Nad Ninad: From Our Archives

Listening Session (no. 7) on the Artistry of Vilayat Khan

An NCPA Presentation

This programme makes available the NCPA’s archival recordings to lovers of Hindustani classical music.

We have been conducting a series of sessions based on rarely heard recordings of sitar maestro, Vilayat Khan (1924–2004), which were specially recorded for our archives during 1976. Arvind Parikh, his senior-most disciple, and Shujaat Khan, his elder son, had engaged the maestro in conversation, leading to a wealth of information about his forefathers and their style. Khan has also chronicled his own musical journey with ample demonstrations.

Khan was born in Gauripur (now in Bangladesh) in a family of outstanding musicians: his grandfather Imdad Khan and father Inayat Khan were the most celebrated surbahar and sitar players of their time. A child prodigy, he went on to become one of the most influential instrumentalists of the 20th century. His distinctive gayaki ang (vocalised style) made his sitar “sing” and is probably the most widely followed sitar style today.

The first six sessions in this series covered the contributions of his legendary forefathers, his own contribution of gayaki ang and details about some notable disciples of his father.

The seventh session starts with Vilayat Khan’s reminiscences and observations relating to some stalwarts of vocal and instrumental music which he shares with comprehensive demonstrations (vocal and sitar). These include: Gafoor Khan, Inayat Khan, Imdad Khan, Mushtaq Hussain Khan, Miyan Tansen, Bande Hasan Ali, Amir Khan, Rampur gharana musicians, Haider Hussain Khan, Hamid Hussain Khan, Hafiz Khan Gudiyaniwale and such others. The session continues with his illustrated explanation of how he composed bandishes (slow and fast) which take off from unconventional matra (beat). The session also includes raga Khamaj (alap and jod) and compositions (some his own) in ragas: Khamaj, Asa, Mand, Sanjh Saravali, Jhinjhoti, Gara, Desh, Bhupali and more.

Admission on a first-come-first-served basis.