 Baba Allauddin Khan was born to a wealthy and cultured family in Bangladesh in 1862.
As a youth he learned tabla and violin with his brother, Fakir
Aftabuddin (a singer and drummer, who was later to popularize
the dotara and the flute as classical instruments). At the age
of 8, he ran away from home to Calcutta, and started to study
singing with Gopal Chandra Bhattacharya. With this famous singer,
he studied only exercises and technique for twelve years. One
day his brother came to call him home, for his family had arranged
his marriage to an 8 year old child. He agreed to respect his
parent's wishes, but he left his bride on the wedding night and
returned to Calcutta. There he found that his guru had died suddenly
during his short absence.Dejected, he turned from vocal to instrumental music. He began to study a variety of instruments: violin, clarinet, piano shenai, and drums - this list would grow to encompass 200 kinds of wind, string, and percussion instruments. Habul Datta, the brother of Swami Vivekananda, was among his teachers, as was Mr. Robert Lobo, the conductor of the Eden Garden Orchestra in Calcutta, who with his wife taught Allauddin Khan western classical music, and Hazari, the shenai player. He started playing at various theater, opera and music halls, until one day he heard a master musician performing on the sarode. Unable to study with this sarodist, he journeyed to Rampur where he studied under Wazir Khan of the Tansen family. The Mian Tansen family traces its lineage to Tansen, the musical genius of the 16th century Mughal emperor Akbar's court, who is considered the source of North Indian music. For forty years, he learned dhrupad, other styles of singing, as well as sarod, sursringar, rabab, and other instruments. He became court musician to the Maharajah of Maihar and a musical legend in his lifetime. He organized the Maihar band with 100 orphan children that he brought to his house and taught strings, brass, bagpipes and drums. The band was a pioneer in the orchestration of Indian musical isntruments and a true combination of Eastern and Western ideas. His teaching method and style, though strict, was lucid and successful at turning out accomplished musicians. His students included his son, Ali Akbar Khansahib, his daughter Annapurna Devi, his son-in-law Ravi Shankar, Timir Baran, the Maharajah of Maihar, and others. Respected throughout India as a father of music, he created hundreds of ragas and tala through combination, revitalization, and sheer invention. He has left a legacy of thousands of compositions. |
|
|
|
|
Ali Akbar College of Music
215 West End Avenue, San Rafael, CA 94901
Tel. (415) 454-6264
©2005 AACM