Any famous Hindustani musician performing at an overnight concert will be more than happy to travel from raag Kedar to raag Bhatiyaar. But request the same maestro to face a detailed question-answer session on music — and you will see the hesitation setting in. His reaction, as Prabha Atre, the renowned Kirana gharana (tradition) vocalist puts it in her book Along the Path of Music will be, “We can’t answer all that… See what you can get from the music that we present.” It’s the truth. Our musicians do not like talking about their music.
But there are a few exceptions, like Atre, herself — a performer and academician rolled into one. Over the years, discussing music has come as naturally to Atre as singing the khayal (a form of Hindustani music) and sargam (arrangement of swaras) — an aspect of music she has always strongly supported. Her contemporaries believe that Indian classical music isn’t really meant for the “masses”, yet, Atre has always wanted to communicate with the “lay listener”. In the year 2000, she had published her first book, Enlightening the Listener, which deals with the technical aspects of contemporary Hindustani music. In this book, the maestro had taken up the task of explaining the basics of Hindustani music (saptak, taan, talas, sargam etc) and the Hindustani concert format. She had also delved into the factors that make Hindustani and Carnatic music differ from each other in form and presentation.
In 2005, Atre had published her second book, Along the Path Of Music — an autobiographical account, certainly closer to her heart than her previous work. It’s like a piece of nostalgia out of Atre’s long relationship with music and stalwarts; a rare account, where the musician talks about the material cherished, performed, studied under the watchful eyes of gurus (she had three, well almost) and the audience.
Atre’s second work involves serious personal views and experiences which come from her interactions with her guru Shri Sureshbabu Mane, Mane’s sister and Atre’s second guru — the legendry Hirabai Badodekar; her inspiration for Punjabi thumri and khayal singing, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. Also, Pandit Bhim Sen Joshi whom she has (interestingly) described as the artiste “blessed by both” Saraswati and Laxmi — the goddesses for wisdom and prosperity in Hindu mythology. Then, there are strains of appreciation for Ustad Amir Khan, the nodal artiste of Kirana tradition, who did the unthinkable by giving the gharana a three dimensional canvas by involving the lower octave notes. Khan with his “introspective” and “aristocratic” gayaki (style and method of singing), reveals Atre, was “like a guru” who had indirectly guided her in making her music bold.
In Along the Path Of Music, she tries to find out what makes “Indian musicians” so reticent about their own art. She provides the answers. Stating candidly — that musicians of yesteryears lacked formal education — one of the many reasons why we don’t have enough writing on music from the geniuses. Atre, who turned 75 last week, has always made a very sincere effort to express her views in a simple yet methodical manner. Along the Path of Music is no exception. In her writing, as in her concerts, there are streaks of independence, which shouldn’t be mistaken as something rebellious. The septuagenarian artiste is carefully defensive about the experiments and epithets Kirana gharana has been criticised for — including Ustad Amir Khan’s daring treatment of tala and his “sargam singing in between alaaps and taans”. Her sweet bias for using sargams, which you come across often in her second book (she took this up as a subject for her doctorate), sounds quite like the love pangs the Benaras gharana maestros feel for their vocal ostentations. It’s thought provoking and artistically rich.
Stalwarts like her have a treasure to share when they remember their own gurus. In this book, she narrates how much she (like many students of music) had felt satiated with raag Yaman — the first melody she had learned from Sureshbabu Mane, and wanted to move over to other ragas. Her description of how her guru had strategically dealt with her idea reads as innocent and beautiful as this melody. Apart from such autobiographical elements Atre has also taken up certain issues that concern our artistes. Like the fate of folk and tribal music in our country; the need to educate the audience worldwide about our ascending and descending scales, talas, ragas etc. Also, the role of education in music. She attributes this concern to her academic background. It makes her look at music “with open eyes”, she says. Atre suggests “formulation of a national policy for Indian classical music.”
Some of the anecdotes in her book help the connoisseurs get to know a few lesser known traits of our musicians. For instance, Atre had sung Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan’s famous daadra when Sureshbabu Mane had wanted to listen to her to decide whether she could be her student. And that, there was no certainty whether Ustad Amir Khan would finish his concert with a Bhairavi! Only if more stalwarts would be as generous as Atre, our music could get an extended audience.
copyright: the new indian express
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