Chatterjee on a classical music promotional tour

Ruwini Jayawardana

MUSIC: Hindustani vocalist, Pandith Sarathi Chatterjee, visited Sri Lanka recently. He attended two Classical Music Recitals, the first held on 26 September at the Concert Hall of Pandith Somasiri Illesinghe’s residence while the second was at the Indian Cultural Centre on the following day.

Born into a family of professional musicians, Sarathi is known as one of the foremost young classical vocalists of his generation in India. He had shown signs of his immense talent at a very early age. As he puts it, he had turned to music “automatically”.

Both Sarathi’s parents had been related to music. His father, Professor Arun Kumar Chatterjee, is a highly respected classical singer. Sarathi’s mother, Shefali Chatterjee, had been an accomplished singer of Bengali Devotional songs. Sarathi has an elder sister, Mahua, who is also a vocalist.

“It is not by force that I have accomplished my status. My father never taught me what is Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, Ne, Sa. I started to sing those notes automatically. I was eager to make out the notations. It became a sort of game between me and my parents, to check if I was able to identify the notes, the Swaras, of a song that they sang. I was able to identify them immediately and that is how I began my journey to music,” recalled Sarathi.

Sarathi had received his initial training from his father in two “Gharanas”-first in “Kirana” and later in “Benaras”, which he was able to master on his own. His mother had also played a major role in his progress.

Fame

As fame swept his way, Sarathi got the opportunity to perform for the radio. Winning the first prize at the All India Radio Music Competition at the age of 17 had been just one jewel in his crown. Since then it has been a gradual upward movement for the artist.

His rendition of the “Raga” combined with sublime spiritual expression and outstanding technical virtuosity had won aesthetic appeal from audience around the world.

His gift of a powerful and melodious voice led him to create his own music by blending elements of the “Banaras Gharana” into the “Kirana Gharana”, the “Gayaki” of his original training. The result was the birth of a unique musical expression and experience. His performances are characterized by the depth of expression and purity of tone.

Romantic styles

Apart from “Khayal Gayaki”, Sarathi’s flair for music had taken him to other directions such as being able to perform more romantic styles of vocals. He is able to do justice to “Thumri” and devotional music such as “Bhajans”.

“All the different kinds of music in the world are melody based but Indian Classical music has two specific sections. There is a spiritual part and you can feel it without knowing the techniques. It is very melodious.”

Peaceful mind

“Basically, Hindustani Classical Music was used to achieve a peaceful mind or to continue the bond of relationship between two people,” comments Sarathi on the speciality of Indian Classical music.

Sarathi’s reflection is that unless one had experienced the “best of music”, one would not be able to advance in music.

“Unless a person knows the alphabet, he or she would not be able to form a sentence or spell a word. Similarly, a person must be familiar with the notations of music, whether it is Do, Re, Me, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do or Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, Ne, Sa.”

Sarathi has a number of CDs to his name. One was released in 2001 by the Asian Music Circuit of the UK, a premier institution promoting Indian Classical music. The second followed in 2003 and his latest CD was released in December 2005.

Apart from these three, he has three more CDs done with a combination of Frisian Folk music.

“Folk music is the source of all kinds of music. It is the origin and is being sung by common people, meaning people who have not had any musical training. It is a natural tune which you have inherited from birth and your mother tongue. There is no need of any kind of musical instrument or an audience to sing folk songs. You do it to get a sense of satisfaction by expressing your feelings through songs.”

Frisian music

According to Sarathi, Frisian Folk music is very similar to the Indian Ragas. However, he had noted that there is no blend of Ragas in their music. Thus, he had put forward the suggestion of blending the two forms of music and the result had been the creation of a new form of music which had been able to mesmerize its listeners.

Sarathi had also played an effective role in creating music compositions for dance items, and a few compositions for children and television serials.

Music festivals

He was invited to perform regularly at major music festivals held in India: ITC Sangeet Sammelan Saptak Festival, Sangeet Natak Academy Festival, Dinanath Mangeshkar Festival, Vishnu Digambar Jayanti Sangeet Samaroh, and ICCR Concerts in New Delhi, to name a few.

Among his unforgettable memories, Sarathi said the opportunity he got to meet sitar maestro living legend, Pandith Ravi Shankar was a highlight in his career and life. Not only did he get the chance to meet the man in person, but he was also given the rare opportunity to perform as a vocal artist in a concert conducted by Shanker himself!

Being a big name in the field of Indian Classical music, what does Sarathi think of the Sri Lankan music scene?

Superb

“Frankly, I have not heard pure Sri Lankan Classical music. I have heard Sri Lankans sing Indian Classical music. The performances that I witnessed have been superb. I was in London last month, conducting a concert and 70% of the students, especially in the dance section, were Sri Lankans.

They are very dedicated to their work. They did full justice to the singing and dance items they performed. I watched and was very impressed but it was the Indian Classical items that they performed.”

Sarathi has a positive view towards Sri Lankans engaging in Indian music as he does not believe that they are trying to copy from the original artists.

Attention

He thoroughly believes that in order to create something worthwhile, one has to add certain good qualities taken from other scopes of music.

The term he used to describe this is that the youths are being “trained” for future achievements.

At present, people tend to focus more attention on the Western field of music rather than the Eastern Classical music. However, his belief is that the Western influence will not be able to make much of a difference to the place that Classical music has, since Classical music is considered as the strong base of any form of music in the world.

A full house at a performance is always a source of encouragement for an artist. Indeed, Sarathi was able to experience this on his stay in Sri Lanka.

“The Sri Lankan audiences are very inspiring. A crowd which consists of musicians, students of music, and music lovers is the highest expectation that a musician has. I am looking forward to performing again and again in this country, for such kind of an audience,” he said with a smile.

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