On "Swara"

I have heard Yunus Hussain Khan saheb extensively on Delhi AIR. He had a voice which was very attractive and not dry like other Agra Gharana singers. I always welcomed his round toned voice and his straight forward presentation. Of course later as I progressed I understood the sincerity of other Agra Gharana masters like Faiyaz Khan Saheb, Vilayat Hussain Khan saheb and others. I then started bothering only for their "swara" and stopped worrying about round tones etc.

In fact I came to feel that too sweet a tone hides something which is not agreeable. Let's take for instance a popular musician - I will call him X. X has a wonderful voice. His presentations are very carefully prepared and tone is given very high importance. However I never felt comfortable with his singing. I felt being misled. I was never stirred emotionally when he sang. Every thing was all right but still something was missing and I took a lot of time to understand what really was missing. I later understood he lacked "swara" (as understood by me through Raghava R Menon). 'Swa' means self and 'Ra' means shine.

The music in which 'self' shines is 'swara'. It is truthful to the extent of experience undergone and 'samskarams' received and blessings obtained from the guru. Such people do not have different voices for music and simple talking. Their talking voice and singing voice are the same. For them singing is talking and talking is singing. Being with them, one experiences their honest experiences of raga evocation. There is nothing like wrong or right in ragas. All the texts give only one side of the story. Ragas are like exalted beings. Some may experience different moods by evoking the same raga and this depends upon their own destiny and the heritage absorbed by the individual. This is applicable for fine arts as well as any other skill be it management or driving. The texts only provide a certain method for identifying and it is something like the sizes of shirts and pants. Certainly correctly identifying sizes of pants or shirts do not form any idea of the person who wears them. Similarly all the music books can only give some idea to the extent of their experience and knowledge of the respective authors and nothing more.

It requires additional intrinsic experience to understand and evoke a raga and this is completely depends upon one's sadhana, destiny and samskaram received. That is why I never bother about a critic who says so much about style or gharana. I simply go by my honest feeling and discount to the extent of my own pardha which might have fallen when I listen due to so many factors and prejudices.