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Ravi Shankar, India’s musical ambassador to the world, is one of the world’s leading virtuoso instrumentalists. He is also a walking storehouse of the artistic heritage of one of the world’s oldest cultures. But more than that, he is probably the most gifted and imaginative master of improvisation that the musical world has ever encountered.

It would be difficult to conceive of anything more exciting, in terms of pure animal joy, than the climatic passages of a Ravi Shankar improvisation. Yet at the same time the intellectual process of creation goes into all of his performances is something which never takes second place to the profound emotionalism of his music. The combination, blended with impeccable taste of a universal sort which requires no intimate knowledge of the history and systems within which Ravi Shankar works, produces one of the rarest and most moving musical experiences possible anywhere.

Ravi Shankar was born in Benares, India, the youngest of four sons in an orthodox Hindu Brahmin family. Raised by his mother and older brothers, Ravi went to Europe at the age of 9 as part of the famous company of Indian dancers and musicians organized by his brother, Uday Shankar, India’s finest dancer. The troupe made Paris its headquarters; from there, Ravi toured everywhere, “learning everything, I danced, played all the instruments, and eventually began writing – poetry, plays – and I even Painted.”

By 1935, he was developing into a dancer and musician of obviously extraordinary talent. In tht year, India’s foremost musician, Ustad Allaudin Khan, joined the Uday Shankar company. Young Ravi went to him and asked if he could study with the great master. To his surprise, his query was met with a burst of rage, for Ustad Allaudin Khan hed seen how casually Ravi had been absorbing everything involving the troupe; Ravi’s talent, he cried, led him to think that he could and should do everything but if he wanted to be a real musician, he would have to devote his entire life to music. Although he could not understand this approach, at first, Ravi decided to discipline himself; he devoted a year with the master to studying vocal music and the sitar. At the end of the year, Ustad Allaudin Khan returned to India; Ravi rejoined him in 1938 for a truly intensive course of study which lasted 61/2 years.

He embarked on his own career late in 1944, and by 1949 he was with All-India Radio, where he founded the Indian National Orchestra. He resigned as director of music for All-India in June, 1957, shortly after his return from a tour which included his first solo appearances in the United States. In that same year, four Indian films on which he had worked as musical director or composer won awards at International festivals in Berlin, Venice, and Cannes.

Today, Ravi feels that his work has not yet really begun. He feels again the urge to widen his activities – not in terms of returning to the days of his youth when he dabbled in all the arts, but as a broadening of his musical activity. Ballet and orchestral music, he believes are his best outlets for the future; in the meantime, he is grateful that he has won the position of a national hero in his own country. Crowds of 20,000 people have gathered to hear him play, and he is sometimes mobbed on the streets – “like a movie star.”

His constant travels, find him, in 1959, returning to the United States for a nationwide concert tour. American audiences which had an opportunity to hear him in 1957 wll recall – and newcomers to the music of Ravi Shankar can anticipate – the electric atmosphere which accompanied every Shankar concert.

A word about Indian music is in order, for a basic understanding of the principles on which it is based will enhance the enjoyment of these recordings. But first, the instruments heard in this album. The leading voice, played by Ravi Shankar, is the sitar, a plucked string instrument with 20 movable frets. It is returned with different intervals, for each piece. It has six main strings and 19 sympathetic strings. A plectrum on the index finger of the right hand is used to pluck the main strings. Semi-tones and slides are produced at times by pulling the strings to the side. Two gourds, one at the expected place at the base of the instrument, and a smaller one near the upper end, amplify the sound of the instrument.

Also tuned to the main tones of each piece are the tamboura, a 4- or 5-stringed instrument which is plucked, without stopping the strings, in a constant drone, and the tabla, a pair of small drums which are played by hand and which can produce an unbelievable variety of sound, both as to timbre and pitch. The tabla serve not only to mark the rhythmic cycle in which a particular piece is set, but also to provide a virtuoso counterpoint to the lead instrument, the sitar. When Ravi Shankar performs a particular piece, his playing is almost all improvisation on a foundation consisting of a kind of scale (“melody form” is a better term) known as Raga, with an ascending (Arohana) and descending (Avrohana) mode, and a “rhythmic cycle” known as Tala. Each piece will have its own Raga, conveying a particular and fixed mood, time of day or year, and perhaps associated with a ceremonial or other occasional consideration. Theoretically, there are 64,848 Ragas and 360 Talas.

On a given Raga, Ravi will usually begin alone. This initial movement is called Alap, and it begins slowly, without rhythm, emphasizing each note with simple variations on the notes themselves like a person awakening, or, as Ravi puts it, ”the unfolding of beauty.” The principal tones of Raga are constantly heard in a drone accompaniment from tamboura.

Next comes an evenly rhythmic style, Jor – but sill without any tabla, or drums, for the Tala is not yet to be stated. The third step is the Jhala, which includes more right-hand movement with the plectrum, with the rhythm kept on the two top strings of the sitar.

At last the tabla make their entrance in the Gat.

This portion will include short “fixed” compositions, set against the rhythmic cycle of a pre-determined number of beats with a constant return to an emphasized “one” beat (called the Sum). The tabla is in the position of a piano accompanying a violin soloist; prior to Ravi Shankar’s introduction of the tabla as a virtuoso instrument in the ensemble, drummers had no status and were constantly exhorted merely to keep the beat, whereas Ravi trains and encourages his tabla players to play complex improvisations which are frequently “answers” to his own improvisations as the leading voice of the ensemble. The last step in the development of a piece is often a Jhala, which is more coplex in ornamentation and either changes into a faster Gat in the same Tala, or to a faster rhythmic cycle, building to a brilliant climax.

There are two basic styles of presentation in the classical Indian music of Ravi Shankar, the southern, Kharnatic style is closer to the old way, being less subjected to foreign influence than the Hindustani style of the north. In the north, where music was heard in the courts and palaces for pleasure, it became more florid and extroverted, with musicians often competing with one another and playing for the gallery, whereas in the south the music remained in the temples and avoided acceleration (one of the means of creating excitement in the Hindustani style) although there were frequent cross-rhythms and multiplying of tempo: to double and quadruple time, for instance. Ravi employs both styles; when he gradually speeds tempo, it is done consciously in the northern style, and also with the realization that this is something which appears in music throughout the world – in Africa, Europe, and even America – with much the same purpose au fond.

Many comparisons have been made between Indian music and jazz, but actually they are quite far apart. In subtleties and complexities, jazz covers only a small fraction of what is contained in Indian music. Further, jazz covers only a small fraction of what is contained in Indian music. Further, jazz is in a most undeveloped state alongside the enormously sophisticated body of Indian music, which has its foundation in religion and philosophy, and requires an instensity of discipline of mind and body which is unknown in any other music. There are many untutored, “natural” musicians of great quality in jazz; in Indian music the standards and requirements are such that this is manifestly impossible. As Ravi puts it “each is wonderful music, but each has its own approach and must be considered on its own terms.”

Ravi’s accompanists at this concert were Nodu C. Mullick, a master craftsman who made the sitar which Ravi plays (as well as his own tamboura), and Chatur Lal, one of India’s best young tabla players. Chatur Lal began his training with Ravi Shankar in 1948, and has been associated with him ever since, accompanying Ravi on many of his international tours.

George Avakian

THE MUSIC

SIDE 1

Raga Puriya Dhanashri: An evening Raga; depicts principally the mood of longing; in two movements (a) Aochar (a short alap) followed by Jor (b) improvisation theme by Ravi Shankar in Jhaptal (a rhymic cycle of ten beats, divided 2-3-2-3).

Raga Charu Keshi: A Raga belonging to Karnatic style, popularized in the north by Ravi Shankar; depicts the mood of love and frivolity; the two movements are: (a) slow Gat in Teentaal (sixteen beats), theme composed by Ravi Shankar, treatment in Gayaki (vocal) style (b) Gat in medium speed, Tintaal, gaining speed towards a climax.

SIDE 2

Kafi-Holi (Spring festival of colors): a light classical melody depicting garety of the spring Hindu Festival of Colors (Holi); in Adha jat (a rhythmic cycle of 7); improvisation on a theme by Ravi Shankar.

Dhun (Folk Airs): a form similar to Thumri, but has more of folk and popular tunes, improvisation on a theme by Ravi Shankar

Mishra Piloo, in Thumri Style: The first movement is a medium slow theme by Ravi Shankar, which includes flashes of different Ragas, always returning to the original theme.

Artists:
Pandit Ravi Shankar (Sitar), Chatur Lal (Tabla), N. C. Mullick (Tamboura)

Tracks:
SIDE 1:

Raga Puriya Dhanashri
Raga Charu Keshi

SIDE 2:

Kafi-Holi (Spring Festival of Colors)
Dhun (Folk Airs)
Mishra Piloo in Thumri Style