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Ravi Shankar, who can be safely called Indian musical ambassador to the world, was born in Benares in an orthodox Hindu Brahmin family in 1920. An exponent of the Hindustani system of Indian music, he is the disciple of one of the greatest living musicians of India, Ustad Allauddin Khan, under whom he learnt the great art of playing on the Sitar.

His frequent concert tours abroad have created a crazy wave of interest among the foreigners for Indian Music. Everyone of his performances at home and abroad is marked by record attendance. The tremendous vitality of rhythm and the diversity of patterns in the improvisations that is revealed in his performances on Sitar seem endless and his masterly exposition flashes an intellectual skill that is certain to astonish everyone.

A composer of merit, he is the founder of the Indian National Orchestra of the All India Radio of which he was the director until June 1956. The same year four Indian films which had musical scores composed by him won awards at the International festivals in Berlin, Venice and Cannes.

THE MUSIC

RAGA ABHOGI-KANADA 

Ravi Shankar has played the old Raga Abhogi-Kanada (also known as KANHARA), an Evening Raga in two parts:

A – Solo in two movements viz. Alap and Jor, and

B – A Gat (where the two-piece drum Tabla joins in) in Rupak Taal of seven beats (divided 3,2,2).

In the long and elaborate Alap, the devotional and spiritual quality has been maintained. From the lower most register to the highest a complete range of 4 octaves has been used. In the ‘Alap’ and the following movement ‘JOR’ (where the element of rhythm comes in), Ravi Shankar shows unique dexterity and skill and in both these Ravi Shankar is considered to be peerless. This particular style of solo playing of Ravi Shankar follows the tradition of Been (North Indian Veena) of the Senia Gharana or the Traditional School of Mian Tansen.

RAGA TILAK_SHYAM

Pandit Ravi Shankar’s second choice in Raga Tilak Shyam which is an artistic synthesis of two melodies, namely, Tilak-Kamod and Shyam Kalyan, (a creation of Ravi Shankar). It is a melody of the major scale with the fourth note occasionally sharpened.

The melody has a poignant sweetness which the artist has fully exploited to cater to his audience. The tempo is slow for the first part in Teental, a sixteen-beat rhythm. Both melody and rhythm have combined to create many a graceful movement for which the player has frequently indulged in cross-rhythms which very well cope with the zigzag course of the melody. Tabla has been given enough scope during rhythmic variations.

The second part is a fast piece in a sixteen beat Teental in which Ravi Shankar has woven out beautiful patterns of rhythm in collaboration with the strokes on Tabla, the more dexterous the movement, the more charming is the effect.