{"id":3910,"date":"2017-11-26T07:28:54","date_gmt":"2017-11-26T01:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=3910"},"modified":"2017-11-26T12:14:07","modified_gmt":"2017-11-26T06:44:07","slug":"calcutta-sonata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/calcutta-sonata\/","title":{"rendered":"Calcutta Sonata – The City\u2019s Sustained Love Affair with the Piano"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"'Calcutta

The poster of Subha Das Mollick’s Calcutta Sonata<\/p><\/div>\n

Calcutta Sonata<\/em> recently premiered at the 23rd<\/sup> Kolkata International Film Festival (November 2017).\u00a0 It is an exquisite and very fascinating film about the city\u2019s sustained love affair with the piano.\u00a0 Subha Das Mollick, the Director, explores the history of the piano\u2019s reception in Calcutta with an expert and delicate touch. \u00a0From the opening screen shots viewers are taken back to Calcutta of the past, a city of fine mansions built in Western style replete with windows of stained glass evoking the opulent living many enjoyed and the rich musical heritage.<\/p>\n

The subject of the film is introduced through an arresting image of the first piano being hoisted by ship onto Calcutta\u2019s marshy shores.\u00a0 A memorable black and white sketch of an elephant dangling from a crane morphs in a few frames to become a piano to suggest the cultural transformation and exchange that occurred when East met West.<\/p>\n

Moving effortlessly between the past and the present we see that the piano is much played and appreciated across the City. The impressive and rather cumbersome instrument charmed the Bengali public and produced a rich conversation between Western and Indian music. \u00a0Through a series of interviews we are introduced to past and present piano performers and teachers, classical piano players and jazz performers, and those experts that can restore piano.<\/p>\n

\"Braganza

At the Braganza’s workshop: A worker gives a healing touch to an old piano<\/p><\/div>\n

F Rachals crafted pianos in Hamburg, Germany since 1832, and also made the Mercedes car. While most pianos came to Calcutta from Britain, the grand piano in the old Great Eastern Hotel came from this illustrious maker.\u00a0 It was the centerpiece in what used to be the legendary Maxim\u2019s Bar.\u00a0 \u00a0When the hotel was bought the new proprietors found the dilapidated piano in an old trunk.\u00a0 Recognizing it as vintage they determined to restore the piano to its initial glory.\u00a0 They entrusted the broken down piano to the care of Braganzas who restored it beautifully. Today the piano holds pride of place in the lobby of the hotel.\n<\/ol>\n

To retrieve so many wonderful tales about the piano in Calcutta, the director conducted meticulous research from historical archives and through extensive discussions with music lovers across the City.\u00a0 They share their knowledge in conversations and short musical interludes that run through the film.\u00a0 \u00a0Some of the music teachers, pianists and music scholars who appear in the film include Jyotishka Dasgupta, Fauzia Mariker, Devajit Bandyopadhyay, Sarbananda Chowdhuri, Sourendra Mullick, Debabrata Mitra, Abhijit Patranobis and Sarvani Gooptu. \u00a0Interviewing them reconnected the director with some old acquaintances.\u00a0 She recalls attending Abhijit Patranobis\u2019s piano recital in Delhi\u2019s Hindu College back in 1975.\u00a0 At that time, the young Patranobis, representing St. Xavier\u2019s College, Calcutta, had played the piano like an Indian classical instrument.<\/p>\n

\"19th

In the 19th Century, the piano entered the well to do Bengali homes<\/p><\/div>\n

Through the course of the film we learn many other interesting details about the piano in Calcutta.\u00a0 For example, in the late eighteenth century English men and women in Calcutta enjoyed musical soirees. British Indian painters like Solvyns and Zoffany included such images in their paintings where they painted ladies sitting in gardens with harpsichords.\u00a0 Just like the paintings, old advertisements were scoured to provide evidence of the musical inclinations of Calcutta residents. There is a 19th<\/sup> Century advertisement featured with a pianola on sale for Rs. 450\/-. \u00a0A pianola, a self-playing piano, was popular in many Bengali homes.<\/p>\n

Some Europeans encountered Indian music when attending musical evenings organized by Calcutta\u2019s rich babus <\/em>and were interested in exploring ways to adapt it Western musical structures. The transcription of Indian musical notes and tunes gave rise to Hindustani Airs. The Oriental Miscellany, published in 1879, contains the notations of these Hindustani airs.<\/p>\n

We learn from Devajit Bandyopadhyay, a music scholar, that Gerasim Stepanovich Lebedev, a Russian musician, wrote and staged Kalponik Sangbadal<\/em>.\u00a0 This Bengali play included a Bengali song set to Western musical instruments.\u00a0\u00a0 Another innovative feature Lebedev introduced to the theater-going experience in Calcutta was a musical interlude. \u00a0What was especially relevant to the film was that this was the performance where the Bengali audience first heard the piano.<\/p>\n

\"Satyajit

Miss Gilby (Jennifer Kendal) teaches the piano to Bimala (Swatilekha Chatterjee) in Satyajit Ray’s Ghare Baire<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Whereas Lebedev was the first to introduce the piano to Bengali audiences it was William Carey, a Baptist missionary, who in his efforts to convert Bengalis to Christianity recognized the power of music.\u00a0 He translated gospel songs to music that Bengalis sang in church, where the piano was used as an accompaniment.\u00a0 This made the piano a widely heard and familiar instrument to many Bengalis across social strata.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, it was the Tagore family that adapted the piano to Indian music.\u00a0 Jyotindranath Tagore composed many tunes on the piano and Rabindranath put words to the music.\u00a0 Quintessentially cosmopolitan Rabindranath borrowed and liberally adapted Western tunes for his musical compositions.\u00a0 This became a trend in nineteenth century Bengal.\u00a0 Tagore\u2019s contemporary, Dwijendralal Roy, thought that Western chord structures and the straight and jump notes could overcome the monotony of Indian music. Dr. Sarvani Gooptu, a specialist in Dwijendralal\u2019s music, treated viewers to a plaintive rendering of some of his songs.<\/p>\n

\"Fauzia

Fauzia Mariker creates music in her own home<\/p><\/div>\n

The piano became a popular instrument in affluent Bengali homes. Bengali women learning to play the piano as we indeed know from several of Satyajit Ray films like Charulata<\/em> and Ghare Baire<\/em>.\u00a0 Jews, Parsees and Anglo Indians also played the piano and performed in public.\u00a0 Bernard Jacob conducted the renowned Philharmonic Orchestra of Calcutta. The piano was also a popular instrument in movie-halls, play-houses and in restaurants. Deepak Puri of Trincas talks about how Park Street till the 1960\u2019s never had offices.\u00a0 It was the fashionable street famous for up-scale residences, restaurants and bookshops. Carlton Kitto, probably in his last interview on camera, reminisces, \u201cThose days Park Street was like Hollywood. Music poured out from the restaurants.\u201d \u00a0Many well-known performers from Calcutta, such as Fauzia Mariker, Jyotishka Dasgupta, Debabrata Mitra and their students have contributed their own particular strains of music to the Calcutta Sonata<\/em> composition.<\/p>\n

The rich history, insights into the dialogue between Indian and Western music, interspersed with beautiful images of the city, together with many wonderful musical phrases, makes the movie-watching experience richly textured. \u00a0It is a sensory and intellectual treat.<\/p>\n

More to read<\/strong><\/p>\n

10 Most Favourite Salil Chowdhury Songs: Indian Melodies, Western Harmonies<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bengal\u2019s Music and Its Influence in Hindi Film Music<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fifty Years Ago: Films and Music of 1965<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The piano is essentially a Western musical instrument. Yet, since the 19th century, the affluent strata of Calcutta slowly got introduced to it, thanks to the British rulers. The piano soon became an integral part of Calcutta’s culture and over a period of time it produced a rich conversation between Western and Indian music. Stalwarts like Rabindranath Tagore and Dwijendralal Roy adopted the piano to Indian music and that has its effect on the early westernization of Bengali songs and music.<\/p>\n

Documentary film-maker and critic Subha Das Mollick’s Calcutta Sonata<\/em> looks at this fascinating aspect of the city\u2019s sustained love affair with the piano – a review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":873,"featured_media":3917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[420],"tags":[1954,33,1957,1956,36,1955],"class_list":["post-3910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indian-film-reviews","tag-calcutta-sonata","tag-charulata","tag-early-bengali-theatre","tag-gerasim-stepanovich-lebedev","tag-ghare-baire","tag-subha-das-mollick"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/873"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}