The year 2016 took off with a bang. All through the month of January, the theoretical deliberations and performances were spread over festivals like the Sharangdev Prasang, with seminar-cum-performances at Mahagami Gurukul, Aurangabad, Lok-Rang, the festival of folk music, dance and theatre traditions at Bhopal, Raja Rani Festival at the stunning sculpture of the Raja-Rani Temple Bhubaneswar, Tansen Sangeet Samaroh at Gwalior and the annual seminar of the ITC-SRA (West) & Music Forum at the National Centre of Performing Arts (NCPA) Mumbai apart from the many important festivals of the Capital city kept the musical atmosphere charged.
The enthusiasm continued throughout the year with many firsts like the ‘Pratham Baiju Bawara Sangeet Samaroh held at his Samadhi in Chanderi, the first Mahindra Kabira Festival at Darbhanga and Assi Ghat Varanasi, the Gurgaon Utsav at Gurgaon with Kabir-Bani by Shubha Mudgal, the bhajans, qawwali and katha-vachan at the Bhakti Utsav in New Delhi’s Nehru Park, the Sangeet Natak Akademi and ICCR’s regular annual festivals of music and dance, the annual Vishnu Digambar Jayanti Samaroh of Gandharva Mahavidyalaya,, Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra’s annual Krishna and Ram Leelas and Shankar Lal Festival, the Tansen Haridas Sangeet Sammelan, the mammoth four-day extravaganza of Kathak dansue Uma Sharma, the Sa Ma Pa Sangeet Sammelan, the Guru Purnima Utsav Kolhapur, the Purab Ang Gayaki Utsav Kolkata and Varanasi and the Sahitya Kala Parishad’s annual Thumri & Ghazal Festivals et al. Pandit Debu Chaudhury and Dr. Prabha Atre’s 81st birth anniversaries were also celebrated as music festivals.
This was also the birth centenary year of two Bharat Ratnas, Ustad Bismillah Khan and M.S. Subbulakshmi, and both were celebrated in a big way. The Sangeet Natak Akademi’s (SNA) year-long Ud. Bismillah Khan Centenary Celebrations opened with ‘Sur Benaras’ at the hundred-year-old Nagari Pracharini Mandal Sabhagar, Varanasi, where the late Ustad had played his inimitable shehnai quite a few times. The week-long event not only invited the stalwarts of wind instruments like shehnai, flute, sundari, clarinet, etc but also showcased the music and dance (Kathak) of Benaras Gharana. The year long celebrations also comprised the ‘Swar Ganga Festival’, Imphal, showcasing the talented young awardees of the SNA Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar.
‘Simhastha-2016’, held at the banks of the holy river Kshipra at Ujjain, was also a significant festival this year. This month-long prestigious festival of M.P. government , showcased the best of traditional, folk and classical music at the ‘Kala Utsav’ organised by the department of culture simultaneously at seven stages.
In short, there was no dearth of music festivals throughout the year but the alarming trend of showmanship and the populist approach is a matter of concern. Ustad Amir Khan had once remarked, “Music has become a disease. People want music that hits the head like a hammer.”
He would have obviously referred to this tendency to emphasise on rhythm, speed and virtuosity at the expense of quietude and meaning. The sense of propriety is a must for classical music. Pandit Arvind Parikh reiterated this trend as lack of sense of proportion between ‘bawat’ and ‘tariqa’ i.e. content and expression. Musicians of the present generation seem to focus mostly on (impressive?) expression that would win them rounds of applause rather than the depth of profound content. There is a tendency to compromise with the content and opt for speed and virtuosity. Witnessing this trend repeatedly during most of the programmes in the bygone year, one experienced discontent and a feeling of being short-changed, while looking for good music which was available in a very short supply and that too in small proportion.
Arvind Parikh
Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma makes another valid point referring to the percussion accompaniment. He mentions the usual scenario where instead of listening to the preface of a chosen raga during the alaap-jod that creates the mood of the raga, they would do their ‘dua-salaam’ (hello-hi) to familiar faces in the audience and when the bandish (Composition) starts, they just attack the main artiste, bombarding him with long drawn ‘uthaan’ and would also try to dominate all the time. Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma said jokingly, “I’m going to suggest Pandit Arvind Parikh to organise the next NCPA seminar on the art of accompaniment”.
The ‘fusion’ music also created quite a confusion with the cacophony of untuned instruments and mismatched music. There were, of course, some admirable collaborations too, where many musician from different cultures played in total tunefulness and unison. Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, who has composed a concerto for the Scottish chamber Orchestra finds this kind of collaboration to be the need of the day.
One was deeply touched when he wished, ‘Merry Christmas’ on Whats app with a beautiful video clip of his melodious sarod playing along the track of the serene carol ‘Silent Night’!
Some of the organisers need to be told that they should value the time of music lovers who take trouble to commute long distances and come to listen to good music. The unending delay in starting the programme caused by waiting for chief guests or the long speeches simply irritate them. Recently at a programme held at Kamani auditorium, the organisers kept inviting the luminaries one after the other for their speeches.
When Pandit Rajan Mishra was invited to take his turn, he remarked tongue in cheek, “There is a word ‘khamakha’ (just for the heck of it), so I am invited here ‘khamakha’! Hope the remark reached where it was aimed at, and brings fruitful results.
In the year 2016, we have lost some of our finest artistes like the 106-year-old Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan, Vidushi Veena Sahasrabuddhe, tabla player of Benaras Gharana Pandit Lachhu Maharaj, sarangi maestro Ustad.
Sabri Khan, senior vocalist of Rampur Sahaswan Gharana Ustad Ghulam Sadiq Khan, Mubarak Begum and recently the legendary Carnatic musician, Pandit M. Balmuralikrishna. Their contribution would be remembered with gratitude and they shall live in their music for ever.
