Awaaz Dey KahaaN Hay

Re: # 92 Swarrier

I happened to meet a group of turkish tourists may be some 20 years back in what was then west berlin. They told me they loved this song - Dum maaro dum...harey krishna harey raam, and started humming it together. Then one of them asked what actually did harey krishna harey ram means. I said it means something like praise to hindu gods rama and krishna. They fell silent for a moment, somewhat disappointed maybe, but then one of them lighted up and remarked, I like the song anyway, and again all of them started humming it for me.

A Note for the Chowk staff:

Thank you for your impersonal note. I hold the copyright. I posted it on my blog http://banjaara.blogspot.com/ and simultaneously submitted it to http://desicritics.org/index.php and www.chowk.com at around 1.30 am in the morning and was surprised to see it on the main page of both sites the next day. It is hard to establish now which site published it first.

If you want to acknowledge Desicritc, I can ask them to acknowledge Chowk. You may contact me at: banjaara1@gmail.com for any further action.

The only change in both articles is ‘temporal’ whom I mentioned by name in the other version.

Thanks.

A Note for the Writer:

It has been brought to my attention that this article has been posted at another blog/website. Please clarify whether you hold the copyright to this material. And if you posted this first on Chowk, then you ought to have given a courtesy credit.

This is the least you can do considering the engaging dialogue that has ensued here.

Thanks in advance.

Echoboom

madan Mohan was a born Iraqui.

LoL .. I guess so ... Iraqi from Jullandar ... yes I get your point.

You know, in my own personal opinion, there has never been another to even touch Master Madan. He was much greater than Punkuj Mullick or K.L. Saigal in his time. The only person who came close was perhaps Ustad Amanat Ali Khan, but not quite. Madan was quite extraordinary.

swarrier,

Rock, Hard Rock, some Country ... basically ...

My specialty was Carlos Santana and Ritchie Blackmore ... some Jimmy Page though but too tough. Can`t play twelve strings.

Bahrat Vyas: what an accomplished poet.
Every line is no less than a Faiz or a Sahir!

and notice how C. Ramchandra has used whatever instrument for the crickets(jhheengars) singing.
aaj madhhuva

Vasant Desai I missed earlier: what a gem; I like all Vshantaraam songs/dances

Zeemax:

That Master-Mohan Link works. Just click & listen!

By the way: madan Mohan was a born Iraqui. Arabic ``step-mother`` tongue. Hence his ghazal renditions enchanting.

Re: # 110
DM
I don`t know Delhi very well. I could get some for you when I go to Bombay. You will also find a Bhimsen Joshi CD with Natyageet and Abhangs at www.khazana.com. I`ve bought music from there before.

Echoboom
I`ll have to dig up the poem from the past, since I don`t remember the words and I can`t listen to it right now. I`ll try to do an adequate translation then. Maybe somebody else is in a better position right now?

Zeemax
Had no idea you played the guitar? What style, rock ,jazz, blues , classical, flamenco ......?

Swarrier:109

could you give me the translation of that Ghanshayam Sundra? Even if it is a paraphrase, or cursory or however sketchy. I know how to fill in blanks with my ``lingo-connection`` art.

DM:

Joti is superb indeed. especially the last piece where all the first three pieces are ``explained``

Jyoti Yashodha, Dharti Gayeea
Neel gagan Gopal Kanahyaa
saNwal chhabee jhalkay.

the use of metaphors is simply superb

Jyoti Kalash chhalkay

Banjaara,

We`re all connosieurs of music .. particularly it appears swarrier ... echoboom ... DM, mannyD and Jang, plus everyone else. Pity echoboom couldn`t succeed with a mouth organ. Well, I did slightly better and got to being somewhat of an accomplished guitar musician. Best compliment I received was when someone said in a bar in the NY village where I was playing that I could make the guitar `speak` :)

Keep writing on the subject and `mehfil taza rehi gii` ...

Swarrier, Jang, Dost Mittar aur Echoboom sahibaan.

Yahan to mehfil urooj per hai. Subhan Allah;)

I hope mannyd has got his answer from Jang and Swarrier. I wish Harimau could offer his comments, his knowledge about Hidustani and Karnatic Music is extremely good. I am just a layman who enjoys the ebb and flow of the golden vioices, be it dadra or thumri, khayal or dhrupad, and move on if the piece does not pull at my heart strings.

Mannyd #100
If you are keen to know the grammer and other technicalities of Hindustani raga, check out Rajan Parrikar, a noted expert on Hindustani Classical Music. His website is: http://www.parrikar.org/.

The silver Jubilee was 25 weeks, Golden Jubilee 50 weeks and Diamond Jubilee was 75 weeks of continuous running of a film in one cinema hall.

Ras # 89

I did my schooling and graduation in Chittagong, followed by post graduation from Dacca University. How about you? Were you in Chittagong or Dacca.

swarrier#109:

I simply love Marathi Abhangs but can`t find them anywhere on CDs (I generally hear them when some Marathi singers come here). I am going to India soon. Can you tell me of a place in Delhi where I can find some good Abhangs?

My all time favourite bhajan is Sudhir Phadake`s Jyoti Kalash Chhalake.

[The discussion has veered from Naushad; I think we need another thread to talk about Indian music in general]

Re: # 108
Echoboom
Sir, you have impeccable taste. This is a very famous song in Marathi. I remember hearing this song played in the neighbouring house, every morning , while getting ready to go to school .
It is meant to wake up Shridhara (Lord Krishna) early in the morning. Vasant Desai`s music I think.

#100 by mannyd

Yaar I am a complete klutz when it comes to music. I cannot play any instrument except a tape/cd player...not even a mouth-organ. Not that I`ve not tried desperately. I cannot also ``understand`` music either & am completely at a loss with this raag-raagni or flat-major stuff. I can only ``feel`` music. Consider me like a water-diviner as compared to an educated geologist.

I do, though understand somewhat , good poetry & can appreciate when it gets composed by one who also understands poetry. A singer is simply a voice-box and there are not too many good singers who know poetry and/or music. Even the top ones. The raag/raagni practice is simply the tuning of their voice boxes a sort of ``yoga`` or `body-building` for the throat. One should not get too enamoured or distracted by them unless one wants to pursue that as a sole vocation.

This Bhajan from amarbhopali made a nest in my mind & would play on `loop` all the time. I had heard just a portion of it as a `fade` background in another movie. I jsut could`nt find it , not having a clue about it. Eventually I ``discovered`` it.

I felt real good then to know that this was the only Indian movie which has ever won a best-music award (1954) at Cannes film festival. I felt that as if I passed a test witout appearing in any exam. I felt like a somebody.

amarbhopali: Ghanashayam sundara

The ``vibrations`` or larzish of voice ( common hindi/urdu word eludes me) in this beseechment to the god is superb. Despite old recordings , it comes through.

The instrument sounds should never ever smother the voice-box. They must recede in the background when words are spoken. Would you not lower all sound to listen to the enes whose words you value?

Re: # 105
Mannyd
The Chinese considered the pentatonic scale as a royal scale. Which is why so many Chinese and by influence I would presume the Japanese compositions are pentatonic (five notes)? They also like the ``shudh notes``. The music must not be sad, flattening the notes would give that timbre. Perhaps that is why Bhoop sounds oriental?
And the flattened notes make a pentatonic raaga like Malkauns sound completely different. Anyway that`s completely off topic.
A Naushad composition in raag Bilaval `` O meri ladli ....`` from Andaz should put this note back on topic.

Re: # 104
DM
SD and RD were both great. I think ``Naache man mora`` is Bhairavi, one of the few fast paced Bhairavi`s you can hear. You are speaking about the song from Meri Surat Teri Ankhen , right.? Lovely tabla in that.

Do you remember the song from Tere Ghar ke samne, `` Yeh tanhayee hai re hai ... thamlo bahein?`` Lilting stuff that. What about ``Piya tose naina lage re..`` from Guide?

For some reason this brought to my mind another song by another pair of music directors `` Yeh dil tum bin , kahin lagtaa nahin hum kya karen...``. This is one of Laxmikant Pyarelal`s best, I think.

manny, warrier et al
i am not trained in classical music either, except as a sometimes listenter. IMO many-many indian music songs are based on ``classical`` music, its just not necessarily that obvious. e.g. there is a song called ``sionara sionara`` is bhoop rag...i have heard a traditional sikh bhajan which must have ``inspired`` the song. since bhoop is 5 note, it sounds ``oriental``. its just that most hindi songs are mishra (mixed) rags..they absolutely use hindustani claissical prograssions.

also this recognising rag thing is fun, but not that important. just listen to khayals etc for fun. from what little i know, the following are easier to identify due to well-defined note scales (IMO)

yaman, bhoop, des, bhairav, bhairavi, malkauns

malhar and its variants due to structure

pilu i think uses a lot of notes..so actually not easy to figure using notes..its more about way its sung. a lot of thumri type light stuff is in piu, kafi, khamaj, bhairavi etc (sweet sounding rags).

i use a harmonium and guitar to play and (loudly) belt out the notes etc for fun (listeners hate it) ..but listening is the main joy. also if you have time, can join the local music school, they keep having concerts. fir carnatic stuff, your local temple is prolly a good bet.