A question nags me. When we
listen to music what do we listen to ? Does the quality of recorded music
playing instrument has any role in liking music ?
We mostly listen to music on our
music players – CD player, DVD player, PCs, radio, TV, mobile phone, MP3 player
etc. Every morning in Mumbai suburban railways I see people with earplugs
enjoying music. These days except attending some musical soirees we rarely
listen to songs sung by individual or music made by instruments firsthand. And
over the past century music recording industry has grown enormously. Now there
are copious choices for a consumer to buy a music player. People vouch for
their high quality and many boast owning brands.
To bolster my point that music
appreciation doesn’t require hi-fi music systems I recount some anecdotal
evidences from the master – Satyajit Ray. Mr. Ray as you are aware created
music for his films. Except his initial few films where Pandit Ravi Shankar and
Ustad Vilayat Khan directed music, most of his films had music created by Ray.
Songs of Gupi Gayen Bagha Bayen and Hirak Rajar Deshe became evergreen. Whole
generations of Bengalis grew up with it and still treasure these. After his
death HMV released a two cassette album named “Music of Satyajit Ray”. I
possess a rare recording of his Calcutta Radio interview called “Music I Live
By” wherein he described his inspirations and creativity. And many also may
remember his lifelong love for Western Classical Music.
As revealed by Bijoya Ray, his
wife, in “Amader Kotha” – an autobiography, the master never owned any hi-fi
music player for a significant portion of his life. In the last leg of his life
he purchased a hi-fi instrument. Otherwise he was happily listening to world
class music in Chandni-made Ahuja speakers. Chandhi chowk is a place in central
Calcutta where
you get cheap electronic goods. His friend Chidananda Dasgupta told in an
interview to Sananda after Ray’s death that Manik listened to the best of music
( he meant Western Classical - Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Gregorian chants etc) in a
ramshackle music player whereas today’s nouveau riche listen to trash in their costly hi-fi
players. This revelation struck a chord in me because I always believe music
appreciation does not depend on branded music players. If you have an ear for
music, anything is music for your ears.
Ray incidentally liked
full-throated singing style (he was particularly fond of Kishore Kumar and Anup
Ghosal). He disclosed in an interview to Doordarshan Calcutta after Debabrata
Biswas’s death that how he liked George da’s full-throated Rabindrasangeets. The
master also lamented in the same interview that with the advent of microphones
and loadspeakers singers stylize their voice to suppress the full-throated
nature a song demands.
