Retrospection: BADE GULAM ALI KHAN By MOHAN D. NADKARNI writing as GURUDEV SHARAN The Times of India, May 5, 1961 MUSIC to me is more than my food. I live music – it is my very life, and Icannot live without it. I would rather die with a song on my lips than live without music –so declaimed the maestro. Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali...
By MOHAN NADKARNI writing as GURUDEV SHARAN Times of India, September 5, 1976 A TOUCH OF CLASS Muttusvamy Dikshitar, Edited by V. Raghavan, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Bombay, Rs 15) The advent of the celebrated trinity – Syama Sastri, Tyagaraja and Muttusvami Dikshitar – between 1763 and 1847 A.D. is rightly regarded as the golden age of Carnatic music. They were all excellent...
Pannalal’s Magic Flute By MOHAN D. NADKARNI The Times of India, August 31, 1969 PANNALAL GHOSH, the unrivalled maestro of the flute was just on the threshold of his fifties when he suddenly died of a heart attack in Delhi in 1960. Almost a decade has since gone by yet his music remains sui generis, unequalled by anything before and after, and one cannot...
Carnatic Music: Book Review History of South Indian (Carnatic Music) – from Vedic Times to the Present by Rangaramanuja Ayyangar, (Published by the author, Madras, Rs 25) By MOHAN NADKARNI The Times of India, July 30, 1972 INDIAN music is believed to be the oldest system in the world and Bharata’s Natya Shastra (circa fifth century B. C.) is the earliest available treatise on...
Music Festival To What Purpose? GURUDEV SHARAN* wonders if the manner in which marathon sessions of music and dance are organized by the Sangeet Mehfil in Bombay promotes true appreciation. The Times of India, March 30, 1969 What have our cultural festivals achieved? Have they brought the musicians and dancers closer to the people? Have they fostered a real appreciation of our classical traditions?...
New Light on Malhar: Book Review MALHAR KE PRAKAR : By Jaisukhlal Tribhuvan Shah (Published by the author, pp. 272, Rs.12.50) By MOHAN D. NADKARNI writing as GURUDEV SHARAN The Times of India, August 2, 1970 The Malhar group of ragas is a class by itself in the wide and varied repertory of Hindustani music. Recent researches in musicology reveal that most of the Malhar...