Daylight’s opening hour: lowland (#53 in “a shining moment” series)

 

Today’s photo (copyright Doug Spencer) was taken at 7.41 am on 05 February 2020 in the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary, Keoladeo National Park, Rajasthan.

Its musical companion is a sublime morning raga, performed by one of the Indian subcontinent’s most eloquent instrumentalists.

When Ali Akbar Khan (1922-2009) toured Australia in 1973 (I am almost sure of the year), I was still a teenager, and only vaguely aware of his existence.

On the day of his concert, University of Adelaide noticeboards informed me that students could buy tickets for very little more than nothing.

So, I trundled along to the Festival Theatre that night…and life has never been quite the same, since.

Doubtless, not a few other people have recalibrated their entire sense of just what music – and certain musicians – can do, in the wake of their first “live” experience of master musicians from either (or both) the Hindustani or Carnatic traditions.

I was, however, particularly fortunate to have had that crucial first “live” encounter, via Ali Akbar Khan.

Nearly half a century later, having attended concerts by many of the great Indian musicians, I still think Ali Akbar Khan is as great a musician as any (of whatever nationality or genre) I have ever seen and heard.

He is very certainly the greatest lutenist; click here if you are not already familiar with his fretless instrument.

If you already know the sarod, you’d still do well to click that link. It yields an interesting, well-illustrated overview, with many videos embedded.

A remark Ali Akbar Khan once made:

If you practice for ten years, you may begin to please yourself, after 20 years you may become a performer and please the audience, after 30 years you may please even your guru, but you must practice for many more years before you finally become a true artist—then you may please even God.

This performance, with Pandit Mahapurush Misra on tabla, comes from Ali Akbar Khan’s 1967 Connoisseur Society LP Pre-dawn to Sunrise Ragas.