Miracles of music-Ragavaibhavam (part-2)(contd) A somewhat same incident like that of Tansen`s took place later. Once Late Pt. Pannalal Ghosh , who was a famous flute player, was going somewhere . The distance was quite long and it took one or two days to reach the destination. On the way he stopped somewhere for his night stay. It was a remote village. At that time the villagers were suffering from severe drought. Having nothing to do Pannalal took out his flute and started playing Rag Meghmalhar Surprising the villagers, within a few minutes it began to rain and everybody was astonished . This incident was narrated to me by his own brother Pt. Nikhil Ghosh , who was a famous tabla player and who is also the founder of the famous “Sangeet Mahabharati “, ( an institute for teaching music and research work. ) at Juhu, Mumbai.I used to go to him for the collection of materials for my articles. He was really a dedicated artist. When I told him that I am doing such a job for the first time in my life.he called his assistant one Mr.Devadas Menon and told him to guide me to the books which was necessary for me. I saw that everybody respected and loved him so much and being a strict disciplinarian the staff was afraid of him too. His face is the one I shall never forget in my life. All the Keralites know that the famous musician Sri.Chempai Bhagavathar had once sung Rag Amruthavarshini and though it was a very hot summer clouds gathered and it started raining. Though he was a Brahmin by birth he was far away from the orthodox mentality usually seen in his caste. Once when the famous Guruvayur Krishna Temple refused to admit the great singer K. J. Yesudas, his guru Chempai Bhagavatar took him by hand to the nearest Parthasarathi Temple and told him, “Das, Guruvayurappan is not only in that temple .It is the same Guruvayurappan who is here also. So sit and sing until your wish is fulfilled!” That was Chempai. But once he too had to pay for a small mistake of his own.Chempai had made it a practice to sing in Guruvayur Temple on the day of Ekadashi. He saw that he did not take up any other appointments on that day. Once it happened that he could not come and he had sung somewhere else with some other musicians.But it was a grave mistake on his part. He found that since that day he could not sing at all. He realized his mistake. His sincere repentance was heard by the Lord and he got his sound back. he could continue his singing later on.Today Guruvayurappan is also praised as Chempaikku nadam kotuththave! (the one who gave Chempai his lost sound) There is a saying, ,Pashurveti shishurveti veti gaanarasam phani.”( Animals, babies and the snakes are capable of appreciating music) Once a TV channel was showing an interview of a farmer in an agricultural programme. Besides farming he had a cattle shed with few cows. Every morning he used to give them bath first. He was a music lover too. So in order to avoid the boring time of milking he used to keep a tape recorder on to listen to music. when he saw that the cows are responding to music, he began to keep a particular song suitable for the morning atmosphere. He told that after he had started keeping the song on in the shed, the yield of milk has increased considerably and he was surprised to see the change from the earlier yield. A lullaby is a song sung when a baby is put to sleep. It is said that there won`t be any mother who hasn`t sung a lullaby at least once. These are slow and smoothly sung songs and by listening to them the babies close their eyes and go to sleep. The famous lullaby composed for Swathithirunal Maharaja by the composer Irayimman Thampi can be called a universal tribute to lullabies.Here a mother is wondering at her baby and asking herself if the baby is anyone of the best things ever created in the universe.She compares the baby to different things .This is also a best example for exaggeration . A lullaby is usually sung in the Rag Neelaambari . It is really amazing how the swaras are combined to bring out a special effect to a raga. Thus the swaras and the flow of that raga are very suitable to induce sleep. We all know that the snakes are charmed by a windpipe called ‘makuti’. The snake charmers use this to attract the attention of snakes. The snake-charmer turns to one side the snake too turns to that side. The name of the Rag Punnagavarali has its name because of this special quality to attract the snakes. We can see that in films when a snake is shown this raga is played as background music. It is said that he snakes are very spiteful. So when a scene of villainy is shown there also Rag Punnagavarali is used. Experiments confirmed that music does affect plant growth too.Some scientists have done such experiments showing that music effects in plant growth.They conducted tests with and without music. And to their surprise they saw that the plants which were open to listen to music showed tremendous change. One scientist did the same in his large wine yard and was astonished to see the result. Just a few months back an Odishi dancer who was pregnant, was admitted in the hospital and was taken to the labour room. The doctor told her that she can have anything with her which would bring her some relief. They told she can even ask her husband to be by her side. But she asked for some songs of her odishi dance. Keeping the earphone to her ears she waited till her delivery. Today she is a happy mother of a healthy baby. There are many stories about the miracles of music.Only some are heard, many are still unheard. One thing is sure. Indian classical Ragas have some power. They are divine; they are very pleasing.They are sleep-inducing; Today music therapy has become very famous because of the therapeutic qualities of the Ragas.Today a lot of experiments are going on and many musicians have turned towards research work in music therapy.. Here I give my own interpretation for the MUSIC M= Most U=Useful S= Sound system I= In the C= Cosmos
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 04:32:08 +0000
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