150th Harivallabh Sangeet Sammelan: Masters of melody

On bone-chilling December nights each year, when most of Punjab is asleep, an oasis in the heart of Jalandhar remains lit and throbbing till the early hours of the morning, with notes from the age-old Indian musical traditions reverberating.

Bred on stories of the world’s oldest continuous Hindustani classical music festival, Indian maestros consider a call from Baba Harivallabh an honour. Thus, attending the 150th edition of the Shree Baba Harivallabh Sangeet Sammelan in Jalandhar were practitioners of music across gharanas and disciplines. We speak to some of them on how they make sense of music in the Indian subcontinent today.

Folk essence

Soaked in the song and soil of the rustic plains of Benaras, Malini Awasthi wears the badge of ‘Folk Queen of India’ with pride. In doing so, she is fulfilling the promise she made to her guru, Girija Devi, to uphold classical traditions. But the spirited and fierce vocalist also politely cautions the more puritanical ones in the musical community to not cast folk and classical music traditions in separate compartments, lest they end up obstructing the flow of music.

Speaking about the intricate rustic traditions of Benaras and Purab Ang, bestowed upon her by her guru, Awasthi says, “I bow to my guru; Harivallabh was her beloved stage and I grew up listening to stories about it.”

A flagbearer of the folk tradition, she says the specialty of Benaras and Purab Ang is that folk traditions are as revered as Dhrupad, Dhamar, Khayal or Tappa. These traditions will never die, she believes. “Firstly, because it’s all archived and secondly, because it’s reinterpreted, composed, and sung in different ways by different artists.”

Awasthi says the thing about folk traditions is that those who haven’t experienced these won’t be able to reflect it in their work. “Those who haven’t lived in a village, those who have never seen a sugna (pet parrot), or have never been delighted by the sounds of a kaga (crow) piercing the silence on their roof’s munder (ledge), how will they understand that the call of a crow heralds a visitor? How will they sing ‘Ja more kaga, pi ki khabar la, sone ki chonch marvaungi’ (Go, my crow, bring word of my beloved, I’ll gild your beak with gold)?” Benaras, she proudly says, has still preserved this spirit.

A new jugalbandi

“Vani Ishwar hai. Swar bigad jaye to tu-tu main-main ho jaati hai” (Sound is God; when swara goes off, it causes contention).

The raga summons and the raga blesses; without the raga’s ‘ahvaan’ (invitation), singing has no meaning, says Benaras gharana legend Pt Sajan Mishra. He hadn’t been to Harivallabh ever since losing his brother Pt Rajan Mishra. As he returns to the festival, he is excited about the new musical bond kindled with his son Swaransh.

“Pt Rajan Mishra’s passing away was a shock; it almost thrust me into silence. I thought to myself, ‘Now what’s left in life?’ I would keep looking at his portrait in my room. One day, his voice spoke to me: ‘Don’t give up singing. If you keep singing, I’ll stay alive with you.’ Swaransh was Pt Rajan Mishra’s ‘ganda shishya’. I asked him to join me. Earlier inclined towards Bollywood, he was destined to sing with me.”

On Benaras, his ‘janmabhoomi’ and ‘karmabhoomi’, he says: “The specialty of Benaras is that it was named by God. Benaras is full of ‘rasa’ (essence). It is said that sound has sprung from Shiva’s pellet drum, and that the five ragas emerged from his mouth. Kashi is Shiva’s ancient city — the only town in the world that has never been ruined or marauded. Benaras finds mention in the Vedas and Puranas. And it has been designated the ‘City of Music’ by UNESCO. Why? Because there has been a continuity in music here. From ancient Chand, Prabandh, Nibandh styles to Dhrupad, Khayal, Tappa, Thumri, Kajri, Chaiti — it has such a huge canvas.” He says Benaras is the only gharana where all three disciplines exist: singing, instrumental and dance.

Musical high

“To be an artiste means to be apolitical and bring out the most positive of human values. We always have one message: unity. Bringing together every caste, creed, colour… because music has no religion. Music is a universal language that binds the world,” says Maihar gharana sitarist Pt Shubhendra Rao, who performed at the festival with his wife, cello virtuoso Saskia Rao-de Haas.

Just last month, they performed a special concert with Joan Lainez (tenor) at the UN General Assembly. They brought to life the iconic composition that Shubhendra’s guru, Pt Ravi Shankar, had delivered in 1967 along with Yehudi Menuhin at the UN General Assembly in New York. In November, they performed in front of the Ellora caves to celebrate 80 years of UNESCO.

Talking about the collaboration with Lainez, Saskia says, “Performing with the famous tenor from Spain, we recreated some really masterful western classical music. We had met barely hours ago, but it was an exchange of music and culture with an openness to listen and learn from each other.”

Saskia came to India from Amsterdam 30 years ago. Over the years, she has created a special place for herself in Indian classical music. On how she perceives the demarcation between Indian and western music after all these years, she says: “I was 18 when I came to India. My music and expression are Indian classical. As a composer, I lean back on the knowledge I gained in my childhood and have built my practice on that. At Harivallabh, I honour tradition. That said, when we compose or collaborate with artistes across cultures, it is nice to be bilingual musically.”