Pt Buddhadev Dasgupta never ceases to impress on or off stage with his razor-sharp wit, passion for classical music, love for Rabindra sangeet, interest in mathematics and his views on politics.
At six feet, he feels that he is a dwarf yearning for the moon and that is the title of his stylishly penned autobiography Bamoner Chandrasparshabhilash in Bengali. Maybe this mindset did not allow him to take anything for granted. May be this shaped him into a musicians’ musician and an unmatched Guru, who excels in every aspect of sarod playing.
Always approachable, he gave pinpointed answers to queries . This clarity of thought, even now when he is fighting with serious health problems, shows his commitment to the art and his listeners.
Taking care of instruments : one must spend a considerable amount of time with one’s instrument to keep it fine-tuned. A daily check is a must. I learnt to take care of my instrument by trial and error and fixed the minor problems. Marking the pointed end of a peg with chalk helps locate the uneven points that cause problem. Such preventive measures depend on one’s innovativeness.
Sur, the soul : One needs to fix the shadja. The next note ‘Re’ comes at a particular point. So do the rest. Those, who reach all the points easily with minimum variation, can catch the sur and are called sureela .
Difference between Maihar and his gharana : Maihar sarod contains eight pegs. Their upper four pegs look like tanpura aand the lower four pegs are for main strings. They hold the striker differently and do not use artificial nails like those belonging to Shahjahanpur.
Our style is a synthesis of Senia and Rababigharana of Mohd Amir Khan. Our style blends gayaki, tantrakari and mnemonics of percussion instruments with a lot of emphasis on bol-patterns. The bol-patterns are very important as we, on the sarod, also reproduce the patterns played on the percussion instruments like tabla and pakhawaj. Different bols give different dimensions in taan-playing.
Importance of riyaz : I needed at least eight hours but my job allowed me only an hour or so. I used to do my mental riyaz while at work. You should keep thinking about the music. A student is ready for stage, when he is equipped with knowledge of a reasonable number of ragas and good command over the playing technique. Playing in fast tempo is necessary nowadays. But one must play without repetitions and be able to read the listeners mind.
Body language: A performer should be able to establish eye contact and a rapport with the listeners; which I have failed to do. My strictly regimented upbringing left me with a serious countenance. But I do not like musicians distorting their faces or throwing their hands in all directions (as if to catch the flying notes or letting them fly away).
On Raagdari: For beginners, I take up the easiest ragas first, such as Bageshri and Bhimpalasi. When learning a particular raga, one must learn the sister ragas for better understanding. For instance, a student learning raga Desh, must know the similarities and differences between Desh and Tilak Kamod. Beginners learning in a group are given the same raga for better exchange of ideas. This helps in faster pick-up.
Improvising note patterns for taankari : The student must know the ascending-descending order of the raga along with its important notes and phrases. He should have a clear idea of where not to end a phrase and what to avoid at all costs — to keep the features of the raga intact while doing taankari. For example, take the scale of raga Desh: SRMPNS’nDPMGRS The gait of the raga does not allow G, P, D and N as the end point and D cannot be its starting point either. The important phrases are: SRMPN, RnDnPDMP, MPDMGRGS etc.
For creating patterns: 1) start with the aroha-avaroha and make a garland by adding one extra note in the beginning and continue doing so, 2) take one phrase and start adding one note of the ascending order in the beginning of the phrase. This will give a variety of phrases. For another set, start adding notes from the Avarohi or descending order of the raga. This in turn will generate another set of phrases. 3) Add a little pause between the notes, and create different set of patterns. 4) Play them in dugun (double), tigun (triple), chaugun (quadruple) speed of one beat and create rhythmic variants.
On teaching tala : A two-year-old claps waywardly, but when made aware of uniformly spaced clapping, some do pick up. Similarly, take any simple composition; learn it by heart, play it with the tabla; then make it double (two notes on one beat) followed by three, four or six notes on one beat. This gives an idea of space and timing and lead to layakari or rhythmic designs. For more complex patterns there are different exercises.
Core of creativity : Improvisation is based on parts and fragments of the stored information. It is like teaching a language and our music is like an impromptu speech; the alphabets, words, idioms fall in place. To develop this faculty, give the students several sentences and ask them to give the purport of the whole exercise in their own language. This is not for new learners as they will not be able to stick to the raga, but seniors should be allowed to improvise and innovate.
As I do not belong to a family of musicians, I was exposed to several ideas. My guru played taan-toda while I incorporated the percussion bolkari in my playing. Some of the layakari patterns were not taught by my guru, but I play them and teach as well. Similarly, my senior students are free to innovate.
Emotions and swaras : Excessive taiyari or virtuosity blurs the image of the raga. For a better picture, sing with emotion and ask the student to repeat it on his instrument . Emotions can be conveyed by a combination of notes, meend, gamak and also with varied intonations of the pitch of voice or sound. Other than the dry techniques, Hindustani music is a reflection of emotions. Some raga’s phrases are steeped in spiritual emotion.
Tagore factor: Evidently, Tagore saw many ragas from a different angle. I get awestruck whenever I listen to these unique treatments in his oeuvres. I wished to apply them in my playing. So I tried to incorporate that particular angle of looking at a raga and composed gat-bandishes —mostly set to different talas. These have been adopted by many of my senior disciples.
Influences of other maestros : Once, when I was performing, there were eminent musicians, mostly my guru’s friends and admirers, in the audience. Inspired, I tried to impress them by replicating Ustad Ali Akbar Khan —whom I admired and heard a lot. The listeners heard me in grim silence and I knew that my attempt to show off was a total disaster.
I learnt an important lesson — imbibe and internalise, before performing. Since then I have imbibed a lot from Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Ustad Vilayat Khan and others, but I do not imitate them. I learnt to produce the blend like a smooth drink.
