Debu Chaudhuri - Desh

Debu Chaudhuri Raga Desh

India Archives Music IAM 1002, 1989


TRACK LISTINGS
1. Desh - Alap & Jor
2. Desh - Vilambit & Drut Gat, Tintal

Devabrata "Debu" Chaudhuri - sitar
Shafaat Ahmed Khan - tabla


Pandit Devabrata (Debu) Chaudhuri today is the foremost exponent of the Senia gharana. Initially trained under the late Panchu Gopal Datta, he trained for a fruitful 38 years under Sangeet Acharya Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan, Sitar Sudhakar of the Senia gharana. His romance with the sitar started when he was all of 4 years old, he made his public debut at the age of 12 and his first broadcast for All India Radio was in the year 1948.Debu Chaudhuri is a man of many talents. He is India`s foremost sitar maestro, respected teacher and guru, composer of numerous mellifluous symphonies, creator of eight new ragas, author of three books and several monographs, eminent musicologist (successfully guiding 33 Ph. D. Scholars) and winner of numerous awards and honours. He has been conferred the prestigious Padma Bhushan, one of India`s highest civilian honours bestowed by the President of India and the most coveted Sangeet Natak Award for his invaluable contribution in the field of Indian classical music. He has also recorded many albums and cassettes with companies all over the world.In 1960, Debu Chaudhuri left Kolkata to join the newly established Department of Music at the University of Delhi in search of his mission to promote the purest traditional form of sitar playing being played by his revered Guruji, propagating its special techniques and quality not only in India, but all over the world. Here he taught for 40 years. His zeal for the propagation of Indian classical music has been boundless and he has delivered lectures at more than 130 Universities around the world, chaired various international seminars on music and has represented India at numerous cultural festivals.He has recently started a unique project to document rare instrumental compositions, which are being forgotten or overlooked by the present generation - a project so dear to his heart that his only ambition is to complete it during his lifetime. As the founder Chairperson of the Delhi University Culture council and as the former Dean and Head of the Faculty of Music and Fine Arts, Debu Chaudhuri`s contribution to the field of education places him on an exalted pedestal of respect in the domain of music all over the world. He enjoys wide popularity both as a Maestro of Sitar and as a learned teacher of music, a unique combination and achievement indeed. (ITC Sangeet Research Academy)Raga Desh is one Raga that I could recognize even before I knew anything about classical music, and I believe every Indian irrespective of familiarity with classical music will know it by it's sound. It is the Raga to which the National Song of India, "Vande Mataram" is set. It is an amazingly beautiful Raga, full of inspiring, uplifting sentiment and Shri Debu Chowdhuri does not disappoint with an exquisite Alaap. The Sitar that Debu Chowdhuri uses has a nice shimmering sound to it that sounds very nice as well.I very much like Panditji's performance of raag Desh.As one of the few well known sitar playing representatives of the Senia gharana, Pt. Debu Chaudhuri is an important musician. But he is also one of the best sitarists of the 20th. Century, in my opinion (along with Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan, Nikhil Banerjee, Budhaditya Mukherjee, Manilal Nag, Rais Khan, and perhaps Shahid Parvez).For more info on the artist see his website: http://www.debuchaudhuri.com/



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Credits to AmbroseBierce (Ripper & Uploader)

Imrat Khan - Rag Madhur Ranjani

Rag Madhur Ranjani 1992

TRACK LISTINGS
1. Section A: Solo Sitar
2. Section B: Sitar & Tabla

Imrat Khan - sitar
Shafaatullah Khan - tabla

A member of one of Indian classical music's most prominent, well-respected families, Ustad Imrat Khan plays the sitar in a style known as "gayeki ang," which is a vocal style of playing stringed instruments. Relying less on the droning tamboura than is common for most North Indian solo instrumentalists, Khan allows his evocative, expressive style to stand out, using dynamic melodies and ample space between notes to create a wonderful sense of dramatic tension. The 30-minute opening segment allows the virtuoso to display his mesmerizing sitar skills, while the second half of the raga finds him joined by his son, Shafaatullah Khan, on tabla. Rendered with surprising depth and skill, this is a wonderful example of meditative minimalism at its finest.

Imrat Khan is one of the most well known Indian musicians of our time. He traces his lineage back through a family of musicians to the court of the great Moghul Emperor Akbar of the sixteenth century. He trained on the surbahar with his uncle Usta Waheed Khan, and studied sitar with his older brother, the celebrated Ustad Vilayat Khan.Gayecki Ang [a vocal style of playing stringed instruments] has become a trademark of the gharana (musical "house") of Imrat and Vilayat Khan. Gayecki Ang involves an extensive use of a technique called meend wherein a player pulls sideways across the frets and allows for an entire musical phrase to be produced with a single stroke of the plectrum.Imrat Khan is renowned throughout the world, and maintains a busy travel and touring schedule. He performs regularly in the major cultural centers of Europe and the Americas, as well as in India, where he makes his home.Shafaatullah Khan accompanies his father on tabla with a sensitivity that is characteristic of the entire Khan family. Shafaatullah first began his training in sitar and surbahar, and later studied tabla in order to provide accompaniment for his father and his brothers, all of whom are string players. He performs regularly with them in international circuits, as well as with other well known musicians. He currently resides in the United States.Indian Classical music is one of the most developed forms of music to have emanated from our world. In many ways, especially as regards scale and rhythmic structures, it is far more complex than Western Classical music. Its improvisational aspects require and encourage performers to inject their own personalities into the music, without ever straying very far from the set melody and rhythm. In this way, a classical raga written hundreds of years ago may be rendered somewhat differently by any number of musicians over the years. These characteristics afford Indian Classical music a certain timelessness, and allow for a wide range of interpretations of a given composition.It has always been a sensitive issue as to when a musician should feel comfortable enough to compose his own rag. A musician might attempt this only after a long period of his life, after a thorough knowledge of perhaps hundreds of rags has been attained. A musician of such stature might then present his own composition. It does not suffice however, to merely compose a rag because in order to be thoroughly absorbed into the musical system, a piece must be played regularly and passed on through the generations until it achieves recognized status.Rag Madhur Ranjani is a rag of Imrat Khan's own design, but is based on two well known traditional rags, Madhuvanti and Shivranjani. Set in a minor key, Rag Madhur Ranjani echoes the pathos of Shivranjani, but also expresses fulfillment, as of finding one's beloved after a long period of absence. Rag Madhur Ranjani is performed on this recording in alap, villambit, madhyalaya and drut. The scale, in ascending and descending forms is as follows:Sa Re Gab Ma# Pa Dha SaAlthough Imrat Khan is very well known for his surbahar playing, it was specifically requested that he render a performance on sitar for this recording. This request was graciously obliged, but it was not known until the day of the recording exactly which rag he would play. In Western music, it would be very difficult (if not impossible) for a producer to embark on a recording session without knowing which songs were to be performed. However, in the Indian tradition, many factors such as time of day, season, climactic conditions, personal feelings of the performer etc. regularly help to determine which piece will be most appropriate for a given performance. Madhur Ranjani was the perfect choice for this recording and it is rendered here with great passion and dexterity. The relatively diminished role of the tamboura, played sensitively by Irshad Khan, is used only as filler at crucial points in the rag, rather than throughout the entire performance. In this way, the silence that exists in between individual notes can be utilized to its greatest extent in order to create a tension and balance which are integral to the final effect of the piece.


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