Born in the sacred city of Varanasi (Benares), Ravi Shankar has achieved legendary stature as a composer, performer and teacher. Western appreciation and understanding of the music of India owes him a huge debt.
As a child, Shankar performed in the dance company of his brother Uday, but gave up dancing at the age of 18 to study the sitar (a long-necked Indian lute). For 7 years he worked under the outstanding teacher of Indian Classical music, Allauddin Khan, whose daughter he married. Allauddin was a strict disciplinarian, expecting his pupils to renounce material comforts so that nothing would distract them from their music. To him, the performance of music was a deeply spiritual act which required total devotion, and he imparted this attitude to his pupils.
In 1949, Shankar became music director of All-India Radio, where he composed many film scores, notably for the celebrated Apu trilogy of Bengali director Satyajit Ray (1951-55). From 1956-57, he toured Europe, Canada and the United States, introducing Indian Classical music to the West with great success.
In 1958, he performed at a music festival in Paris with violinists Yehudi Menuhin and David Oistrakh. Shankar kept up a close relationship with Menuhin, and in 1966 wrote Prabhati (Of the Morning) for him. In 1967, he performed with him for the United Nations Human Rights Day 'West Meets East'. Shankar has written 2 concertos for sitar and orchestra (1971, 1976). He has also been a strong influence on the American composer Philip Glass, with whom he collaborated to compose Passages in 1990.
However, Shankar's popularity is certainly not confined to the classical world. In the 1960s, he taught Indian music to the British pop group the Beatles, impressing George Harrison particularly, and this association helped bring Indian music to an even wider public. Shankar appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and the Woodstock Festival in New York in 1969. His performance at the Concert for Bangladesh gained him a gold disc in 1972 to commemorate the sale of more than 1 million dollars' worth of records. He has twice won Grammy awards (1966, 1972).
Shankar has been showered with honours both in his own country and all over the world, receiving 14 doctorates of music. In 1999 he was awarded the highest civilian citation in India, the Bharat Ratna, or 'Jewel of India'. |
