|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Monday, 17 May 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Features | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
A star, not a comet: Pradeepanjali VII In the small musical firmament of Sri Lanka, there have appeared from time to time many comets brightening it with wondrous light and giving joy to many listeners. In my life time there was Lionel Edirisinghe who both sang and played the sitar and the esraj; W.B. Makuloluwa who sang and wrote that beautiful little play Depano; Lionel Algama who played the sarod so masterfully; and Shanti Dissanayake who played the sitar so sweetly. They spread joy to thousands of listeners both directly and over radio waves. However, their brilliance, though so radiant, was like that of a comet. The energy that burnt them so fiercely in the sky was lost because the audience from whom, like the sun, the musicians drew light failed to shine on them. Like other comets they were attracted by gravity and disappeared from the musical firmament. Some of them lent powerful light and sweetness to music education, others became administrators and still others made stupid movies bearable. The graviton that attracted them was enough money to make a bare living, not to live comfortably or accumulate wealth. The graviton comes from discriminating listeners who go to Pradeep's concerts and who buy his compact discs. If we do not lend him that energy he will not defeat the laws of physics and over a decade or so become a star not only in our little musical firmament but also in the great beyond. I want to remind you of the last time he spread his brilliance and dazzled us on March 13 at the Lionel Wendt Theatre. Pradeep played two ragas yaman in its pristine from and kamaj as misra manj. Of the two, the more serious was yaman. It is usually the first raga a student learns and for that very reason. I also carry the memory of Pannalal Ghosh, the great flutist from Bengal, playing yaman on the long bamboo flute. In yaman, what I have enjoyed most is the long alap, which fits admirably with its need to evoke the mood of devotion. I was very happy when Pradeep went along to construct that alap with both skill and feeling. It is his great strength playing in gayaki style to raise that wave of emotion to experience the essence of ragadhari music. However, in less than ten minutes he changed over and I wished that he had continued with the alap to create the hypnosis which makes the sitar played in gayaki style so attractive to most people. The longest alap of that kind I have listened to was played by Ali Akbar Khan on the sarod sometime in 1974 or 1975 at the Madison Square Gardens. I find the percussion almost jarring and enjoy so much the euphoria worked by alap, that I would simply listen to that part and walk away from the rest. And I would plead with Pradeep to extend the alap to the limits permitted by his mastery of the music and that tolerated by the audience. The second raga, Pradeep played was misra manj kamaj. After a very short alap, he played some very melodious gats, some of which the audience must have recalled from songs that they had heard over many years. The jhor was played fantastically fast and equaled the very best one had heard from Indian masters. That there were no other instruments, apart from the sitar and the drums, was very pleasing. However, I would have liked the drone of a tampura. It adds so much, especially during alap that I missed it sorely during the concert. I did recall a remark by someone that the tampura provided the ceaseless ocean on which waves of music rose and fell to create pleasure. The pakhawaj played by Ravibandhu was jarring. It may have to do with his style of playing. Ravibandhu normally plays drums for dancers or with other drums. Accompanying a sitar player is another skill. The sitar is a delicate instrument whose sound can be so easily drowned by a noisy drum. A tabla makes a perfect companion; the pakhawaj a noisy one. None of this is to take away anything from the sweetness and the nobility of Pradeep's playing. He will play for us the way that we as an audience appreciate him playing. We all need to feed an absolutely first rate young musician to his maturity. The energy we give him will make him a star or a temporary comet with a brilliant tail (tale), pulled away from us by stronger forces of gravity. The cinema and the world of commercial music are enormous masses with huge gravitational pull. Those who value his kind of music must generate forces adequate to counter them. They must go to his concerts, celebrate his music and acquire his music on discs. A musician does not live on his music alone. We must enable him live by his music alone. Then he will live for his music alone. All this, because some one like Pradeep shines on our firmament all so rarely. - Dr. G. Usvatte-aratchi |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
