Reading the reeds right
ANJANA RAJAN
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He played a major role in giving the harmonium its rightful place in Indian music. In the ongoing series son accompanists, meet Jayram Potdar.
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PHOTO: V. SUDERSHAN
TELLING NOTES : Jayram Potdar demonstrating on the harmonium under the picture of his guru, the eminent vocalist Vasantrao Deshpande.
`The harmonium must be the most widely used instrument in India. Be it popular music, devotional or classical, you are most likely to find the harmonium as part of the orchestra,' notes Jayram Potdar amiably. The veteran artiste ought to know, having enchanted listeners with his harmonium playing and accompanied the stalwarts of classical music for nearly half a century, besides being adept at the organ and a musician for Marathi theatre as well.
Potdar, it is obvious, is in love with his reed instruments. But his nine harmoniums and two organs - American instruments that date back over 60 years - are not merely objects of pleasure. With his precise knowledge of the requirements of Hindustani music, its meends and micro tones that are not natural to a keyboard instrument, he is aware of how much a harmonium can be manipulated, and when it is necessary to use one tuned specifically for certain purposes.
After a fight
Despite the popularity of the harmonium, especially among Hindustani vocalists, it was only in 1997 that harmonium players were accorded grades in All India Radio on par with other instrumentalists. "I fought for about six or seven years on this issue. I was extensively interviewed in the Marathi press, and someone also filed a public interest case against this discriminatory attitude. I replied to all the objections against the instrument, and finally harmonium players were given a grade. However, they have yet to be allowed a solo slot," he recounts.
The traditional arguments against the harmonium are that it cannot produce meends and gamaks; it cannot be tuned on stage like, say, stringed instruments; and it is not capable of the `in-between' notes, like, say, uttara Gandhar and the like.
Explains Potdar, "Hindustani music does not have too many gamaks anyway, and we can always reproduce those that occur. With meends, it is possible to calculate the notes and the number of seconds spent by the vocalist on each, and play this combination. As for sruti, though we have only twelve notes on this keyboard, I hold that the other notes that arise out of the needs of particular ragas, are in the realm of parikalpana, and not exactly measurable."
His discussion may be scientific, but the man who recently received a Senior Fellowship from the Sangeet Natak Akademi for a Comparative and Analytical Study of Marathi Natya Sangeet takes his listeners into the dreamy world of emotions as soon as his fingers hit the keys."An accompanist has to be aware of various gharanas. You never know with whom you will be asked to play. If you don't play in sync with the vocalist's style, if you don't know your ragas properly, who will ask you a second time?" asks the man who reveres Bal Gandharva and Vasantrao Deshpande "like Gods" and revels in the classical vastness of Marathi Natya music.
It was his father, P.B. Potdar, an eye surgeon and a vocalist, who initiated him into music. Later he learnt under Manohar Bare of Nagpur and Dr. Vasantrao Deshpande. "All my gurus were also adept at the harmonium," he recalls. As he began to accompany his father, who was also a kirtan artiste, a solo form of musical discourse, the young Potdar learnt to play the foot-pedalled harmonium. "Thus I became good at playing with both hands, and then I graduated to the organ." Accompanying his father and later other vocalists, he gradually built a solid reputation. Today there are not many eminent vocalists he would not have accompanied. He has even accompanied dhrupad and dhamar renditions by Siyaram Tiwari and Sumati Mutatkar. What pleases him most is when the vocal quality of his instrument is noted. "What I want most of all is that people should feel the harmonium is singing."
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