63.LIFE AT A LEISURELY PACE-1
Up a lazy river by the old mill run
The lazy, lazy river in the noon day sun
Linger in the shade of a kind old tree
Throw away your troubles
Dream a dream with me-ee
song by Hoagy Carmichael and Sidney Arodin, published in 1930.
Youngsters today cannot imagine what life was like before the advent of the cell phone, TV, Internet. These gadgets have added to the hurly burly of life. By providing superficial excitement over trifles, they distract us from better things, detract us from our own selves, constantly prompting us to look out, and lose ourselves in reactions.
ALL INDIA RADIO: CLASSICAL SLANT
Before the TV came to India in a big way in the 70s, films and radio were the two main channels for entertainment. Music lovers of all types became serious radio addicts. All India Radio provided excellent classical fare at fixed hours morning and evening. The Saturday night "National Programme of Music " was quite an event, eagerly awaited by music lovers. The yearly Radio Sangeet Sammelan concerts were live events. They were excellent programs, featuring great Indian artistes.Most artistes considered it an honour to be featured in these programs. They were available for free- we only had to pay a nominal annual licence fee to keep the radio set. As these programs were relayed by all the stations of AIR, the reception was usually good, though confined to MW. After cassette tape recorders came on the market, we could record the programs, and later edit and make our own tapes.
IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF LOVE-
IT WAS NOT FOR AIR!
Indian films usually had a strong music content- both by way of song sequences and in the background. [ This is a tradition carried over from the era of stage dramas, which were full of musical dialogues and interludes.] But lovers of film music had a hard time. AIR did not encourage film music under the notion that it was degenerate or something! So, film music fans had to turn to Radio Ceylon! And RC did offer wonderful fare- especially on Hindi movie songs. I was an addict through the 50s and 60s- listening 5-6 hours daily!. Their SW broadcast was reasonably good in most places, subject to weather.(and local power supply!)
But one needed a good radio receiver. Murphy, National Ekco, Telerad, Telefunken were good sets. Philips Novosonic models were superb!
Philips novosonic valve radio which we had at home.
There was something specially attractive about the Radio Ceylon features. The announcers- Gopal Sharma, Dharam Dhillon, Shiv Kumar Saroj were good, and there was a personal touch in the way they went about.
Pehli Tarikh- Kishore Kumar
Pic. from YouTube.
I particularly remember one incident. On the first of every month, they would invariably broadcast a song of Kishore Kumar about "Pehli Tarikh", from the film of the same name:
" Din hai suhana aaj pehli tarikh hai,
Khush hai zamana aaj pehli tarikh hai
Pehli tarikh aji pehli tarikh hai".
It is a beautiful day, today is the first of the month
The world is happy, it is the first of the month
First of the month,Oh dear, it is the first of the month!
This was quite a hilarious song, and long. The delightful music was composed by Sudhir Phadke, and Qamar Jalalabadi wrote the lyrics. It would be broadcast at 7.30 a.m on the first of every month! Once, they could not play the record fully and announced that the record had become worn out . And they requested the listeners to send them a good record if available with them! What a nice way to connect with lakhs of their listeners all over the world!
HINDI FILM MUSIC? GO TO RADIO CEYLON!
It was ironical that Radio Ceylon became the only source of broadcast of Indian film music which was becoming very popular, and in fact making people crazy! The then I&B Minister B.V.Keskar felt that Indian classical music was dwindling especially in North India, and that a newly Independent India on the road to development should not lose touch with its cultural heritage. He felt that Hindi film music was generally erotic and Westernized, with Western instruments predominating! He allotted very little time for film music . The songs were screened, just the singer's name was announced and the name of the film was not mentioned, as that would amount to advertisement! This ban came into force in 1952; the film industry opposed it and no songs were given to AIR to broadcast! Film music totally disappeared from AIR. So, Radio Ceylon grew, and grew!
GEETON KA TOOFAAN!
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ameen-Sayani.jpg
Perhaps its most popular and prestigious program was the Binaca Geet Mala. It ran for an hour every Wednesday night, from 1952 to 1988, with Ameen Sayani as the host! What a magical voice he had and the way he introduced the songs was exciting. We waited impatiently every week for Wednesday. It was a matter of prestige for the music director for his song to be included in it, as indicating its popularity among the public. But after the mid-60s I lost interest in it as the song quality declined, and vain hype soared.
Unfortunately,its very popularity led to malpractices. By 1956, some music directors started paying for inclusion of their songs. Or had to invoke the clout of the record company. Producers had to arrange with Radio Ceylon for pre-release publicity of their films, or their songs would not be aired, and those who did not stoop to that level found their songs missing! [Mughal E Azam songs were not aired for two weeks!]
[For details, see: Raju Bharatan: Naushadnama,2013; A Journey Down Melody Lane,2010.Both published by Hay House India.]
Book cover shown here for educational purpose.
A few of the favourite things!
The daily 7.30 to 8.00 a.m slot on old film songs, weekly features like 'Badalte Huwe Saathi', 'Do Pehlu, Do Rang, Do Geet', 'Jab Aap Gaa Uthe' were regular favourites. And the top of the fare was the Sunday night feature 'Hamesha jawan geeton' : Aap ke anurodh par. It would conclude by 11p.m. Immediately would follow the Ceylon National Anthem: Namo Namo Mata![ This anthem reportedly has an association with Rabindranath Tagore, either with its lyrics or music; in any case, its Srilankan author-Ananda Samarakoon- had studied under Tagore in Shantiniketan! The anthem was later changed, and Samarakoon committed suicide!]
AIR FALLS IN LINE!
AIR woke up late and bowed to the inevitable: in October 1957, they inaugurated Vividh Bharati to broadcast cine music.In 1962 it became commercial, accepting advertisements. It became popular, but could never match Radio Ceylon's performance in its heyday.
In retrospect, there is some justification for the stand of B.V.Keskar, though we need not go the whole hog with him. Over the years, our film music has become trash, crass and just empty sound. It has also debased public taste. But the irony is that in Kelkar's own day, our film music was good, often excellent, and quite a lot of it was based on our classical, semi-classical and folk music; it was just the orchestration that gave a new twist even to a classical or semi-classical melody! I wonder how Keskar missed this.
In fact, in that same year 1952 was released the film "Baiju Bawra" with wonderful songs all based on classical music! It is still ranked high by pundits and popular opinion alike. It so happens that the 1950s are regarded by connoisseurs as the golden period of our film music and those songs are enormously popular even now , thanks to YouTube. A student of music can easily discover that most of those songs which are still remembered 60 years later are mainly based on our own Classical Ragas! Many films have been lost and with them their music. By neglecting film music in the 50s, AIR did a great disservice to the country's musical heritage. It is damaging our heritage further by broadcasting all the current trash in the name of music!
When we develop a taste for music, we begin to dislike films. Often, the song is not picturised well, we may not like the actors. In the olden days we had to view the film to listen to the song fully, and its sound was also better. But now, we can enjoy the music separately.
Pic from panchamagic.org
ORCHESTRATION TO BLAME?
Orchestration can be annoying, or excessive or inappropriate in some situations. But good orchestration generally enhances the quality and appeal of the song. Remove the orchestration from some of the famous songs and see how bland they sound! We should also remember that masters of the Hindustani tradition have played instruments in our films- Pannalal Ghosh, Ustad Bismillah Khan, Shiv Kumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Zakir Hussain, Rais Khan - have all played for films! Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan played sitar for songs in such movies as Anarkali, Goonj Uthi Shehnai Jhanak Jhanak Payal Bhaje, Mughal E Azam, Kohinoor, etc. which are favourites even today. Pandit Ravi Shankar, Shiv-Hari, Allah Rakha , Ali Akbar Khan have composed film music too! Ustads Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Amir Khan and Pt. Bhimsen Joshi have sung in films!
Pic. from Scroll.in
When we talk of orchestration, we cannot forget the Goan musicians who played the various instruments and enriched our film music. Highly talented and trained in Western Classical music, with their knowledge of notations and other niceties like chords , they introduced many excellent features in our film music, like interludes, counter melody etc. These musicians enriched our film orchestration especially since the 50s.
The contributions of men like Anthony Gonsalves. Chic Chocolate and Sebastian D'Souza are immense.
Gonsalves demonstrating some violin technique.
Pic copyright status not known-shown here for purely educational purpose and as a tribute.
Sebastian D'Souza
Chic Chocolate, on his glorious trumpet!Pic from https://www.serendipityartsfestival.com/chic-chocolate/
These pictures are given here as these masters deserve to be acknowledged.
Our love for our classical music should not make us deaf and blind to the beauties of Western music. East or West, good music is God's gift.
FILM MUSIC- BRIDGE TO CLASSICAL MUSIC?
Not a Bridge Too Far!
There is weight and depth in classical music and sublime sophistication. It is not easy for the uninitiated to appreciate it, though most people have an ear for music. Good film music can easily serve as a bridge to more serious kind of music. But we need a guide even to appreciate good film music. Most of the old music directors in films were trained in classical music-vocal or instrumental and most singers too were trained. In those days of elementary recording technology, it was not a joke to compose a song based on a Raga and have it sung within just 3 or 4 minutes, which was the time limit for the old 78 rpm format. Yet many of those old songs still linger in our memory. Still, the most successful music directors in films have not been practising musicians, but those with a good understanding of music and its nuances.
Our old film composers could come up with many tunes in the same Ragas- literally scores. While it speaks of the deep roots and richness of our classical music, it also reveals the creative genius of our composers. It will come as a revelation for many if they know that some of the most popular songs are based on Ragas.
Some examples:
Song Film Raga Music Director
- Mera jutha hai japani ( Shri 420 ) Bhairavi Shanker Jaikishan
- Tu Ganga ki Mauj ( Baiju Bawra) Bhairavi Naushad
(Both these songs are based on the same Raga! But see the range and the mood! )
-Man re tu kahe na dhir dhare (Chitralekha) Yaman Roshan
-Panchi banun udthi phirun mast gagan mein (Chori Chori) Bhupali Shanker Jaikishan
-Chand phir nikla (Paying Guest )) Shudh Kalyan S.D.Burman
- Rasik balma (Chori Chori) Shudh Kalyan Shanker Jaikishan
( Again two songs based on the same Raga. See the subtle differences in the melody!That is the genius of our music directors.)
-Hum aaj kahin dil kho baithe ( Andaz-1949) Jaijaiwanti Naushad
-Zindagi Usi ki hai (Anarkali) Kaafi-Kirwani-Bhimpalasi- a fantastic mix! C.Ramchandra
- Main pagal, mera manwa pagal (Ashiana) Kedar Madan Mohan
-Sau bar janam lenge Ustadon Ke Ustad Durbari kanada Ravi
-Kuch toh log kahenge Amar Prem Khamaj R.D.Burman
-So gaya sara zamana Miss Mary Pahadi Hemant Kumar
- Zindagi kwab hai Jagte Raho Pilu Salil Chaudhary
It is not my intention to give an elaborate list. I just wanted to show that from the veteran composers to the modern ones, they have all given us gems based on Ragas. It is the modern style of orchestration that sometimes makes it difficult for us to discern the Raga! ( It is not that they copied or repeated the whole Raga- they just took the essential feature and wove their tunes round it. So they composed many tunes based on the same Raga! It will be fascinating to list the many songs in the same Raga!
Films have come to stay as a form of modern art- whether we like it or not. It is a distinguishing feature of Indian films that they incorporate music as an essential, not incidental, element. To the extent our music directors base their compositions on our traditional music- be it classical, semi-classical, folk- they are in fact extending their boundaries. They have to work within the logic and grammar of the film as a medium; but while the films fade, and the stars disappear, the music survives. This is what we are experiencing from the film music of the 50s. Poor Keskar did not understand this.
HMV- the most famous record music label we grew up with!
Shown here for purely historical interest.
http://oriental-traditional-music.blogspot.com/2016/11/vilayat-khan-sitar-imrat-khan-surbahar.html
The original painting. Francis Barraud painted Nipper, his brother's dog in 1899. This became the trademark of Victor Talking Machine Company.
Pic from Wikimedia Commons.
HAPPY LISTENING!
AIR is sitting on a huge pile of classical recordings by great masters. It did not make serious efforts to bring out audio tapes or CDs of those recordings, while much inferior stuff rained on the market. The AIR is really like the donkey carrying a load of camphor or sandal wood whose aroma or value it does not know! What else can we expect from bureaucrats? Here again, thanks to YouTube, we are able to listen to old masters- even whole concerts are available.
Our enjoyment of music in the 50s and 60s was leisurely. Life itself was a lot more leisurely : unhurried chase and unperturbed pace, as Francis Thompson would say. We were not rich, but contented and happy with simple things, knowing full well that we had no silver spoon on our tongue. Money still had real value. We enjoyed what we had, and did not pine for what was beyond reach. We were not taught to be competitive or tempted to imitate or envy our neighbour. Commercial advertisements did not tell us that we could not be happy without this drink or that toothpaste or this new gadget! So our mind was free of needless burdens to let us enjoy the things we had- and music was the best of them!
Man and dog listening to the radio!
Pic from Dreamtime.com
Our leisurely pace had two sides: the matter we enjoyed and the manner. Music was the finest of the fine arts we could enjoy: the more we heard, the more we wanted to hear! And we had all the time in the world! While a classical music concert would last over 4 hours in those days, we would normally spend 3 to 4 hours daily in front of the radio: yes, it had literally to be in front! And we had to be patient. It was a thrill to get your favourite song on the radio, as we could not choose what we liked, and what we heard lingered long in our ears! Today, music is on tap and for that very reason seems to have lost much of its charm! Above all, we do not have the leisure that serious music demands for appreciation!
Up a lazy river by the old mill run
The lazy, lazy river in the noon day sun
Linger in the shade of a kind old tree
Throw away your troubles
Dream a dream with me-ee
song by Hoagy Carmichael and Sidney Arodin, published in 1930.
Youngsters today cannot imagine what life was like before the advent of the cell phone, TV, Internet. These gadgets have added to the hurly burly of life. By providing superficial excitement over trifles, they distract us from better things, detract us from our own selves, constantly prompting us to look out, and lose ourselves in reactions.
ALL INDIA RADIO: CLASSICAL SLANT
IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF LOVE-
IT WAS NOT FOR AIR!
Indian films usually had a strong music content- both by way of song sequences and in the background. [ This is a tradition carried over from the era of stage dramas, which were full of musical dialogues and interludes.] But lovers of film music had a hard time. AIR did not encourage film music under the notion that it was degenerate or something! So, film music fans had to turn to Radio Ceylon! And RC did offer wonderful fare- especially on Hindi movie songs. I was an addict through the 50s and 60s- listening 5-6 hours daily!. Their SW broadcast was reasonably good in most places, subject to weather.(and local power supply!)
Philips novosonic valve radio which we had at home.
There was something specially attractive about the Radio Ceylon features. The announcers- Gopal Sharma, Dharam Dhillon, Shiv Kumar Saroj were good, and there was a personal touch in the way they went about.
Pic. from YouTube.
I particularly remember one incident. On the first of every month, they would invariably broadcast a song of Kishore Kumar about "Pehli Tarikh", from the film of the same name:
दिन है सुहाना आज पहली तारीख है - २ खुश है ज़माना आज पहली तारीख है पहली तारीख अजी पहली तारीख है
" Din hai suhana aaj pehli tarikh hai,
Khush hai zamana aaj pehli tarikh hai
Pehli tarikh aji pehli tarikh hai".
It is a beautiful day, today is the first of the month
The world is happy, it is the first of the month
First of the month,Oh dear, it is the first of the month!
This was quite a hilarious song, and long. The delightful music was composed by Sudhir Phadke, and Qamar Jalalabadi wrote the lyrics. It would be broadcast at 7.30 a.m on the first of every month! Once, they could not play the record fully and announced that the record had become worn out . And they requested the listeners to send them a good record if available with them! What a nice way to connect with lakhs of their listeners all over the world!
HINDI FILM MUSIC? GO TO RADIO CEYLON!
It was ironical that Radio Ceylon became the only source of broadcast of Indian film music which was becoming very popular, and in fact making people crazy! The then I&B Minister B.V.Keskar felt that Indian classical music was dwindling especially in North India, and that a newly Independent India on the road to development should not lose touch with its cultural heritage. He felt that Hindi film music was generally erotic and Westernized, with Western instruments predominating! He allotted very little time for film music . The songs were screened, just the singer's name was announced and the name of the film was not mentioned, as that would amount to advertisement! This ban came into force in 1952; the film industry opposed it and no songs were given to AIR to broadcast! Film music totally disappeared from AIR. So, Radio Ceylon grew, and grew!
GEETON KA TOOFAAN!
Perhaps its most popular and prestigious program was the Binaca Geet Mala. It ran for an hour every Wednesday night, from 1952 to 1988, with Ameen Sayani as the host! What a magical voice he had and the way he introduced the songs was exciting. We waited impatiently every week for Wednesday. It was a matter of prestige for the music director for his song to be included in it, as indicating its popularity among the public. But after the mid-60s I lost interest in it as the song quality declined, and vain hype soared.
Unfortunately,its very popularity led to malpractices. By 1956, some music directors started paying for inclusion of their songs. Or had to invoke the clout of the record company. Producers had to arrange with Radio Ceylon for pre-release publicity of their films, or their songs would not be aired, and those who did not stoop to that level found their songs missing! [Mughal E Azam songs were not aired for two weeks!]
[For details, see: Raju Bharatan: Naushadnama,2013; A Journey Down Melody Lane,2010.Both published by Hay House India.]
Book cover shown here for educational purpose.
A few of the favourite things!
The daily 7.30 to 8.00 a.m slot on old film songs, weekly features like 'Badalte Huwe Saathi', 'Do Pehlu, Do Rang, Do Geet', 'Jab Aap Gaa Uthe' were regular favourites. And the top of the fare was the Sunday night feature 'Hamesha jawan geeton' : Aap ke anurodh par. It would conclude by 11p.m. Immediately would follow the Ceylon National Anthem: Namo Namo Mata![ This anthem reportedly has an association with Rabindranath Tagore, either with its lyrics or music; in any case, its Srilankan author-Ananda Samarakoon- had studied under Tagore in Shantiniketan! The anthem was later changed, and Samarakoon committed suicide!]
AIR FALLS IN LINE!
AIR woke up late and bowed to the inevitable: in October 1957, they inaugurated Vividh Bharati to broadcast cine music.In 1962 it became commercial, accepting advertisements. It became popular, but could never match Radio Ceylon's performance in its heyday.
In retrospect, there is some justification for the stand of B.V.Keskar, though we need not go the whole hog with him. Over the years, our film music has become trash, crass and just empty sound. It has also debased public taste. But the irony is that in Kelkar's own day, our film music was good, often excellent, and quite a lot of it was based on our classical, semi-classical and folk music; it was just the orchestration that gave a new twist even to a classical or semi-classical melody! I wonder how Keskar missed this.
In fact, in that same year 1952 was released the film "Baiju Bawra" with wonderful songs all based on classical music! It is still ranked high by pundits and popular opinion alike. It so happens that the 1950s are regarded by connoisseurs as the golden period of our film music and those songs are enormously popular even now , thanks to YouTube. A student of music can easily discover that most of those songs which are still remembered 60 years later are mainly based on our own Classical Ragas! Many films have been lost and with them their music. By neglecting film music in the 50s, AIR did a great disservice to the country's musical heritage. It is damaging our heritage further by broadcasting all the current trash in the name of music!
When we develop a taste for music, we begin to dislike films. Often, the song is not picturised well, we may not like the actors. In the olden days we had to view the film to listen to the song fully, and its sound was also better. But now, we can enjoy the music separately.
ORCHESTRATION TO BLAME?
Orchestration can be annoying, or excessive or inappropriate in some situations. But good orchestration generally enhances the quality and appeal of the song. Remove the orchestration from some of the famous songs and see how bland they sound! We should also remember that masters of the Hindustani tradition have played instruments in our films- Pannalal Ghosh, Ustad Bismillah Khan, Shiv Kumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Zakir Hussain, Rais Khan - have all played for films! Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan played sitar for songs in such movies as Anarkali, Goonj Uthi Shehnai Jhanak Jhanak Payal Bhaje, Mughal E Azam, Kohinoor, etc. which are favourites even today. Pandit Ravi Shankar, Shiv-Hari, Allah Rakha , Ali Akbar Khan have composed film music too! Ustads Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Amir Khan and Pt. Bhimsen Joshi have sung in films!
The contributions of men like Anthony Gonsalves. Chic Chocolate and Sebastian D'Souza are immense.
Pic copyright status not known-shown here for purely educational purpose and as a tribute.
Sebastian D'Souza
Chic Chocolate, on his glorious trumpet!Pic from https://www.serendipityartsfestival.com/chic-chocolate/
These pictures are given here as these masters deserve to be acknowledged.
Our love for our classical music should not make us deaf and blind to the beauties of Western music. East or West, good music is God's gift.
FILM MUSIC- BRIDGE TO CLASSICAL MUSIC?
Not a Bridge Too Far!
There is weight and depth in classical music and sublime sophistication. It is not easy for the uninitiated to appreciate it, though most people have an ear for music. Good film music can easily serve as a bridge to more serious kind of music. But we need a guide even to appreciate good film music. Most of the old music directors in films were trained in classical music-vocal or instrumental and most singers too were trained. In those days of elementary recording technology, it was not a joke to compose a song based on a Raga and have it sung within just 3 or 4 minutes, which was the time limit for the old 78 rpm format. Yet many of those old songs still linger in our memory. Still, the most successful music directors in films have not been practising musicians, but those with a good understanding of music and its nuances.
Our old film composers could come up with many tunes in the same Ragas- literally scores. While it speaks of the deep roots and richness of our classical music, it also reveals the creative genius of our composers. It will come as a revelation for many if they know that some of the most popular songs are based on Ragas.
Some examples:
Song Film Raga Music Director
- Mera jutha hai japani ( Shri 420 ) Bhairavi Shanker Jaikishan
- Tu Ganga ki Mauj ( Baiju Bawra) Bhairavi Naushad
(Both these songs are based on the same Raga! But see the range and the mood! )
-Man re tu kahe na dhir dhare (Chitralekha) Yaman Roshan
-Panchi banun udthi phirun mast gagan mein (Chori Chori) Bhupali Shanker Jaikishan
-Chand phir nikla (Paying Guest )) Shudh Kalyan S.D.Burman
- Rasik balma (Chori Chori) Shudh Kalyan Shanker Jaikishan
( Again two songs based on the same Raga. See the subtle differences in the melody!That is the genius of our music directors.)
-Hum aaj kahin dil kho baithe ( Andaz-1949) Jaijaiwanti Naushad
-Zindagi Usi ki hai (Anarkali) Kaafi-Kirwani-Bhimpalasi- a fantastic mix! C.Ramchandra
- Main pagal, mera manwa pagal (Ashiana) Kedar Madan Mohan
-Sau bar janam lenge Ustadon Ke Ustad Durbari kanada Ravi
-Kuch toh log kahenge Amar Prem Khamaj R.D.Burman
-So gaya sara zamana Miss Mary Pahadi Hemant Kumar
- Zindagi kwab hai Jagte Raho Pilu Salil Chaudhary
It is not my intention to give an elaborate list. I just wanted to show that from the veteran composers to the modern ones, they have all given us gems based on Ragas. It is the modern style of orchestration that sometimes makes it difficult for us to discern the Raga! ( It is not that they copied or repeated the whole Raga- they just took the essential feature and wove their tunes round it. So they composed many tunes based on the same Raga! It will be fascinating to list the many songs in the same Raga!
HMV- the most famous record music label we grew up with!
Shown here for purely historical interest.
http://oriental-traditional-music.blogspot.com/2016/11/vilayat-khan-sitar-imrat-khan-surbahar.html
The original painting. Francis Barraud painted Nipper, his brother's dog in 1899. This became the trademark of Victor Talking Machine Company.
Pic from Wikimedia Commons.
HAPPY LISTENING!
AIR is sitting on a huge pile of classical recordings by great masters. It did not make serious efforts to bring out audio tapes or CDs of those recordings, while much inferior stuff rained on the market. The AIR is really like the donkey carrying a load of camphor or sandal wood whose aroma or value it does not know! What else can we expect from bureaucrats? Here again, thanks to YouTube, we are able to listen to old masters- even whole concerts are available.
Our enjoyment of music in the 50s and 60s was leisurely. Life itself was a lot more leisurely : unhurried chase and unperturbed pace, as Francis Thompson would say. We were not rich, but contented and happy with simple things, knowing full well that we had no silver spoon on our tongue. Money still had real value. We enjoyed what we had, and did not pine for what was beyond reach. We were not taught to be competitive or tempted to imitate or envy our neighbour. Commercial advertisements did not tell us that we could not be happy without this drink or that toothpaste or this new gadget! So our mind was free of needless burdens to let us enjoy the things we had- and music was the best of them!
Pic from Dreamtime.com
Our leisurely pace had two sides: the matter we enjoyed and the manner. Music was the finest of the fine arts we could enjoy: the more we heard, the more we wanted to hear! And we had all the time in the world! While a classical music concert would last over 4 hours in those days, we would normally spend 3 to 4 hours daily in front of the radio: yes, it had literally to be in front! And we had to be patient. It was a thrill to get your favourite song on the radio, as we could not choose what we liked, and what we heard lingered long in our ears! Today, music is on tap and for that very reason seems to have lost much of its charm! Above all, we do not have the leisure that serious music demands for appreciation!
