Two new recordings – Ragas Hindol Bahar and Kaunshi Kanada – have been placed in the Krishnarao Phulambrikar folder at the Vijaya Parrikar Library.
Ramashreya Jha “Ramrang”
(1928-2009)
To mark the occasion, an excerpt of Jha-sahab’s recital in Kolkata (c. 2003) is offered. Tabla support is provided by Aneesh Pradhan and on the harmonium is Purushottam Walawalkar.
Photo essay on the great Goan composer and musician on my photo blog –
See the new post over on my photo blog.
In a recent controlled laboratory experiment, a freshly baked baby was gently dropped on a Casiotone keyboard and sound issuing from the baby’s random plonks analyzed. The resulting sequence was found to be indistinguishable from the Indian National Anthem. True story.
For a nation that prides itself on an ancient and sophisticated music tradition, it is perplexing that India wears for its musical coat of arms this rag of doo-doo sewn by Rabindranath Tagore. You can’t say this aloud in India without sending 1.2 billion knickers into an indignant paroxysm. For Rabby, together with Mohandas and Jawaharlal, is considered part of the Holy Trinity. But the truth of the matter – and which is by now known the world over – is that the Indian National Anthem tune is an utter lemon.
I am here not concerned about the politics of the national anthem – whether Jana Gana Mana should be replaced by Vande Mataram. (Yes, if you ask me.) My remarks pertain to its musical content – rather, the absence of it. It requires no special insight or training in music to see Jana Gana Mana for the debacle that it is. Can anyone locate within this piece a single tonal flourish that expresses any traditional values of Indian music? Even a mild instance of meend, say, or a hint of swara nuance?
I recall the trauma of my young days, forced to stand to attention to this unworthy, uninspiring, and above all, unmusical rubbish. Pakistan has a tuneful national anthem. (And they deserved to beat India in the recent Cricket World Cup solely on this account – that and the fact that their players looked like real athletes.) As does Sri Lanka. Even the tiny Kingdom of Tonga can claim a more evocative anthem.
Ramashreya Jha ‘Ramrang’ (1928-2009)
I last spoke to Ramashreya Jha “Ramrang” on December 28, 2008, calling him from California. He was in a hospital bed in Kolkata, awaiting cardiac surgery scheduled for a few hours later. He did not survive the operation, passing away on the morning of January 1, 2009, India time. Fittingly, our final conversation centred largely on music.
I came to know Ramrang in the final twelve years of his life, during which we forged an intensely close bond. It was from him that I learnt the true meaning of raga – its structure, its aesthetic, and its place in musical experience (raganubhava).
So many memories crowd the mind, and in time I may share some of them here. Ramrang’s first-ever airplane ride was in 1999, when I invited him to Goa. I still see the way his face lit up as he stepped off the plane, and hear his animated account of the experience, told in his musical Bihari cadences.
Below are video excerpts from Ramrang’s recital at the Kala Academy in Panjim on August 4, 2007. Harmonium accompaniment is by Sudhakar Karandikar; on tabla, Tulsidas Navelkar.
Note: The videographer hired for the event inadvertently drove his audio feed into saturation, rendering the soundtrack rather unpleasant. (I tried applying a low-pass filter, but to no avail.) Fortunately, I had set up a separate audio channel, so the full recital – audio-only – has been properly archived.
The video cuts are archived on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/parrikar
For a better audio experience of these excerpts, go here.