Ram Narayan
Encyclopedia
Ram Narayan often referred to by the title Pandit, is an India
n musician who popularized the bowed instrument sarangi
as a solo concert instrument in Hindustani classical music
and became the first internationally successful sarangi player.
Narayan was born in Udaipur
and learned to play the sarangi at an early age. He studied under sarangi players and singers and, as a teenager, worked as a music teacher and traveling musician. All India Radio
, Lahore
, hired Narayan as an accompanist for vocalists in 1944. He moved to Delhi
following the partition of India
in 1947, but wishing to go beyond accompaniment and frustrated with his supporting role, Narayan moved to Mumbai
in 1949 to work in Indian cinema
.
After an unsuccessful attempt in 1954, Narayan became a concert solo artist in 1956, and later gave up accompaniment. He recorded solo albums and began to tour America and Europe in the 1960s. Narayan taught Indian and foreign students and performed, frequently outside of India, into the 2000s. He was awarded India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan
, in 2005.
Ram Narayan was born on 25 December 1927 in Udaipur
in northwestern India. His great-great-grandfather, Bagaji Biyavat, was a singer from Amber, and he and Narayan's great-grandfather, Sagad Danji Biyavat, sang at the court of the Maharana
of Udaipur. Narayan's grandfather, Har Lalji Biyavat, and father, Nathuji Biyavat, were farmers and singers, Nathuji played the bowed instrument dilruba, and Narayan's mother was a music lover. Narayan's first language was Rajasthani
and he learned Hindi
and, later, English. At an age of about six, he found a small sarangi left by the family's Ganga guru, a genealogist, and was taught a fingering
technique developed by his father. Narayan's father taught him, but was worried about the difficulty of playing the sarangi and its association with courtesan music, which gave the instrument a low social status. After a year, Biyavat sought lessons for his son from sarangi player Mehboob Khan of Jaipur
, but changed his mind when Khan told him Narayan would have to change his fingering technique. Narayan's father later encouraged him to leave school and devote himself to playing the sarangi.
At about 10 years of age, Narayan learned the basics of dhrupad
, the oldest genre of Hindustani classical music
, by studying and imitating the practice of sarangi player Uday Lal of Udaipur, a student of dhrupad singers Allabande and Zakiruddin Dagar. After Uday Lal died of old age, Narayan met traveling singer Madhav Prasad, originally of Lucknow
, who had performed at the court of Maihar
. With Prasad, Narayan enacted the ganda bandhan, a traditional ceremony of acceptance between a teacher and his pupil, in which Narayan swore obedience in exchange for being maintained by Prasad. He served Prasad and was taught in khyal
, the predominate genre of Hindustani classical music, but returned to Udaipur after four years to teach music school. Prasad later visited Narayan and convinced him to resign his position and dedicate his time to improvement as a musician, although the idea of giving up a steady life was not well received by Narayan's family. He stayed with Prasad and traveled to several Indian states until Prasad fell ill and advised him to learn from singer Abdul Wahid Khan in Lahore
. Following Prasad's death in Lucknow, Narayan enacted the ganda bandhan with another teacher who gave him lessons, but soon left for Lahore and never performed the ritual again.
(AIR) as a singer, but the station's music producer, Jivan Lal Mattoo, noticed grooves in Narayan's fingernails: sarangis are played by pressing the fingernails sideways against three playing strings, which strains the nails. Mattoo instead employed Narayan as a sarangi player. Traditionally, the sarangi is supposed to play after the singer and imitate the vocal performance, and play in the space between phrases. Mattoo advised Narayan and helped him contact khyal singer Abdul Wahid Khan, a rigorous teacher under whom Narayan learned four raga
s through singing lessons. Narayan was allowed sporadic solo performances on AIR and began to consider a solo career.
After the partition of India
in 1947, Narayan moved to Delhi
and played at the local AIR station. His work for popular singers increased his repertoire and knowledge of styles. Narayan played with the classical singers Omkarnath Thakur
, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Hirabai Badodekar
, and Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, and he accompanied singer Amir Khan in 1948, when Khan sang for the first time at AIR Delhi following the partition. As an accompanist for vocalists, Narayan showed his own talent and came to the foreground. Singers of the city complained that he was not a dependable accompanist and too assertive, but he maintained he wanted to keep vocalists in tune and inspire them in a cordial contest. Other tabla
(percussion) players and singers, including Omkarnath Thakur and Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, expressed admiration for Narayan's playing.
Narayan became frustrated with his supporting role for vocalists and moved to Mumbai
in 1949 to work independently in film music and recording. He recorded three solo 78 rpm gramophone record
s for the British HMV Group
in 1950 and an early 10 inch LP album
in Mumbai in 1951, but the album was not in demand. The Mumbai film industry offered a good salary and obscurity for work that would have lowered his stature among classical musicians. For the next 15 years he played and composed songs for films; Narayan composed for Adalat, Gunga Jumna, Humdard, and Milan, and played for Adalat, Kashmir Ki Kali
, Mughal-e-Azam
, and Noorjehan, among others. He was considered a desired choice of film music director O. P. Nayyar
.
Narayan performed in Afghanistan in 1952 and in China in 1954 and was well received in both countries. His first solo concert at a 1954 music festival in the Cowasji Jehangir Hall
, Mumbai, was cut short when an impatient audience, waiting for performances by famous artists, drove him from the stage. Narayan pondered giving up the sarangi and becoming a singer. He later regained confidence, performed solo for smaller crowds, and was favorably received in his second attempt to play solo for a Mumbai music festival in 1956. He has since performed at the major music festivals of India. Narayan later gave up accompaniment; this decision carried a financial risk because interest in solo sarangi was not yet substantial.
After sitar
player Ravi Shankar
successfully performed in Western countries, Narayan followed his example. He recorded solo albums and made his first international tour in 1964 to America and Europe with his older brother Chatur Lal
, a tabla player who had toured with Shankar in the 1950s. The European tour included performances in France, Germany, sponsored by the Goethe-Institut
, and at the City of London Festival
, England. Beginning in the 1960s, Narayan often taught and gave concerts outside of India. On his Western tours he encountered interest in the sarangi because of its similarity to cello and violin. The tabla player Suresh Talwalkar
became a frequent accompanist for Narayan in the late 1960s. Narayan continued to perform and record in India and abroad for the next decades and his recordings appeared on Indian, American, and European labels. During the early 1980s he typically spent months each year visiting Western nations. Narayan performed less frequently in the 2000s.
, but his choice of solo instrument and his background of learning from teachers outside his community are not common for the genre. He has stated that aims to please an audience and create a feeling of harmony, and expects the audience to reciprocate by reacting to his playing.
Narayan's performances are strung together from the meditative and measured alap
(non-metrical introduction) and jor
(performance with pulse) in dhrupad
style, followed by a faster and less reserved gat section (composition with rhythmic pattern provided by the tabla
) in khyal
style. He experimented with a style of jhala
(performance with rapid pulse) developed by Bundu Khan, but considered it more appropriate for plucked instruments and stopped performing it. The gat section includes one or two parts with compositions. When two gats are used, the first one tends to be at a slow or medium tempo, and the second one is faster; the gats are usually performed in the 16-beat rhythmic cycle tintal
. Narayan often completes performances with ragas associated with thumri
(a popular light classical genre), which are referred to as mishra (Sanskrit
: mixed) because they allow for additional notes, or with a dhun
(song based on folk music).
Narayan practices and teaches using a limited number of paltas, exercises in a small scale range that are used to prepare playing different numbers of notes per bow. Derived from paltas are lengthy note patterns called tans, which contain characteristic "melodic shapes" and are used by Narayan for fast playing. He uses his left (fingering) hand for runs and to play an extended melodic range, and his right (bowing) hand for rhythmic accentuations. Narayan's fingering technique, his low right hand position, keeping the bow in a close to right angle to the string, and his use of the full bow length are unusual among sarangi players.
Narayan is associated with the Kirana gharana
(stylistic school of Kirana) through Abdul Wahid Khan, but his performance style is not strongly connected to it. Most of Narayan's compositions are from the singing repertoire of his teachers and were modified and adapted to the sarangi. He has created original compositions and in performance varies those he was taught. Narayan disfavors the creation of new ragas, but developed compound ragas, including those of Nand with Kedar
and Kafi with Malhar.
Narayan uses a sarangi obtained from Uday Lal and built in Meerut in the 1920s or 1930s in his concerts and recordings. He plays on foreign harp strings to produce a clearer tone. Narayan experimented with modifications to his instrument and added a fourth string, but removed it because it hindered playing. In the 1940s, he exchanged gut
with steel for the first string and found it easier to play, but reverted to using only gut strings because the steel string altered the sound.
) and affected the modern sarangi concert style, as aspects of his playing and tone creation were taken up by sarangi players from Narayan's recordings.
Narayan taught at Wesleyan University
, Connecticut, and Mills College
, California, in 1968, and at the American Society for Eastern Arts and the National Centre for the Performing Arts
in Mumbai in the 1970s and 1980s, where he gave the first master class for sarangi. Narayan privately trained sarangi players, including his daughter Aruna Narayan Kalle, his grandson Harsh Narayan, and Vasanti Srikhande. He also taught sarod
players, including his son Brij Narayan
, as well as vocalists and a violinist. In 2002, he taught 15 Indian students and more than 500 students in the United States and Europe had studied with him. Indian music in performance: a practical introduction, released in 1980 by Neil Sorrell in cooperation with Narayan, was described as "one of the best presentations on modern North Indian music practice" by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart
.
Narayan argued that appreciation of the sarangi and him came only after acknowledgment by the Western audience. He attributed the lack of sarangi students to a lack of competent teachers and said that the Indian government should assist in preserving the instrument. The Pt (Pandit) Ram Narayan Foundation in Mumbai awards scholarships to sarangi students, but Narayan stated he was skeptical the sarangi would survive.
Narayan received the national awards Padma Shri
in 1976, Padma Bhushan
in 1991, and Padma Vibhushan
in 2005. The Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honor, was presented by Indian President
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. Narayan was awarded the Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 1974–75, the national Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
for 1975, and was made a fellow of the Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Akademi for 1988–89. He received the Kalidas Samman
from the Government of Madhya Pradesh
for 1991–92 and was presented with the Aditya Vikram Birla
Kalashikhar Puraskar in 1999 by P. C. Alexander
, governor of Maharashtra
. He also received the Maharashtra Gaurav Puraskar, the Shiromani Award, and the Rajasthan Welfare Association Award. The biographical film Pandit Ramnarayan – Sarangi Ke Sang was shown at the 2007 International Film Festival of India
.
Narayan shared a close relationship with his older brother, Chatur Lal
, who learned the tabla
primarily to accompany his brother's sarangi playing. Lal studied under tabla teachers in his youth, but later turned to farming. Lal visited Narayan 1948 in Delhi after Narayan had become a professional sarangi player, and Narayan convinced Lal to work as a tabla player at the local AIR station. Lal became an acclaimed musician, toured with instrumentalists Ravi Shankar
and Ali Akbar Khan
in the 1950s, and helped popularize the tabla in Western countries. When Lal died in October 1965, Narayan had difficulty performing and struggled with alcoholism, but overcame the addiction after two years. Narayan assisted his brother's four children after their father's death. Chatur Lal's son, Charanjit Lal Biyavat, is a tabla player and has toured Europe with Narayan.
Narayan's wife Sheela, a homemaker, came to Mumbai in the 1950s and they had four children. She died prior to 2001. His oldest son, sarod
player Brij Narayan
, was born on 25 April 1952 in Udaipur, and his daughter Aruna Narayan was born 1959 in Mumbai. She was the first woman to give a solo sarangi concert and immigrated to Canada
in 1984. Another son, Shiv, is a year younger than Aruna, has learned to play the tabla, and toured Australia with his father. Brij Narayan's son, Harsh Narayan, plays the sarangi. In 2009, Narayan performed at BBC
's The Proms
in the Royal Albert Hall
, London
, with Aruna, and he played at the 2010 Sawai Gandharva Music Festival
, Pune
, with Harsh.
Narayan is a Hindu
and has stated "music is my religion", arguing that there was no better access to divinity than music. He is based in Mumbai.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n musician who popularized the bowed instrument sarangi
Sarangi
The Sārangī is a bowed, short-necked string instrument of India which is originated from Rajasthani folk instruments. It plays an important role in India's Hindustani classical music tradition...
as a solo concert instrument in Hindustani classical music
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...
and became the first internationally successful sarangi player.
Narayan was born in Udaipur
Udaipur
Udaipur , also known as the City of Lakes, is a city, a Municipal Council and the administrative headquarters of the Udaipur district in the state of Rajasthan in western India. It is located southwest of the state capital, Jaipur, west of Kota, and northeast from Ahmedabad...
and learned to play the sarangi at an early age. He studied under sarangi players and singers and, as a teenager, worked as a music teacher and traveling musician. 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...
, 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...
, hired Narayan as an accompanist for vocalists in 1944. He moved to Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
following the partition of India
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
in 1947, but wishing to go beyond accompaniment and frustrated with his supporting role, Narayan moved to Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
in 1949 to work in Indian cinema
Cinema of India
The cinema of India consists of films produced across India, which includes the cinematic culture of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Indian films came to be followed throughout South Asia and...
.
After an unsuccessful attempt in 1954, Narayan became a concert solo artist in 1956, and later gave up accompaniment. He recorded solo albums and began to tour America and Europe in the 1960s. Narayan taught Indian and foreign students and performed, frequently outside of India, into the 2000s. He was awarded India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan
Padma Vibhushan
The Padma Vibhushan is the second highest civilian award in the Republic of India. It consists of a medal and a citation and is awarded by the President of India. It was established on 2 January 1954. It ranks behind the Bharat Ratna and comes before the Padma Bhushan...
, in 2005.
Early life
Udaipur
Udaipur , also known as the City of Lakes, is a city, a Municipal Council and the administrative headquarters of the Udaipur district in the state of Rajasthan in western India. It is located southwest of the state capital, Jaipur, west of Kota, and northeast from Ahmedabad...
in northwestern India. His great-great-grandfather, Bagaji Biyavat, was a singer from Amber, and he and Narayan's great-grandfather, Sagad Danji Biyavat, sang at the court of the Maharana
Maharana
Maharana is a variation on the Indian royal title Maharaja, also meaning 'Great king' in Hindi. It is composed of Maha- 'great' and the royal title Rana, a variation on Raja.-Salute states :...
of Udaipur. Narayan's grandfather, Har Lalji Biyavat, and father, Nathuji Biyavat, were farmers and singers, Nathuji played the bowed instrument dilruba, and Narayan's mother was a music lover. Narayan's first language was Rajasthani
Rajasthani language
Rajasthani Rajasthani Rajasthani (Devanagari: , Perso-Arabic: is a language of the Indo-Aryan languages family. It is spoken by 50 million people in Rajasthan and other states of India and in some areas of Pakistan. The number of speakers may be up to 80 million worldwide...
and he learned Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
and, later, English. At an age of about six, he found a small sarangi left by the family's Ganga guru, a genealogist, and was taught a fingering
Fingering
In music, fingering is the choice of which fingers and hand positions to use when playing certain musical instruments. Fingering typically changes throughout a piece; the challenge of choosing good fingering for a piece is to make the hand movements as comfortable as possible without changing hand...
technique developed by his father. Narayan's father taught him, but was worried about the difficulty of playing the sarangi and its association with courtesan music, which gave the instrument a low social status. After a year, Biyavat sought lessons for his son from sarangi player Mehboob Khan of Jaipur
Jaipur
Jaipur , also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 3.1 million....
, but changed his mind when Khan told him Narayan would have to change his fingering technique. Narayan's father later encouraged him to leave school and devote himself to playing the sarangi.
At about 10 years of age, Narayan learned the basics of dhrupad
Dhrupad
Dhrupad is a vocal genre in Hindustani classical music, said to be the oldest still in use in that musical tradition. Its name is derived from the words "dhruva" and "pada"...
, the oldest genre of Hindustani classical music
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...
, by studying and imitating the practice of sarangi player Uday Lal of Udaipur, a student of dhrupad singers Allabande and Zakiruddin Dagar. After Uday Lal died of old age, Narayan met traveling singer Madhav Prasad, originally of Lucknow
Lucknow
Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....
, who had performed at the court of Maihar
Maihar
Maihar is a city and a municipality in Satna district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Maihar is known for the temple of revered mother goddess Sharda situated on Trikuta hill of Maihar.- Origin :...
. With Prasad, Narayan enacted the ganda bandhan, a traditional ceremony of acceptance between a teacher and his pupil, in which Narayan swore obedience in exchange for being maintained by Prasad. He served Prasad and was taught in khyal
Khyal
Khyal is the modern genre of classical singing in North India. Its name comes from an Arabic word meaning "imagination". It is thought to have developed out of the qawwali singing style. It appeared more recently than dhrupad, is a more free and flexible form, and it provides greater scope for...
, the predominate genre of Hindustani classical music, but returned to Udaipur after four years to teach music school. Prasad later visited Narayan and convinced him to resign his position and dedicate his time to improvement as a musician, although the idea of giving up a steady life was not well received by Narayan's family. He stayed with Prasad and traveled to several Indian states until Prasad fell ill and advised him to learn from singer Abdul Wahid Khan 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...
. Following Prasad's death in Lucknow, Narayan enacted the ganda bandhan with another teacher who gave him lessons, but soon left for Lahore and never performed the ritual again.
Career
Narayan traveled to Lahore in 1943 and auditioned for the local All India RadioAll 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...
(AIR) as a singer, but the station's music producer, Jivan Lal Mattoo, noticed grooves in Narayan's fingernails: sarangis are played by pressing the fingernails sideways against three playing strings, which strains the nails. Mattoo instead employed Narayan as a sarangi player. Traditionally, the sarangi is supposed to play after the singer and imitate the vocal performance, and play in the space between phrases. Mattoo advised Narayan and helped him contact khyal singer Abdul Wahid Khan, a rigorous teacher under whom Narayan learned four 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...
s through singing lessons. Narayan was allowed sporadic solo performances on AIR and began to consider a solo career.
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
in 1947, Narayan moved to Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
and played at the local AIR station. His work for popular singers increased his repertoire and knowledge of styles. Narayan played with the classical singers Omkarnath Thakur
Omkarnath Thakur
Omkarnath Thakur was an Indian educator, musicologist, and Hindustani classical singer. He is famously known as "Pranav Rang", his pen-name.Thakur was born 1897 in a village in the Princely State of Baroda into a poor military family...
, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Hirabai Badodekar
Hirabai Badodekar
Hirābai Barodekar was a renowned Indian Hindustāni classical music singer, of Kirana gharana. She also sang along with her younger sister, Saraswati Rane, whom she also trained, in jugalbandi style.-Early life and background:...
, and Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, and he accompanied singer Amir Khan in 1948, when Khan sang for the first time at AIR Delhi following the partition. As an accompanist for vocalists, Narayan showed his own talent and came to the foreground. Singers of the city complained that he was not a dependable accompanist and too assertive, but he maintained he wanted to keep vocalists in tune and inspire them in a cordial contest. Other tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
(percussion) players and singers, including Omkarnath Thakur and Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, expressed admiration for Narayan's playing.
Narayan became frustrated with his supporting role for vocalists and moved to Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
in 1949 to work independently in film music and recording. He recorded three solo 78 rpm gramophone record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
s for the British HMV Group
HMV Group
HMV is a British global entertainment retail chain and is the largest of its kind in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company also operates in Hong Kong and Singapore. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE Fledgling Index...
in 1950 and an early 10 inch LP album
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
in Mumbai in 1951, but the album was not in demand. The Mumbai film industry offered a good salary and obscurity for work that would have lowered his stature among classical musicians. For the next 15 years he played and composed songs for films; Narayan composed for Adalat, Gunga Jumna, Humdard, and Milan, and played for Adalat, Kashmir Ki Kali
Kashmir Ki Kali
Kashmir Ki Kali is a 1964 Indian film directed by Shakti Samanta.-Plot:Wealthy and pampered Rajiv Lal is the only son of widowed Rani Maa. She would like him to get married and starts receiving proposals from all over the country. She meets with and interviews various prospective brides, and picks...
, Mughal-e-Azam
Mughal-e-Azam
Mughal-E-Azam is a 1960 Indian historical epic film produced under the banner of Sterling Investment Corporation Pvt Ltd, and directed by K. Asif. With its unmatched production, K. Asif's magnum opus took nine years and $3 million to complete this movie. This was when a typical Bollywood film...
, and Noorjehan, among others. He was considered a desired choice of film music director O. P. Nayyar
O. P. Nayyar
Omkar Prasad Nayyar was an Indian film music director and composer born in Lahore, India, now in modern day Pakistan. He was particularly acclaimed for his peppy numbers.-Career:...
.
Narayan performed in Afghanistan in 1952 and in China in 1954 and was well received in both countries. His first solo concert at a 1954 music festival in the Cowasji Jehangir Hall
Cowasji Jehangir Hall
The Cowasji Jehangir Hall is a museum of modern art and was part of the Institute of Science prior to 1996. The hall was built in 1911 by George Wittet and funded by Cowasji Jehangir. It is located in Colaba area of Mumbai, India.-References:*...
, Mumbai, was cut short when an impatient audience, waiting for performances by famous artists, drove him from the stage. Narayan pondered giving up the sarangi and becoming a singer. He later regained confidence, performed solo for smaller crowds, and was favorably received in his second attempt to play solo for a Mumbai music festival in 1956. He has since performed at the major music festivals of India. Narayan later gave up accompaniment; this decision carried a financial risk because interest in solo sarangi was not yet substantial.
After sitar
Sitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
player Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...
successfully performed in Western countries, Narayan followed his example. He recorded solo albums and made his first international tour in 1964 to America and Europe with his older brother Chatur Lal
Chatur Lal
Chatur Lal , was an Indian tabla player. Lal toured with Ravi Shankar, Aashish Khan, Vasant Rai, and Ali Akbar Khan in the 1950s and early 60s and helped popularize the tabla in Western countries. Chatur Lal was born 1925 in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Lal died October 1965...
, a tabla player who had toured with Shankar in the 1950s. The European tour included performances in France, Germany, sponsored by the Goethe-Institut
Goethe-Institut
The Goethe-Institut is a non-profit German cultural institution operational worldwide, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and relations. The Goethe-Institut also fosters knowledge about Germany by providing information on German...
, and at the City of London Festival
City of London Festival
The City of London Festival is an annual arts festival that takes place in the City of London, England, over two to three weeks in June and July. The Festival is strongly geared towards classical music, but also offers a programme that includes jazz, world music, opera, film screenings, lectures...
, England. Beginning in the 1960s, Narayan often taught and gave concerts outside of India. On his Western tours he encountered interest in the sarangi because of its similarity to cello and violin. The tabla player Suresh Talwalkar
Suresh Talwalkar
Suresh Talwalkar is an Indian musician who plays the percussion instrument tabla.Talwalkar was born 1948 in Mumbai and initially learned playing the tabla from his father Dattatrey Talwalkar...
became a frequent accompanist for Narayan in the late 1960s. Narayan continued to perform and record in India and abroad for the next decades and his recordings appeared on Indian, American, and European labels. During the early 1980s he typically spent months each year visiting Western nations. Narayan performed less frequently in the 2000s.
Style
Narayan's style is characteristic of Hindustani classical musicHindustani 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...
, but his choice of solo instrument and his background of learning from teachers outside his community are not common for the genre. He has stated that aims to please an audience and create a feeling of harmony, and expects the audience to reciprocate by reacting to his playing.
Narayan's performances are strung together from the meditative and measured 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...
(non-metrical introduction) and jor
Jor
In Indian music, the jor is a formal section of composition in the long elaboration of a raga that forms the beginning of a performance. Jor is the instrumental equivalent of nomtom in the dhrupad vocal style of Indian music. Both have a simple pulse but no well-defined rhythmic cycle....
(performance with pulse) in dhrupad
Dhrupad
Dhrupad is a vocal genre in Hindustani classical music, said to be the oldest still in use in that musical tradition. Its name is derived from the words "dhruva" and "pada"...
style, followed by a faster and less reserved gat section (composition with rhythmic pattern provided by the tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
) in khyal
Khyal
Khyal is the modern genre of classical singing in North India. Its name comes from an Arabic word meaning "imagination". It is thought to have developed out of the qawwali singing style. It appeared more recently than dhrupad, is a more free and flexible form, and it provides greater scope for...
style. He experimented with a style of jhala
Jhala
Jhala is a term in Hindustani classical music which denotes the fast-paced conclusions of classical compositions. It is often characterized by the overwhelming of the melodic component by the rhythmic component. This is sometimes effected by the rapid striking together of the chikari between notes....
(performance with rapid pulse) developed by Bundu Khan, but considered it more appropriate for plucked instruments and stopped performing it. The gat section includes one or two parts with compositions. When two gats are used, the first one tends to be at a slow or medium tempo, and the second one is faster; the gats are usually performed in the 16-beat rhythmic cycle tintal
Tintal
Tintal is one of the most famous talas of Hindustani music. It is also the most common tal in North India. The structure of tintal is so symmetrical that it presents a very simple rhythmic structure against which a performance can be laid.-Arrangement:Tintal has sixteen beats in four equal...
. Narayan often completes performances with ragas associated with thumri
Thumri
Thumri is a common genre of semi-classical Indian music.The text is romantic or devotional in nature, and usually revolves around a girl's love for Krishna. The lyrics are usually in Uttar Pradesh dialects of Hindi called Poorbi and Brij Bhasha...
(a popular light classical genre), which are referred to as mishra (Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
: mixed) because they allow for additional notes, or with a dhun
Dhun
A dhun is a light instrumental piece in Hindustani classical music. Although it may be played in a raga, or mode , it is more freely interpreted and may incorporate foreign notes ....
(song based on folk music).
Narayan practices and teaches using a limited number of paltas, exercises in a small scale range that are used to prepare playing different numbers of notes per bow. Derived from paltas are lengthy note patterns called tans, which contain characteristic "melodic shapes" and are used by Narayan for fast playing. He uses his left (fingering) hand for runs and to play an extended melodic range, and his right (bowing) hand for rhythmic accentuations. Narayan's fingering technique, his low right hand position, keeping the bow in a close to right angle to the string, and his use of the full bow length are unusual among sarangi players.
Narayan is associated with 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...
(stylistic school of Kirana) through Abdul Wahid Khan, but his performance style is not strongly connected to it. Most of Narayan's compositions are from the singing repertoire of his teachers and were modified and adapted to the sarangi. He has created original compositions and in performance varies those he was taught. Narayan disfavors the creation of new ragas, but developed compound ragas, including those of Nand with Kedar
Kedar (raga)
Kedar, also known as Kedara, is a Hindustani classical raga. Named after Lord Shiva, the raga is placed on a high pedastal in the realms of Indian classical music...
and Kafi with Malhar.
Narayan uses a sarangi obtained from Uday Lal and built in Meerut in the 1920s or 1930s in his concerts and recordings. He plays on foreign harp strings to produce a clearer tone. Narayan experimented with modifications to his instrument and added a fourth string, but removed it because it hindered playing. In the 1940s, he exchanged gut
Catgut
Catgut is a type of cord that is prepared from the natural fibre found in the walls of animal intestines. Usually sheep or goat intestines are used, but it is occasionally made from the intestines of cattle, hogs, horses, mules, or donkeys.-Etymology:...
with steel for the first string and found it easier to play, but reverted to using only gut strings because the steel string altered the sound.
Contributions and recognition
Narayan increased the status of the sarangi to that of a modern concert solo instrument, made it known outside of India, and was the first sarangi player with international success, an example later followed by Sultan Khan. Narayan's simplified fingering technique allows for glide (meendMeend
In Hindustani music, meend refers to a glide from one note to another. It is an essential performance practice, and is used often in vocal and instrumental music. On the veena, sitar, and other plucked stringed instruments, it is usually done by pushing the strings across the frets to vary their...
) and affected the modern sarangi concert style, as aspects of his playing and tone creation were taken up by sarangi players from Narayan's recordings.
Narayan taught at Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
, Connecticut, and Mills College
Mills College
Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...
, California, in 1968, and at the American Society for Eastern Arts and the National Centre for the Performing Arts
National Centre for the Performing Arts (India)
The National Centre for the Performing Arts , in Mumbai, India was established with a grant of Rs 4 million from the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. This was later supplemented by donations from the corporate sector...
in Mumbai in the 1970s and 1980s, where he gave the first master class for sarangi. Narayan privately trained sarangi players, including his daughter Aruna Narayan Kalle, his grandson Harsh Narayan, and Vasanti Srikhande. He also taught sarod
Sarod
The sarod is a stringed musical instrument, used mainly in Indian classical music. Along with the sitar, it is the most popular and prominent instrument in the classical music of Hindustan...
players, including his son Brij Narayan
Brij Narayan
Brij Narayan is an Indian classical musician who plays the string instrument sarod. Narayan was born in the Indian state Rajasthan and began to study sarod from a young age under his father Ram Narayan and other teachers. He won the All India Radio instrumentalist competition in 1967 and...
, as well as vocalists and a violinist. In 2002, he taught 15 Indian students and more than 500 students in the United States and Europe had studied with him. Indian music in performance: a practical introduction, released in 1980 by Neil Sorrell in cooperation with Narayan, was described as "one of the best presentations on modern North Indian music practice" by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart
Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart
Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart is the largest and most comprehensive German music encyclopedia, and among Western music reference sources, only the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is comparable to it in size and scope...
.
Narayan argued that appreciation of the sarangi and him came only after acknowledgment by the Western audience. He attributed the lack of sarangi students to a lack of competent teachers and said that the Indian government should assist in preserving the instrument. The Pt (Pandit) Ram Narayan Foundation in Mumbai awards scholarships to sarangi students, but Narayan stated he was skeptical the sarangi would survive.
Narayan received the national awards Padma Shri
Padma Shri
Padma Shri is the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan...
in 1976, Padma Bhushan
Padma Bhushan
The Padma Bhushan is the third highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, but comes before the Padma Shri. It is awarded by the Government of India.-History:...
in 1991, and Padma Vibhushan
Padma Vibhushan
The Padma Vibhushan is the second highest civilian award in the Republic of India. It consists of a medal and a citation and is awarded by the President of India. It was established on 2 January 1954. It ranks behind the Bharat Ratna and comes before the Padma Bhushan...
in 2005. The Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honor, was presented by Indian President
President of India
The President of India is the head of state and first citizen of India, as well as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. President of India is also the formal head of all the three branches of Indian Democracy - Legislature, Executive and Judiciary...
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. Narayan was awarded the Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 1974–75, the national Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. It is the highest Indian recognition given to practicing artists. The award consists since 2003 of Rs. 50,000, a citation, an angavastram , and a tamrapatra...
for 1975, and was made a fellow of the Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Akademi for 1988–89. He received the Kalidas Samman
Kalidas samman
The Kalidas Samman is a prestigious arts award presented annually by the government of Madhya Pradesh in India. The award is named after Kālidāsa, a renowned Classical Sanskrit writer of ancient India, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language.The Kalidas Samman...
from the Government of Madhya Pradesh
Government of Madhya Pradesh
The Government of Madhya Pradesh also known as the State Government of Madhya Pradesh, or locally as State Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and its 50 districts...
for 1991–92 and was presented with the Aditya Vikram Birla
Aditya Vikram Birla
Aditya Vikram Birla , was an Indian industrialist. Born into one of the largest business families of India, Birla oversaw the diversification of his group into textiles, petrochemicals and telecommunications. He was one of the first Indian industrialists to expand abroad, setting up plants in...
Kalashikhar Puraskar in 1999 by P. C. Alexander
P. C. Alexander
Padinjarethalakal Cherian Alexander of Mavelikkera, India was an Indian politician and civil servant who served as the Governor of Tamil Nadu from 1988 to 1990 and as the Governor of Maharashtra from 1993 to 2002. He was considered as a candidate for the post of the President of India in 2002...
, governor of Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
. He also received the Maharashtra Gaurav Puraskar, the Shiromani Award, and the Rajasthan Welfare Association Award. The biographical film Pandit Ramnarayan – Sarangi Ke Sang was shown at the 2007 International Film Festival of India
International Film Festival of India
The International Film Festival of India , founded in 1952, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. Held annually in the beach town of Goa, in the Western Coast of the country, the festival aims at providing a common platform for the cinemas of the world to project the excellence of...
.
Family and personal life
Chatur Lal
Chatur Lal , was an Indian tabla player. Lal toured with Ravi Shankar, Aashish Khan, Vasant Rai, and Ali Akbar Khan in the 1950s and early 60s and helped popularize the tabla in Western countries. Chatur Lal was born 1925 in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Lal died October 1965...
, who learned the tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
primarily to accompany his brother's sarangi playing. Lal studied under tabla teachers in his youth, but later turned to farming. Lal visited Narayan 1948 in Delhi after Narayan had become a professional sarangi player, and Narayan convinced Lal to work as a tabla player at the local AIR station. Lal became an acclaimed musician, toured with instrumentalists Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...
and Ali Akbar Khan
Ali Akbar Khan
Ali Akbar Khan , often referred to as Khansahib or by the title Ustad , was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod...
in the 1950s, and helped popularize the tabla in Western countries. When Lal died in October 1965, Narayan had difficulty performing and struggled with alcoholism, but overcame the addiction after two years. Narayan assisted his brother's four children after their father's death. Chatur Lal's son, Charanjit Lal Biyavat, is a tabla player and has toured Europe with Narayan.
Narayan's wife Sheela, a homemaker, came to Mumbai in the 1950s and they had four children. She died prior to 2001. His oldest son, sarod
Sarod
The sarod is a stringed musical instrument, used mainly in Indian classical music. Along with the sitar, it is the most popular and prominent instrument in the classical music of Hindustan...
player Brij Narayan
Brij Narayan
Brij Narayan is an Indian classical musician who plays the string instrument sarod. Narayan was born in the Indian state Rajasthan and began to study sarod from a young age under his father Ram Narayan and other teachers. He won the All India Radio instrumentalist competition in 1967 and...
, was born on 25 April 1952 in Udaipur, and his daughter Aruna Narayan was born 1959 in Mumbai. She was the first woman to give a solo sarangi concert and immigrated to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in 1984. Another son, Shiv, is a year younger than Aruna, has learned to play the tabla, and toured Australia with his father. Brij Narayan's son, Harsh Narayan, plays the sarangi. In 2009, Narayan performed at BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's The Proms
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
in the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, with Aruna, and he played at the 2010 Sawai Gandharva Music Festival
Sawai Gandharva Music Festival
The Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav is amongst the largest and most popular musical festivals of Indian Classical music in India....
, Pune
Pune
Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...
, with Harsh.
Narayan is 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...
and has stated "music is my religion", arguing that there was no better access to divinity than music. He is based in Mumbai.
External links
- Pandit Ram Narayan. Official website.
- [ Ram Narayan] at Allmusic