On appreciating music and Ray

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.