An evening of monsoon melodies
JITENDRA PRATAP
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It was raining monsoon melodies at the recent vocal concert of Ustad Iqbal Ahmed Khan at New Delhi's India Habitat Centre.
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Performing in the HCL concert series this past week at the India Habitat Centre, the main theme of Ustad Iqbal Ahmed Khan's vocal recital was Malhar-ke-prakar, or the various forms of the monsoon ragas. Incidentally, the Ustad is also the khalifa, or head of the Delhi gharana. The recital was quite a draw.
The evening commenced on a sombre note to condole the sad demise of the Delhi gharana's ace tabla maestro Ustad Shafaat Ahmed Khan, who recently passed away. He was a first cousin of Ustad Iqbal Ahmed Khan, and the two of them had their musical training together ever since they were just four-year-olds. The evening's concert was dedicated to his memory, and commenced after a minute's silence as a mark of respect to the departed soul.
Ustad Iqbal Ahmed opened his recital in the most popular form of the Malhars, the Mian-ki-Malhar, a creation of the legendary Mian Tansen. The opening khayal `Karim naam tero' was given detailed treatment that at times seemed rather prolonged and even repetitive. As such, the opening alap of nearly a quarter of an hour rendered before commencing the khayal seemed uncalled for. There were a number of reposefully rendered sequences in his alap-badhat, followed with taan-paltas, some with bold gamakas and sapaats.
The deployment of the nuances of the raga Darnari Kanada, one of the main constituents of raga Mian-ki-Malhar, seemed over-done. While the sudden stress on the note Suddha Dhaivat brought in a whiff of the raga Sahana Kanada, some meandering in the antara had a shade of the raga Bahar of the spring season. The frequent recourse to sargams could have been reduced to some extent. The rendering of the teen tal compositions, Badariya barasan laagee, and Umad ghumad barase, respectively rendered in mid and fast tempos were with much elan and good artistic insight.
The recital somehow turned into a lecture-demonstration form, followed by further varieties of not-so-well known Malhar Ragas, Charju-ki-Malhar, Surdasi Malhar, Megh Malhar, Shahana, and ragas Gaund, Gaud Malhar, and Gaund Malhar. The composition in raga Charju-ki-Malhar, "Sawan aayo aaj", set to Madhya ek tal contained the nuances of the ragas Piloo and Gara. One is reminded of the same composition being rendered in raga Barawa by Ustad Vilayat Hussain Khan, the late doyen of the Agra gharana.
Hazarat Amir Khusrau's Persian composition in Shahana and Ritu aayee re badarawaa in raga Gaund Malhar followed by a matching tarana came as a lively finale to Ustad Iqbal Ahmed Khan's recital of the evening.
He had excellent accompaniment by Rehman Khan (harmonium), Asif Ali (sarangi), and Shakeel Ahmed (tabla).
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