Friday, December 23, 2011

INDIAN MUSIC: Vichitra Veena | Dr. Lalmani Mishra




Vichitra Veena by Dr. Lalmani Mishra of Mishrabani Gharana playing Raga Tilang

the instrument that i am thinking about building is a combination of a hurdy gurdy and no-frets vina as in the video above. the basic idea is to slice a barrel along one side (which becomes then the top of the instrument), intstall a soundboard on top, and have a large cranked wheel to drive a couple of playing strings and some drones (no hurdy-gurdy keybox) ...maybe i will post a photo of my sketch of a "barrel gurdy," or the new idea of using a conga drum rather than a barrel.

Dr. Lalmani Mishra

my "vocal teacher's" teacher *

Lalmani Misra (August 11, 1924 - July 17, 1979), M.A., Ph.D., D. Mus. (Veena), M.Mus. (Vocal), B.Mus. (Sitar, Tabla), (Sahitya Ratna) Dean & Head, Faculty of Music and Fine Arts, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, was an eminent Indian classical musician known as much for his art as for his scholarship.

Lalmani learnt Dhruvapada (Dhrupad) Dhamar in the tradition of Pt. Shankar Bhatt and Munshi Bhrigunath Lal. He learnt Khayal singing with Ustad Mehndi Hussain Khan, a disciple of Ustad Vazir Khan of Rampur Seni Gharana. He received training in Dhruvpad, Bhajan and Tabla from Swami Pramodanand; in sitar from Shri Shukdev Roy. Under the tutelage of Ustad Amir Ali Khan he perfected several other musical instruments.

Lalmani was appointed on the post of assistant music director in Shehanshahi Recording Company, Calcutta at the age of twelve. He worked in several films for the next two years...


Performing in Berlin, with a troupe, April 1932

...Carrying out research in the music of Vedic age, he unraveled the mystery of Samic scale. To re-establish the lost notes of that period he created a Raga Sameshwari. Dr. Misra also first made it possible in history of mankind, the twenty two Shruti-s (not to be confused with ล›ruti, the genre of Vedic literature) to be distinctly heard on a single Veena. The invention and key to its function has been explained in “Shruti Veena” published on 11-02-1964 by Vikram Singh, Narendra Printing Works, Varanasi.

He had created several other Raga-s like Shyam Bihag, Jog Todi, Madhukali, Madhu-Bhairav, Baleshwari etc., all in strict adherence with rigid classical norms for creation of new Raga-s. Unesco released a compact disc of his Vichitra Veena entitled The Music of Pandit Lalmani Misra in 1996.

much more interesting history on this teacher > Lalmani Misra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

* i studied with Dr. Laxmi Tewari, a student of Dr. Misra's, at SSU for a couple of years around 1978 to 1981. Tewari-ji still teaches at SSU, and is an ethnomusicologist as was Misra. (the link for Tewari goes to an article from 1996 by Jan Haag). more on Dr. Tewari later :)



see also

Indian Music (Hindustani Classical) playlist on robertcherwink's YouTube Channel


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