Shillong, April 5: An evening of solo, fusion where a unique instrument was played for the first time in a concert organized by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) in association with the Asian Confluence – at its conference hall on Saturday evening. The instrument Swar Ragini, made from a single piece of wood combining the Veena, Sarod and Guitar, was played by its inventor Subhash Chandra Ghosh as the packed hall was glued to the “Composer Maestro”, who also indulges in fusion concerts, where the west meets the east, in an interesting ambience. An interesting facet of the evening was a fusion rendition by Garo Fusion Band Ahowee – whose performance with the traditional drums, flute, bamboo instruments, drums, guitar etc. pulled one and all to their tunes. The fusion band won several hearts through their performances based on contemporary issues as the Asian Confluence hosted the band keeping its focus on promoting local talents. The band presented few fusion rendition along with the maestro following his solo on Rabindra Sangeet among others.
His Dhuns strike a chord in everyone’s heart because of their purity and simplicity, while playing ragas one is wonderstruck, by the swiftness of his hands which resemble the quickness of lightening one starts flowing with rhythm of music cascading up and down like a river. He has performed in various national and international festivals and mesmerized people with his great music. Subhash, is the senior disciple of Great Sarod Maestro Padmavibhusan Ustad Amjad Ali Khan.
The Swar Ragini was launched in 2011. The instrument signifies the Shringar Raas of music and melody with a compact bold sound and gayaki like human voice. He also has another similar instrument to his credit that he invented called the Sarasvani launched in 2003. It is also made of a unique combination of Veena, Sarod and Guitar, made from a single piece of wood and based on acoustic sound. Sarasvani signifies the melody of “White Lotus” and is redolent of lifetime memorable experience; a divine moment of pure harmony and it covers all the areas of imagination of Indian classical music.
Speaking on his instrument, the maestro said that he invented the Swar Ragini after he found some drawbacks and limitations with the Sarasvani. “I was impressed by my guru, thought about it and later developed the Swar Ragini. Music is a creative art and one should create something or the other,” he said indicating his invention of the Swar Ragini. A highly decorative instrument, he said that this illumination is inspired from goddess Saraswati and resembles the beauty of a woman after she has put on her makeup.
A resident of Chandigarh since 1985 where he is running his own Academy of Indian Classical Music and Fine Arts for the last 16 years teaching Indian Music to the children and youth to promote classical music. “Music is the spontaneous flow of powerful feelings. It takes its origin from emotions recollected in tranquillity and it acquires form when played by the magical virtuoso,” he feels. His focus on guitar took him for training to Deepak Roy, a disciple of Sunil Ganguly. He took future tutelage from Pt Jaigopal Roy and Pt Barun Kumar Pal of Kolkata, disciple of Sitar maestro Pt Ravi Shankar. He received his basic training Tabla from Jagat Bandhu De, disciple of Ustad Keramatullah Khan Sahib. (SP News)
