Godfather of World Music : Pandit Ravi Shankar !

 💞🎼 Godfather of World Music : Pandit Ravi Shankar 💐🙏

The soundtrack of the film was composed by the sitar player Ravi Shankar, who was at an early stage of his career, having debuted in 1939.

The background scores feature pieces based on several ragas of Indian classical music, played mostly on the sitar. The soundtrack, described in a 1995 issue of The Village Voice as "at once plaintive and exhilarating", is featured in The Guardian's 2007 list of 50 greatest film soundtracks. It has also been cited as an influence on The Beatles, specifically George Harrison.

Shankar saw about half the film in a roughly edited version before composing the background score, but he was already familiar with the story.

According to Robinson, when Ray met Shankar the latter hummed a tune that was folk-based but had "a certain sophistication". This tune, usually played on a bamboo flute, became the main theme for the film. The majority of the score was composed within the duration of a single night, in a session that lasted for about eleven hours. Shankar also composed two solo sitar pieces—one based on the raga Desh (traditionally associated with rain), and one sombre piece based on the raga Todi.

He created a piece based on the raga Patdeep, played on the tar shehnai, to accompany the scene in which Harihar learns of Durga's death.

 The film's cinematographer, Subrata Mitra, performed on the sitar for parts of the soundtrack. 

Among The Apu Trilogy’s many claims to fame is the fact that the music for all three films was created by the legendary Ravi Shankar. At the time, he was virtually unknown in the West, but he was already famous in India as a performer of Indian classical music, and well-known as a composer. His subtle yet stirring music for Pather Panchali, Aparajito, and Apur Sansar is one of the defining characteristics of The Apu Trilogy. 

Satyajit Ray and Shankar had known each other for over ten years when Ray approached Shankar to compose music for Pather Panchali in late 1954. Working around his concert commitments, Shankar composed and recorded music over the course of one night, working until 4 a.m. as Ray projected selected scenes for him. 

Shankar chose to use no Western instruments. In addition to his sitar, three other string instruments were selected—the tarshehnai, the bhimraj, and the sarod—along with the pakhwaj for percussion and a haunting flute. Ray ended up with more than enough material and took it to the editing room. One piece of music was so lovely that, while editing, Ray created a sequence—the dance of the water bugs as the monsoon approaches—just to showcase it. Perhaps the most memorable use of Shankar’s music is near the end of the film, when Apu’s father, Harihar, returns home after having been gone for months and shows his wife a new sari for Durga, not knowing that their daughter has died. Sarbajaya cries out in anguish, and Ray uses only Shankar’s raga, played in high notes on the tarshehnai, to express her agony. 

For Aparajito, Shankar was again busy touring but found a few hours of time for Ray. The session was almost too brief, and in the end, Ray felt he barely had enough to complete his film. However, for Apur Sansar, which involves more locations, settings, and tonal changes than the other films, Shankar had more time to devote, even bringing in violins, cellos, and a piano for one of the pieces, and recording over the course of three days. 

The Apu Trilogy’s enormous success helped catapult Shankar to stardom around the world. In the sixties, he was instrumental in sitar music’s becoming an international sensation, performing in a revelatory, climactic set at the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival in California; in the seventies, he toured with George Harrison. In the late seventies, the music from the Apu Trilogy soundtracks was released as an LP. In 2007, the Guardian placed Pather Panchali at number four on its list of the greatest film soundtracks of all time. 

 On Indian soil, his finest composition for a movie was for Satyajit Ray's Apu Triology. Then there are other significant movies like Hrishida's Anuradha (1960), Dharti ke Lal (1946) which has famous "Saare Jahan Se Accha", Neecha Nagar(1946), looking at his artistic side, his vision and his influence, he is incomparable to anybody. He was a true world class musician India has ever produced.

He went on to compose many foreign films like Gandhi (1982) and Alice in Wonderland (1966).

His famous musical partnership with George Harrison of The Beatles started when they met in 1966. Harrison later came to India and learnt Sitar from the Maestro. He used Sitar in their famous song Norwegian Wood. This brought him into limelight in the world and churned out few creations having nice fusion of Indian classical music with Rock.

He also collaborated with great violinist Yehudi Menuhin (West Meets East) and another great jazz musician John Coltrane who was heavily influenced from him.

Journey of Godfather of World Music 

Pandit Ravi Shankar born Ravindra Shankar Chowdhury, whose name is often preceded by the title Pandit (Master) and "Sitar maestro", was an Indian musician and a composer of Hindustani classical music. He was the best-known proponent of the sitar in the second half of the 20th century and influenced many other musicians throughout the world. Shankar was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999.

Shankar was born on 7 April 1920, to a Bengali Brahmin family in India, and spent his youth as dancer touring India and Europe with the dance group of his brother Uday Shankar. He gave up dancing in 1938 to study sitar playing under court musician Allauddin Khan. After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer, creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, and was music director of All India Radio, New Delhi, from 1949 to 1956.

In 1956, Shankar began to tour Europe and the Americas playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Beatles guitarist George Harrison. His influence on the latter helped popularize the use of Indian instruments in pop music in the latter half of the 1960s. Shankar engaged Western music by writing compositions for sitar and orchestra, and toured the world in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1986 to 1992, he served as a nominated member of Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the Parliament of India. He continued to perform until the end of his life.

Early life ⤵️

Shankar was born in Benares, then the capital of the eponymous princely state, in a Bengali family, as the youngest of seven brothers. His father, Shyam Shankar Chowdhury, was a Middle Temple barrister and scholar from East Bengal (now Bangladesh). A respected statesman, lawyer and politician, he served for several years as dewan (Prime minister) of Jhalawar, Rajasthan, and used the Sanskrit spelling of the family name and removed its last part. Shyam was married to Hemangini Devi who hailed from a small village named Nasrathpur in Mardah block of Ghazipur district, near Benares and her father was a prosperous landlord. Shyam later worked as a lawyer in London, England, and there he married a second time while Devi raised Shankar in Benares, and did not meet his son until he was eight years old. Shankar shortened the Sanskrit version of his first name, Ravindra, to Ravi, for "sun". Shankar had five siblings: Uday (who became a famous choreographer and dancer), Rajendra, Debendra and Bhupendra. Shankar attended the Bengalitola High School in Benares between 1927 and 1928.

At the age of 10, after spending his first decade in Benares, Shankar went to Paris with the dance group of his brother, choreographer Uday Shankar. By the age of 13 he had become a member of the group, accompanied its members on tour and learned to dance and play various Indian instruments. Uday's dance group travelled Europe and the United States in the early to mid-1930s and Shankar learned French, discovered Western classical music, jazz, cinema and became acquainted with Western customs. Shankar heard Allauddin Khan—the lead musician at the court of the princely state of Maihar—play at a music conference in December 1934 in Calcutta, and Uday convinced the Maharaja of Maihar H.H Maharaja Brijnath singh Judev in 1935 to allow Khan to become his group's soloist for a tour of Europe. Shankar was sporadically trained by Khan on tour, and Khan offered Shankar training to become a serious musician under the condition that he abandon touring and come to Maihar.

Style and contributions ⤵️

Shankar developed a style distinct from that of his contemporaries and incorporated influences from rhythm practices of Carnatic music. His performances begin with solo alap, jor, and jhala (introduction and performances with pulse and rapid pulse) influenced by the slow and serious dhrupad genre, followed by a section with tabla accompaniment featuring compositions associated with the prevalent khyal style. Shankar often closed his performances with a piece inspired by the light-classical thumri genre.

Shankar has been considered one of the top sitar players of the second half of the 20th century. He popularised performing on the bass octave of the sitar for the alap section and became known for a distinctive playing style in the middle and high registers that used quick and short deviations of the playing string and his sound creation through stops and strikes on the main playing string. Narayana Menon of The New Grove Dictionary noted Shankar's liking for rhythmic novelties, among them the use of unconventional rhythmic cycles. Hans Neuhoff of Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart has argued that Shankar's playing style was not widely adopted and that he was surpassed by other sitar players in the performance of melodic passages. Shankar's interplay with Alla Rakha improved appreciation for tabla playing in Hindustani classical music. Shankar promoted the jugalbandi duet concert style and claims to have introduced new ragas Tilak Shyam, Nat Bhairav and Bairagi.

▶️Recognitions 

▶️Indian governmental honours

Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1962)

Padma Bhushan (1967)

Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship (1975)

Padma Vibhushan (1981)

Kalidas Samman from the Government of Madhya Pradesh for 1987–88

Bharat Ratna (1999). 

▶️Other governmental and academic honours 

Ramon Magsaysay Award (1992)

Commander of the Legion of Honour of France (2000)

Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Elizabeth II for "services to music" (2001)

Honorary degrees from universities in India and the United States.

Honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Melbourne, Australia (2010)

▶️Arts awards

1964 fellowship from the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Fund

Silver Bear Extraordinary Prize of the Jury at the 1957 Berlin International Film Festival (for composing the music for the movie Kabuliwala).

UNESCO International Music Council (1975)

Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize (1991)

Praemium Imperiale for music from the Japan Art Association (1997)

Polar Music Prize (1998)

Five Grammy Awards

1967: Best Chamber Music Performance – West Meets East (with Yehudi Menuhin)

1973: Album of the Year – The Concert for Bangladesh (with George Harrison)

2002: Best World Music Album – Full Circle: Carnegie Hall 2000

2013: Best World Music Album – The Living Room Sessions Pt. 1

Lifetime Achievement Award received at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards.

Nominated for an Academy Award.

Posthumous nomination in the 56th Annual Grammy Awards for his album "The Living Room Sessions Part 2".

First recipient of the Tagore Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to cultural harmony and universal values (2013; posthumous)

Other honours and tributes ⤵️

American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane named his son Ravi Coltrane after Shankar.

On 7 April 2016 (his 96th birthday), Google published a Google Doodle to honor his work. Google commented: "Shankar evangelized the use of Indian instruments in Western music, introducing the atmospheric hum of the sitar to audiences worldwide. Shankar's music popularized the fundamentals of Indian music, including raga, a melodic form and widely influenced popular music in the 1960s and 70s.".

Personal life and family ⤵️

Shankar married Allauddin Khan's daughter Annapurna Devi (Roshanara Khan) in 1941 and their son, Shubhendra Shankar, was born in 1942. He separated from Devi during 1962 and continued a relationship with Kamala Shastri, a dancer, that had begun in the late 1940s.

An affair with Sue Jones, a New York concert producer, led to the birth of Norah Jones in 1979. He separated from Shastri in 1981 and lived with Jones until 1986.

An affair with Sukanya Rajan, whom he had known since the 1970s, led to the birth of their daughter Anoushka Shankar in 1981. In 1989, he married Sukanya Rajan at Chilkur Temple in Hyderabad.

Shankar's son, Shubhendra "Shubho" Shankar, often accompanied him on tours. He could play the sitar and surbahar, but elected not to pursue a solo career. Shubhendra died of pneumonia in 1992.

Ananda Shankar, the experimental fusion musician, is his nephew.

Norah Jones became a successful musician in the 2000s, winning eight Grammy Awards in 2003. Anoushka Shankar was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album in 2003. Anoushka and her father were both nominated for Best World Music Album at the 2013 Grammy Awards for separate albums.

Shankar was a Hindu, and a devotee of the Hindu deity, Hanuman. He was also an "ardent" devotee of the revered Bengali Hindu saint, Sri Anandamayi Ma. Shankar used to visit Anandamayi Ma frequently and performed for her on various occasions. 

Shankar wrote of his hometown, Benares (Varanasi), and his initial encounter with "Ma "Varanasi is the eternal abode of Mahadev Shiva, and one of my favorite temples is that of Bhagat Shri Hanuman, the monkey god. The city is also where one of the miracles that have happened in my life took place: I met Ma Anandamayi, a great spiritual soul. Seeing the beauty of her face and mind, I became her ardent devotee. Sitting at home now in Encinitas, in Southern California, at the age of 88, surrounded by the beautiful greens, multi-colored flowers, blue sky, clean air, and the Pacific Ocean, I often reminisce about all the wonderful places I have seen in the world. I cherish the memories of Paris, New York, and a few other places. But Varanasi seems to be etched in my heart!

In his later years, Shankar became a vegetarian. He wore a large diamond ring which he said was "manifested" by Sathya Sai Baba. He lived with Sukanya in Encinitas, California.

Shankar performed his final concert, with daughter Anoushka, on 4 November 2012 at the Terrace Theater in Long Beach, California.

Illness and death  ⤵️

On 9 December 2012, Shankar was admitted to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, San Diego, California after complaining of breathing difficulties. He died on 11 December 2012 at around 16:30 PST after undergoing heart valve replacement surgery.

The Swara Samrat festival, organized on 5–6 January 2013 and dedicated to Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, included performances by such musicians as Shivkumar Sharma, Birju Maharaj, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Zakir Hussain, and Girija Devi.

Discography ⤵️

▶️Studio and live albums  

Three Ragas (1956)

Music of India (1962)

Improvisations (1962)

India's Most Distinguished Musician in Concert (1962)

Ravi Shankar (Odeon Records, India catalogue) (1963)

India's Master Musician (1963)

In London (1964)

Ragas & Talas (1964)

The Master Musicians of India (with Ali Akbar Khan) (1964)

Portrait of Genius (1964)

Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan (1965)

Sound of the Sitar (1965)

West Meets East with Yehudi Menuhin (also titled Menuhin Meets Shankar) (1967)

In San Francisco (1967)

The Exotic Sitar and Sarod (1967)

Two Raga Moods (1967)

Live: Ravi Shankar at the Monterey International Pop Festival (1967)

A Morning Raga / An Evening Raga (1968)

The Sounds of India (1968)

In New York (1968)

West Meets East, Volume 2 with Yehudi Menuhin (1968)

Music from India serie no.8 (1968)

A Sitar Recital (1968)

Ravi Shankar Improvisations & theme from Pather Panchali (1968)

Ravi Shankar's Festival from India (1968)

Ravi Shankar (1969)

At the Woodstock Festival (1969)

Music of India A Dhun and a Raga with Ali Akbar Khan (1969)

Ravi Shankar Raga Parameshwari (1970)

Six Ragas (1970)

The Exciting Music of Ravi Shankar (1970)

Four Raga Moods (1971)

PBP Ravi Shankar and PBU Ahmedjan Thirakhwa (1971)

Joi Bangla EP (1971)

Concerto for Sitar & Orchestra with the London Symphony Orchestra and André Previn (1971)

The Concert for Bangladesh (1971) – side one only, with Ali Akbar Khan

The Genius of Ravi Shankar (1972)

Ravi Shankar (1972)

Ravi Shankar Ragas (1972)

The Masters of Indian Music (1972) (double album with Ali Albar Khan)

In Concert 1972 with Ali Akbar Khan (1973)

Ragas with Ali Akbar Khan – contains The Master Musicians of India (1964) and the Ali Akbar Khan album The Soul of Indian Music (1965) (released as a double album in 1973)

Shankar Family & Friends (1974) – available as part of Shankar and George Harrison box set Collaborations (2010)

Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India (1976) – available as part of Collaborations box set (2010)

Improvisations – West Meets East 3 – with Yehudi Menuhin and Jean-Pierre Rampal (1976)

Ravi Shankar (1979)

Shankar in Japan (1979)

Homage to Mahatma Gandhi (1981)

Raga-Mala (Sitar Concerto No. 2) (1982)

Raga Mishra Piloo: duet for sitar & sarod (1983) - with Ali Akbar Khan

Pandit Ravi Shankar (1986)

Tana Mana (1987)

Ravi Shankar: the Doyen of Hindustani Music (1988)

Inside the Kremlin (1988)

Passages with Philip Glass (1990) (Atlantic Records)

Concert for Peace: Royal Albert Hall (1995)

Genesis (1995)

Towards the Rising Sun (1996)

Ravi Shankar: In Celebration (1996)

Chants of India (1997) – available as part of Collaborations box set (2010)

Raga Tala (1997)

Shankar: Sitar Concertos and Other Works (1998)

Shankar: Raga Jogeshwari (1998)

Vision of Peace: The Art of Ravi Shankar (2000)

Full Circle: Carnegie Hall 2000 (2001)

Between Two Worlds (documentary directed by Mark Kidel) (2001)

Flowers of India (2007)

More Flowers of India (2008)

Collaborations box set, with George Harrison (2010)

Symphony with London Philharmonic Orchestra and David Murphy (2012)

The Living Room Sessions Part 1 (2012)

The Living Room Sessions Part 2 (2013)

A Night at St. John the Divine (2014)

In Hollywood, 1971 (2016).

▶️Film music 

The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959, directed by Satyajit Ray)

A Chairy Tale (1957, directed by Norman McLaren)

Parash Pathar (1958, directed by Satyajit Ray)

Anuradha (1960)

Alice in Wonderland (1966, directed by Jonathan Miller) – composer of original score

Chappaqua (1966, directed by Conrad Rooks)

Monterey Pop (1968, documentary by D.A. Pennebaker)

Charly (1968, directed by Ralph Nelson)

Raga (1971, directed by Howard Worth)

Viola (1973, produced by R. Davis), British art film, soundtrack album: Transmigration Macabre, Spark Records SRLM 2002

Forbidden Image (1974, directed by Jeremy Marre)

Meera directed by Gulzar (1977)

Meera (1979)

Gandhi (1982, directed by Richard Attenborough), (Academy Award nomination for Shankar and George Fenton)

Genesis (1986)

Concert for George (2003, directed by David Leland)

Books ⤵️

Shankar, Ravi (1968). My Music, My Life. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-20113-1.

Shankar, Ravi (1979). Learning Indian Music: A Systematic Approach. Onomatopoeia. OCLC 21376688.

Shankar, Ravi (1997). Raga Mala: The Autobiography of Ravi Shankar. Genesis Publications. ISBN 0-904351-46-7.

Just take a look at the sheer range of his discography here: . And I can safely say most or probably all of the work was non-commercial & Commerical but pure artistic exploration of music in depth.

Tribute to this Maestro of  World music 🎺🎷🎻🎸🎹🥁🐚🎼🎼🎼💐🙏

Santoshkumar B Pandey at 10.10PM.