Few people wanted to know the life histories of singers

Amjad KhanThe capital's dance and music season draws to a close, but the bellyaching of artistes for favours unreceived does not. Their frequent criticism of authority sometimes obscures one fact: that their position has never been better than today.Much of the nostalgia for times past is misplaced as far as the status of the performing artiste is concerned. One of the greatest singers of Hindustani music, Kesarbai Kerkar enjoyed enormous prestige in her later years: but as a youth she had to perform standing. Like Saraswati Bandodkar and Heerabai Barodkar, she came from the community of Kalavants of Goa, a section of temple women who were not allowed to marry and were treated virtually as slaves of the men.Even the dancers and musicians employed by feudal chiefs hardly ever enjoyed the esteem of such a wide audience - national and international - as they do today. Few ever earned as much money (Ravi Shankar: Rs 20,000 for a performance) in real terms, i.e. after allowing for inflation, as the top performers do now, especially in the field of music.Fewer still could in the days of the Maharajas, arrive late and keep their audience waiting for an hour or more (Kishori Amonkar) or arrive too inebriated to sing (Bhimsen Joshi). If they dared criticise their patron (which artiste does not these days?) they would lose their living, if not their heads.With the exception of a few like Jaipur, Rampur or Indore, their highnesses themselves had little love for music; they kept musicians in court much as they kept beautiful women in the harem or Rolls Royce cars in the garage.The applause the artistes get today from thousands of listeners as they fly from city to city, the instant publicity in the press, the transmissions over radio and the appearances on television, the widespread sale of records, not to speak of tours abroad, were will unthinkable in the times of their forefathers.Ravi ShankarFew people wanted to know the life histories of singers; today Ravi Shanker's loosely dictated, poorly organised autobiography is a best seller, and newspapers and magazines vie with each other in printing stories about Uday Shanker.Almost every performance of every dancer gets a good press. Films Division makes films about singers and dancers, TV projects them often, the Government honours them with awards and cultural exchanges galore take them performing to London and Paris, New York and Rome.What this democratisation of high culture has done to the purity of the art is often debated. It is true that fast communication, powerful amplification and sophisticated recording and replay techniques have given the go-by to the gharana system.As long as maestroes were confined to their little courts and the only way to learn from them was to massage their legs for years on end, a gharana was able to confine itself to the maestro's family and a few chosen disciples. Once a pupil had been adopted by the guru, he had little chance to hear other gharanas (nor for that matter did the guru himself). The plethora of music conferences all over the country makes the hearing of one another's music unavoidable for musicians.Some musicians derive liberally from all gharanas (Salamat & Nazakat): a Jaipur singer (Malini Rajurkar) cheerfully imports elements of Bhimsen Joshi's Kirana into her style; even the great sitarists of today have learnt from maestros of different gharanas (Nikhil Banerjee from Alauddin and Mustaque Ali, Valayet Khan from his father and Amir Khan).Indeed how long the gharana system will endure without confinements to a ghar is difficult to say. Perhaps the effect on music is of enrichment and not a pollution as some allege?Confusion: Even ragas are losing their 'purity'. Every other day a music critic denounces a performer for using notes in a way that confuses the character of a raga or for concocting new ragas through combinations that seem outlandish. The time theory of Hindustani ragas is also under pressure.Once out on the flight paths of Indian Airlines, the ragas tend to spread in all directions and combine and recombine like the clouds along the way. The timings of 'conference' on the one hand makes certain ragas almost rare; on the other hand, musicians also compromise on fine distinctions between early evening, late evening and night ragas. Carnatic music, which does not recognise the time theory, is often played alongside the Hindustani, adding further to the confusion.Once out on the flight paths of Indian Airlines, the ragas tend to spread in all directions and combine and recombine like the clouds along the way. How long will they retain their present shapes, however mixed? Will they ever recover their pristine purity, in spite of the critics' wails? Apart from this lost of "purity', there may be more serious obstacles to high strandards in the performer's desire to please the public.Swinging extra long earrings (Parveen Sultana) and flashing gold spectacles (Amjad Khan) would be pardonable, provided classical singing did not take on a filmi air and if the sarod was not played mostly with the right hand (which produces sound) at the expense of the left (which produces melody).Fine glissandoes would be forgivable if they were not repeated because of audience applause (itself a barbarous new practice); even an occasional laye ki ladai would be bearable if it was not treated as a wrestling match between the tabla and the sitar by performers and audience alike.Coming to dancers, what about the ones who bare their teeth in a meaningless smile all the time, as inanely ingratiating as toothpaste ads? Few dancers of today dance for themselves, rapt in a joy as a Bala Saraswati; they keep their eyes on the audience, anxious to please their patrons, almost going back to the 'nautch girl' age.The audience for classical dance is less developed than for classical music, at least in north India; hence the temptations, and the dangers are greater. Even in the south, mindless imitation of set patterns often counts for more than creativity.Dancers of the jet set swear in convent English, drink at cocktail parties and offer up their souls to Krishna on stage. (Their real selves are to be seen only when they hear that someone else is being sent on a cultural delegation or praised much in the press. As we all know, dance politics is worse than political politics). Yet they cling to the unreality of a bygone devotion, readily denounce Uday Shanker's innovations and try desperately to summon up an emotion they do not, perhaps cannot feel.Krishnani begani baro resounds to the jingle of (technically proficient) feet that want to go for the goodies. No matter what their grouses may be, they never had it better. The only thing in doubt may be the future of the art they practise. The tension between its past and its present may prove too much for its future.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 23, 2013 10:50 IST--- ENDS ---

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Few people wanted to know the life histories of singers

The capital's dance and music season draws to a close, but the bellyaching of artistes for favours unreceived does not. Their frequent criticism of authority sometimes obscures one fact: that their position has never been better than today.

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