Lesson 2
The Sound of Music
Prat I
Evelyn Glennie Listens to sound
without Hearing It
Good may have taken her hearing but he has given her back something extraordinary. What we her, she feels-far more deeply then any of us.That is why she expresses music so beautifull.''
.Read the following account of a person who ralife a success story.
1. Rush hour crowds jostle for position on the underground train platform. A slight girl, looking younger then her seventeen years, was nervous yet excited as she felt the vibrations of the approaching train. it was her first day at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London and daunting enough for any teenager fresh from a Scottish farm. But this aspiring mucicin faced a bigger challenge then most: she was profoundly defa.
2. Evelyn Glennie's loss of hearing had been gradual. Her mother remembers noticing something was wrong when the eight- year -old Evelyn was waiting to play the piano. ''They called her name and she didn't move. I suddenly realised she hadn't heard,''says Isabel Glennie. For quite a while Evelyn managed to conceal her growing deafness from friends and teachers. But by the time she was eleven her marks had deteriorated and her headmistress urged her parents to take her to a specialist. it was then discovered that her hearing was severely impaired as a result of gradual nerve damage. They were advised that she should be fitted with hearing aids and sent to a school for the deaf.''Everything suddenly looked black ,'' says Evelyn.
3. But Evelyn was not going to give up . She was determined to lead a normal life and pursue her interest in music .One day she noticed a girl playing a xylophone and decided that she wanted to play it too. Most of the teachers discouraged her but percussionist Ron Forbes spotted her potential. He began by tuning two large drums to different notes.''Don't listen through your ears,'' he would say, ''try I realised I could feel the higher drum from the waist up and the lower one from the waist down.'' Forbes repeated the exercise, and soon Evelyn discovered that she could sense certain notes in different parts of her body. ''I had learnt to open my mind and body to sounds and vibrations.'' The rest was sheer determination and hard work.
4. She never looked back from that point onwards. She toured the United Kingdom with a youth decided to make music her life. She auditioned for the Royal Academy of Music and scored one of the highest marks in the history of the a. academy. She gradually moved from orchestral work to solo performances. At the end of her three-year course, she had captured most of the top awards.
5. And for all this, Evelyn won't accept any hint of heroic achievement . ''If you work hard and know where you are going, you'll get there.'' And she got right to the top, the world's most sought-after multi-percussionist with a mastery of some thousand instruments, and hectic international schedule.
6. It is intriguing to watch Evelyn function so effortlessly without hearing. In our two-hour discussion she never missed a word. ''Men with bushy beards give me trouble,'' she laughed. it is not just watching the lips, it's the whole face, especially the eyes.'' She speaks flawlessly with a Scottish lite.''My speech is clear because I could hear till I was eleven,'' She says. But that doesn't explain how she managed to learn French and master basic Japanese.
7. As for music, she explains, ''it pours in through every part of m body. It tingles in the skin, my cheekbones and even in my hair.'' When she plays the xylophone, she can sense the sound passing up
the stick into her fingertips. By leaning against the drums, she can feel the resonances flowing into her body . on a wooden platform she removes her shoes so that the vibrations pass through her bare feet and up her legs.
8. Not surprisingly. Evelyn delights her audiences. In 1991 she was presented with the Royal philharmonic Society's prestigious Soloist of the Year Award. Says master percussionist James Blades.''Good may have taken her hearing but he has given her back something extraordinary. What we her. she feels-far more deeply then any of us. That is why she express music so beautifully.''
9. Evelyn confesses that she is something of a workaholic. ''I've just got to work ... often herder then classical musicians. But the rewards are enonnous.''Apart from then regular concerts, Evelyn also giver free concerts in prisons and hospitals. She also giver high priority to classes for young musicians. Ann Richlin of the beethoven Fund for Deaf Children says.''She is a shining inspiration for deaf children. Then see that there is nowhere that they cannot go .''
10. Evelyn Glennie has already accomplished more than most people twice her ago. She has brought demonstrated that in can be very moving. She has giving inspiration to those who are handicapped. People who look to her and say, 'If she can do it, I can.' And, not the least, she has giving enormous pleasure to millions .
(DEBORAH COWLEY )
Part-II
The shehnai of Bismillah Khan
BEFORE YOU READ
1. Emperor Aurangzed benned the playing of a musical instrument called pungi in the royal residence for it had a shrill unpleasant sound. pungi became the generic name for reeded noisemakers. Few had thought that it would one day be revive. A barber of a family of professional musicians, who had access to the royal palace, deccided to improve the tonal quality of pungi. He chose a pipe with a natural hollow stem that was longer and pungi and made seven holes on the body of the pungi, and made seven holes on the body of the pipe. When he played on it, closing and opening some of these holes. soft and melodious sounds were produced. He played the instrument before royalty and everyone was impressed. The instrument so different from the pungi had to be given a nay name. Shah's chambers and was played by a nai(barber),the instrument was named the' shehnai'.
2. the sound of the shehnai began to consider auspicious. And for this reason it is still played in temples and is an indispensable component of any norts Indian wedding. the past, the shehnai was part of the found at and weddings. The credit for bringing this instrument onto the classical stage goes to Ustad Bismillah khan .3. As a five-year old, Bismillah khan played gilli-dannda near pond in the ancient estate of Dumraon in Bihar. He would regularly go to the nearby Bihariji temple he would earn a big laddu weighing 1. 25 kg a prize given by the local Maharaja. this happyened 80 year ago, and the little boy has travelled far to earn the highest civilian award in India- the Bharat Ratna.
4. Born on 21 March 1916, Bismillah belongs to a well - known family of musicians from Bihar. His grandfather, Rasool Bux Khan, was the shehnai nawaz of the Bhojpur king's court. His father Paigambar Bux, and other paternal ancestors we are also great shehnai players.
5. The young boy took to music. early in life. At the and of three when his mother took him to his maternal uncle's house in Benaras (now Varanasi), Bismillah was fascinated watching his uncles practice the shehnai. Soon Bismillah started accompanying his incle. Ali Bux, to the Vishnu temple of Benaras where Bux was employed to play the shehnai. Ali Bux would play the shehnai and Bismillah would sit captivated for hours on end. Slowly, he startedgetting lessons in playing the instrument and would sit practicing throughout the day. For years to come the temple of Balaji and Mangala Maiya and the banks of the Ganga became the young apprentice's favorite haunts where he could practice in solitude. The flowing waters of the Ganga inspired him to improvise and invent raagas that were previously considered to be beyond the range of the shehnai.
6. At the age of 14, Bismillah accompanied his uncle to the AllahabadMusic Conference. At the end of his recital, Ustad Faiyaz Khan patted the young boy's back and said, "Work hard and voushall make it." With the opening of the All India Radio in Lucknow in 1938 came Bismillah's big break. He soon became an often - heard shehnai player on radio.
7. When India gained independence on 15 August 1947. Bismillah Khan became the first Indian to greet the nation with his shehnai. He poured his heart out into Raag Kafi from the Red Fort to an audience which included Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who later gave his famous Tryst with Destiny speech.
8. Bismillah Khan has given many memorable performances both in India and abroad. His first trip abroad was to Afghanistan where King Zahir Shah was so taken in by the maestro that he gifted him priceless Persian carpets and other souvenirs. The King of Afghanistan was not the only one to be fascinated with Bismillah's music. Film director Vijay Bhatt was so impressed after hearing Bismillah play at a festival that he named a filme after the instrument called Gunj Uthi Shehnai. The film was a hit. and one of Bismillah Khan's compositions, "Dilkalchilona hai toot gaya ... ..." turned out to be anationvide chartbuster! Despite this huge success in the celluloid world. Bismillah Khan's ventures infiln music were limited 101wo: Vijay Bhatt's Gunj Uthi Shehna and Vikram Srinivas's Kannada venture. Sanadhi Aponna. I just can't Come to terms with the artificiality and glamour of the film world. "he says with emphasis.
9. Awards and recognition came thick and fast. Bismillah Khan became the first Indian to be invited to perform at the prestigious Lincoln Center Hall in the United States of America. He also took part in the World Exposition in Montreal, in The Cannes Art Festival and in the Osaka Trade Fair. So well known did he become internationally that an auditorium in Teheran was named after him - Tahar Mosiquee Ustaad Bismillah Khan.
10. National awards like the Padmashri. the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan were conferred on him.
11. In 2001. Ustad Bismillan Khan was awarded India's highest civilian award. The Bharat Ratna. With the coveted award resting on his chest and his eyes glinting with rare happiness he said, "All I would like to say" is: Teach your children music. this is Hindustan's richest tradition; even the West is now coming to learn our music. "
12. In spite of having traveled over all the world Khansaab as he is fondly called - is exceedingly fond of Benaras and Dumraon and thev remain for him the most wonderful towns of the world. A student of his once wanted him to head ashehnai school in the U. S. A., and the student promised to recreate the atmosphere of Benaras by replicating the temples there. But Khansaab asked him if he would be able to transport River Ganga as well. Later he is remembered to have said, " That is why whenever I am in a foreign country, I keep yearning to see Hindustan. While in Mumbai. I think of only Benaras and the holy Ganga. And while in Benaras, 1 miss the unique mattha of Dumraon.
