THE SAURANGI FESTIVAL: A tribute to Ustad Siddique Ahmad Khan

Presented by Dainik Jagran, Saurang Parampara and Red Earth

Supported by Shriram Bhartiya Kala Kendra
Official Host: Radisson
Organisational Support: Swar Dharohar


Kamani Auditorium, New Delhi, 9 - 10 May, 6:30 PM

Sarangi, one of the most sophisticated instruments of the Indian musical tradition, is found in both folk and classical musical traditions in North India, under varying names and forms. It derives its name from 'Saurangi', after which this festival is also named, literally 'one with a hundred colours'. The Sarangi has been the default accompaniment to Hindustani vocal music by virtue of its closeness to the human voice and ability to replicate patterns of vocal music. There has also been an interesting nexus between Sarangi players and vocalists, with several Sarangi players, like Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Ustad Amir Khan, for example, taking to vocal music, vocal musicians learning from Sarangi maestros, and such other multi-directional flows. Of late, the Sarangi has been replaced by the harmonium in vocal music performances and its popularity is on the decline. That, coupled with the fact that it is a very difficult instrument to learn and master, has led to a situation, whereby it is becoming rarer and rarer to hear the Sarangi. The maestros from the older generation can be counted on fingertips; and few music enthusiasts of the new generation want to learn the Sarangi.

Besides accompaniment, it is also an instrument that has vast potentialities as a solo instrument, and it is thanks to the efforts of stalwarts like Ustad Bundu Khan and Pandit Ram Narayan that the Sarangi has found place in the Hindustani music pantheon as a solo instrument. However, the overall state of affairs seems to bleak and there is an urgent need to take steps to ensure the preservation and continuation of this invaluable musical heritage.

The Saurangi Festival is a small step in this direction. It aims to provide a much needed performance platform to the Sarangi. While the focus of the festival is the Sarangi, it also includes vocal and other instrumental performances, and hence is indeed 'one with a hundred colours', much like the Sarangi. This first of its kind event will feature Sarangi solos by some eminent Sarangi players, as well as young and upcoming Sarangi players. In addition, all other performances in the festival will be accompanied by Sarangi. The grand finale of the festival will be a performance by 'The Saurang Ensemble', featuring 12 Sarangi players, in musical collaboration with western musicians.

The festival, like the two other concerts organised by Saurang Parampara in the last two years is dedicated to the Sarangi maestro late Ustad Siddique Ahmad Khan (1914-2003).

Programme

9 May 2005, 6:30 pm
Shiraz Ahmad & Faraz Ahmad - Hindustani Vocal
Sarwar Hussain - Sarangi Solo
Shubha Mudgal - Hindustani Vocal

10 May 2005, 6:30 pm
Murad Ali Khan - Sarangi Solo
Aneesh Pradhan - Tabla Solo
The Saurang Ensemble - Conducted by Ustad Ghulam Sabir Khan

ABOUT SAURANG PARAMPARA

A gharana of vocalists, Tabla, Been and Sarangi players, the Moradabad gharana derives its name from a town in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. The city of Moradabad has contributed leading lights to the firmament of Hindustani music, like vocalist Ustad Aman Ali Khan, Tabla maestro Ustad Ahmad Jan Thirakwa and Sarangi maestros Ustad Siddique Ahmad Khan and Ustad Sabri Khan, to name a few.

Saurang Parampara is a society formed by musicians belonging to a branch of the Moradabad gharana. The society is headed by Sarangi maestro Ustad Ghulam Sabir Khan, who presently gives to tutelage to a number of Sarangi players and some vocalists in Delhi.

ABOUT RED EARTHM

Red Earth is devoted to designing events such as performances, talks, and workshops and fostering artistic and cultural activity in various other ways like publications and art exhibitions; with a premium on aestheticism and innovation.

The vision behind Red Earth is to celebrate culture in all its varied manifestations, and to work across art forms. It believes that the symbiotic inter-relationship of the arts is a central element of the Indian cultural ethos and seeks to foster such relationships which enrich art forms, as well as heighten aesthetic pleasure. Moreover, the organisation is also keen to break the boundaries of genres (classical, modern, folk) within art forms. Red Earth refuses to sort culture into strict hierarchies of high and low, classical and modern, elitist and popular.

With the ushering in of modern, western ways of life in India, the older organic ways of life have been fractured, and in this process of churning, culture is suffering. This is especially true of folk culture, related as it is directly to a particular lifestyle. Today, culture is increasingly being cut off from roots that have nourished it for centuries without having found new anchors yet. The mammoth process of rethinking culture in contemporary times must begin soon. Red Earth aims to work towards bringing about that rethinking, attempting to create a renaissance of sorts.

The vision is to tap the inherent potential of art forms, to exploit their power to communicate with us and enrich us, to make them a part of everyday life again - living idioms, not formalised museum pieces.

The flagship initiative of Red Earth, The Pamphlet Project was started in October 2004. It aims to revive the literary genre of the pamphlet, using it to articulate concerns of popular culture, urban life, and the arts in India. The first issue of the project, The Metrosexuals: Exploring the Unexplored, is a detailed multi-faceted study of metrosexuality in global and Indian contexts.

Entry to the Festival is open to all on a first come first serve basis.
For details of the Festival, visit http://redearthindia.com/Events-TheSaurangiFestival.html or email himanshu@redearthindia.com
Murad Ali, Saurang Parampara: 9810146211; Himanshu Verma, Red Earth: 51764054

Photographs