Pannalal Ghosh (24 July 1911 –
20 April 1960), also known as
Amal Jyoti Ghosh, was a Bengali
Indian flute ( bansuri ) player and
composer. He was a disciple of
Allauddin Khan, and is credited
with giving the flute its status in
Hindustani classical music . [1]
Early life
Ghosh was born on 24 July 1911
in Barisal , East Bengal in British
India. He was named Amal Jyoti
Ghosh with Pannalal having been
his nickname. [2] His father,
Akshay Kumar Ghosh, was a
sitarist .[3] Ghosh received his
initial training in music from his
father, learning to play the sitar .
Two apocryphal incidents in his
childhood are believed to have
influenced Ghosh in taking up the
flute. [2] As a child he had picked
up a small flute that cowherds
usually played, and on the basis
of the education he was receiving
on the sitar from his father, he
would try to play musical
patterns on the flute. The
family’s ancestral house was on
the banks of the Kirtankhola
river. [3] At the age of nine, while
swimming in the river one day,
Ghosh found a long bamboo stick
that was half-flute and half
walking stick. The flute part of
the stick was longer than a
traditional flute and Ghosh
started practising on it. [3] Then
at the age of eleven, Ghosh is
said to have met a holy man who
held a conch and a flute and
asked if he could play the flute.
When Ghosh obliged, the man
blessed him and said that music
would be his salvation. [2][4]
He was married to Parul Ghosh
(née Biswas) in 1924 when she
was only nine and he was
thirteen years old. She was the
younger sister of Ghosh’s friend
Anil Biswas who went on to
become a celebrated music
composer. Parul was a talented
singer herself and later became a
well-known playback singer. [5] In
1928, Ghosh became a part of
the Indian Independence
Movement. He joined a
gymnasium and learnt martial
arts, boxing and stick fighting. [2]
As he became more involved in
the independence movement,
the government started keeping
a close watch. Consequently he
shifted to Calcutta at the age of
seventeen in search of a
livelihood. At the age of
eighteen, he started focusing his
attention on the flute. Ghosh
realised that a bigger flute's pitch
and sonority would be more
appropriate for both classical and
light music. Ghosh experimented
with various materials including
metal and different types of
wood, and decided on using
bamboo. He finally settled on a
flute which was thirty two inches
long. [2]
↑Jump back a section
Career
Pannalal Ghosh jointly scoring
the background for “Aandhiyan”
in 1952 along with Ustad Ali
Akbar Khan and Pandit Ravi
Shankar.[6] He was the first to
introduce the seven hole flute.
Disciples
Authentic list of Pt. Pannalal
Ghosh’s noteworthy students at
Calcutta contained Haripada
Choudhary, Aminur Rehman
(MintuDa), Fakirchanda Samanta,
Sudhanshu Choudhury, Mukul
Roy and Gaur Goswami. The
students at Bombay included
Tribhuvan Gondkar, Rasbihari
Desai, Devendra Murdeshwar,
V.G. Karnad, Chandrakant Joshi,
Mohan Nadkarni, Prabhakar
Nachane, Niranjan Haldipur,
Krishnarao D. Desai, Ramaprasad
Mukherjee, Mahesh Mastfakir,
Sharad Maholay, Bhailal Barot,
Suraj Narain Purohit and Hari
Chabria.
20 April 1960), also known as
Amal Jyoti Ghosh, was a Bengali
Indian flute ( bansuri ) player and
composer. He was a disciple of
Allauddin Khan, and is credited
with giving the flute its status in
Hindustani classical music . [1]
Early life
Ghosh was born on 24 July 1911
in Barisal , East Bengal in British
India. He was named Amal Jyoti
Ghosh with Pannalal having been
his nickname. [2] His father,
Akshay Kumar Ghosh, was a
sitarist .[3] Ghosh received his
initial training in music from his
father, learning to play the sitar .
Two apocryphal incidents in his
childhood are believed to have
influenced Ghosh in taking up the
flute. [2] As a child he had picked
up a small flute that cowherds
usually played, and on the basis
of the education he was receiving
on the sitar from his father, he
would try to play musical
patterns on the flute. The
family’s ancestral house was on
the banks of the Kirtankhola
river. [3] At the age of nine, while
swimming in the river one day,
Ghosh found a long bamboo stick
that was half-flute and half
walking stick. The flute part of
the stick was longer than a
traditional flute and Ghosh
started practising on it. [3] Then
at the age of eleven, Ghosh is
said to have met a holy man who
held a conch and a flute and
asked if he could play the flute.
When Ghosh obliged, the man
blessed him and said that music
would be his salvation. [2][4]
He was married to Parul Ghosh
(née Biswas) in 1924 when she
was only nine and he was
thirteen years old. She was the
younger sister of Ghosh’s friend
Anil Biswas who went on to
become a celebrated music
composer. Parul was a talented
singer herself and later became a
well-known playback singer. [5] In
1928, Ghosh became a part of
the Indian Independence
Movement. He joined a
gymnasium and learnt martial
arts, boxing and stick fighting. [2]
As he became more involved in
the independence movement,
the government started keeping
a close watch. Consequently he
shifted to Calcutta at the age of
seventeen in search of a
livelihood. At the age of
eighteen, he started focusing his
attention on the flute. Ghosh
realised that a bigger flute's pitch
and sonority would be more
appropriate for both classical and
light music. Ghosh experimented
with various materials including
metal and different types of
wood, and decided on using
bamboo. He finally settled on a
flute which was thirty two inches
long. [2]
↑Jump back a section
Career
Pannalal Ghosh jointly scoring
the background for “Aandhiyan”
in 1952 along with Ustad Ali
Akbar Khan and Pandit Ravi
Shankar.[6] He was the first to
introduce the seven hole flute.
Disciples
Authentic list of Pt. Pannalal
Ghosh’s noteworthy students at
Calcutta contained Haripada
Choudhary, Aminur Rehman
(MintuDa), Fakirchanda Samanta,
Sudhanshu Choudhury, Mukul
Roy and Gaur Goswami. The
students at Bombay included
Tribhuvan Gondkar, Rasbihari
Desai, Devendra Murdeshwar,
V.G. Karnad, Chandrakant Joshi,
Mohan Nadkarni, Prabhakar
Nachane, Niranjan Haldipur,
Krishnarao D. Desai, Ramaprasad
Mukherjee, Mahesh Mastfakir,
Sharad Maholay, Bhailal Barot,
Suraj Narain Purohit and Hari
Chabria.
No comments:
Post a Comment