LaMonte Young's notes to the LP:
Upon meeting Shyam Bhatnagar in 1967 he
said to me I! have something you must hear !
I will bring it to your studio next time. I
could scarcely have imagined the impact
Shyams introduction of the music of Pandit
Pran Nath was going to have on my life and
the lives of musicians and music lovers
through out the entire Western hemisphere.
I have never heard such intonation, I re-
marked shortly after the beginning of the first
tape. But somewhere during the second tape
i began to realize that his phrasing the
way in which he would approach each pitch,
and the time at which he would finally intro-
duce it. was equally amazing. Then I began
to notice the deep haunting feeling in his
voice. and then that was the key the
feeling ! All of these details : the intonation,
the phrasing. the quality of his voice, and
many other specific technical subtleties, which
I became more and more aware of over the
months and years that followed, produce to-
gether a feeling so profound, so _ intensely
moving, so much out of the very depths of the
soul, that I am taken to a place far within
myself far back in time to the essence
of some basic spiritual truth that has some-
how been preserved in this music.
I can finally only describe it as one of the
most important musical experiences of my
life. Truly the singing of Pandit Pran Nath is
the most beautiful I have ever heard.
As a boy, he was singing by the age of
six, but his family wanted him to .complete
his schooling, and at 13 his mother told
him if he was going to be a musician he
would have to leave now without coat
or any belongings out into the world and
he lett. For some time he wandered about
listening to the performances of the various
masters of that time. But finally he had the
oecasion to hear a rare concert performance
by the late Ustad Abdul Waheed Khan Sahib
of Kirana.
Khan Sahib was the acknowledged master of
Kirana style during his time. His revival of
the Khayal at the turn of the century stands
in itself as a virtually unparalleled contri-
bution in the recent history of classical In-
dian music. He was not a man to go out in
the world very often and compete with other
musicians. He lived a saintly. reclusive life
singing at his spiritual guru's tomb nearby
his home, and only occasionally sang in pu-
blic. He took very few disciples; one of them
was Pran Nath. who became the most impor-
tant because of his extreme devotion, cease-
less practice. and natural talent. Although
Khan Sahib almost singlehandedly made Kira-
na style the most influential and popular in
India today. only a handful of musicians can
claim to have studied with him directly, and
it is through Pandit Pran Nath that Kirana
style in its purest form is preserved until
the present time.
Kirana style can be traced directly from Pandit
Pran Nath through Ustad Waheed Khan all the
way back to the great singer and saint Gopal
Nayak, who lived over 600 years ago. Gopal
Nayak was a worshipper of Krishna, and Kira-
na style is also known as the style of Krishna.
In his late twenties Pran Nath chose to be-
come a naked singing saint, or naga, and so
for five years he sat, clothed only in ashes,
singing for God. He stayed with his guru until
he died in 1950. But sometime before Khan
Sahibs death he requested that Pran Nath
give up the ascetic life and go back into the
world.
In India Pandit Pran Nath has come to be re-
vered as a" musician's musician"; his long
years of devoted service and study with his
master have earned him a formidable place In
the hierarchy of Indian music. He is credited
with a voluminous knowledge of hundreds of
ragas and several times as many compositions
in Kirana style.
Programs of his singing have been broadcast
regularly from All India Radio since 1937, and
he performs at all the important music festi-
vals in India. He is considered the authorita-
tive exponent of Kirana style and has been in
charge of the advanced classes in Hindustani
vocal music at Delhi University for the last
ten years. In 1970 and 1971 he made several
extensive tours of the United States, Europe
and Scandinavia, performing and teaching.
Ragas can be divided into two types according
to their sources of origin. The first type
consists of ragas of divine spiritual origin
and is called Margi. The second type is called
Deshi and consists of ragas originating from
the land, that Is, from folk music.
Raga Yaman Kalyan (Side One) is one of
the six major ragas from which many other
ragas are derived. The music and the texts for
the vilampat part of the slow alap and for
the taster drut section are composed by
Pandit Pran Nath. Yaman Kalyan is of the
Margi type and it is an evening raga to be
sung shortly after the sun has set. How beau-
tifully the music and poetry evoke a mood of
spiritual contemplation and continue the devotional feeling
of the sunset meditation.
Punjabi Berva (Side Two) is a ragini of the Dashi type. It is only a few
hundred years
old and may be sung anytime {from 1 : 00 In
the afternoon until midnight; but it must be
sung differently according to the time during
this period at which It Is sung. Berva ls
known to be extremely difficult because there
are soveral other raginis that are very similar
and it Is considered a rare feat If a perfor-
mer can sing It for five or ten minutes without
one of these raginis creeping Into the perfor-
mance. The 20 minute version recorded here
stands as a tribute to Panditji's artistry, both
because It is a relatively long duration for
such a true rendering of this raga, and be-
cause it achieves a degree of feeling that
is rare for the short period of time possible
on one side of a record.
This album is the first recording that Pandit
Pran Nath has ever agreed to release. This,
coupled with the fact that no one was ever
permitted to record the singing of his guru,
the late Ustad Abdul Waheed Khan Sahib,
places it in the unprecedented position of
representing the most authentic example of
Kirana style that has yet been preserved and
made available on record. AS such It stands
as an event long awaited by those who have
heard this music in concert, and a singular
contribution to the archives of the history of
Indian classical music.
