Ustad Amir Khan‘s ‘Music of the Soul’ by Pandit Nikhil Banerjee
As musicologist Deepak Raja says: “Ustad Amir Khan was easily the single most influential Hindustani vocalist of the 20th century. His music deeply influenced his contemporaries and, more than thirty-five years since his demise, continues to shape the dominant tendencies in vocalism, as well as instrumental music…he set standards of musicianship that have yet to be bettered.”[3]
In this extremely moving and eloquent tribute to Amir Khan in 1975, his contemporary Pandit Nikhil Banerjee echoes the same sentiment and says : “He has been a constant inspiration in my musical career. In going to develop my own musical ideas I have very often felt that Khan Saheb has thrown a new light on the concept of music and his demonstration has opened up a new horizon with its immense possibilities.” [1]Nikhil Banerjee adds that he met Amir Khan with the help of his cousin Purabhi Mukerjee who was Amir Khan’s student.
The very first time Nikhil Banerjee heard Amir Khan in 1949
Nikhil Banerjee shares “Perhaps it was in the year 1949 when I attended a conference primarily as a listener of Pandit Ravi Shankar. As Panditji had finished his recital I was going to leave the auditorium when suddenly came to my ear the raga Abhogi from out of a voice in its ‘full throated ease’ The magic of the voice did have a hypnotic spell on me and instantly drew me back to my chair. That a kheyal performance could be so enthralling was quite a revelation for me especially considering my state of mind at a younger age. Henceforth I found in me a devotee of the great Ustad.”[1]
Brilliant exposition of the ragas
In his analysis of the hallmarks of Amir Khan’s music, Nikhil Banerjee says : “The first thing which strikes me about Amir Khan’s performance is his brilliant exposition of the raga image with a strict adherence to the rasa or the mood that is implied in it. This is generally achieved through the medium of alap(free form exploration) followed by dhrupad singers. Instrumental concerts invariably start with the alap and jod before passing on to the main composition (gat). Among the present kheyal singers Amir Khan most successfully assimilated this alappaddhati(methodology of singing alap) in his vilambit(slow) khayal bistar (elaboration) portion. Quite scrupulously he confines his sthaykhanda(literal meaning standing, focus) in both the saptaks (registers) mandra (lower) and madhya(medium). He was very much of an artiste in trying to maintain the predominance of rage-image throughout the performance. Therefore he did not indulge in juggling the acrobatics of taal, and layakari(rhythm gymnastics) which he believed could easily be achieved at the expense of aesthetics. He was an Ustad and no mistake but his valiant craftsmanship was mellowed by the grace and cadence of his artistry and filtered through the purest channel of his philosophy.”[1]
Meticulous about lyrics
Nikhil Banerjee says that unlike many other musicians who did not give importance to enunciation, meaning of lyrics or their suitability to the underlying raga , “Amir Khan’s sthayi compositions speak for themselves and are a pointer to the principle that verse and melody must correspond to each other to reach any significance. His compositions were so inevitable that they cannot be performed satisfactorily in any mode other than his own.” [1]
Amir Khan was also a composer creating his own lyrics for songs and taranas and his mudra(composer name occurring in the composition) was ‘Sur rang’ that appears in some of his compositions. [7]
- raga Chandramadhu with the rhyming lyrics
‘Bairan bhayee raina, maika piya bhavan na bhavay.
Bin daikhay pi kay rahiyo na javay, ‘sur rang’ kab lag tarsavay’ [7]
The merukhand backbone
Nikhil Banerjee then highlights another key facet of Amir Khan’s musicianship: “The next technical thing on which Khan Saheb had best of his practice and mastery is known as merukhand or backbone. Until now very few musicians have realized or emphasized its importance. Amir Khan focused heavily on it. He had successfully practiced all the 5,040(7 factorial) patterns that are possible by the combinations of seven notes enabling him to have full control over the raag blooming forth with an inexhaustible variety of vistar(elaboration) and taan.”[1]
A new dimension for Taranas
Ustad Amir Khan had done extensive research on Taranas and also composed his own. Nikhil Banerjee says : “he gave a new dimension to the tarana style of singing which was first innovated by Amir Khusrau. He read a paper in the conference on the music of East and West held in 1964 at New Delhi.”[1]
In his paper Amir Khan writes that the Tarana is not just a sequence of rhythmic syllables, its lyrics do have meaning and the “the poetry is always representative of the mystic school of poets… thus the poetry of the tarana, while maintaining a romantic flavor is strictly spiritual in substance.”[1,3] This reflects a similar sentiment to what his friend the legendary dancer T Balasaraswati always said — “Shringara(romance, love) stands supreme in this range of emotions. No other emotion is capable of better reflecting the mystic union of the human with the divine.”[T Balasaraswati, NCPA Journal, 1976].
Amir Khan tragically passed away in 1974 in a car accident in Kolkata, when he was just 61 years old.
Nikhil Banerjee poignantly writes about attending Amir Khan’s concert a few days earlier “ I met him in a rather homely concert where in course of his demonstration he said to me :
“Sangit ruh se nikalti aur ruh koi sunati hai” which means “Music is wrung out of your heart which alone it is given to enchant”. — Ustad Amir Khan
Even to this day I often feel haunted by those words. Music is the spontaneous outflow of the purest feelings of the soul and it must come as “leaves to a tree”. Music with him was a spiritual pursuit — something which by awakening in our mind “the image of beauty and harmony keeps the suggestion of an eternal truth”.[Nikhil Banerjee, Music of the Soul]
Enchanting Musical Moments
Amir Khan, Ali Akbar Khan and Nikhil Banerjee
Amir Khan sang and Nikhil Banerjee and Ali Akbar Khan played the sitar and sarod! It was for a Bengali film Kshudita Pashan for which Ali Akbar Khan was the music director. These exquisite melodies just melt our soul and compel us to go back and listen to them, again and again.
- Tarana in raga Bahar sung by Amir Khan; after the instrumental interlude, he starts with his characteristic taan that indeed unfurls so spontaneously and naturally like ‘leaves to a tree’
- Kaise kate ranjani, chhota khyal in raga Bageshri sung by Amir Khan and Pratima Banerjee
- Thumri sung by Amir Khan (perhaps, his only thumri recording) in raga Khamaj
Amir Khan and Bismillah Khan
One of the most famous ragamalas, a composition with a string of different ragas, with Amir Khan singing and Bismillah Khan playing the shehnai
- Ragamala — from the film Gunj Uthi Shenai, music director Vasant Desai
Amir Khan and D V Paluskar
- Aaj Gawat Man Mero sung by Amir Khan and D V Paluskar, for the film Baiju Bawra, music director Naushad
Amir Khan and Balasaraswati
In this beautiful article, Aruna Sairam shares her memories about this magical moment that happened in her home, after they had all came back from Balasaraswati’s dance recital :
“The year was 1969. While my mother was getting food ready in the kitchen, more food for the soul was being served in the drawing room by our guests — there was an outpouring of music. Bala sang ‘Krishna Karnamrutham’ slokas. Amir Khan started singing and Bala danced. That night, I experienced the Raasleela. My strongest memory of music and dance goes back to that beautiful night when I saw pure love between two art forms. Nothing else mattered. When we finally ate, it was 2 a.m., but it didn’t matter at all.” — Aruna Sairam
Amir Khan and Begum Akhtar
Rita Ganguly, a student of Siddeshwari Devi and Begum Akhtar, has shared this magical moment in interviews and also her memoir, ‘Ae Mohabbat — Reminiscing Begum Akhtar’. It started with a light hearted argument about a student and ended with Begum Akhtar commanding Amir Khan to teach Rita and he readily agreed. Rita says she had lessons with Amir Khan for 20 days. And not only did Begum Akhtar closely monitor these teaching sessions, she also played the harmonium for them!
Rita says that “This training in voice production changed my whole approach to singing because of the serenity and grace inherent in the technique.”
Rita adds that Amir Khan also taught her multiple thumris and one of those beautiful thumris was Piya ke awan ki main suniri khabariya (the same Thumri that Amir Khan sang for the film Kshudita Pashan, the only time he ever recorded a thumri)
Amir Khan and Vilayat Khan
Vilayat Khan and Amir Khan were life long friends. The books The Sixth String of Vilayat Khan, and Komal Gandhar share that Amir Khan also learned vocal music at one time from Vilayat Khan’s maternal grandfather Ustad Bande Hassan Khan.
The magical moment in Vilayat Khan’s house in Dehradun is described by his son Shujhat Khan in the documentary Khandan.
- Shujhat Khan describes when Amir Khan taught him the raga Janasammohini and that as Amir Khan taught him, his father Vilayat Khan played the tanpura!
- Amir Khan singing raga Janasammohini (It is said to be inspired by the Carnatic raga Malayamarutam but it has Shudh Ri(higher) while Malayamarutam has Komal Ri(lower))
Arvind Parikh, who learned from Vilayat Khan, was also deeply influenced by Amir Khan. Arvind Parikh shares that : “He would always say, ‘Arvind Bhai, socho bhee…’ While Amir Khan saab believed that riyaz(practice) was important, he also stressed on the importance of thinking music and that ‘every phrase, sung or played, should have meaning, and the movement of every single note should also have a basis, even when it is colored by intuition.’ — Arvind Parikh
Musical Influences
Amir Khan’s father Shahmir Khan played the sarangi. Amir Khan learnt to play the sarangi and tabla, in addition to vocal music,
Deepak Raja says that “Ustad Amir Khan — the only titan of 20th century vocalism not to have received formal training from reputed Pandits or Ustads.” [3]
The scholars say that Amir Khan assimilated aspects that he was drawn to, from each of these great musicians. And ultimately, he integrated these diverse influences holistically and crafted his own distinctive style or idiom.
Sushila Mishra elaborates :
“He assimilated the color and spirit of Wahid Khan’s style, (with its chastity of svara intonation and a richly soporific effect of melodic elaboration); the development of the Vilambit Khayal was marked by deep serenity. The concept of an extra slow tempo with a slow and meticulous unfolding of the raga and the “cheez” was taken from Ustad Wahid Khan (Kirana Gharana).
His taans were clearly influenced by the eloquent ones of Ustad Rajab Ali Khan
In sargam-singing(improvising solfa notes, similar to kalpana svaras), he revealed his admiration for Ustad Aman Ali Khan(Bhendibazaar gharana).”
This newly amalgamated “Indore” style of Ustad Amir Khan captivated and influenced a whole generation of younger musicians of all categories through the contemplative and reposeful beauty of his slow, leisurely Badhat (elaboration) enlivened by the “exuberance of his proliferating sargams” and “rushing taans.” [4]
Additional details
- Analysis of Ustad Amir Khan’s Vocal Style by Dr Ibrahim Ali
- Ustad Amir Khan — the man and his art by Sushil Kumar Saxena
- Ustad Amir Khan — Deepak Raja
What is Merukhand ?
Susheela Mishra says : “During the first 25 years of his life, Amir Khan devoted considerable time to sargam-singing, what is known as “Merukhand practice” consisting of varied permutations and combinations of kaleidoscopic svara-patterns. These complicated “Khandameru” sargams(solfa notes), and flashing meteoric taans brightened his reposeful vilambit Khayals now and then. [4]
In Svaraprastāra in North Indian Classical Music, N. A. Jairazbhoy explains this concept was articulated by Sarangadeva in the thirteenth century in his treatise Sangita Ratnakara : ‘it is a complete enumeration of all the possible combinations of the 7 notes of the Indian music scale.’[10]. The name comes from ‘khanda meru’(‘mountain of squares’) diagram that Sarangadeva created to help ‘determine the number in the series of any sequence’ and vice-versa.
Amir Khan’s focus was to transcend the technique and discover the endless melodic possibilities of the underlying raga.
As Thomas Ross says “the student receives the caveat that mirkhand are to be cultivated at home but never implemented literally in public performance. One should learn mirkhand and then “forget” them. Descrying(discovering) mirkhand’s variational role helps to show how Amir Khansahab is able to hold just a few notes under a powerful lens, revealing hitherto unheard wonders; and it is especially this that has attracted and inspired generations of musicians and music-lovers from both North and South India.” [9]
Additional Listening
Prabha Atre says : “musicians like Amir Khan Saheb continue to mold their art by keeping track of signs that hint at the future. They give direction not only to the next generation but also to the generations which follow thereafter. Their art knows no constraints of time. Khansaheb’ s position is unique amongst the artists who opened new vistas of beauty by thinking about it deeply. One finds a wonderful fusion of of theory and art in Khansabeb’s singing.” [5]
- Classical Ragas in Film Songs sung by Amir Khan
- raga Yaman in Vilambit Jhumra taal (his student Tejpal Singh says , “Ustad Amir Khan preferred to sing in Jhumra tala. “Ek tala has 12 matras(units), and this length of avartan(iteration) was not enough for him. He introduced an extra slow tempo in the 14-beat Jhumra.”)
- ragas inspired by South Indian Classical Music
- Multiple ragas
Ragas discovered by Amir Khan
- raga Maru Kalyan (and an analysis by Shantha Benegal)
- raga Priya Kalyan , similar to raag Puriya Kalyan in lower half of the octave but differs in the upper half, since it has the lower Komal Ni. (This raga was perhaps, inspired by the Carnatic melakarta raga Ramapriya)
- ‘Untitled raga’ (Untitled raga, perhaps, inspired by Carnatic raga Vachaspati)
- raga Chandra Madhu which results from murchana or grahabhedham of raga Madhukauns, (shifting the tonic in raga Madhukauns, Pa as Sa results in raga Chandrakauns); as Dr Ibrahim Ali elaborates : “ The dominance of tivra madhyam in chandra madhu distinguishes it from madhukauns; because as nishad svara is salient in chandrakauns, while pancham svara being accepted as shadja [keynote], the tivra madhyam replaces nishad. That is, keeping the svaras of madhukauns, generating emotions like that of chandrakauns is the specialty of this raga”.[7]
References
- Music of the Soul by Nikhil Banerjee
- Ustad Amir Khan — the man and his art by Sushil Kumar Saxena
- Ustad Amir Khan — Deepak Raja
- Ustad Amir Khan — Sushila Mishra
- Three Masters — Prabha Atre
- Magnificent Gayaki — Shubha Mudgal
- Analysis of Ustad Amir Khan’s Vocal Style — Dr Ibrahim Ali
- Ustad Amir Khan: A True Nadayogi — Bhushan Toshniwal
- Forgotten Patterns: “Mirkhand” and Amir Khan — Thomas W. Ross
- Svaraprastāra in North Indian Classical Music — N. A. Jairazbhoy
