SPIC MACAY-1
This was the first non-academic event [not counting the Communications Skills class I have to take mandatorily] I went for. Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia played as part of a SPIC MACAY "Lecture-demo". A short 1 hour programme with the maestro playing along with the excellent-as-usual tabalchi Vijay Ghate, another flautist whose name I forget, and on the tanpuraa, Puneet (whose name I don't forget because the announcer forgot to and Panditji quite indignantly pointed that out (and generally gave the organisers some tough moments) :-) )
A three piece act, opening with Bhiimpalaashri ("a late afternoon/evening" raaga) followed by one whose raaga I didn't know, but was the highlight of the day, especially with a friendly duel between the flute and the tabalaa and ending with a mellifluous version of "Om jai jagadiisha hare".
Now I'm quite musically illiterate so sometimes I can't quite appreciate the beauty/difficulty of certain sections - perhaps I would if I had a reference point or could compare it to lesser artistes and see what difference the master makes. But in many places, you can see the extraordinary skill in an absolute fashion - there were several such moments even in the vignettes presented today. I hadn't seen anyone play the flute one-handed and once only hovering over the lower holes before.
Q1: is he a left-handed player [he certainly held the flute with it pointing towards the left]
Q2: (slightly vague) the other flautist had a smoother sound while Pt. Chaurasia had a slightly woody, textured sound. Is that simply a property of the flute and by design or was it not the usual?
The only disappointing aspect was despite its billing as one, there was hardly any "lecturing". I was hoping to learn a bit more by way of explanations in some of the interesting/subtle points, but that didn't happen. So it remained more of a musical experience than a educative one.
A three piece act, opening with Bhiimpalaashri ("a late afternoon/evening" raaga) followed by one whose raaga I didn't know, but was the highlight of the day, especially with a friendly duel between the flute and the tabalaa and ending with a mellifluous version of "Om jai jagadiisha hare".
Now I'm quite musically illiterate so sometimes I can't quite appreciate the beauty/difficulty of certain sections - perhaps I would if I had a reference point or could compare it to lesser artistes and see what difference the master makes. But in many places, you can see the extraordinary skill in an absolute fashion - there were several such moments even in the vignettes presented today. I hadn't seen anyone play the flute one-handed and once only hovering over the lower holes before.
Q1: is he a left-handed player [he certainly held the flute with it pointing towards the left]
Q2: (slightly vague) the other flautist had a smoother sound while Pt. Chaurasia had a slightly woody, textured sound. Is that simply a property of the flute and by design or was it not the usual?
The only disappointing aspect was despite its billing as one, there was hardly any "lecturing". I was hoping to learn a bit more by way of explanations in some of the interesting/subtle points, but that didn't happen. So it remained more of a musical experience than a educative one.
4 Comments:
A1. Yes, he plays left-handed (read somewhere that was something that came from his instructor ...). Not sure if he's a left-handed person, though (but then if that bit about the instructor is true, then he'd be right-handed, wouldn't he?)
A2. Your description of the sound seems to convey a sense of the impressions you received on account on the flute itself. Indeed the material used in making the flute contributes significantly to the sound produced. The other important and obvious factor that would account for the difference is what the performer brings to the table (to use a popular expression). Understanding and appreciating that helps one answer (to some extent) questions like "what makes Bhimsen Joshi so special?". Keep attending more and more performances -- it's a good way of building up an intuition for the answer ...
Explanations are always welcome, but I haven't attended many concerts where explanations are offered. In fact, a lot of the explanations I've heard are often ineffectual. Coincidentally, they are usually offered when the audience includes a non-Indian component. There is a clear "impedance mismatch" between Western music theory and Indian music theory, and a concert does not offer either time or opportunity to understand and explore this enough. However, attendance is a good way to build up a familiarity with common raags. More listening will eventually help you build up your associative memory for classical music concerts. Soon the day will come when you hear the performer begin the vila.mbit section and you "know" which raag it is, even though you may not know much about the aaroha, avaroha or the chalan. It's a great feeling, because the music has clearly touched your core instead of remaining intellectually appealing.
Thanks GT. I don't know if the artistes have been told about the whole "lecture-demo" aspect and if they do approach it any other way. Wasn't so in this case anyway.
Well it's some experience listening him playing flute. Thank God he didn't follow family tradition of Pehalwani, and ran away!
Hi Upasna, I always had the opp. perception - that they target the college crowd more. IIT-B was the most famous version I ever knew. Though last week, Pune had one of its first SPIC MACAY events - Shivkumar Sharma - mainly for children. Nice stuff.
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