MUSICAL MASTER OR MERCENARY WITH A MOTIVE ?

MUSICAL MASTER OR MERCENARY WITH A MOTIVE ?

For perceptive persons who can see through pretensions of men to a fair degree, it becomes a pain to bear with the put-on apparel of fake humility of a reputed classical vocalist of mellifluous voice of extraordinary control, who then proceeds to shamelessly vaunt his attainments while all the while keeping up the pretence of false humility and gratitude to God, Guru and elders.

Classical music has become a trade with these mercenaries among men in this polluted age of commerce and corruption. When these ones quote Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, the matter becomes even worse, for the divine duo would have had nothing by way of pretence in their lives or in the lives of their followers. Undeniably talented but woefully short in virtue, these modern 'masters' of music have marketed their merchandise marvellously even as their musical culture has sunk to becoming the culture of the base self that is ever intent on scooping up a large chunk of all that go by name and fame, position and prestige, money and marketing muscle. Politically well-connected, grovelling before the mighty with designed and deliberate 'devotion', and showing up the ugly side to subtly suppress rivals in the field, they have made classical music perfectly suited to the retrograde requirements of their base nature and the dipping cultural standards of the times.

But these artistes will be forgotten. All their attainments will be washed away soon as only the true and the great among musicians will endure the ravages of time. These polluters of the Temple of Music will have lived their lives in affluence and aggrandisement but will remain impoverished within, for the Mother Saraswati cannot be fooled by mere taankaari and voluble self-advertisement. The public is fooled, though, for the multitude themselves are fools and cannot sift the grain from the chaff. Their lack of discernment and consequent approval of everything commonplace makes classical music continuously the marketed mediocrity in the hands of 'masters' intent on self-promotion and all its dubious derivatives.

Written by Sugata Bose

Photo : Photo : Of some of those legends who never traded with their art in the manner their degenerate descendants are doing. And by descendants is not meant progeny of the flesh here but the heirs to their musical legacy that is being desecrated and reduced to dust.

Top : Ustad Abdul Karim Khan ; bottom - Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan