Bansi Links

[hans]

Krishna and the Flute

There are numerous pictures with Lord Krishna and His flute, just image-google with "krishna flute".
It must have ben about 1972 too, the time of my own Wander Jahre, when I picked up the picture below: Lord Krishna with His flute and the cowgirl Radha with her cow, a symbol for salvation and divine bliss.



The Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan wrote about the symbolism of Krishna's flute:

"Krishna is pictured in Hindu symbology with a crown of peacock's feathers, playing the flute. Krishna is the ideal of divine love, the God of love. And the divine love expresses itself by entering into man and filling his whole being. Therefore the flute is the human heart, and a heart which is made hollow will become a flute for the God of love to play upon. When the heart is not empty, in other words, when there is not scope in the heart, there is no place for love."

Read more on this lovely page: www.sufimovement.org/symbology.htm

Jalaluddin Rumi wrote:

A craftsman pulled a reed from the reedbed,
cut holes in it, and called it a human being.

Since then, it's been wailing a tender agony
of parting, never mentioning the skill
that gave it life as a flute.

and Mevlâna wrote:

Hearken to this Reed forlorn,
breathing even since ‘twas torn
from its rushy bed, a strain
of impassioned love and pain.
The secret of my song, though near,
none can see and none can hear.
Oh, for a friend to know the sign
and mingle all his soul with mine!
‘Tis the flame of love that fired me,
‘tis the wine of love inspired me.
Wouldst thou learn how lovers bleed,
hearken, hearken to the Reed!

[talasiga]

I don't think it is strictly necessary for R3 (tone-hole six) to be that big. As I said a smaller hole will bring it closer to R2, making for an easier reach. The reason for the large R3 is I believe to facilitate half-holing it in order to play the semi-tone up (Eb on a D-flute). I think it is the reason for the big size of all the holes on the bansuri. The small R3 hole of flutes from the European tradition made it necessary to introduce the first key (for Eb) for the barock flutes, if I am right.

Are semitones traditionally played by half covering the holes, or are cross fingerings also used in the Indian tradition?

~Hans

Yes, thats right. Its for half holing. As I said earlier someone told me that large tone holes with cylindrical bores need a greater spread between what you call "R3" and "R2".

Yes the tradition is disposed to half holing. Even a raag in the Lydian scale and played with a 3 finger tonic will involve significant glissandi
(glissando?) even though all the notes of that scale are obtainable without half holing.

However you will note that the cross fingering on the 7th works as well on a good bansi as it does on any good European flute.

[talasiga]

........Floating intonation means that if you think of Irish modal, or blues, scales as steps, they are steps that expand or shrink to suit the expressive urges of the artist. Also, when they feel like it, good blues and Irish musicians forgo the steps and just slide down the banister.

This is nothing remarkable and not antagonistic to the utility of scales in MODAL traditions.

Indian music is saturated with this. We call it meend. I think the western term is “glissando”. We still have scales as a way to categorise and develop our music. Due to culture (which is always evolving) these scales may be applied according to particular emotional connotations and explored according to certain precedents. Nevertheless at the end of the day we have and use scales despite the heavy emphasis and vital role of meend in our music.

In this context the notes in a scale may be seen to be points of repose, like bouys in a running stream. They are points of common reference and places where the musical composition collects itself. To facilitate the greatest versatility our music usesall the following “buoy” combinations ( using C tonic as an example):

C D E F G A B C+ (Ionian)
C D Eb F G A Bb C+ (Dorian)
C Db Eb F G Ab Bb C+ (Phrygian)
C D E F# G A B C+ (Lydian)
C D E F G A Bb C+ (Mixolydian)
C D Eb F G Ab Bb C+ (Aeolian)
C Db E F# G A B C+ (Marwa – no western plainsong equivalent)
C Db E F G Ab B C+ (Bhairav - no western plainsong equivalent)
C Db E F# G Ab B C+ (Purvi - no western plainsong equivalent)
C Db Eb F# G Ab B C+ (Todi - no western plainsong equivalent)

NOW THIS IS THE NUB OF MY POINT:
None of these scales circumscribe the glissando in our music which is its élan vital.
So here we have a very ancient living modal tradition:-
· whose classical theory comprehends and facilitates its folk tradition rather than antagonising it
· whose approach to scales is not antagonistic to a glissando based exposition.
QED




And what may be the relevance of this to the salient issues in this topic?
……….

TBC

above quote from the "Scales?" topic

Hans some comments about the crucial "meend" from another topic (which may interest you).

[talasiga]

here is another good link.
It contains audio samples of three generations of bansuri virtuosi. The oldest, Pannalal Ghosh, necessarily involves recording on what is now scratchy vinyl but the magic comes through.

Just a note that, in the spiel on the bansuri, when they refer refer to a D sharp tube they mean from here:
XXX OOO
That is D# (Eb) is what we would call a Bb tube
XXX XXX.

Enjoy.

[talasiga]

I notice that Hariprasad Chaurasia's principal flutemaker is making flutes in both just intonation and equal tempered intonation now. See Harsh Wardhan website.

For your info.

I have two flutes made by him.

[Jonathan]

I notice that Hariprasad Chaurasia's disciple and principal flutemaker is making flutes in both just intonation and equal tempered intonation now.

What's the standard for bansuri?

[jim stone]

Thanks for posting the link. This Ghosh fellow
was a genius, IMO.

[JS]

I was wondering about the bansuri scale too, since I noticed that these

http://www.one-world-trading.com/flutes ... ujar.shtml

are listed in the harmonic scale. Which is what, exactly (please excuse the obvious ignorance prompting my question)?Is this standard with most? With Jeff Whittier's?

Thanks.

[talasiga]

I was wondering about the bansuri scale too, since I noticed ...... harmonic scale. Which is what, exactly (please excuse the obvious ignorance prompting my question)?Is this standard with most? With Jeff Whittier's?

Thanks.

This is an attempt to answer both your and Jonathan's question.

Interestingly, just before logging on to the net, I made an overseas trunk call to Jeff Whittier, veteran bansuri maker of USA because I had woken up this morning with obsessive thoughts about this question myself. I do own two bansuris made by Jeff Whittier also. I have never had any issues playing indic or non-indic music with these bansuris in concert. So I am curious about this.

Jeff tells me that he makes his bansuris according to Indian swaras (intervals) and that, in a well made bansuri, this means that this note
XXO OOO will be a tad sharper than the equal tempered one and
XXX XOO will be a tad flatter than the equal tempered one
and all other notes would be pretty much the same. Jeff also commented that, in his experience, on most Irish flutes XXX XOO is a tad flatter anyway. Tad is the operative word here thats why I have underlined it.
Jeff says that, if the bansuri is well made, the difference will be very subtle and will be easy to negotiate for the demands of different music.

He agreed with me that an experienced player with a good ear and a good instrument can adjust articulation as required automatically. I have performed with a range of musics and recorded using Whittier bansuri and there is no problem on account of this subtle difference.

I have invited Jeff Whittier to join these forums so that you can all have the advantage of the horse's mouth. He may do so soon.

[JS]

Thank you, Talasiga. Very clear and helpful. I hope Jeff Whittier takes you up on the invitation.

[talasiga]

Thanks for posting the link. This Ghosh fellow
was a genius, IMO.

I am glad you liked Ghosh.
The particular piece he played there is a kajri which is a folk genre.
I like to select folk informed bansuri music for Western listeners
because bansuri has too much been appreciated according to the newly formed classical tradition as if though that is the be all and end all of it.
The beginning all of bansuri is folk.
I love the classical presentation very much but the folk is the mountain
as in Donovan's song, "First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain,
then there is ....."

You may have noticed how all the great classical bansuri players
include folk in their concerts as an apex.

I recall a Hariprasad concert in Sydney in the late 80's. After a very beautiful presentation with his large concert flute he suddenly switched to a soparano flute in the same key and willowed into lilting folk movements in the raag. And the audience moved from a court in awe to a village hearth.

[talasiga]

from Steve Gorn's website

............................................

In Calcutta, in the spring of 1971, Ram Banerjee, a Bengali vocalist, introduced me to Sri Gour Goswami. The day of the meeting I nervously practiced the one raga which I had studied in Benares. Mr. Banerjee picked me up at my hotel in Sudder Street and we went by taxi to the district of Hedwa in north Calcutta. This was 'old world' India; narrow lanes lined with sweet shops, tea stands and sari merchants. Bells were ringing from small neighborhood temples, and the air was thick and pungent. I was both thrilled and totally awkward. I didn't speak Bengali, nor did I know anything about the world I was entering.


We were directed through a door and along a corridor to a small court yard. The north end housed a small family temple. An old Brahmin priest, a cow and a servant were the only creatures in sight. The servant motioned to a room on the south end of the court, and following Mr. Banerjee I entered the music room. Seated on the floor were six men all dressed in white. The atmosphere was casual, but the energy clearly revolved around the guru. Gour Goswami was a robust man of middle age. He sat with noble posture, firmly on the ground with his feet tucked under his dhoti. His lips were red from the betel-nut he was chewing. A cup of tea was at his side and a harmonium and flute case lay on the floor before him.

He asked me from whom I had learned to play the bansuri. When I told him he let me know that I had learned from and insignificant person. I was irritated with such arrogance and was anxious to play for him and show him what I knew. He said, 'Where is your flute?" When he looked at it he quickly added, 'this is not made properly.' Tea was served. I sipped it furiously as an endless conversation in Bengali ensued. Finally I was asked to play. Nervously I played Rag Rageshree.

Gour Goswami listened, as did everyone in the room to this western curiosity, and when I finished he said, "You have a good sense for this music, but you have not been taught properly." He then took out his flute and played for me. And I smiled from my heart. The sound of the flute was deep, warm and velvety, and utterly weightless. Sound and color arising out of nowhere ... one note sliding into another ... thick and porous; one moment a cloud, the next air rushing thru bamboo. With faster passages came bird-like flutters cascading one on top of another and leaving an imprint in the air. And then it was over, and once again we were drinking tea. I requested instruction and a new phase of my life began.

.....................

There you go!
Just coz I think some of you are arrogant
does not mean I do not appreciate you .....

[talasiga]

4 part series - Ram Ashish making bansuri

This gentleman is making a C# bansi
with indic F# tonic from XXX OOO. Check it out.
Relaxing to watch.

The site is quite interesting including the little spiel
about the two types of classical bansuri grip.


Interestingly, I recently acqired a C# bell note F# tonic bansi from Jeff Whittier last week. Gently sonorous. This flute is a semitone lower than your standard Irish flute. It is the first of my "large" bansuri-s. It is one of his special edition makes in the Pannalal Ghosh style. I am very joyed.

[talasiga]

For the purpose of this bower mound I quote zampex extract here.

F natural bansuri: F natural bansuri is equivalent to a C flute.
...........................
You can hear a clip here http://www.theredbox.it/mp3/fnatbansuri.mp3 An Irirsh tune, I am NOT a bansuri player, sorry about that.
...............

Thank you zampex and good luck with your sale.
BTW, you ARE a bansuri player!
A bansuri is an instrument and not a tradition of music.
though it is associated with indic folk and classical trad (naturally).
I enoyed your clip.

source of quote here

[talasiga]

The Carnatic (South Indian) bamboo flute isn't called bansi or bansuri. It is called venu which is a Sanskrit word for flutes in general.

This tradition (South Indian or Carnatic) is not my tradition of flute, very different from my own but I am entranced by it. Its like coming home in a way because it is the least "persianised" of the indic traditions. Or maybe it is its delightful childlike quality like little Krishna lost in the jungle that touches the child in me. This trad goes for the smaller flutes for its apex performances wheras the Hindustani one (North India) is into the larger flutes for virtuosity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_fullscreen ... i%20Varnam

(oh! I forgot there isn't a youtube one of Hindustani bansi here yet so here is one now for comparison):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhsva_DCQMY

Pandit (Maestro) Nityananda Haldipur, a leading disciple of the grand master of bansuri, Pandit Pannalal Ghosh. Here he plays an alaap ( an improvisatory slow air, so to speak) in Raag Maarwa. Remember our mystery raag topic some time back?