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Instrumental album launched at the German Cultural Centre

6 May 2004, 18:00 PM
LIFESTYLE
By Elita Karim
6 May 2004, 18:00 PM
An album titledA Touch of Love, a first ever instrumental theme musical album in the country, was launched recently at the German Cultural Centre. The function was jointly organised by the Ustad Ayet Ali Sangeet Niketon and Surer Mela Products. Michel Lummaux, the Ambassador of the Republic of France to Bangladesh was the chief guest while Saiful Bari, Chief Advisor ATN Bangla was the special guest. Mobarak Hossain Khan, President of the Ustad Ayet Ali Khan Sangeet Niketon and Chairman, Trustee board, Nazrul Institute presided over the function, which was dedicated to the memory of Maestro Ustad Abed Hossain Khan, son of Ustad Ayet Ali Khan, on account of his eighth death anniversary.

The album, by Reenath Fawzia, consists of traditional classical music termed as Hindustani music as well as modern compositions based on a variety of themes. Instruments like the violin, flute, keyboard, tabla and the drums accompanied the sitar, the leading instrument in the album.

Theme-based music compositions played on sitar have featured for the first time in Bangladesh. Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar and Anand Shankar, however, experimented with similar kinds of compositions in India. These compositions are a blend of modern melodies and also the age-old traditional music of the country.

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The first composition in the album titled Greetings has both the tabla and the drums. A bit of saxophone is also used in the interlude

The second composition is the title track, a mixed melody based on dadra, a traditional rhythm of six beats, followed by the next two compositions extracted from folk melodies of our country. One of the numbers in the album even used modern instruments and reproduced the age-old folk tunes.

The last composition is based on the raga piloo. Based on this raga a melody was created on jhaptaal, a rhythm of 10 beats. The sitar has been played on two ragas, one on kirwani and the other on mixed kafi.