JOIN USTo create awareness about Indian classical music amongst the youth, a five-day musical extravaganza along with workshops on recognition and appreciation of instrumental music was organised by the India Habitat Centre, recently.
The event ‘Sound of Music’, which commenced on June 23, provided a rare chance to learn from eminent ustads and top musicologists about various musical instruments like wind instruments – flute, shehnai, nagaswaram, clarinet, saxopohne; string instruments – sitar, santoor, sarangi, sarod; bowed instruments like violin, dilruba, esraj, cello and percussion instruments – drums, tabla, manjira etc.
On the opening day Dr Sudeep Rai presented his solo performance on sitar along with and a vocal recital by Shakeel Ahmed. After his performance, Dr Rai shared details about sitar, the gharanas and various aspects of playing a sitar. He also explained Masit Khani Gat, Madhya Lay Gat in Raag Bageshree, teen taal and 16 beats in his presentation. On a request from the audience about playing a film song on sitar, he presented Abhi mujh me kahin from the popular Hrithik Roshan-starrer Agneepath.
Sharing his views on Indian classical music, Dr Rai, said “Indian classical music is not appreciated nowadays, which is quite sad. The young generation doesn’t have much information and knowledge about classical music and the instruments which makes it difficult for them to understand the quality and purity of music.” Vocalist Shakeel Ahmed also received huge appreciation for his performance. He provided insights on ghazal, thumri, dadra and sufiana gayaki. He presented a thumri Kahun kaise sakhi mujhe laaj lage, a dadra Aye ri sakhi more piya ghar aaye, a ghazal of Begum Akhtar Mere hamnawaz and concluded with a sufiana kalaam Tu bada gareeb nawaz hai.
During the event, Shakeel Ahmed said, “It is important for us to appreciate our art and culture and events are a great platform where you can also learn along with enjoying great performances.”
On day two, Pt Ajay Prasanna mesmerised the audience with his flute recital. He too shared insights on flute and various aspects related to it – how it was created, the balance of breath, control of air, how to present a raag, a composition on flute, size of flute, importance of accompanying artistes and their role in making the recital more soulful. The second presentation of the evening was by Ustad Ghulam Ali on sarangi. He provided details about sarangi, it’s dimensions and the Panipat gharana. During his performance he presented bandish from Agra gharana, Payaliya jhankar in raag Puriya Dhanasree, Sajan more ghar aayo in raag Jog and concluded with a bandish in raag Mishrpilu.
The third day of the event had performances by Ustad Rafiuddin Sabri on tabla and vocalist Dr Anees Ahmed. Also lined up are performances by Ustad Aleem Khan on violin and Dr Chandrima Majumdar on sarod on June 26. And finally, the musical extravaganza will conclude with an analytic santoor recital by Abhay Rustum Sopori and musicologists Shubhra Mazumdar, Manjari Sinha, Ravindra Mishra and Pt Vijay Shankar Mishra on June 30.