There was one thing in Sajha that always left me unquenched and often irritated. And that was to hear one-liner commentaries about the works of Nepali musicians by their fans. Having not much access to Nepali music and a lot of skepticism carried over from the initial phase of Nepali pop, I always wanted to hear more about them, exactly what our music fans liked or did not like about a particular work, worker or group. But in Sajha, it never went aboveWow, Cool and Great.

To my great relief and I believe of many who were as thirsty as I were, here is a relatively comprehensive review of Nepali music by the one and only in DC, Dr. Anup Pahari, in Himal Khabarpatrika.

I remember one of my conversations on this topic with Anup in which I was sharing my frustration that I personally have not found a single song that penetrates my heart with its music and word- among the hits and releases of the past decade that I have access to. I am talking about a perfect song- a flawless piece without a single millisecond of boring moment, with words that penetrate you, elevate you to a higher plane. That kind of song. Do you have any ?

Okay, that's not what is in this review. But it is a great piece for those who wants to learn about the current situation of Nepali music.

The only thing I see missing is about the song-writers and lyrics from a literary point of view. Perhaps that was not a part of this review. Ghazalkar bhaye pachhi aafno dherai chaaso tesaima hune pheri.

Anyway, enjoy a commendable and good work by Dr. Anup Pahari.

( - http://www.nepalihimal.com/2061/mansir-1-15/nepali_sangeet_bishleshan.htm )

There are so many computer savy people in Sajha. It will be great if somebody can convert it to unicode and post that to this thread.

OK, now that my real work is completed, I can finally turn some attention to good ole Sajha.com.

****

Nepe

who's incapable of speaking ill of his personal and ideological friends no matter how many mistakes they commit while fully capable of twisting the words of those who disagree with his ideas and against whom he's prepared to throw a sense of fair play out of the window to ridicule them beyond recognition,

grandlly pronounces that this piece published in Himal Khabar Patrika (HKP) is a "relatively comprehensive review" of Nepali music . . . compared to, well, what
one normally gets on Sajha.com -- no doubt, a worthy rival of HKP!

In this vein, next time, let's go a step further, and start comparing Sajha discussions
on democracy to, well, articles appearing in where else but The Journal of
Democracy! :-)

****

With no offense to Anup, it's fair to say that HKP's editors in Nepal, who love to have their cover stories researched and written NOT by ordinary mortals known as mere journalists but by credential-wielding "social scientists" (who are supposed to give us
a thoughtful interpretation of what's going on in our society) MISLED us readers by publishing what amounts to, to borrow own Anup's words, "a celebratory [aside: my undiplomatic phrase was: a rah-rah piece] rather than an openly critical piece" in the guise of 'social-science-for-masses'.

I mean, HKP editors could have given the CONTEXT out of which this piece came out, and that would have been honest enough.

Again, what happened was NOT Anup's fault. And my comments here add up to a suggestion to the editors not to raise their readers' expectations unnecessarily!

That said, I thought that there is ENOUGH celebration about Nepali music and musicians in magazines such as NEPAL, KAMANA, AHA-SANGEET, BIMOCHAN and others.

What is missing is a discussion of what this so-called resurgence of Nepali music means.

oohi
ashu

In my earlier posting (see way above!), I mentioned these as glaringly missing in Anup's celebratory piece.

a) An easier availability of technology to produce and distribute music.

b) A rise in the number of distribution channels: FM radio stations, concerts, Nepali movies, etc.

c) A changing demography: more younger people in Nepal now as a per centage of its population than ever before.

Anup said that while he did not have much to say about (c), he did make references to (a) and (b).

I would have expected more, but, OK, given the nature of the piece,


******


But since I know and respect Anup personally -- and my comments here need to be seen as an effort to sharpen the kura-kani on Nepali music (of which I have remained a fan ever since I heard Deepak Kharel's 'Timro tyo hasilo muhar ko' way back in 1977 when
I was kid), I hope he does pen a much longer piece on Nepali music someday.

But some observations:

1) The piece seems to be about Nepali musicians than about Nepali music. There are many referneces to musicians, but few to their songs.

2) The piece even reads like a chrono-genealogical piece . . . as in who came in after who . That's a style which is much favored by our literary historians whose whole idea
of doing literary history is endlessly lining up -- in a chronological order -- Bhanubhakta, Moti Ram, Devkota, Bhupi Sherchan and so on and on THAN in interpreting/critiquing those writers' work.

oohi
ashu

3) Anup says that "बजारमा सफल पनि हुन्छ भन्ने कुरा चाल पाएका छन्", but gives us
no estimated figures on the size of this बजार or even its growth rate, let alone the growth rates by categories such as lok, pop, rap, bhajan and so on.

In Kathmandu, my own observation was that MANY Nepali artists do NOT well in the market; but some do spectacularly well, thereby allowing the record companies to recoup their investments and hopefully make some profit. Let's not forget that for every successful Nima Rumba, there are many one-album bands/singers who lose money
for the record companies. The bajaar, is anything, has become ruthless and fiercely competitive.

4) Anup wrote: "नेपाली आधुनिक सङ्गीत भन्नाले सन् १९५० को दशकदेखि रेडियो नेपालले प्रसारण गरेको सबै सङ्गीतलाई मान्न सकिन्छ, जो पर्ूववर्ती विधा जस्तै लोक, भजन इत्यादिमा आधारित थिएनन्"

Well, by this definition, would a so-called Rastriya Geet like "Hati Haina Dati Ladnay Nepali ko baani hooncha" qualify as an aadhunik geet because it's neither a bhajan or
a lok geet and was transmitted by Radio Nepal?

I am not sure.

I would characterise Nepali "aadhunik geet" more as 'period music' (or as one of my friends says "hamro paalaa ko geet) than get hung up on the precise meaning of the word 'aadhunik.

As such, I would define "aadhunik geet" much more narrowly but in a user-friendly way as in those geet that were:

a) played on Radio Nepal (usually on its "far.ma.yashi geet karyakram") from 1976 to 1990;

b) non-'filmi' (remember, 1976 to 1990 was a period when there was no Kollywood like
it is today!)

c) ALWAYS being about romantic love/loss and longing for love kind of songs.

And some representative artists would be:
Deepak Kharel (timro tyo hasilo muhar ko),
Deep Shrestha (biteka kuralay),
Prakash Shrestha (pratikshya gara, meri mayalu) ),
Om Bikram Bista (ma maun ta aljhi rahay ko),
Arun Thapa (Ritu haruma),
Sukmit Gurung (o mero priyatam) and so on.

I have always felt that Sanjay Shrestha's smash-hit "maya meri maya' (circa 1992) was
the most memorable BRIDGE between those aadhunik Nepali geet of Kharel, Shresthas et al from the late 70s and the '80s and the pop songs that started coming in droves in the '90s.

oohi
ashu

Anup wrote:

"आखिर सङ्गीतको मूल्याङ्कन गर्दा कुन 'मिसावट' र कुन 'शुद्ध' भनी पहिल्याउनुको साटो कुन सुन्दा राम्रो लाग्छ र कुन सुन्दा राम्रो लाग्दैन भन्ने महसूस गर्नु पर्दछ । अमेरिकी ज्याज्का प्रख्यात पर््रवर्तक ड्यूक एलिङ्गटन्ले भने जस्तै, "सुन्दाखेरि राम्रो लाग्छ भने त्यसलाई राम्रै भन्नु पर्?यो... ।"

Is this quote not out of context?

If I am not mistaken, Duke was talking NOT to the audience but to other musicians about what to look for in music. That's why Duke also said, ""The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.?

Else, Duke's quotation might, in our case, place irrepressible Dhiraj Rai way ahead of Ambar Gurung :-)

****

Moreover, Anup,

In future, you might also want to talk about the effects of instruments of modernism such as MTV, Channel V and so on have on Nepali music. Music videos have become
sine qua non for marketing purposes. The cost of making, producing and distributing music is going up and up.

Also, music piracy remains a big issue in Nepal.

oohi
ashu

Finally, Nepali music seems to mean primarily Nepali-bhasa music. But I have noticed that there has been a resurgence of Newari pop and Newari geet in recent years. Apparently, there are also Gurung geet and songs too and Limbu songs too.

So:

When talking about Nepali music now, is it not time to start talking about music/songs composed and played in languages other than Nepali-bhasa as Nepali music too?

Finally, why are Nepali songs primarily about romantic love and tragic loss of a lover?
Why gainays in our villages have turned local news/events into flowing songs, why is
it that the commercial Nepali songs remain stuck in the romance land?

Also, for a male-dominated society like ours, why is that most of these songs tend to portray men as stoic sufferers (such as Bhakta Raj's "jati chot dinchau deu mayalu" and Prakash Shrestha's "timro tyo safal jindagi, yo abhaagee ko badhai cha" and so on)?

oohi
ashu

Alright..a question for you guys.

Radio Nepal used to catgorize their Nepali songs into Adhunik, Purana, Lok, Rashtriye etc. I am trying to categorize my nepali collection of MP3s into a DB (ID3 tagging) and I am stumped. Would you call a Bacchhu Kailash song "Adhunik" or "Purano?"

15 barsha aghi ko geet adhunik ki purano? How about 30?

Just wondering...

अनूप जी,

प्रतिकृया दिने अमूल्य समय दिनु भएकोमा आभारी छु।
तपाइँले उल्लेख गरे जस्तै दफाको सबै अँश त मैले उल्लेख गरिन तर आशय भने त्यस्तै थियो । जुन तपाईले दादा गिरीलाई दिएको प्रतिकृयाको अन्त्यमा पनि दोहोर्याउन खोज्नु भएको छ। त्यस भन्दा अगाडि म बिचमा प्रस्तुत गरिएका प्रसगंहरुमा पनि टिप्पणी गरौँ ।

Anup Jee worte:
म आफु ठेट पश्चिमी लोकगितको भक्त भएतापनि कुनै ब्याण्ड ले बडो तरिका र स्वादिलो ढंगले झ्याउरे, कौडा, चुड्का भाकामा गाना संयोजन गरेर मजाले गाएको छ भने म त्यसमा रमाऊँछु, पुर्वेलि लोकगितका पारखिहरु (र आम नेपाली) खिम गुरुगंको एकादशी बजारैमा मा रमाए जस्तै।

यसमा १६ आना सहमत हुन सकिन्छ।
खिम गुरुगंको गित सुनेर कुनै बिधालाई कुनै बिधामा ढालेको भन्न त सकिँदैन नि। वहाँले लोक गितलाई लोक गितकै रुपमा प्रतुत गर्न सक्नु भएको छ। पुर्वी पहाडको यस गितलाई आ नेपाली हरुले स्वागत गरे यस मानेमा कि यो गित सबैलाई कर्णपृय छ। ढेट पन पाइन्छ।
भाका मात्र लिने प्रयास गर्नु भएको छैन।
अझ गितको सुरुमा बहाँले बुढोको स्वरमा खोकेर झन ठेटपन थप्नु भएको छ जसले गितमा मिठास थपेको छ। अपभ्रसं गर्ने चेस्टापनि गरिएको छैन।
हैन त ?
मैले जोड दिएर भन्न खोजेको कुरा यही हो। भाका मात्र चोरेर अगाडि ल्याउने काम पनि त्यती सजिलो छैन, यसलाई मैले सुन भनेँ।
तर भाव र गहिराई नखल्बलाइकन प्रस्तुत गर्न सक्नुलाई मैले सुन मा सुगन्ध भन्ने खोजेको मात्र।
जुन कुरामा नेपथ्यको मैले उल्लेख गरेको गितमा कमजोरी महसुस गरेँ।
त्यति मत्रै हो।

Anup Jee wrote:
अन्तमा, नेपथ्य र उनका संगीतलाई मह्त्व दिने कि नदिने भन्ने विषयमा तपाई र मेरो लेखले भन्दा निकै प्रभावकारि रुपमा बजार, ग्राहक, संचार माध्यम र देशभरिका स्रोताजनले फैसला दिसकेका छन्,। नेपथ्य को भेडाको उन जस्तो प्रति उब्जेको देशव्यापि सकारात्मक मूल्याङ्कनसंग मेरो मुद्दा हैन, बरु पूर्ण समर्थन छ। तपाई मुद्दा दाखिल गर्नुहुन्छ भने त्यो तपाईको अधिकार हो। तर, संगीतप्रेमी साधारण नेपाली स्रोता यदि जुरि मा हुने हो भने तपाई यो मुद्दा पक्कै जित्नु हुन्न।

देशब्यापि रुपमा लोकपृय भइसकेकोले राम्रो छ भन्न त बच्चाले नि सक्छ नि बिश्लेषक किन चाहियो र । बिश्लेषकले त लोकपृय हुनु अगाडि नै बिश्लेषण गर्न सक्नु पर्यो नि।

यहाँनेर म एउटा प्रसंग उल्लेख गर्छु कुरालाई राजनितितिर मोड्न भने पटक्कै खोजेको हैन।
स्योगवस राजनेतिक उदाहरण पर्न गयो। अन्यथा नलिनि होला। त्यही ब्यक्ति ४६ सालको उप निर्वाचनमा उठ्दा अत्यधिक बहुमतले बिजयी भएर रा पं स भयो, २ वर्षपछि बहुदलीय ब्यबस्थामा उही उम्मेदवार, तिनै मतदाता, त्यही निर्वाचन क्षेत्रबाट ७८ मतमा चित्त बुझाउन पर्यो। जनभावनालाई अथवा श्रोताको भिडलाई, बिक्रि भएका क्यासेटको संख्याको आधार लिएर मुल्याकंन गर्न खोज्नु त बिश्लेषकको कमजोरी हैन र? मेले यसलाई सस्तो लोकपृयतासित तुलना गर्न खोजेव यस मानेमा कि यस्ता गितहरु सदाबहार हुन सक्दैनन्। यिनीहरुलाई अग्रपंक्तीमा राख्न खोज्नु सदाबहार गितहरुको अबमूल्यन गर्न खोज्नु हो।

समय दिएर छलफललाई जारी राख्नुभएकोमा अनुप जी लगायत सबैमा आभार!

दादा गिरी

पोस्टिगं तलमाथि परेछ।
कृपया
Posted on 12-10-04 8:57 PM दोस्रोमा पठ्नु होला।
धन्यबाद!

If my long conversation with Bacchu Kailash at a dinner at his house in 2002 is any guide, I would say that even Bacchu Dai would characterise his own songs as
"poorano" geet.

oohi
ashu

यो धागो संगीतको विषयमै केन्द्रित रहोस् भन्ने चाहन्छु म । आखिर यो धागो कातिएको नेपाली संगीतको वर्तमान अवस्थाको बारेमा अनुपको समिक्षालाई खुट्किलो बनाएर एउटा सानो छलफल चलोस् भन्नाको खातिर न हो । अनुपसंग मेरो जेजस्तो व्यक्तिगत सम्बन्ध भएपनि म यहां एक मामूली सन्देहवाहक मात्रै हुं । त्यतिजाबो हैसियतको मैले आशुको त्यत्रो टिप्पणी पाउने योग्यता शायदै राख्थें । जे भएपनि सम्बोधनै गरेर गरेको टिप्पणी भएकोले गैरसांगीतिक विषय नै हुन गए पनि संक्षिप्त जवाफ फर्काउनु नै उचित होला भनेर आशुको अदालतमा हाजिर भएको छु । हुन त कर्मपाको अदालतमै मूल मुद्धा सकिएको हो ।

Ashu wrote:
Nepe ?. grandlly pronounces that this piece published in Himal Khabar Patrika (HKP) is a "relatively comprehensive review" of Nepali music . . . compared to, well, what one normally gets on Sajha.com -- no doubt, a worthy rival of HKP!

Yes, I brought this review for Sajha viewers. Yes there are grand claims in my remarks and in the title I gave to the thread for local consumption in Kurakani. I don't see anything wrong with that, particularly after seeing 52 postings and the number 1799 recorded in the counter.

Now, would the characterization,"relatively comprehensive review", be inaccurate, inappropriate or intellectually dishonest, had it been for a formal forum, although that was not meant to be it originally ?

I doubt it would. I have not seen anybody so far, including Ashu and Karmapa, citing any existing REVIEW of Nepali Music which is more COMPREHENSIVE than Anup's.

Ashu and Karmapa, cite one example of reviews that proves, once for all, that Anup's review is not RELATIVELY COMPREHENSIVE one. Then I will retract my grand claim. Fair enough ?

Ashu also wrote:
Nepe who's incapable of speaking ill of his personal and ideological friends no matter how many mistakes they commit while fully capable of twisting the words of those who disagree with his ideas and against whom he's prepared to throw a sense of fair play out of the window to ridicule them beyond recognition,

I have not claimed a sainthood. My activity in Sajha includes both ideologically motivated and non-ideological one. So I do not rule out the possibility of my bias, prejudice and differential treatments to people. However, as far as facts are concerned, I have always, in my full awareness, been honest. I take pride in my honesty and opened-ness. These two are my only shree-sampati and I don't think I will ever lose them. ल खा, गयो अर्को ग्य्रान्ड क्लेम ।

And to those who thought I spoke very high of Anup Pahadi probably because we two are ideological friends, I invite them to the thread 'Dr. Anup PAhadi' Interview'

Reply to Ashu's second post:

Ashu, appreciate your rejoinder.

First, I sense that the subtext of the first portion of your response has to with preexisting animus vis a vis Nepe and HKB rather than with the piece I wrote. NEPE and HKB do a better job of sepaking for themselves that I ever could, so let me address only those issues that pertain directly to your comments on the write up of Nepali music and musicians I did for HKP.

First, at the risk of sounding like a stuck record, let me say that Ashu?s comments faults the piece for not being something it never tries to be. This was a piece on MUSIC -- not the sociology, politics, economics etc., of music. In fact I was making an effort not sound like a typical social scientist. Whatever ?social scientific? stuff I had to say I tried saying it in context of talking about the MUSIC.

Again, this was not intended to be a piece on how music looks from the market, media, demographic, social, political etc. etc. point of view. Rather it was an attempt primarily to look at Nepali music from a musical/performance point of view. Please judge it as such.

Now about Himal?s putative ?claim?. Ashu, I looked everywhere in the physical copy of the Himal that I have to see where the magazine billed my piece as ?social-science-for-masses?. I did not find any such or similar claim. So either this charge by you is based on insider info. , or else it is an assumption foisted by you rather than a charge earned by Himal. The article, at the very top, has the following Nepali phrase: ?Nepali Sangeet/Vishleshan?. What portion of that editorial logo do you wish to refute? That it?s not about Nepali music; or that it?s not analysis?

By now I am able to gather, of course, that it is not the type of analysis you would have expected/liked. But that does not cease to make it an analysis !! Please!

Reply to Ashu?s second post contd?

Now the part about ?enough celebration? and chronological rendition:
Music reviews come from all different angles. Some are only critical, some are only lauding; and some are both. Depends on the artists/albums reviewed and where the reviewer is coming from. But the one thing all reviews have in common is that they are about the music and about the musicians that create the music. Rolling Stone has not stopped publishing reviews of type "A" just because it has done so umpteen times before or because "spin" or "beat" magazines also do so on a regular basis. Frankly I don't get the logic here.

Instead of harping on what?s not in the review why don?t you engage with some of the issues the piece does pointedly address: like,

? what really makes an adhunik geet work (or for that matter any geet)? Lyrics? Voice? or musical composition?
? Technology, fusion/borrowing in Nepal music and its +, - effects;
? are dhakal's composers doing justice to Dhakal's voice (like for example Gopal yonzon was to narayan Gopal?)
? Is ambar gurung unfairly maligned for insisting to sing most of his own songs, rather than farm them out to other singers?
? Do younger composers understand that very often less may be more in music -- said in relation to Nyhoo Bajracharya's style. (I got the "Sounds of Bliss" album Nhyoo did with Ani C. Dolma after I wrote the review. I think the album makes the point about less is more, much more effectively that I could ever say it in words. )

quick aside to nivaN:
(The comments of nivaN about Ani Dolma are on the mark. You have good taste nivaN. As far as your comment, ?je paye tehii review about nepali music? , please refer to what I said about the artistry and compositional maturity of Nhyoo Bajracharya towards the end of piece. Apparently you agree that Nhyoo writes good music! If a mediocre composer had written the songs for Dolma there is no way she would sound so good. Kudos to Dolma for going with one of the best.).

back to ashu:
The order of musicians I talk about is roughly the order in which I watched them live in DC. So again, please don?t read so much into it. I see that you are engaged with Nepali scholars about Nepali literature and sense that there is some carry over from that discussion into this one. The text, context, and much else is different so please desist from drawing parallels, consciously or unconsciously with your other critical forays.)

(BTW, I had the great honor of playing guitar for Deep Shrestha and Kumar Basnyat at their concerts in DC. I consider myself a mediocre guitarist by the standards of today?s young Nepali gen. But for my gen, I don?t do so badly! The portion on the Kumar Basnyat concert had to be omitted due to space considerations.)

reply to Ashu?s econd post contd?

Your point about ratio of successful to unsuccessful albums is well taken. Only thing to note here is that this is a universal rather than a Nepali phenomenon in the music industry. Making albums that click with the people/market is no easy feat. Of all the cds that are released by big labels, only some end up making money for the companies. Many don?t. This trend may be even more pronounced in Nepal because it is relatively inexpensive to make cds and a lot of mediocre individuals and groups insist on cutting albums. In lok geet, for example, I am sure over 150 albums come out each year. How many make it?


On Bacchu Kailash:
I think Bacchu Kailash?s songs were definitely ?modern? and departed from preexisting genres like bhajan and lok, and hence they are subsumable under the ?adhunik geet? category. His songs feature the following:

1) composed (as opposed to collected) lyrics
2) composed (as opposed to collected) music
3) non-traditional instrumentation (guitar, piano, congas/bongo, violin)
4) recording and music arrangements technology of Calcutta before Radio Nepal was set up

Because of these facts B.Kailash is most definitely one of the earliest pioneers of ?adhunik Nepali geet.? The lable ?purano Nepali adhunik geet? would be fine. But just ?purano Nepali geet? has no analytic classificatory value (not that things must always be classified).

Still, if a compilation of ?Adhunik Nepali Sangeet? were in the offing, I can?t imagine the compilers leaving out B.Kailash (or his other contemporaries like Dhurva KC, Shiv Shanker etc., many of whom also fall under "purano" nepai geet ).

Ashu believes that ?adhunik geet? are ?ALWAYS being about romantic love/loss and longing for love kind of songs? . This is way too categorical a statement. First, lets not lose perspective here. Love, loss, yearning etc.. are the themes of the majority of songs worldwide, not just Nepal. Just in South Asia alone, starting with Amir Khusrao and Ghalib to Gulzar, faiz, and any number of songwriters in contemporary Indian and film, Nepali pop, adhunik, the fact is that the theme of love and loss are timeless. Each human generation rediscovers love and loss, and writes about it in its own way. Love is the looming theme in such diverse genres as opera, jazz, blues, rai, folk, reggae, dohori, Zairian soukous, salsa, samba, ? you name it. So what?s the point in using it as one of the chief criteria to identify ?adhunik geet??

To sing about love is one of the reasons that music was invented to begin with (besides putting babies to sleep! .

Also, there are many classic ?adhunik geet? that have little or nothing to with the kind of simplistic love themes singled out by ashu: examples?..
Ma ta lali guran bhayechu (n.gopal)
Pokhi year gham ka jhulka (n. gopal)
Mero geet merai pratibimbha haina (n. gopal)
Kun mandir ma janchau yatri (Robin Sharma)
Pir ma ooninu tyo euta kura (d. Shrestha)
Gaon ma shayad pairo gayo ki? (d. Shrestha)
Mero behoshi aaja (n. gopal)
Aja bholi harek sanjh raksina thalechha (n. gopal)
Aljhechha kyare pachhyauri timro chiya ko bootama (gopal yonzon)
Ma dor bhayera ke bho (A. gurung)
Sabai le bhanthe bagera ek din (aruna lama)
Ma maunatama aljhi raheko (om Bista)
Khutta tandai gara (k. moktan)

You get the drift?.

And yes, many ?rastriya? geet are more properly understood as ?adhunik rastriya geet? ? the whole genre of national/ist songs is itself a modern phenomenon, from red china to independent India. In Nepal the Panchayat period produced the greatest # of national songs, most by the same composers who composed the secular adhunik geet (gurung, yonzon, nati kazi, shiv shanker, ganesh raski etc.). Rastriya geet is rastriya geet in terms of the theme of the lyrics. But in terms of musical geneology they fall very squarely under ?adhunik geet? tradition in Nepal.

Songs like:
Mero topi
Desh le ragat mage
Hamro khusi ko lagi
Rato ra Chandra surya

These have much the same instrumentation as secular songs of the period except they are written and composed purposely to evoke feelings of nationality. A cse of same species, different genus.

Reply to Ashu?s second post contd?.

Duke Ellington?s quote was in fact meant to imply that people should not adopt really high brow standards for judging music. The exact quote in English is:
?If it sounds good, its probably good??

I believe he meant by that rather than who wrote it, how complex a piece it is, who sings/plays it etc? the test is how does it sound to the ears? If it is pleasing to the ears then it should be taken as good music, period.

This is the main reason why nusrat fateh ali khan or ali farka toure or tuva singing, or rai etc.. have caught the world?s imagination even though people have no clue what the artists are singing about. I played some 1974AD, Nepathya, arun upatyeka ka lok suseliharu and some lok dohori to my US friends. People did not go for the lok dohori because it was not musically interesting ? same tune repeated for 15 verses. You have to understand the lyrics to really enjoy/like dohori. Musically, there is not much there except for a very catchy short melody in the best ones. (Other folk traditions like ghantu, chutka, jhamre, maruni, gaine geet, deuda, are far more interesting musically than the overused dohori form.)

The others, however, my friends thought were really interesting and fresh, especially the Arun upatyeka instrumental album. Why? Because people who appreciate good music in one culture can most often recognize ad appreciate good music in another, as per Duke Ellington?s aphorism ..

So yes, not everything that Amber Gurung has written is excellent, and I do believe some of Dhiraj Rai?s best songs sound better than the occasional mediocre songs of Gurung.


Yes to ashu's comments about time to pay attention to non-Nepali language musical output. I'm not in the best situation to udertake that job though.

And lastly, why is love such an overwhelming theme in Neali music? I believe I've addressed this above. Nothing further to add.

Thanks Ashu for your extensive comments on my first attempt to play music critic. I am encouraged to write more reviews.... I mean it.

Anup

Thanks Anup for your comments.

Just a few quick clarifications:

a) I harbour no animus of any kind toward Nepe. He and I have been through a
lot on Sajha together for better or worse. It's just fun, once in a while, to poke him
in the rib by administering a taste of his own medicine to him, and watch his
reaction. Tetti ho. :-)

b) Ditto for HKP editors. They could have honestly introduced you as a DC-based
Nepali music fan. As a result of their intro and based on what I knew about you, I expected more from your piece, and came away somewhat disappointed. Then again, I am just a mere reader giving you my comments.

c) You will disagree with me, but let's be honest here: Your piece was not much of a 'bislayshan' in any sense. It was , as you right said, "a celebratory piece". And that's FINE. As a reader, I can live with that, while expecting MORE reviews from you in
future.


More later,

oohi
ashu

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