians) music is like worship; a medium of divine communion, pursued with noble intentions, and with complete faith in its spiritual aspects. Dedicated to the refinement of classical music and also for demonstrating the potential and vitality of Sub- continental music, Chaurasia has now earned worldwide fame and following, through a series of recordings that brim with his melodic erudition. He is one of those musicians who are competent to skillfully communicate to his audiences the graces and subtleties of our classical music along with its strength and validity. His improvisations "free-ranging", laden with meends and soots (glides and slides) are reflective of deep pathos and emotion-packed melodic phrases which create heart-melting effects on the listeners. He is more than capable of producing soul- stirring melodies through his simple bamboo flute which is perhaps the first man-made musical instrument. From the first note that he produces from his flute for alap, to the end of his concert, he holds his audiences emotionally linked with him. Of his many admirable qualities of head and heart - his sense of creating enticing musical designs, the inexorable logic of his melodic wisdom; the ability to employ even the subtlest shade of a note; his free and faultless use of sweeping taans (flourishes); and the masterly ability to melismatically weave numerous melodic patterns, and the almost mind-boggling, sophisticated rhythmic designs - the most significant, perhaps, is his highly refined lyricism. He has the knack and natural gift of rendering sustained melodies which flow endlessly and incessantly from his flute with a high degree of expressiveness. Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasi's versatility is reflected in his penchant for inventing original compositions for film songs (he is reported to have scored music for several films, including Silsila, Chandni and Lamhe) and his proclivity for experimentation with new forms at international melodic moots. He possesses an extraordinarily keen and subtle perception of sur (note), a smattering of which was evidenced from the knowing look on his face (during the first item of his concert) when one of the taanpuras was not correctly producing the pancham note (fifth). It was only after he had fine-tuned the instrument that he resumed his presentation. Technically, his alap of raga Hemawati was as innovative as it was brilliant. Later, he demonstrated the richness and variety of the classical composition in a manner that was incredibly artful, authoritative and truly representative of the melody-type system of Sub-continental music as against the harmony-type in vogue in Western countries. Even for the musically fastidious Lahore audiences, his exposition of an uncommon raga created a profound effect. They listened to his music in an environment of respectful informality, imbued with a feeling of serene exaltation. However, his selection of raga Hemawati for this concert raised many eyebrows. It is generally believed that a raga which contains komal gandhar (third), tivar (sharp) madham (fourth) and komal nikhad (seventh) creates dissonance. But the classical composition which Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia played on his flute had this "forbidden' combination of notes (or scale), and yet he manipulated these notes with such dexterity and improvisational excellence that it did not create unpleasant sounds. Thakur Nawab Ali, in his book Maaraful Naghmaat, it may be recalled, his claimed that a raga using these three notes would produce jarring effects on the listeners and would amount to introducing artificial harmonic balance in an inherently unbalanced scale. It would be unfair on my part, as also the essay will remain incomplete, if a mention is not made of the excellence, expertise and agility of tabla-player Bannerjee who provided rhythmic accompaniment to maestro Chaurasia. The young percussionist pleasantly surprised the knowledgeable attendees at the concert by the incredible ease and speed with which he played his instrument. Like the flute maestro, Bannerjee, too, was lustily cheered by members of the audience. In addition to the "coming to the sum" note with pre-set tihaees (three equally-paced phrases), he also made impromptu improvisation on his tabla. In a gesture of patronage, flutist Hari Prasad Chaurasia, during the course of his presentation, provided ample opportunities to Bannerjee to demonstrate his rhythmic agility, performing skill and a fine sense of timing. The young tabla player created rich and complex rhythmic variations on his instrument. The flute-playing shagird of Pandit Chaurasia provided scalic continuity to the master by producing the sound of the keynote and occasionally creating chord-like contrapuntal lines from his instrument, which enhanced the effectiveness of Chaurasia's recitals.
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian