THE SOUND OF MUSIC
CLASS- IX
New words�Percussionist: a person who plays the drum, the tabla, etc, a person who plays different musical instruments� �Potential: quality or ability that can be developed�Specialist: a doctor specializing in a particular part of the body.�Deteriorated: worsened, reduces�Urged: requested��
Summary�Evelyn Glennie is a multi – percussionist. She has attained mastery over almost a thousand musical instruments despite being hearing – impaired. She learnt to feel music through the body instead of hearing it through the ears. �
When Evelyn was eleven years old, it was discovered that she had lost her hearing power due to nerve damage. �The specialist advised that she should wear a hearing aids and be sent to a school for the deaf. On the contrary, Evelyn was determined to lead a normal life and follow her interest in music.
Although she was discouraged by her teachers, her potential was noticed by master percussionist, Ron Forbes. He guided Evelyn to feel music some other way than to hear it through her ears. This worked well for Evelyn and she realised that she could sense different sounds through different parts of her body. ��
Once she had overcome this hurdle, Evelyn began her career in music. She got admission in the Royal Academy of Music, London and scored the highest marks in the history of the academy. Evelyn says that hard work and dedication towards her goal helped her achieve success.
Evelyn gives solo performances and even gives free concerts for hospitals and schools. In the year 1991, she won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s prestigious ‘Soloist of the Year’ Award. Evelyn’s story is an inspiration for the differently abled who are motivated to fulfill their dreams like she did.
Ustad Bismillah Khan
New words� Generic:��A name given to a class or group as a whole.��Chèvre is a generic term for all goats' milk cheese.��Reeded:��Wind instruments which have reeds like the flute, the clarinet, etc.��My house has a front door with a reeded glass panel.��
Auspicious:��Promising to bring good fortune��They said it was an auspicious moon—it was rising.��Indispensable:��without which a piece of work cannot be done
banned: prohibited��shrill: very sharp��unpleasant: something that you dislike��generic name: a name given to a class or group as a whole��Generic name means the scientific name or a broad classification of something��reeded: wind instruments which have reeds like the flute, the clarinet, etc.��revived: brought back to live.��
tonal quality: sound��hollow: empty from inside.��auspicious: promising to bring good fortune��indispensable: without which a piece of work cannot be done, something which is necessary��Ensembles : things (here, instruments) considered as a group��Laddu or laddoo are sphere-shaped sweets originated in the Indian subcontinent.��
paternal ancestors: ancestors of the father��Captivated: attracted��on end: for a very long time without stopping, continuously��apprentice: trainee��haunt: place you like come, where you like to visit many times a day��solitude: being alone, single��recital: performance��taken in by: attracted or charmed by��
souvenirs: things given in memory of a place, person or event��chartbuster: record breaker��celluloid: old fashioned way of referring to films��venture: project that often involves risk, something which has a lot of risk��Emphasis: to lay stress on something��thick and fast: he got a lot of awards and was recognized at many places��
conferred: given, usually an award or a degree��coveted: much desired��replicating: making a copy of something��yearning – longing, having a desire for something��devout: believing strongly in a religion and obeying its laws and following its practices
2. THE SHEHNAI OF BISMILLAH KHAN
Summary� Bismillah Khan made a valuable contribution to the world of music through the ‘shehnai’. For this, he was honoured with India’s highest civilian honour – the Bharat Ratna in 2001. He hailed from a family of musicians. He improvised many new ragas with the shehnai and thus, placed it among other classical musical instruments. He won accolades on the international level too.��
The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb banned the playing of the pungi in his royal court. He disliked the sound and so, the pungi was termed to be a noisemaker. A barber tried to improve the pungi’s tone. He got a hollow stem, wider and longer than the pungi, made seven holes on it and blew into it, closing and opening the holes. It produced soft, melodious music. As this instrument had been developed by a barber called ‘nai’ in India and was played in the king’s court called ‘shah’, the instrument was named ‘shehnai’.
The shehnai became a part of auspicious occasions. It was a part of the group of nine musical instruments that were played at the royal court. �Bismillah Khan was born at Dumraon, Bihar in 1916 into a family of musicians. His grandfather Rasool Bux Khan played the shehnai at the court of the king of Bhojpur. His father, Paigambar Bux and his paternal as well as maternal uncles were shehnai players. As a child, Bismillah Khan would visit the Bihariji temple to sing the Bhojpuri Chaita for which the king rewarded him with a laddu weighing 1.25kg.�
At the age of three, Bismillah Khan visited his maternal uncle, Ali Bux at Benaras. He saw him playing the shehnai and was fascinated by it. At the age of five, he started learning playing it. He would spend hours practicing, at the temple of Balaji and Mangala Maiya, by the banks of the holy river Ganga. The flowing waters of the river inspired him to improvise and Bismillah Khan invented ragas which were considered to be beyond the range of the shehnai.
At the age of fourteen, he performed at the Allahabad Music Conference and his talent was appreciated by Ustaad Faiyaz Khan. In 1938, he started performing from the Lucknow station of the All India Radio. The day India gained independence, on 15th August 1947, Bismillah Khan performed from the Red Fort and greeted the country through his shehnai. He recited raag kafi which was followed by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s famous ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech. �
Bismillah Khan performed all around the world. His first foreign performance was in Afghanistan where the king was so impressed that he gifted him many souvenirs. Bismillah Khan composed music for two films – Hindi film titled – ‘Goonj Uthi Shehnai’ directed by Vijay Bhatt and Kannada film titled – ‘Sanadhi Apanna’ by Vikram Srinivas. �
He was the first Indian to perform at the Lincoln Centre Hall in the United States of America. He also performed at Montreal, Cannes and Tokyo. In Teheran, an auditorium was named after him – Tahar Mosiquee Ustaad Bismillah Khan. �Ustaad Bismillah Khan said that music was India’s richest heritage and had to be taught to the children. Although he had travelled all over the world, he was attached to Dumraon and Benaras.
Once a student asked him to set up a shehnai school in the USA and promised to recreate the temples of Benaras there. Bismillah Khan asked him whether he would transport the river Ganga also, as he was attached to it as well. �Bismillah Khan is a true example of a secular Indian as being a Muslim, he played the shehnai at the Kashi Vishwanath temple. For him music was above religious barriers.