Music

I have always been fascinated by music. And ashamed that I can't appreciate it the same way as some mastreos do. I started to set it out straight by listening to a variety of music. From Beethoven to Pandit Ravi Shankar,

Today I found out I shared my birthday with Pandit Ravi Shankar. (7 April 1920 - 11 Dec 2012). So this is his centenary year. I then dedicate this piece to him!

And he was older to me by 45 years. He went on to achieve world renown by becoming the first Indian musician to bring Indian music to the world stage. The Beatles were instrumental in this as one  of them - Harrison - was a staunch believer in occidental music and religion. The Sixties were also the period of the Hippie culture that was a craze then. The Pandit even played his sitar in the famed Woodstock concert but later regretted it for its unashamed association with drugs. 

He was truly a gift for India. I cannot think of any other musician who has done India so proud. There are many, of course, like Allah Rakha, Bismillah et al, but no one can match up to him. In the recent past Indian musicians from Bollywood and elsewhere have made their mark - such as Ilayaraja and A R Rahman. (By the way Indian film sound tracks  reign in India after which is Indi-pop. Incidentally Nazia Hassan was the harbinger of the modern Indipop with the best selling album called "Tarang")

But I digress. Or do I?  We are still talking of music.

But back to the Pandit. He left behind two daughters - Anushka who was a legal heir and performed with her father, and then there was/is Norah Jones who has set her own track in the western musical arena. 

On the western front I have been enamoured by western musicians as have the old Bollywood musicians who did not shy from lifting some famous compositions. So we have heard Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and many others in the old songs and they do it even today but with due permissions. We even used Beethoven's 5th Symphony in our school play on Othello. Phew. At that time I knew it not. But kudos to Mr Sundar and Ms Yashodara who picked it out...

Speaking of Beethoven,  did you know he started losing his hearing in his twenties and by the time he died when he was 56, he was totally deaf.  And yet he continued to compose classy sonatas. The Hindi word for silence is sanata. Take what you will from that.

Vienna in Austria was considered the headquarters of music and the arts. So no wonder we see Beethoven was very much at home here even though he was born in Bonn, Germany. But in the 18/19 century it was a part of Rome or papal constituency.

Beethoven lived during the era of Mozart who was himself a renowned musician. He too lived in Vienna. Chopin was Polish but had most of his success was in Vienna. Vienna was definitely the culture capital of Europe in the  18, 19 and even in the 20th century.

Zubin Mehta, who was Indian and a Parsi, (often confused as a Jew) and went on to become famous worldwide as a composer /conductor of repute. He has headed the Israeli Philharmonic Society and retired from the position in 2016. He still lives in  the US and is around 80 years old.

It's a pity that our information on musicians is now restricted to Katy Perry and others like her.

I love Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. Some of their songs are really lovely. I like Sharada and Geeta Dutt as I do S Janaki. I do like Kishore, Rafi, Mukesh and SP Balasubramanyam. And I do listen to Dr Rajkumar and PB Srinivas. Music is dependant on moods for many and so it is with the choices. I like instrumentals and like Jazz and R&B and sometimes swoon an Sade.

Music is food for the soul, so say the wise. It is unfortunate that everybody does not have the ear or the time. But the growth of civilization is dependant on this. So let's have time and the ear for it.