Bansi Links

[talasiga]

This is a topic for the flutes of India. These include bansuri (or bansi as it is usually called in spoken Hindi) of North India and the venu of South India which are simple system bamboo flutes with large tone holes.

The history of these flutes stretches back to the pre Christian era and there are Buddhist cave paintings at Ajanta-Ellora in Western India (circa 3rd Century BC to 500 AD) showing nubile maidens and others playing simple system transverse flutes of various lengths. The info I provide here does not claim to be exhaustive and it may not do full justice to the complex history of this instrument in India.

Up to about the mid 1900's the bansuri of North India was predominantly a pastoral folk flute with six tone holes until the instrument was classicised by the grand master of classical bansuri,
Pannalal Ghosh.
Pannalal Ghosh experimented with the longer instruments and also added a seventh tone hole (for the lower pinky). (Thus for example a D flute would now have a 7th or C# below the lowest D).

Anyway, without further ado, I will begin this celebration of the instrument via this link ofHariprasad Chaurasia's marathon 75 minutes performance of Raag Bhimpalasi.

I know that Glauber is a fantastic flute player and loves Hariprasad so I am dedicating this first post to him.

Bhimpalasi
is a raag in the Dorian mode (minor 3rd and 7th). Its sonant is the 4th and its consonant is the 1st.


Edited material in red

[jim stone]

Thanks very much for posting this. Some memories:

I went to India in 72, traveling overland from England.
I picked up flutes and whistles in a wholly untutored way,
unfortunately. Nonetheless there is music everywhere on
the streets in India. I hitchhiked about the country, often
sleeping on the streets, going barefoot with only a jolla bag.
Always I had a flute or a whistle.

Often, when I passed people
playing religious tunes and chants on the street or at a shrine,
I sat down on the pavement and joined in. I spent
many hours happily playing tunes with people with whom
I had no language at all in common.

I stayed two years. Every six months my visa would expire and I would
go to Nepal to wait for a new one.
I lived in a three story house near the river on the
outskirts of Katmandu. Spent lots of time on the roof
(in Asia roofs are made for living on). During the monsoon
there were magnificent sunsets as the sun set over the
Himmalayas. Kids on neighboring rooftops flew paper
kites; a multi-leveled kaleidescope. I would play whistle,
usually. The people in the
neighborhood were lower caste, butchers, often,
and they loved music, all music, even the most
dreadful Western pop music. They could hear
what I played on the roof and they liked it.
They would have loved ITM.

I have a continuing fantasy. I'm back there again
on the roof of that house. The sun is setting, the kids
are flying kites. Now I am twenty times the musician
I was then. I sit down crosslegged, pick up my
blackwood flute with a silver lined headjoint.

And I play for them.

[beowulf573]

As I posted a few weeks ago, I recently saw Hariprasad Chaurasia here in Houston. My fiance is from Calcutta and has always wanted to seem him live. Ironic that she had to fly 1/2 across the world to see him.

Wonderful performance, closer to jazz than ITM in a sense because of the improvisation around a base melody. The first 1/2 of the show was one raga, about 50 minutes long.

We'll be spending January in India, I hope to find music to listen to and maybe pick up a few flutes.

[jim stone]

Great concert bamboo flutes in Calcutta.
You can find a (low) D and virtually every other
key. Some are solidly made, too. And very cheap.
Also there are metal simple system flutes,
though these are perhaps less good, in my
experience, anyhow.

[talasiga]

I went to India in 72 ...... hitchhiked about the country, often
sleeping on the streets, going barefoot with only a jolla bag.
Always I had a flute or a whistle.

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

My dear Rolling Stone,

Memory is so thankful
Refreshed by the smallest morsels
from the past

Circa 1972 - they must have been the walkabout years. I too was rolling about then.
But for me it was the East Coast of Australia with a tambourine, a blanket and a whistle. In the spring I would go bush and sleep under the stars. I was haunted by a flute in my soul and I sought to realise it in solitary rapture. Later, I realised the flute's greatest flight was in forgiveness and love, in the company of lonely friends.

It is spring here now. It is 32 years later. Here is my favourite bansuriya
Pannalal Ghosh playing a spring raag: Basant

It is an old old recording. Basant is in a scale not easily notated in Western musical score (at leat not without accidentals). For instance, with C tonic, its scale would be
C Db E F# G Ab B C+
That is to say, 2nd and 6th are minor and the fourth is augmented.


Edited material in red

[jim stone]

Thanks again for the music.

[talasiga]

Interesting article culminating in discussion of Steve Gorn

(In the meantime I am netsurfing for an audio clip of someone playing Irish Music on a bansuri. Lot of non Indian stuff being played on bansuri but they don't seem to provide any audio samples.)

[talasiga]

BTW,
here is a light folk song on bansuri by
Steve Gorn's current mentor, Raghunath Seth

It is a short 7 minute piece which may be more accessible to ITM lovers.


Notes for Players:-
It seems to be in Raag Piloo and the tonic seems to be F (so he is probably employing a C flute). Raag Piloo allows an almost chromatic range of notes at the choice of the musician although its stem places it under the Dorian Mode.

[hans]

Thanks for the music links talasiga!

I found a short version (5 min) of Raag Basant with soundtrack (Real audio track) here: http://www.ragawave.com/basant.html. It seems to be played on an e flute (tonic e)

I am having fun trying to learn to play this on my eight key flute, lacking the proper bansuri in this key. I always had great pleasure listening to classic Indian flute music, this is the first time I actually try to get into it with my flute. Thank you for the thread which encouraged me to play with this music!

~Hans

[talasiga]

I am having fun trying to learn to play this on my eight key flute, lacking the proper bansuri in this key. ......

The tradition is a "vocal" one. Hence you are not bound by the key. Just like in classical European pieces for the voice, the piece can be transposed to suit the singer, you are not bound to play the raag in the key that you first heard it or in the key that it was originally conceived. You can transpose it to suit your voice (instrument).

(The analyses that I gave with C tonic are just for convenience)

Thank you for your appreciation. I am still searching for someone playing Irish music with a bansuri.

[talasiga]

(from another topic)
talasiga, in an earlier post you mention that the bansuri is not different from the "irish" flute. so, it is tuned to a major scale (if beginning with all the fingers down on a 6-holed instrument)? I'm also wondering about the typical size of the tone holes. It's hard to tell from pictures. I assume they must be relatively large to facilitate the glissando techniques.

cheers!

dear mcdafydd,
YES and YES

[talasiga]

......
I found a short version (5 min) of Raag Basant with soundtrack (Real audio track) here: http://www.ragawave.com/basant.html. It seems to be played on an e flute (tonic e)

.....

Dear Swan,
If the tonic is E it is likely he or she is playing a B flute.
Classical bansi players like the 3 finger tonic.
In this case for Raag Basant he or she would need to half hole the two minor
notes. As you would be aware the augmented 4th is "ready made" from a 3 finger tonic (ie the all fingers off 7th relative to the 6 finger tonic).



Edited material in red

[hans]

Dear Talasiga,

You are totally right, the piece being played on a B flute. I was trying to transpose the music, and now I can just practise on my own B-bansuri, I am so pleased! This is so much fun! I have not had much practise on this flute, it being so big and with a huge embouchure hole.

Here is a pic of the flute. You can see that the stopper end is formed by the natural node of the bamboo cane, which makes for a natural taper towards the embouchure, the external diameter there is 1mm smaller than at L1 position. I have no idea who made this flute. I was lucky to buy it from a guy in Aberdeen, who came back from India with a bunch of flutes, in order to help finance his travels.


Overall length 72cm. Oval bore 26x24mm.
Hole sizes: embouchure hole 14x11.5mm.
L1+L2: 11.5x10.5mm; L3: 11x10.5mm; R1: 9.5x9mm; R2+R3: 12x11mm.
All holes are oval rather than circular. I wonder if this is another characteristic of bansuri flutes?

Do all bansuris have this long stretch between R2 and R3? In simple system flutes build for ITM R3 is often small, bringing it higher up towards R2, and R2 sometimes very big, bringing it lower down towards R3.

~Hans

[talasiga]

.....
Do all bansuris have this long stretch between hole five and six? In simple system flutes build for ITM the sixth hole is often small, bringing it higher up towards the fifth hole, and the fifth sometimes very big, bringing it lower down toewards the sixth hole.

I could be wrong about this but it appears it is necessary with large tone hole instruments with cylindrical bore. Even the Chinese tsi-tsay flutes have this stretch. A western flute maker explained the technical reason for this to me once. I am not a flute maker so perhaps someone who is can explain this succinctly and with confidence.

If I were ordering a B bansuri I would request the E vent (the one covered by the right index finger) to be a thumb hole at 6 o'clock. This would assist reach. I would also have the topmost vent as a thumbhole also.

[hans]

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