Indian Music: Ragas and Dances

The Original Uday Shankar Company of Hindu Musicians - Indian Music: Ragas and Dances

LP released in 1968; all music recorded in 1937

Instrumental ensemble: Vishnudass Shirali, Sisir Sovan, Rabindra (Ravi Shankar), Dulal Sen, Nagen dey, Brijo Behari

Ars longa and all that, but in art as in life a lot can happen within a few decades, and it is ever fascinating to observe the interaction of chance events and cultural attitudes. The case of Indian music and dance provides an especially clear illustration of this process. Both are among the glories of civilized man, with traditions tracing to furthest antiquity. In the perspective of their history a span of thirty-odd years is but a millisecond of time.

And yet January 1938, the original release date of a famous recording herewith reissused, could be said for all practical purposes to define the beginning of America's acquaintance with these vast exotic realms of expression. That acquaintance has since ripened to deep affection, and with it has come a healthy awareness that the "universal language" of art in fact comprises many a language other than our own - other than, for example, the tempered scale to which all Western ears are attuned by nurture if not by nature.

The psychedlic perversion of Indian aesthetics along with the raga-rock vogue among our young people are only the most-publicized manifestations of this new and growing awareness. The former is plainly pathological, the latter transitory. But the point is that neither phenomenon - nor,obviously, the widespread interest in the music of India among today's serious listeners - would have come to pass when it did without Uday Shankar.

Starting with his first American tour in 1931, it was this incomparable dancer-showman who effected virtually singlehanded the cultural cross-pollination that was to be enormously accelerated in the CBI (China-Burma-India) deployment during World War II. The subsequent introduction of long-playing records, followed by the "travel explosion" made possible by jet aircraft, brought Kipling's twain even closer. All of which paved a way for the more recent triumphs by such artists as Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar and Bismillah Khan.

But the pioneer proselytizer of Indian arts in the United States indubitably was Uday Shankar, and his artistry had reached its highest peak when his company assembled - it was Washington's Birthday in 1937 - to make what was to be its only recording. More's the pity that it can only be an auditory souvenir of what was above all a stunning visual experience.

The consensus of contemporary reports is that Uday Shankar's artful mingling of dance and music was, at its best, total theater. He was himself an electrifying performer, and whenever he was onstage his radiant presence was said to be felt by the entire ensemble - and by everyone on the other side of the footlights as well.

So saying, it needs to be added that any music written for choreographic use must be, as Lincoln Kirstein once put it, a "platform" for the dance. Therefore, and particularly in the light of our latterly more sophisticated listening habits, it should be understood that what one hears in this recording is not the pure classical music of India.

It is true that some dozen ragas are importuned or alluded to, but none of them is "developed" as it would be in a concert performance (nor could this have been accomplished without fantastic difficulties in an epoch when record sides rarely exceeded four minutes). And certain of the instrumental combinations are wildly unorthodox, though effective - and in the theater only effectiveness counts. In short, this is "pit" music, tailored for Western consumption and not meant to be heard without reference, at least, to its carefully contrived context.

In a sense, and by no means a pejorative sense, the musical "platform" put together by Vishnudass Shirali for this program might be described as the Indian approximation of a cross between the Vaughan Williams folk-song settings and the Bach transcriptions by Leopold Stokowski, scaled to chamber-orchestra proportions. That is to say, ethnic material is "classicalized," and strictly classical material is so to speak popularized; the result is admittedly hybrid but always well within the bounds of good taste. And everywhere there is consummate showmanship, which is hardly to be scorned even by purists. (Those who were fortunate enough to see Uday Shankar in his heyday will have no trouble conjuring up that ineffable presence in the three male solos - Side 1, Band 3; Side 2, Bands 1 and 2.) (James Lyons)Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Raga Tilanga {4:00}
(Sitar, Sarod, Esraj, Flute, Tabla, Sarangi, Gongs)

2. Raga Bahar {4:06}
(Sitar, Sarod, Flute, Tabla, Sarangi)

3. Danse Gandharva: Raga Malkauns {4:09}
(Sitar, Sarod, Esraj, Sarangi)

4. Danse Ramachandra: Ragas Sinhendra-Maddhyama, Hansaddhwani {3:52}
(Tampura, Sitar, Flute, Sarod, Mridungam, Khunkhuni)

5. Tabla-Taranga: Raga Adana {4:12}
(Played on Twelve Drums by Vishnudass Shirali)

Side 2

1. Danse Kartikeyya: Raga Malkauns {3:44}
(Jala-Taranga, Flute, Sarod, Sarangi, Mridungam, Gongs, Shankha, Zhanzha)

2. Danse Indra: Raga Bhairava {3:13}
(Sitar, Sarod, Flute, Tabla, Esraj, Sarangi)

3. Danse Snanum: Ragas Durga, Khamaj {3:10}
Jala-Taranga, Flute, Sarod, Sitar, Madal, Kohl, Khunkhuni)

4. Bhajana (Religious Song) {3:36}
(Flute, Sitar, Sarod, Tabla, Karatal; Sung by Vishnudass Shirali)

5. Raga Mishra-Kaphi {3:23}
(Sarod, Tabla, Esraj)

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