Mushtaq Ali Khan (20 June 1911 in Banaras – 21 July 1989) and was an

Indian classical Indian classical music is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as '' Hindustani'' and the South Indian expression known as '' Carnatic''. These traditions were no ...

sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in medieval India, flourished in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form ...

surbahar ''Surbahar'' (; ) sometimes known as bass sitar, is a plucked string instrument used in the Hindustani classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It is closely related to the sitar, but has a lower pitch. Depending on the instrument's size, it ...

(and

pakhawaj The pakhavaj is a barrel-shaped, two-headed drum, originating from the Indian subcontinent, the oldest version of double sided drums and its descendants are mridangam of Southern India and kendang of Maritime Southeast Asia and other South As ...

) player.

Training and lineage

Khan learnt music from his father, Ashiq Ali Khan, who had learned sitar from the 19th century player Barkatullah Khan, a descendant of Masit Sen of Delhi, the inventor of the Masitkhani gat (the major style of slow musical composition in sitar playing) His name became synonymous with the Senia style although he may actually have practised an even more austere style than his predecessors in the gharana. He eschewed much of the ornamentation of modern sitar technique (such as murki and zamzama), and embraced a clean, pure sound. His alap was constructed along the lines of a dhrupad alap, and his jod and jhala derived a lot from

rudra vina The ''Rudra veena'' ( sa, रुद्र वीणा) (also spelled ''Rudraveena'' or ''Rudra vina'')—also called ''Bīn'' in North India—is a large plucked string instrument used in Hindustani Music, especially dhrupad. It is one of the m ...

technique. Oddly enough, in spite of being a musical descendant of Masit Sen, he rarely played Masitkhani gats in public, and none of the commercially available examples of his music includes one. He opted to play the faster Rezakhani gats instead, feeling that playing Masitkhani gats to an undiscerning audience would cause them to be devalued. At first a court musician at Jaunpur, Mushtaq Ali left the court to pursue an independent career. He started playing for

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All ...

in 1929, and performed at the 1931 Sangeet Sammelan (music conference) in Allahabad. For all of the 1940s and most of the 1950s he was considered the most prominent sitar player in India, following the demise of

Enayat Khan Ustad Enayat Khan ( ur, عنایت خان ; 1894–1938) also known as Nath Singh was one of India's most influential sitar and surbahar players in the first decades of the 20th century. He was the father of Vilayat Khan, one of the topmost s ...

of the Etawah Gharana, and prior to the rise of the young

Nikhil Banerjee Pandit Nikhil Ranjan Banerjee (14 October 1931 – 27 January 1986) was an Indian classical sitarist of the Maihar Gharana. Along with Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Vilayat Khan, he emerged as one of the leading exponents of the sitar. He ...

Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known export of North In ...

and

Vilayat Khan Ustad Vilayat Khan (28 August 1928 – 13 March 2004) was an Indian classical sitar player.Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest Indian recognition given to practising artists, given by

Sangeet Natak Akademi Sangeet Natak Akademi (The National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama in English) is the national level academy for performing arts set up by the Government of India. History It was set up by the Indian education ministry on 31 May 1952 and ...

, India's National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama. Being a purist, Khan-Saheb refused to yield to shifting popular tastes and to adopt the innovations introduced by Ravi Shankar on one hand and Vilayat Khan on the other, which led to a gradual decline in his popularity. At the time of his death he was known as a "musicians' musician". Many of India's best known musicians expressed their appreciation of the purity of his style and musicality in a book published in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

after his death Debu Chaudhuri (ed) Indian Music and Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan, 1993

Instruments

Mushtaq Ali Khan belonged to the Senia Gharana. He was the only surbahar player of India who used to play the been-ang with three mizrabs and that too, with the pakhawaj as an accompanying instrument only in pure dhrupad style. In a rare exclusive interview in the Daily Telegraph on 13 July 1985, Khan Sahab narrated the history of this instrument with historical references in which he has cleared the myth of this instrument. Khan Sahab had his lineage with fifth vani, called Dhandvani named after one of the forefathers. The famous dhrupadiya of Shah Jahans Court, Nayak Dhundhu. It is also called Rasal Vani for its beauty. He said, "... two of my ancestors, Jaggu Khan and Makku Khan. Since Makku Khan was childless, he adopted Waras Ali Khan a great name who learnt the art of playing Been from Bade Mohammed Khan. When my father Ashiq Ali Khan was six years old, my grand father Sadaq Ali Khan, son of Jaggu Khan died so his uncle Waras Ali Khan taught him all intricacies of Beena on the

. That is why we play Surbahar with three Mezrabs. The Surbahar was originally designed to felicitate the playing of Alap. Those days Alap was the exclusive prerogative of the Beenkar. Ghulam Muhammed Khan and his son Sajjad Mohammed Khan the great SurBahar players used to stay at

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

in the earliest part of the 20th century and taught many renowned players, including Imdad Khan and Jnanoda Mukherjee. In this instrument two angas played are alap and talparan and that is why the knowledge of

is essential to play the Talparan ...".

Awards

Mushtaq Ali Khan was awarded the

Sangeet Natak Academy Sangeet Natak Akademi (The National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama in English) is the national level academy for performing arts set up by the Government of India. History It was set up by the Indian education ministry on 31 May 1952 and be ...

award in 1968 (equivalent to a National Academy Award). In 1973/74 he received the title of ''D.Litt'' from

Rabindra Bharati University Rabindra Bharati University is a public research university in Kolkata, India. It was founded on May 8, 1962, under the Rabindra Bharati Act of the Government of West Bengal in 1961, to mark the birth centenary of the poet Rabindranath Tagore. ...

. The

Indian government The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

appointed him as the ''Professor Emeritus in Education'' and the Cultural Ministry and gave fellowship. Some of the other musical awards were Sitar Sudhakar – 1932, Tantri Vilas – 1973, Sangeet Ratnakar – 1974, State Academy Award – 1974, Senior fellowship and Emeritus – 1986, Bhuwalka Award – 1987, Tansen Award – 1987, Special Honour

University of Delhi Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

– 1987.

Students

He taught many students including Debu Chaudhuri, who has started a cultural Centre in New Delhi under the name of "UMAK (acronym of Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan) Centre for Culture", with a view to having Mushtaq Ali's music and his ideas alive. His only surbahar student Steven Landsberg lives and teaches in the United States. Mushtaq Ali Khan taught him the technique of three mizrabs and their unique application in tar paran.

Khan's (late) activities

A follower of ''rasal vani'', Khan Sahab was the only surbahar player who maintained the purity of the ''rasal vani''. In 1953 he had a surbahar recital in Raga Puriya, in the First National Programme of the

New Delhi. It may be recalled that in the year 1953 Pandit Ravi Shankar was instrumental of instituting this National Programme of All India Radio and was present on this memorable occasion. Mushtag Ali organised conferences where old masters and new artists were introduced to the cognoscenti and the novice. Among the well known names, Ravi Shankar was first presented by him to the public in Calcutta. The Ustad was popular during the early 1930s to the late 1940s. Mushtaq Ali died on 21 July 1989.

References

*''Indian Music and Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan'', by Chaudhuri, D. and Mahajan, A. and Chaudhari, P., Har-Anand Publications, 1993. * ''Senia gharana, its contribution to Indian classical music'' by Dhar, S., Reliance Publishing House.

– A Times of India (an Indian Newspaper) page on Mushtaq Ali Khan

– The Hindu (an Indian newspaper) article

External links

Sangeet Acharya Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan Sahab

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Mushtaq Ali 1911 births 1989 deaths Hindustani instrumentalists Sitar players 20th-century Indian male classical singers Indian drummers Musicians from Varanasi Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award 20th-century drummers