Pran Nath (musician)

For the particle physicist, see Pran Nath.

Pandit Pran Nath (Devanagari:पंडित प्राणनाथ) (3 November 1918 – 13 June 1996) was a Hindustani classical singer and teacher of the Kirana gharana (school), with a successful American career.

Early life

Pran Nath was born into a wealthy family in Lahore in present-day Pakistan. While avid devotees of music (inviting musicians into the house to perform nightly), the family did not approve of his desire to become a musician, so he left home at the age of 13 and took up residence with his guru the legendary (but reclusive) singer Abdul Wahid Khan of the Kirana gharana, cousin of the more widely-known Abdul Karim Khan, and stayed with him for nearly two decades. Both guru and disciple were much attracted to mysticism: Abdul Wahid Khan, a Muslim, to Sufism, and Nath, a Hindu, to a Shaivite sect in Dehra Dun. It is said that Nath lived in a cave near the Tapkeswhar temple to Shiva for five years, serving his guru intermittently. He eventually married and reentered the world at the request (guru dakshana) of his guru, in order to ensure the preservation of the Kirana style. In 1937, he became a staff artist with All India Radio.

However, Nath stuck to a very austere singing style – heavy emphasis on alap, and very slow tempi – which suited his voice well, but was not very popular to the modern Indian taste. Nath supported himself as a music teacher, and worked at the University of Delhi from 1960 to 1970.

Life in the United States

In that year, Nath's life took a drastic turn upon contact with American composer La Monte Young and visual artist Marian Zazeela, who heard his first issued recording, Earth Groove: The Voice of Cosmic India (released in 1968 on the budget Douglas label, a subsidiary of Laurie Records), and persuaded him to come to the United States. In 1972, he established his Kirana Center for Indian Classical Music in New York City and stayed in the U.S. for the rest of his life. He taught at several universities and above all attracted a strong following among the American minimalist composers. His students include Young, Zazeela, Terry Riley, Sargam Shah, Charlemagne Palestine, Henry Flynt, Jon Hassell, Douglas Leedy, Don Cherry, Lee Konitz, Jon Gibson, Yoshi Wada, Rhys Chatham, Michael Harrison, W. A. Mathieu, Sufi Pir Shabda Kahn, Catherine Christer Hennix, George Brooks (Saxophonist), and Simone Forti.

Nath made many recordings in the U.S., which are valuable documents of the Kirana style. Three recordings were released during his lifetime, Earth Groove, one by the Shandar label in France and the other by the Grammavision label in the US. Posthumously, Midnight a double CD (Just Dreams JD 003) with two full-length live recordings of the same bandishes in raga Malkauns from 1971 and 1976 was issued, as well as a CD The Raga Cycle published in 2006 on the Sri Moonshine label of a 1972 recording made in the Palace Theatre (Paris - France) of Ragas Shudh Sarang and Kut Todi.

Films

• 1986 - In Between the Notes: A Portrait Of Pandit Pran Nath. Produced by Other Minds. Directed by William Farley.
• 1995 - Musical Outsiders: An American Legacy - Harry Partch, Lou Harrison, and Terry Riley. Directed by Michael Blackwood.

External links

• MELA Foundation: Pandit Pran Nath
• 1986 - In Between the Notes: A Portrait Of Pandit Pran Nath. Directed by William Farley.
• On Pandit Pran Nath by Henry Flynt
• Other Minds: Pran Nath
• Pandit Pran Nath: Infinity’s Pathfinder By Marcus Boon
• Pandit Pran Nath: A Short Biography By Joan Allekotte
• Lord of the Drone: Pandit Pran Nath and the American Underground By Alexander Keefe