Monday, 25 January 2016

Music

"If Music be the food of love play on"....said Shakespeare but for me Music is the food of life and I can not imagine how I will survive if it's playing is stopped .

Music is a spread of many kinds suitable for every occasion and mood .According to the dictionary it is " vocal or instrumental sounds ( or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form , harmony and expression of emotion".

 Though personally  addicted to Ghazals    I am a fan of instrumental music too , specially percussion . Love the jugalbandis and solo performances  of Ustad Zakir Hussain as much as I had adored the jugalbandis of his father Ustad Allarakha  with Pandit Ravishankar on the sitar . In fact my love for the tabla started only after I had attended one of their recitals. I was so enamoured by both of them playing their respective instruments that  the very next day I pestered my mother  to enroll me for Sitar lessons  I never thought that girls too could learn  the tabla . . In those days there were no selfies so we used to clamour for autographs  and I still remember Ustad Alla Rakha's autograph he used to write ALLARAKHA  all in capital letters .I lost his autograph in transit while  shifting house during a particular transfer from  Ranchi to Nagpur ( even other wise the paper would have become brittle by now because this recital I attended was in the 1960s ).

Coming to Ghazals I am a die hard fan of Talat Mahmood he may not have been a singer of ghazals in their pure form , what I mean to say is that his Ghazals may have been diluted and influenced by hindi film music but they were nectar to my ears . I loved the velvety softness of his voice So romantic were his renditions that they would transport you to a particular mood whenever you listened to them . Though I cannot deny the supremacy of  Mehdi Hasan  , Gulam Ali and Jagjit Singh as ghazal singers.

Music has a lot to do with religion and worship. Bhajans , Naats , Qawalis and  Sufi numbers do have that mesmerizing effect on your psyche once you resort to listening to them You do get carried over to another world The greats in this field are of course Anup Jalota and his father Padmashri Purshottamdas Jalota in bhajan singing , Sabri brothers are world famous Naat singers  and as far as Sufi music is concerned I am the fan of sufi songs by Gurdas Maan , Hans Raaj Hans and Kailash Kher and of course who can forget Reshma and her' Damaa Dum Mast Kalandar'

Music cannot be bounded by language and , nationality Every nation has its own unique style of music and it should be respected and appreciated . So while I am enamoured by listening to  Zakir Hussain performing together with George Harrison , Symphonies are such a treat to listen too . Jazz is not less welcome .Folk music is such a treat with their unique musical instruments .and rhythm .

Oh yes just one more favourite singer I forgot to mention Usha Uthup I have been her fan since she was Usha Iyer .

No writeup on music can be complete without a mention of Hindi film music which has played a great role in popularizing music in India it has acquainted us with all forms of music leaving it to our likes and dislikes leading to the acceptance of a particular form .  Hindi film music has had some truly great singers like the legendary Mod Rafi and Lata Mangeskar .

Incidentally I have seen the live performances of all these singers I have mentioned except Zakir Hussain , George Harrison and Reshma. '





#TataZicaMarathon
This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can  apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

2 comments:

  1. What a soulful post!

    I used to be crazy about Jazz music not too many years ago in my past, I still am. I love Ghulam Ali too; still have a bunch of cassettes by Brian Silas. Then there is Aziz Nazan: I just can't get over his quawali 'Chadhataa suraj dheere dheere'.

    May I quote Nietzsche here: 'Without music, life would be a mistake.' ~Friedrich Nietzsche

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  2. Thanks Umashankar ji for the visit ---and quawalis are my favourite too --love all filmi quawalis --specially Barsat Ki Raat and Dharma
    and many more
    thanks for visiting
    regards

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