- Pannalal Ghosh
Pannalal Ghosh (1911-1960), also known as Amal Jyoti Ghosh, was a Bengali
India n flute (bānsurī) player and composer.Education
A virtuoso of
Hindustani classical music on the transverseflute , Pt. Pannalal Ghosh was born onJuly 31 ,1911 . Born inBarisal ,East Bengal nowBangladesh the family first lived in the village of Amarnathganj and later moved to the town of Fatehpur.He was brought up in a family of musicians. His grandfather, Hara Kumar Ghosh, father, Akshay Kumar Ghosh (sitarist, disciple of Ustad Kasim Ali Khan of Seniya Gharana), and maternal uncle, Bhavaranjan, were proficient musicians. Mother, Sukumari (daughter of Mr. Muzumdar of Dhaka), was a singer. His younger brother Nikhil Ghosh was a distinguishedtablā player. Young Pannalal was highly receptive and absorbed good music from various sources. He regarded the "Harmonium Wizard",Ustad Khushi Mohammed Khan , as his firstguru , Pt. Girija Shankar Chakravarti (Khayal singer) and was fortunate also to have had the blessings and systematic training from the legendary UstadAllauddin Khan , with whom he studied, beginning in 1947.As the music director of the dance troupe of the princely state of Seraikella, Pannalal Ghosh visited and performed in Europe in 1938, and was one of the first classical musicians to have crossed the boundaries of India.
After joining
All India Radio , Delhi, as Conductor of the National Orchestra in 1956, he composed path-breaking orchestral pieces such as "Kalinga Vijay" and "Andolika". His contribution in semi-classical as well as film music also was equally significant, and his name is permanently linked to many famous movies such as Aandolan, Anjan, Basant, Basant-Bahar, Duhai, Munna,Mughal-e-Azam , Police and Nandkishor.On breathing his last on
April 20 ,1960 , Pannalal Ghosh left behind a large number of disciples and admirers. Amongst his noteworthy students and followers have been Raghunath Seth, Haripad Choudhari, Aminur Rehman (Bangladesh ), Azizul Islam (Bangladesh), Fakirchand Samanta, Ravindra Samant, Harshawardhan Kaulgi, Vijay and Nihar Kabinittal, Lyon Leifer (USA), David Philipson (USA),Vishvas Kulkarni , Dinesh Kumar,Bari Siddiqui (Bangladesh), Naresh Kumta, Harishchandra Kokare, Gaur Goswami, Shreeram Joshi, Rasbihari Desai, Mahesh Mastfakir,Devendra Murdeshwar ,Anand Murdeshwar ,Keshav Ginde, V.G. Karnad,Nityanand Haldipur , Bhailal Barot, Prabhakar Nachane, Sharad Mohalay, K.D. Desai, Suraj Narayan Purohit, Hari K. Chabria, Lalitha Rao and Mohan Nadkarni. Because of his humble and helpful nature, Pannalal has always remained a very popular and respected personality among music connoisseurs, and endeared many senior musicians as well.Contributions
Pannalal Ghosh was the first to transform a tiny folk instrument to a novel bamboo flute (32 inches long with 7 holes for fingering) suitable for playing traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical music instruments. Also to his credit are the introduction of the special tenor flute, 6-stringed Tanpura, high-pitched Tanpuri and Surpeti into Hindustani music.
He also mastered the technique with such a great proficiency that he could present with ease the heavy
ragas (melodies) like Todi, Darbari, Miyan Malhar, Pooriya, Shree, Pooriya Dhanashree, Kedar, etc., retaining intact the entire beauty as well as the grammar. He also created and popularized several newraga s (melodies) including Deepawali, Pushpachandrika, Hansanarayani, Chandramauli, Panchavati and Noopurdhwani.His playing style was a uniform and balanced blend of both the Gayaki (vocal style) and Tatkari (stringed instrument style). This is evident from his available recordings; his understanding of the Taal (rhythm) was appreciated by many renowned tablā players (percussionists) including Ustad Amir Hussain Khan, Ustad Alla Rakha, and Pt. Nikhil Ghosh.
ee also
*
Hindustani classical music
*Indian musical instruments External links
* [http://music.calarts.edu/~bansuri/pannalal.html Article from David Philipson's website]
* [http://www.pannalalghosh.info PannalalGhosh.info]ources
*Martin Clayton, "Pannalal Ghosh" [http://www.groveart.com Grove Art Online] (accessed December 12, 2005)
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