MUSIC AND ITS MALADIES ... 7

MUSIC AND ITS MALADIES ... 7

Humility among so many musicians today seems to be a thing of the past. Now it is blatant self-promotion whenever the media shines its light on the artiste, be it in the form of an interview being taken or the artiste himself blowing his own trumpet prior to a performance or even interspersing the performance with big-talk about himself. Fools, they do not know that this very self-promotion is the seed of musical downfall. 'Sur' is an elusive entity that ever slips through the fingers even as air cannot be contained by attempting to catch it.

There should be public disapproval of self-aggrandising talk in order to curb its malefic growth in the body politic of Indian music. Pandits and Ustads better restrain their speech and let their music do the talking. The public are intelligent enough to distinguish good music from bad music, excellence of the art from its mediocrity, for them to be given direction thus to appreciate what an artiste's true status is as a performer. Even though the common man is not well-versed in the science of Hindustani classical music, his soul is equipped enough to respond to sublimity of rendition and it needs no self-advertisement to draw his attention to one's self-proclaimed excellence.

It is simply distasteful to see so many musicians of repute to be thus seeking public attention by this grotesque articulation of self-attributes in supposed excellence. Let Mother Saraswati decide who she will enthrone in her heart and who she will cast aside as so much pretentious a performer not worth her gracious glance.

Written by Sugata Bose

Photo : Ajoy Sinha Roy, a self-effacing artiste and teacher of the Maihar Gharana, senior disciple of Baba Allauddin Khan, who never blew his own trumpet but ever dedicated himself to the perpetuating of the music of his Guru among his many disciples. Here was a man who was such a notable exception to today's perfected art of self-promotion to the detriment of real music. We must revisit the lives of these great masters to be able to catch the nuance of true music that is so elusive that well has it been compared to the slippery movement of air by none other than Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Sahib.