Anthems for the Nation of Luobaniya • 罗巴尼亚国歌: HMV

Showing posts with label HMV. Show all posts

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Nazakat Ali & Salamat Ali • Classical Music from Pakistan

Ustad Nazakat Ali Khan
Ustad Salamat Ali Khan
• Classical Music from Pakistan — Durbari, Kalavati
The Gramophone Company of Pakistan - CLP 1308 - P.1958 - 60?*

Side A

A1 Raag Durbari - 22'01
- Bhilampat - Jhumra Tal
- Durat - Tintal

Side B

B1 Raag Kalavati - 22'13
- Bhilampat - Tilwara Tal
- Durat - Tintal

Ustad Salamat Ali Khan (Born in 1934 in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, died in 2001), father of an entire family of vocalist-musicians, performed (at the age of nine), with his brother Nazakat Ali Khan, as the famed 'Ali Brothers'. They were internationally renowned as superstars in the 60's and 70's for their immense talent and artistry in the classical form.

Ustad Nazakat Ali Khan (1932? Older brother that died much earlier than Salamat)
(Most likely Tawfiq or someone else can fill in the dates here or I'll do it when I find them!)

Nazakat Ali - Salamat Ali

These two young artists, aged 26 years and 24* years respectively are well-known in the sub-Continent of Indo-Pakistan. They were taught by their father. Ustad Vilayat Ali Khan, a great exponent of classical singing, under whose able guidance they have attained for themselves a unique position among the exponents of classical music.

These two artists are followers of Sham Chroasi School of Music which has been in the limelight for many centuries, specialising in the faithful reproduction of the original form of each Raga (composition). Both, however, in adhering to the basic teaching have enriched their singing with new ideas giving a contemporary touch to their art.

The singing is accompanied by Tabla and a Sarangi. Tabla, played here by Ustad Allah Dutta, are a pair of drums — one treble, the other, bass. Sarangi played by Ustad Zahoori Khan, is a three-stringed instrument similar to a violin.

One of the most popular forms of classical music sung to-day is called “Khyal” which has two distinctive parts — the Bilampat (slow) and the Durat (fast). The invocation always starts in bilampat and gradually increases in tempo to end in Durat. Most classical singers are either able to sing well in Bilampat or in Durat but both Nazakat Ali and Salamat Ali are equally proficient in both, which is a great achievement, In this recording, Nazakat Ali and Salamat Ali treat you to two Ragas.

Side One : Raga Durbari

Raga Durbari is a composition of Tansen, the famous musician of Moghul Emperor, Akbar the Great, In this piece, which describes the Emperor's Court and all its pageantry, the young artists play Bilampat in 14 beats and Durat in 16. The mind and soul seem to be carried away into an atmosphere of purity and godliness.

The composition is as follows:

Do Rey me FA so LA See
Do See So me FA Ray Do

Side Two: Raga Kalavati

This piece was evolved recently by Maharashtrians and consists only of five notes. It expresses the loneliness and despair of a parted lover for this sweetheart. This is a rather sad and sophisticated piece and to be able to sing it well, the artist must first get into almost a trance as if he himself was the lover and it was he who was missing his sweetheart.

This Raga is made up of the following scale:

Do me So LA See
Do See LA So me Do

snipped from the backside of the record sleeve

* About the publishing date and birthdays please do your own math! I am lousy even at common addition!

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Venkatesa Suprabhatham - P.V.Anantasayanam and party

Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatham

- Sanskrit recitation by P.V.Anantasayanam and party

HMV - N.95165 — N.95168 - [1948-52?]

Boxed set of four 78-rpm plates, eight sides.

Look what wonderous findings from my friends travels in Southern India. Together they traced down this beautiful box with 78 rpm recordings of the Venkatesa Suprabhatam the same morning prayer that I posted earlier by M.S. Subbulakshmi here.

This one is a much earlier recording maybe from the late forties or at the latest early fifties. If someone has more detail about dates or about the recording in general please come forward and say so! Here are some accompanying notes that my good friend Arvind wrote to this post! Costis took the pictures and did the scan, Zwan, the good dog finally helped with the rip by not overturning the turntable! Thank you all, and Good Morning to you!

and

Very

Good Morning

Sri Venkateswara

Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatham by P.V. Anantasayanam and Party

N. 95165 Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatham Part 1

N. 95165 Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatham Part 2

N. 95166 Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatham Part 3

N. 95166 Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatham Part 4

N. 95167 Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatham Part 5

N. 95167 Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatham Part 6

N. 95168 Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatham Part 7

N. 95168 Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatham Part 8

Suprabhatham (Sanskrit: सुप्रभातम,Tamil: சுப்ரபாதம்,, "auspicious dawn") is a name given to Sanskrit hymns recited in the morning to awaken the Lord. There are many different Suprabhathams, but of all, the Venkatesa Suprabhatham must be the most well known and ubiquitous in South India. Its a common sight to see many homes here waking up to the sounds of the Suprabhatham sung by M.S. Subbulakshmi, whose name has become synonymous with it. However, this recording of the Suprabhatham predates the one by MS Amma by at least two decades.

This recording was recited by the chief priest (and his co-priests) in the temple of Lord Venkateswara, also known as Balaji, at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, (in 1948, according to an online source I found), and was published by the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams in collaboration with HMV. This temple is one of the major pilgrimage centres in South India and in scale, footfalls and reputation, is somewhat analogous to the Vatican for Christians. Even today, there are only two versions of the Suprabhatham played inside the Tirupati temple; one is this one and the other of course, the version by M.S.Subbulakshmi.

This might be the earliest recorded version of the Venkatesa Suprabhatham, but we have no way of confirming this because there are no records or lists available of early 78 rpm pressings of such material made in India. The hymn was composed around 1500 by Sri Prativadi Bhayankaram Annan Swami, a disciple of Sri Manavala Mamuni, who also composed Sri Ranganatha Suprabhatham. Its chanted in four parts: Suprabhatham, Sri Venkatesa Stothram, Prapatti, and Mangalasasanam.

This edition of four 78 rpm records comes with a booklet with the full text of the Suprabhatham in Sanskrit.

Here is an English translation of the verses

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Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Festival of India Presents - The Great Tradition - Masters of Music

Festival of India Presents - The Great Tradition - Masters of Music

EMI HMV India - EALP 1453-54 [2LP] - P.1984

Hindustani

1-01 Bhopali [1911] 3.16 Zohra Bai

1-02 Bhairavi [1948] 4.22 Bhundu Khan [sarangi]

1-03 Shudda Kalyan [1949] 4.23 Abdul Karim Khan

1-04 Lalit [1940] 3.18 Fayyaz Khan

1-05 Nat Kamod [1946] 4.09 Kesar Bai Kerkar

1-06 Dev Gandhar [1964] 4.11 Krishnarao Shankar Pandit

2-01 Gujri Todi [1951] 3.11 Bade Ghulam Ali Khan

2-02 Hori [1962] 4.39 Siddheshwari Devi

2-03 Gaur Sarang [1961] 4.50 Mallikarjun Mansur

2-04 Ramdasi Malhar [1965] 6.35 Amir Khan

2-05 Asavari [1960] 4.12 Gangubai Hangal

3-01 Shree [1965] 6.25 Ravi Shankar & Ali Akbar Khan [Sitar & Sarod]

3-02 Tilak Kamod [1961] 4.09 Vilayat Khan [Sitar]

3-03 Bageshwari [1964] 2.55 Kishori Amonkar

Karnatic

3-04 Kasiramakriya [1950] 4.02 Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar

3-05 Saramati [1971] 3.15 Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu [Violin]

3-06 Mohanam [1956] 4.01 Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer

4-01 Todi [N.D.] 3.36 T.N. Rajaratnam Pillai [Nagaswaram]

4-02 Kalyani [1965] 4.10 Madurai Mani Iyer

4-03 Adi Tala [1969] 3.53 Palghat Mani Iyer [Mridangam]

4-04 Mayamalavagaula [1975] 2.45 D.K. Pattamal

4-05 Vachaspati [1982] 3.31 Doreswamy Iyengar [Vina]

4-06 Nata [N.D] 4.04 M.D. Ramanathan

4-07 Sankarabharanam [1970] 4.04 T.R. Mahalingam [Flute]

Early on, also in the mid to later part of the sixties, an intellectual engineer that had been deported to the little community where I grew up, together with a few local students, and of course I was one of them, that had already been singled out as impossible to use for the footballteam, or most any other normal social activity like pair dancing, drinking and fighting, started a film club that graciously borrowed the local Movie theatre when nothing else was showing started to arrange screenings of movies by Fellini, Bergman and Bunuel and several Japanese and some Indian movies among them the Satjayit Ray movie Jalsaghar The Music Room witch had a big impact on me, I was more or less ignoring the underlying message of the movie and focused happily on the music and dance parts.

Well, it is a bit confusing to try to come up with a first post of Indian vocal music as there are so many wonderful singers!

How to choose, when each one of these singers has opened up a new universe to me. And as I mentioned in previous posts, I had, after indulging for some years in the instrumental music, more or less completely abandoned any other listening after I finally made contact with the vocal music.

The first I heard was really the greatest singers in all of hindustani music. Each absolutely phenomenal! The first records I remember came from two friends, that very quickly, one after the other, lent me some EMI HMV India LP's of Abdul Karim Khan, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, D.V. Palushkar, Amir Khan, Vilayat Hussain Khan and Kesar Bai Kerkar. Can you imagine anything to surpass this? It was impossible to choose one before the other, so I immediately fell in love with all of them! They very soon to be followed by Omkarnath Thakur, Bhimsen Joshi , C.R. Vyas, Dagar Brothers, Mallikarjun Mansur, Kumar Ghandarva, Amanat & Fateh Ali Khan, Nazakat Ali & Ustad Salamat Ali and Lakshmi Shankar. Even the then by the purists shunned Parween Sultana reached my ears and I found also her singing to be delightful but that was before she hooked up with the to Dilshad Khan who in my opinion were not at all up to her standard. It went further and a little later I was also listening to real obscurities like Mushtaq Hussein Khan, Rajab Ali Khan.

I tried to understand something about the different gharanas and must say that at my young age I failed. There was very little guidance and very hard to do any comparative listening, but it did not matter because my ears and heart was open and I was filled to the brim with this music, I was breathing it like someone that had been held under water for a very long time and finally came up for air!

This went on for a long while and I was far from satiated but then the Karnatic sky opened with another downpour of fantastic artists and much like I had been totally enchanted by the reeds of Bismillah Khan I was now blown to pieces by the exploding tavil and fantastic Nagaswaram of T.N. Rajaratnam Pillai and Karukurichi P. Arunachalam. And now and then when the tempo was getting too excited, I was mildly brought back into a state of peacful bliss by the mercyfull voice of M.S. Subbulakshmi and only quite a bit later did I find the male singers like Madurai Mani Iyer, Alathur Brothers, M.M. Dhandapani Desikar, Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, and my big favourites M.D.Ramanathan, and Madurai Somasundaram

I am only listing so many names to give balance to my first vocal post and I promise that in due time I will try to post any LP's by the artists mentioned here and still some more, as they surface or come in my way!

For my first posts I had selected one LP each by Kesar Bai Kerkar, D.V. Paluskar, Amir Khan, Abdul Karim Khan and Bade Ghulam Ali Khan but just now when I had a very fruitful conversation with one of my good friends at Panchamkauns editorial board, only some minutes ago, I came to mention this double LP compilation. While I read to him the track listings, I realized that tracks by most of the great artists I have mentioned above were included.

And when I remembered that almost half of the second LP of the compilation moved from the North into Tamil Nadu and Karnatic music with equally strong names it was suddenly very clear that this would have to be the next post. Not entirely vocal but in most parts a very good selection I decided to go with this one and I hope you like it!

The gatefold is rather surprising in it minimalistic information, so when you open the gatefold the two brown pages are left blank.

Fortunately, at least the artists and tracks are given on the back of the LP and with years of recording but no more.

I have seen several copies of this double LP and none of them had any accompanying leaflet. None of the photos of artists in this post are included on the LP's covers and is to be regarded as "extra decoration" only.

As there is no information whatsoever on the LP itself about the artists here is at least photos and dates and more details will follow as I start to post the individual albums later.

Hindustani