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Temple Voices- Gundecha Brothers & Pushparaj Koshti . |
Umakant Gundecha - Vocals
Ramakant Gundecha - Vocals
Pushparaj Koshti - Surbahar
Akhilesh Gundecha - Pakhawaj
Manik Munde - Pakhawaj
Raga Yaman
1 Alap 17.48
2 Jor 14.37
3 Jhalla 11.00
4 Bandish in slow chautal
'Pratham sharira gyan xlad bhed teen stham' 20.58
5 Bandish in fast sultal 'Murat man bhaye sundara saloni' 7.16
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The Gundecha brothers are at the forefront of the revival in fortune that has overtaken the ancient vocal form, dhrupad. For much of the 20th century it was assumed to be in slow terminal decline, a victim of the all-conquering khayal tradition which had evolved from it in preceding centuries to become the basis of contemporary classical music in India for instruments as much as voices. But you can't keep a great experience unnoticed. The key aspect of dhrupad is its elemental nature. It contains all the elements that still go to make up a full-scale raga elaboration today, and it presents them with elemental focus and intensity. When the opening stages introduce the notes of the raga one at a time, that is what you hear spread out over many minutes, hugely concentrated in expressive force but largely unadorned except for connecting slides and pitch-bending, rather than buried beneath layers of ornament and frisky invention as you might hear in another alap. When rhythmic movement begins, there is correspondingly more activity from the singers, but the level of excitement rises very gradually. Only in the later stages of the percussion-backed compositions, or bandishes, does the time arrive for a full range of virtuosity to be presented. Compared with the many performers who like to show off their prowess as early as they can, a dhrupad singer will make you wait; but the payoff is all the more thrilling for the length of the build-up.
Umakant and Ramakant Gundecha are among the most active younger performers of dhrupad in Indian and international circuits. They have learnt their music with members of the Dagar family, who for many years were among the very few leading exponents of the style. Born in Ujjain in Central India, both were initiated into music by their parents. They received a conventional university education and studied the dhrupad vocal art under the renowned vocalist Zia Fariduddin Dagar and also with Zia Mohiuddin Dagar - the distinguished instrumentalist of the rudra veena - in Dhrupad Kendra Bhopal. The Gundecha brothers have sung great Hindi poetry by Tulsidas, Kabir, Padmakar, Nirala in dhrupad style. They have recorded about 25 releases; they have also sung for many television channels in India and have been broadcast on international stations. As well as being an integral part of India's music festivals, the brothers have performed at many festivals and institutions around the world. They have received the Sanskriti Award in 1994, the Kumar Gandharva Award in 1998 from the government of Madhya Pradesh, and the Dagar Gharana Award by Mewar Foundation in 2001.
In this performance they are joined, not by the more usual veena, but by the surbahar, the baritone version of the sitar. Pushparaj Koshti is a renowned player of both sitar and surbahar, who thanks to the sources of his teaching has become a leading exponent of the dhrupad style. His first sitar teacher was his father, the late Ramlal Koshti (a disciple of the sarod player Hafiz Ali Khan, the illustrious father of Amjad Ali Khan), but later he studied like the Gundecha brothers with Zia Mohiuddin Dagar. He has continued to learn under the guidance of Zia Fariduddin Dagar. An A grade artist of All India Radio, he has appeared throughout India and across Europe, including a stint as teacher at the otterdam Conservatory, the continent's leading institution in the field of world music education.
There are two accompanists on pakhawaj, the double-ended drum that is the traditional percussion for dhrupad. Manik Munde is one of the instrument's leading masters. Born in Maharashtra, he studied with Bhakta Ganesh Anna Chaudhari, Pandit Mahant Amarnath Mishra, and Govind Deshmukh. He has accompanied all the major instrumental and vocal artists in the tradition of dhrupad, both in India and on numerous European tours, and has appeared in a number of CD recordings. He first visited the United States with Zia Mohiuddin Dagar and Zia Fariduddin Dagar during the Festival of India in 1985, and accompanied Uday Bhawalkar in a 1999 American tour; he completed his third tour of the US in 2000 with Shubha Sankaran.
Akhilesh Gundecha learned pakhawaj playing from Shrikant Mishra and Raja Chhatrapati Singh JuDeo. He has also received scholarships from Ustad Allauddin Khan Sangeet Academy, Bhopal, and the government of India. He is qualified as a postgraduate in music and a graduate in law. As well as accompanying many of the dhrupad maestros such as Z. F. Dagar, Fahimuddin Dagar, Siyaram Tiwari, Shrimati Asgari Bai, Ritwik Sanyal and Bahauddin Dagar, he has played solo recitals in the Tansen Festival, Gwalior, Haridas Sangeet Samaroh Mumbai, Dhrupad Samaroh Bhopal, and many other festivals. He has toured Germany, Switzerland, Hong Kong, the United States and Canada, and is regularly featured on radio and television.
As this performance strikingly shows, the Gundecha brothers have not only inherited the art, they have helped it continue to develop. The threefold richness of melodic resources available here has resulted at times in a kind of extraordinary three-part counterpoint, each of them pursuing separate lines at the same time, with a similar impact to the music of J. S. Bach in the European classical tradition. Of course it is not exactly counterpoint in Bach's sense, because that was based on the Western system of harmony, but there is still a strong sense of notes that harmonise, which the Gundecha brothers dwell on with unforgettable impact. The effect is all the stronger because they are able to reach down to very low registers to sing notes that are full of overtones. On their own these extreme bass notes are almost like the sounds of Tibetan Buddhist chant, but with one superimposed on another they develop a unique mellow quality as they slowly interweave.
Raga Yaman is an evening raga noted for its mood of peace and tranquillity. It isn't far into the opening alap before the musicians begin to carry on simultaneously at length instead of taking turns. As the pitch levels rise, they tend to revert to overlaps or doublings on shared notes, respecting the reduced range of overtones that harmonies could reinforce. Past 15 minutes there is a fine moment of arrival at the highest pitches, followed by a powerful crescendo. Once again in the jor, as rhythm creeps in and the singers drop to their bottom range, the counterpoint returns. This passage, in its contributions from the surbahar, also makes a fine illustration of the way that instrumental dhrupad emulates the melodic features of the vocal style. Quicker syllables on held pitches mark the transition to the jhalla, with the later stages becoming more emphatic and freer.
There are two bandishes, with the resplendent boom of a pair of percussion instruments to propel them along marvellously exploited when everybody kicks in with a big unison attack to start the first of them, a slowly revolving melody in the customary 12-beat rhythmic cycle. As the alternating melodic solos become more active, the underlying slow pulse surfaces from time to time, underpinning the effect of sturdily majestic movement, and coming back in full at the end with particularly splendid percussion playing. For the second bandish, in a quicker ten-beat cycle, there is a calm, succinct refrain which punctuates the more decorative and lyrical episodes and makes a joyous full return to conclude the performance.
Notes: © Robert Maycock
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