Of the purpose of music - II
   Date :01-Jun-2021

Pandit Rajan Mishra_1&nbs
  Pandit Rajan Mishra
 
“Swar ye kitna sookshma dhwani hai. Uske pahale ‘ee’ jod do -- to ‘eeswar’ (ishwar - god) hot hai. Sangeetkar ko uss swar me mit jana chahiye. Tabhee ishwar prakat hota hai. Shayad, yahi moksh ka rasta hai ...!”
(Swar -- musical note -- is such a fine expression -- dhwani! Add ‘ee’ as a prefix, and it becomes ‘eeswar’ (god). The music-creator has to forget self, merge self into that swar. Once that happens, the music-creator gets one with god. Perhaps, that the way to moksh ... !)
- Padmabhushan (the late)
Pandit Rajan Mishra,
of the famed Rajan-Sajan Mishra duo
(from an interview on Rajya Sabha TV.)
 

 Prose 
 
THE legendary vocalist described in these words what he saw as a purpose of music. He was only highlighting what most music masters have often felt and lived for -- to attain through their music -- and to reach a sublime level beyond the normal definition of life and living. The fine-ness of the swar, its mystique, its magnificence, its magnitude, its majesty, its magnetism, its magic have often mesmerised all pursuers of classical music in particular. Pursuers of other forms of music, too, feel equally mesmerised by the multiple dimensions that they can express through swar -- musical note. In other words, the music-creator often dreams of finding himself -- or herself -- getting dissolved in the omnipotence of swar, its limitless manifestations and their appeal.
 
Those who actually create music -- the maestros (or even learners) -- are often seen basking and bathing in the glory of the musical note. They seem to have been sucked into the inner core of the swar and enjoying its incredible range of suggestions of meaning. All the masters -- without exception -- however, refuse to look at swar as just a mechanical tool to create musical sound. Of course, they hold musical grammar in the highest esteem possible and treat it as a sacrosanct (even while experimenting variously with the expression of the swar in its varied forms and approaches). But even as they allow themselves such an indulgence of the highest romantic order, they realise that production of the swar in its most apt manner in a musical formation has to be accompanied by emotion. “Of course, music is emotion, pure emotion. Without emotion, it makes little sense”, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi had insisted in interview (with this scribe).
 
Thousands of kilometers away on the other side of the world in Los Angeles, years later, music maestro Yehudi Mehuhin, too, had said the same thing, in effect, that suck the emotion out of music and it would be a meaningless sound, perhaps noise pollution. And the sitar maestro, Pandit Ravi Shankar, concurred, adding a delicate nod to the conversation. (Listening to that spiritually-enriched exchange, this scribe had felt so gratified, then!) It is swar through which the emotion is captured and carried to the listeners. That may be described as purpose of music, so to say. Yet, the words of Pandit Rajan Mishra still linger on in the mind -- Swar ye kitna sookshma dhwani hai. Uske pahale ‘ee’ jod do -- to ‘eeswar’ (ishwar - god) hot hai. Sangeetkar ko uss swar me mit jana chahiye. Tabhee ishwar prakat hota hai ...!