:पंडित प्राणनाथ) (3 November 1918 – 13 June 1996) was a Hindustani classical

Hindustani classical music

Hindustani classical music is the Hindustani or North Indian style of Indian classical music found throughout the northern Indian subcontinent. The style is sometimes called North Indian Classical Music or Shāstriya Sangeet...

 singer and teacher of the Kirana gharana

Gharana

In Hindustani music, a gharānā is a system of social organization linking musicians or dancers by lineage or apprenticeship, and by adherence to a particular musical style. A gharana also indicates a comprehensive musicological ideology. This ideology sometimes changes substantially from one...

 (school), with a successful American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 career.

Early life

Pran Nath was born into a wealthy family in Lahore

Lahore

Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

 in present-day Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. While avid devotees of music (inviting musicians into the house to perform nightly), the family did not approve of his desire to become a musician, so he left home at the age of 13 and took up residence with his guru the legendary (but reclusive) singer Abdul Wahid Khan of the Kirana gharana

Kirana Gharana

Kirana Gharana is one of the most prolific Hindustani khyal gharanas.-History:The name of this school of music derives from Kirana or Kairana, a town and tehsil of Muzzafarnagar District in Uttar Pradesh...

, cousin of the more widely-known Abdul Karim Khan

Abdul Karim Khan

Ustad Abdul Karim Khan , was an Indian classical singer of the Kairana gharana .-Early life and background:...

, and stayed with him for nearly two decades. Both guru and disciple were much attracted to mysticism: Abdul Wahid Khan, a Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

, to Sufism

Sufism

Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...

, and Nath, a Hindu

Hindu

Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

, to a Shaivite sect in Dehra Dun. It is said that Nath lived in a cave near the Tapkeswhar temple to Shiva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

 for five years, serving his guru intermittently. He eventually married and reentered the world at the request (guru dakshana) of his guru, in order to ensure the preservation of the Kirana style. In 1937, he became a staff artist with All India Radio

All India Radio

All India Radio , officially known since 1956 as Akashvani , is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1936, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks...

.

However, Nath stuck to a very austere singing style – heavy emphasis on alap

Alap

The alap is the opening section of a typical North Indian classical performance. It is a form of melodic improvisation that introduces and develops a raga...

, and very slow tempi – which suited his voice well, but was not very popular to the modern Indian taste. Nath supported himself as a music teacher, and worked at the University of Delhi

University of Delhi

The University of Delhi is a central university situated in Delhi, India and is funded by Government of India. Established in 1922, it offers courses at the undergraduate and post-graduate level. Vice-President of India Mohammad Hamid Ansari is the Chancellor of the university...

 from 1960 to 1970.

Life in the United States

In that year, Nath's life took a drastic turn upon contact with American composer La Monte Young

La Monte Young

La Monte Thornton Young is an American avant-garde composer, musician, and artist.Young is generally recognized as the first minimalist composer. His works have been included among the most important and radical post-World War II avant-garde, experimental, and contemporary music. Young is...

 and visual artist Marian Zazeela

Marian Zazeela

Marian Zazeela is a light-artist, designer, painter and musician based in New York City.-Life and work:Born to Russian-Jewish parents and raised in the Bronx, Marian Zazeela was educated at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and at Bennington College where she...

, who heard his first issued recording, Earth Groove: The Voice of Cosmic India (released in 1968 on the budget Douglas label, a subsidiary of Laurie Records

Laurie Records

Laurie Records was a record label started in 1958 by Gene Schwartz and Allan I. Sussel. Sussel was a multi-millionaire whose earlier record company, Jamie Records , had been unsuccessful. As a result, Sussel joined forces with Schwartz to found Laurie Records, this time named after his other...

), and persuaded him to come to the United States. In 1972, he established his Kirana Center for Indian Classical Music in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and stayed in the U.S. for the rest of his life. He taught at several universities and above all attracted a strong following among the American minimalist composers. His students include Young, Zazeela, Terry Riley

Terry Riley

Terrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...

, Sargam Shah, Charlemagne Palestine

Charlemagne Palestine

Charlemagne Palestine is an American minimalist composer, performer, and visual artist...

, Henry Flynt

Henry Flynt

Henry Flynt is a philosopher, avant-garde musician, anti-art activist and exhibited artist often associated with Conceptual Art, Fluxus and Nihilism.-Background:...

, Jon Hassell

Jon Hassell

Jon Hassell is an American trumpet player and composer. He is known for his influence in the world music scene and his unusual electronic manipulation of the trumpet sound.-Life and career:...

, Douglas Leedy

Douglas Leedy

Douglas Leedy is an American composer, performer and music scholar.-Biography:Born in Portland, Oregon, Leedy studied with Karl Kohn at Pomona College and at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was in a composition seminar with membership including La Monte Young and Terry Riley...

, Don Cherry

Don Cherry (jazz)

Donald Eugene Cherry was an innovative African-American jazz cornetist whose career began with a long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. He went on to live in many parts of the world and work with a wide variety of musicians.-Biography:Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and...

, Lee Konitz

Lee Konitz

Lee Konitz is an American jazz composer and alto saxophonist born in Chicago, Illinois.Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings...

, Jon Gibson

Jon Gibson (minimalist musician)

Jon Gibson is a flautist, saxophonist, and composer.-Education:Gibson studied at Sacramento State University and with Henry Onderdonk and Wayne Peterson at San Francisco State University, where he earned a BA in 1964...

, Yoshi Wada

Yoshi Wada

Yoshimasa "Yoshi" Wada , is a Japanese sound installation artist and musician living in the United States. He lived in New York for many years but now lives in San Francisco, California....

, Rhys Chatham

Rhys Chatham

Rhys Chatham is an American composer, guitarist, and trumpet player, primarily active in avant-garde and minimalist music. He is best known for his "guitar orchestra" compositions...

, Michael Harrison, W. A. Mathieu

W. A. Mathieu

William Allaudin Mathieu is a composer, pianist, choir director, music teacher, and author. He studied with William Russo and Easley Blackwood, with North Indian vocalist Pandit Pran Nath for 25 years, and collaborated with Nubian master musician Hamza El Din Hamza El Din.In the 1960s, he spent...

, Sufi Pir Shabda Kahn, Catherine Christer Hennix

Catherine Christer Hennix

Catherine Christer Hennix is a Swedish-American composer, philosopher, scientist and visual artist associated with drone minimal music. Hennix was affiliated with MIT's AI Lab in the late 1970s and was later employed as research professor of mathematics at SUNY New Paltz. She currently lives in...

, George Brooks (Saxophonist), and Simone Forti

Simone Forti

Simone Forti , a postmodern American choreographer and musician, was born in Italy but moved to the United States at a young age. Throughout her career she became known for a style of dancing and choreography that was largely based on basic everyday movements, such as games and children's...

.

Nath made many recordings in the U.S., which are valuable documents of the Kirana style. Three recordings were released during his lifetime, Earth Groove, one by the Shandar label in France and the other by the Grammavision label in the US. Posthumously, Midnight a double CD (Just Dreams JD 003) with two full-length live recordings of the same bandishes in raga

Raga

A raga is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music.It is a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is made...

 Malkauns from 1971 and 1976 was issued, as well as a CD The Raga Cycle published in 2006 on the Sri Moonshine label of a 1972 recording made in the Palace Theatre (Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 - France) of Ragas Shudh Sarang and Kut Todi.

Films

• 1986 - In Between the Notes: A Portrait Of Pandit Pran Nath. Produced by Other Minds
  Other Minds
  Other Minds is a San Francisco based private 501 not-for-profit organization, founded in 1992 by Charles Amirkhanian and Jim Newman...
  
  . Directed by William Farley
  William Farley
  William Farley is an American film director, based in San Francisco. He directed Whoopi Goldberg in her first screen role, in the ensemble piece Citizen : I'm Not Losing My Mind, I'm Giving It Away .-Biography:...
  
  .
• 1995 - Musical Outsiders: An American Legacy - Harry Partch, Lou Harrison, and Terry Riley. Directed by Michael Blackwood.

External links

• MELA Foundation: Pandit Pran Nath
• 1986 - In Between the Notes: A Portrait Of Pandit Pran Nath. Directed by William Farley.
• On Pandit Pran Nath by Henry Flynt
  Henry Flynt
  Henry Flynt is a philosopher, avant-garde musician, anti-art activist and exhibited artist often associated with Conceptual Art, Fluxus and Nihilism.-Background:...
  
  
• Other Minds: Pran Nath
• Pandit Pran Nath: Infinity’s Pathfinder By Marcus Boon
• Pandit Pran Nath: A Short Biography By Joan Allekotte
• Lord of the Drone: Pandit Pran Nath and the American Underground By Alexander Keefe