Vocal magic at its best

MELODIOUS MOMENTS

As a rare treat for the music lovers in the City, SPICMACAY recently conducted a Sufi recital as part of the cultural extravaganza ‘Virasat 2011’.

The concert was rendered by the popular Sufi vocalist Madan Gopal Singh, who was accompanied by his troupe which he fondly calls Chaar Yaar (meaning four friends).

The group consisted of Deepak Castelino, Preetham Goshal and Gurmeet Singh
on different instruments. The Sufi concert was held at 12 different venues, one of which was the PES Institute of Technology, Banashankari.

The audience consisted of college students who came for it in large numbers, even though PESIT’s inter-collegiate fest was taking place on the campus. This is not the first time that the group is performing in the City.

About the concert, Madan Gopal Singh said, “We are more than happy that we were given a chance to come to the City to perform. Initially, we did have our doubts as
usually there is not much awareness about Sufi culture among people. But we got a very good response to our songs. Bangalore is a cosmopolitan City for a reason.”

The concert began with Madan Singh quoting from the French poet Baudelaire which was an invocation to the Almighty followed by the artistes giving a short introduction on Sufi songs. All songs had the characteristic takraar, which means every song stopped at a
particular note.

The first song was a slow number called mangal charan from the 17th century. The song had transitions from a letter to word to phrase. This piece had elaborate instrumentation, which is again special only to Sufi. The significance of this song was that it portrayed the recent violence against Sufi shrines.

This was followed by another song from the eighteenth  century which, when translated, said ‘For your love I dance in a trance, come my saviour or else I am going’.  This number began with a nagma proceeding to a rubayee and then two poems that complemented each other.  

The next song was based on the age-old Punjabi tradition of the saloo which is
an embroidered handkerchief passed on from a mother to her daughter when she gets married.

The pain of separation was effectively brought out in this soulful number. But not all songs were slow Punjabi numbers. The next song was a beautiful rendition of ‘Scarborough Fair’, the classic by ‘Simon and Garfunkel’. 

Performed by Deepak, this had a beautiful mix of both Western and Eastern notes. This particular song enlivened the mood in the audience which was further accentuated by another peppy number played by Deepak on an electric guitar. 

The group concluded the concert with the famous upbeat Punjabi number Mast Kalandar and everyone in the audience sang along with the singers on stage. This energetic number was the perfect way to end the show.