Bansuri: Ronu Mujumdar
Tabla: Ramdas Palsule
Tanpura: Dhrupad
Organized by: SPIC-MACAY at IBS (Indian Business School), Aundh, Pune
Time: 23rd December, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Namaskar!
Over the years I have enjoyed many concerts organized by SPIC-MACAY and I am so glad that I did not miss this one.
There was a lot of excitement in the air, usual of SPIC-MACAY concerts with young students wearing kurtas and sarees organizing the event. The stage was small and well decorated. The sitting arrangement seemed a bit strange with a lot of space reserved for bharatiya baithak (completely unoccupied) and just one row of chairs along the walls (almost all occupied). Then one soul thought of rearranging this. This was followed by a few minutes of comical jugglery on the part of many volunteers, helpers and audience . Finally one carpet was reserved for bharatiya baithak and the chairs were arranged in rows behind it. I promptly decided to take a seat in the front row on the bharatiya baithak. Soon many others followed and the audience - mostly students but also some other music enthusiasts of about 150-200 settled down quickly.
At about 6:30 PM the MC took control of the mike and started the proceedings as the artists walked in. This was followed by a small ceremony offering flower bouquets to the artists and lighting of lamp.
Ronuji greeted the audience, admired the SPIC-MACAY initiative and mentioned that even the artists had a lot to learn from such events as well as draw inspiration from the youth.
Ronuji started the concert with raga Jhinjhoti. The aalaap was quite elaborate. For lower octave Ronuji used a bass flute (having base note at lower madhyam). I noticed that the holes of this flute were drilled in an angular pattern on the sides of the flute suited for Ronuji's fingers (as opposed to the typical straight line on the top). Using the bass flute Ronuji could reach all the way down to mandra-mandra nishad. Ronuji has cultivated superb blowing technique having excellent control over the volume of the notes while avoiding extra hiss. This combined with very good mike technique makes the bansuri tonal quality very rich. Ronuji's swara lagav is very tuneful. The raga vistaar was unhurried and did complete justice to all the notes. After the aalaap, Ronuji told the audience that he was enjoying the notes, especially nishad and decided to prolong the aalaap section. He chose to drop the jod and jhala sections and went on to play a composition in vilambit/madhyalaya rupak taal. The gat was beautifully played and the layakari was nicely done. Ronuji played one more composition in Jhinjhoti, set to drut teen taal. There were a few fast taan patterns played very well and doing full justice to the aesthetic beauty of the raga. Ramdasji's solo tabla sessions were crisp, precise and controlled while taking great care not to sound noisy.
Ronuji played a kashmiri dhun next and credited to having learnt it from his friend Rajendra Singh. It was a very beautiful dhun in deepchandee taal - or should I say dhun-mala in raag-mala. The primary melody sounded like a mixture of Pahadi, Shivaranjani and Maand to me. There was also influence of many other ragas. All the notes (with the possible exception of komal rishabh) were taken. Some parts also sounded like a Bengali (Bhatiyali?) dhun as well as kajri (apparently intentionally - as announced by Ronuji). A small section was played on a small bansuri just before switching to the main bansuri for the conclusion of the dhun and the concert.
Overall it was a short and sweet concert absolutely appropriate as a SPIC-MACAY event. Ramdasji's tabla playing was superb. I absolutely love the crispness and tonal quality of his tabla playing. One more very remarkable fact is that he takes a lot of care not to dominate the proceedings unnecessarily while providing sufficient occasions for the audience to clap!
Now a minor complaint - the small bansuri section played for a few minutes (a max of 5) sounded out of tune - a bit sharper. At the same time the tabla was sounding flatter (utarlela). It was not just me but I also heard a couple of other members of the audience discussing this part sounding out of tune. This could have easily been avoided as it unnecessarily put a small blemish on otherwise such a beautiful concert.
Enjoy!
Bansuriwala
PS:
As Anand has suggested in one of the comments from the "Almost live from Sawai…", this time I am attempting to give the notation of the Jhinjhoti compositions. Please note that this has gone through a couple of indirections, taking it down during the concert and then trying it out again just before writing this blog. chuk bhul dyavi ghyavi…
Jhinjhoti - Vilambit/Madhyalaya Rupak (I think it started at a laya of about 50 beats per second):
| G - (MG) (RS) | (S R ,n) (,D ,P) | (,P ,D) (S R) | (asthayee) |
| (D M) (P D) (n D) | S, - | (R, n) (D P) | (antaraa first line - I could not get the second line) |
Both asthayee and antaraa start from the 1st matra
Drut Teen Taal
| R M P D | n D P - | M G R S | ,n ,D S - | (asthayee) |
| G M P D | S, - S, - | D S, R, - | G - S - | (antaraa) |
Both asthayee and antaraa start from the 9th matra
PPS: I think the conventions are fairly straightforward. May be I should write a small post on them as time permits
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