Creative Person; 5; Ravi Shankar

�� The creative person with Robbie Shankar recorded 2165. The creative person has a special gift, his private vision of the world. The artist through words, images, music, ideas touches our view of the 20th century.

To know anything about the music of a country, one must know its people, the spirit, the religion and their culture. When I was a child in the city of Benaris, where I was born, I had a fascination for the Sitar. It was almost at the age of 9 that I joined a troupe of my brother Uday Shankar, a very famous dancer, and from Benaris went directly to Paris. It was there that I was transported into the world of music and dance. For many years I did too many things, dancing, singing, playing different instruments, also painting and writing poems. This went on until about the age of 15.

In 1935, one person joined our troupe who really changed my life completely. He was my teacher, my preceptor, my master, Ustadh Laudin Khan. His still alive today is about 100 years old and is one of our greatest living instruments. Not only a musician, but we consider him in fact a saint because to him music is religion. He told me that I will never be able to learn music, you are like a butterfly, you do too many things and you are not sincere to any one particular thing. So I was very sorry and asked him how I learned music, whether he would ever teach me. So he said he would really love to teach me and pass on to me a very old and sacred art of our music, but for that I have to forsake everything else. It was almost like a renunciation, I just went with two or three changes of very simple

dress and went to him and learned from him for nearly seven years. It is impossible in words to describe the music I have devoted my life to. If one wants to fully understand it, one must hear it. That was Yaman Kalyan, an old raga played in a very early traditional style which developed

in the 16th century. The two-piece drum that you see here, the right hand drum is known as the Tabla. The left hand drum, the bass drum is known as the Bhaya. The person who is playing them is a very famous and one of our greatest player of Tabla. His name is Allarakka. This instrument is known as the Tambura, it is the background drone instrument. The person who is playing it is Ansem Malik.

He also made this beautiful sitaad that I am playing. Our music is 90% improvised, sometimes 95% we create within a framework known as the raga, the melody form and the tala, the rhythmic cycle. Every raga has its own mood and emotion. There are morning raga's, afternoon raga's and evening raga's. There are even raga's for different seasons. I will now play a raga of the spring time associated with all the beauty of nature, the beauty of womanhood and the playful atmosphere of the colour festival known as Holy. Ragh .

. . . Many people wonder, if our music is mostly improvised, how do I compose for opera,

ballet and the films? Well, for these undertakings, I do write out this course. Although there was an instance when I did the music for the film Pathir Panchali, my musicians and I watched these scenes on the screen and played at the same time. And the whole thing was composed and recorded within four and a half hours. I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali. I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film

Pathir Panchali. I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali.

Most people in America remark often that our music is similar to jazz. This doesn't surprise me. Classical western musicians compare parts of our music known as Jor to Bach. When I have played in Spain, I have been told that our music is like Flamenco. Increase the Middle East, Japan, wherever I have played, I found that they associate our music with

their own, which shows that our music has many facades. Now I am going to play for you a very beautiful morning raga known as Sindhi Bhairavi. The guts will be in slow medium and fast, thin tal, a rhythmic saddle of sixteen beats. I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali.

I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali. I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film

Pathir Panchali. I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali.

I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali. I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali.

I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali. I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film

Pathir Panchali. I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali.

I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali. I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film

Pathir Panchali. I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali.

I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali. I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali.

I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali. I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film

Pathir Panchali. I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali.

I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali. I will now play the theme from the film Pathir Panchali, I will now play the theme from the film