Twitter
Advertisement

String theory

As Hindustani musicians abandon acoustic tanpuras for more convenient electronic ones, purists lament the death of tradition.

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

There’s the rustle of silk, the fragrance of jasmine mingling with a bouquet of perfumes and a strong hint of the quaint, musty odour found only in auditoriums.

The strains of the tanpura strike up and the performer clears her throat to hit the first notes of a raga. But wait a minute, where is the ubiquitous tanpura? The steady strains that guide the singer as she navigates the octaves are coming from a white box emitting the strains in set scale.

“Technology has made its way out of laboratories and factories into every single aspect of our lives. How long could classical music keep away?” asks the legendary percussionist Ustad Zakir Hussain.

Hussain says when time is at a premium, no one wants to patiently set a tanpura perfectly for a few minutes and then start the performance. “Nowadays, both the audience and the artiste want even a live concert to switch on and off like recorded music. Stopping to reset the tanpura mid-performance because the air-conditioning in the auditorium has detuned is seen as a problem in an era when both concerts and time allotted to each artiste is limited.”

Young vocalist Nayana Joshi of Nashik agrees with the tabla maestro but feels that it’s time for Indian classical music to embrace technology whole-heartedly.

“Why do it like someone is holding a gun to your head?” she asks. “Most artistes would want to opt for it because it’s so convenient, but they fear falling out of favour with purists. So, they take a public position in variance with what they actually feel.”

Joshi herself feels that putting the tanpura app on her phone is enough. “I almost never want to go near an actual tanpura. Travelling for a concert too has become stress-free,” she says. Joshi also has no qualms in admitting that she uses an electronic tabla while practising. “Audiences will go into shock without seeing the real thing yet, but we’ll get there.”

Proof of how fast this trend is spreading can be seen at chains like Haribhau Vishwanath, that has been selling musical instruments since 1925. They were selling a couple of acoustic tanpuras every month till the early 80s but there’s been a decline since. “We now sell 15-20 electronic tanpuras every week,” says Shyam Kadam, a staffer at the Prabhadevi outlet. He blames the space crunch. “People live in matchbox flats. Keeping a tanpura there safely will mean one person may have to sleep outside,” he laughs.

This is found to be cruelly true in the case of Thane resident Shrirang Khatavkar, a violinist who owned a tanpura that was a family heirloom. “We had guests and I shifted the tanpura to a corner below the window. Rain accompanied by gusts of wind past midnight left the tanpura damp. Attempts to dry it led to cracks and we had to dispose of it,” he recalls with anguish. He’s not acquired one since.

Classical vocalist Devaki Pandit admits that electronic instruments are convenient for performers but underlines how they can never be a substitute for the real thing. “Along with two tanpuras and the harmonium, I keep an electronic tanpura handy because it can take on a complementary role or become a back-up in case the tanpura gets detuned or a string breaks,” she says.

“For my concerts in the US, I got a custom-made tanpura that would be easy to travel with. It would be unthinkable to perform without one.”

She blames the complete dependence on technology on laziness and comes down harshly on its proponents. “It is both strange and tragic that students who go to learn music are not taught how to tune a tanpura whose strains provide you with a compass to guide you so that you don’t lose track of scale, note and pitch while singing. I have often been appalled at how some of these ‘artistes’ don’t even know how to pluck at it.”

But Ustad Zakir Hussain insists that a major decline in the use of acoustic tanpuras will sound the death knell for artisans in Sangli, Miraj and Rampur.

“Thanks to our stingy artistes we have stopped having tanpuriyas to accompany them and want it to be done by disciples of the artiste for free. Now, if they stop using them altogether the people who handcraft them and their families will go hungry.”

Purists like Usad Rashid Khan will have none of it. “All these are besura (unmusical) short cuts which we are being forced to accept. If we don’t keep our legacy alive, we will lose the tanpura like we lost the tarshehnai, esraj and tardholak that have gone extinct.”

In this face-off between centuries of musical heritage and technology, the jury is still out on who will win.

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement