Music to pacify
Anna King Murdoch speaks to a man who has elevated
his instrument to the Indian classical music repertoire
Melbourne:
Shiv Kumar Sharma, India's master of the santoor, recently heard about a Swedish woman who was a chain-smoker and was advised by her psychiatrist to listen to his music.
"And I have heard that some doctors are using Indian classical music in hospital after operations, and the santoor especially," he says.
Mr. Sharma, whose reputation in India is equal to Ravi Shankar's, is not surprised, at 56 he has found that even on long tours without many nights of sleep, a good performance on this soft, 100-stringed instrument makes him feel entirely refreshed.
"I play and give lectures at lots of colleges and universities and the students tell me that during their study they play my music and they feel very receptive and energetic."
Though it has only a small following in Australia, Indian classical music is attracting increasingly large and devoted audiences in Europe, the United States and Canada. It has survived the fad of the '60s when the hippy movement and the Beatles encouraged a brief, superficial enthusiasm among the young; the West's appreciation of this music is now "very deep and real," Mr. Sharma says.
These days, he is playing 24-hour concerts to packed audiences in Europe. " I am sure that if regular concerts were played in Australia our music could have that effect here also."
Shiv Kumar Sharma grew up in Jammu, the winter capital of Kashmiri instrument only used for folk music. His father had a big ambition: to have the humble santoor accepted as a classical instrument that his son would make famous. "He perfected the technique of playing the raga on this instrument, and his idea was to make me into a great santoor player so that one day I would play this instrument all over the world." He chose the right pupil. "I would shut myself in a room for seven hours when I was nine or ten and my mother would come and say that I had to have something to eat."
At 17, Shiv Kumar Sharma got his break at a national festival of leading musicians, including Ravi Shankar. The result was disappointing; the santoor was not considered suitable for Indian classical music. 'That was a very big problem for me. There were certain technical things that were not possible at that time-- the variation of notes was limited and there was no continuity of notes, which is very important factor in classical music." Guided by his father, Shiv Kumar Sharma spent the next seven years working out how to dignify the instrument for classical music--í never thought of giving up. I took it as a challenge."
Mr. Sharma describes the santoor "as sometimes like a whisper and a cascade of a waterfall. Its basic emotion is romantic. The particular moods that I like to play and suits the instrument is happy -romantic and a pensive, evocative mood." The wild emotions of Western classical music are not found in Indian classical music. "We can create them but we don't because music for us is created to give you relief from your emotions. The whole idea is to create music where you are at peace with yourself. "My experience with the Western audience is that they take to this music for this reason. They come to me and tell me; 'When we listen to your music it gives us peace of mind'."
Though based in Bombay with his wife and two sons, Shiv Kumar Sharma is in such demand that he tours the world about nine months a year. "I personally feel when I play these nights of music that my intention is not to entertain the audience, but first satisfy my soul and as a result the listeners are also elevated into a different kind of world that is very rejuvenating."
Shiv Kumar Sharma will perform at The Playhouse in the Arts Centre on Sunday night at 8p.m.
By Anna King Murdoch, THE MELBOURNE AGE
©COPYRIGHT 1997 Shivkumar Sharma Associates