There are mainly
two varieties of Bansuri, the transverse & the
fipple. The fipple variety is usually played in
Folk music and is held away from lips like a
whistle. These flutes are also known as Algoza
flutes. There are many other types of flutes
some of which are known as Pawa, Nar etc.
Because of the flexibility and control it
offers, the transverse variety is preferred in
classical music. The Bansuri is one of the
three original forms of rendering Indian
classical music according to ancient scriptures
- vaani ( vocal), veena (String) and venu
(flute). Bansuri is made out of one single
length bamboo with a blowing hole, six
fingering holes and one or two tuning holes.
Sharps and flats are produced by unique
fingering technique. Unlike string instruments,
it does not need tuning once it is tuned by the
flute maker. Although, there is no authentic
record on origin of Bansuri, in Denmark bone
flute made out of bone was found approximately
3000 yrs BC. As per the great poet Mahakavi
Kalidas’s imagination , inspiration and
fashioning of Bansuri to man came while
listening to sweet notes generated by wind
blowing through holes carved on dry bamboos by
pests and insects.
In South India,
flute was taken as accompaniment for vocalists
as against Sarangi & Harmonium and even today
in Karnatak music style Bansuri is also used as
accompaniment but in north India, it was mainly
used for folk and film music. The introduction
of Bansuri in Modern Indian Classical concerts
has been rather recent. It was the genius late
Pt.Panalal Ghosh who elevated it to the status
of concert instrument with his 32” long Bansuri.
Pt.Hariprasad Chaurasia further enhanced the
Bansuri playing style with his innovative
fingering and blowing techniques and took
Bansuri Music to yet higher level. There are
many famous Bansuri players viz late Pt.Panalal
Ghosh, Late Pt.Devendra Murudeshwar,
Pt.Raghunath Seth, Pt.Vijay Raghav Rao,
Pt.Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pt. Venktesh Godkhindi, Pt.Nithyanand Haldipur,
Pt.Rajendra Prasanna, Pt.Ronu Majumdar to name
a few.
INVENTING THE BAMBOO KEY:
There are two characteristics which make the
“Khyal” style of singing so appealing. It is
not only the musical presentation but also the
words which help the vocalist create an impact
on the mind of the listener. However, the tonal
variety of the words in “Gayaki” style is not
available to the flautist. Pt.Seth started
playing the Massetkhani Gat style as long back
as 1952, to imbibe various rhythmic patterns.
Another major drawback of the flute is the
difficulty to achieve the glescendo between
fourth note (MA) and the fifth note (PA). With
the result, Pt.Seth, as other flautists, had to
resist from playing many ragas in which the
glescendo was a must. Yet he did not give up
hope. Being the experimentalist that he is, he
did finally come up with a solution to this
problem . He devised a bamboo key which enabled
him to play all the ragas with equal ease. With
the use of the key, flautists can glide from
the lowest to highest note and vice-versa. Pt.
Seth’s invention (the key) has received
recognition from the press and musicologists.
It has been adopted by many other established
artists including Pt.Raghunath Seth’s Senior
disciples Shri.Sunilkant
Gupta and Shri.Krishna
Bhandari. |