‘If we want people to appreciate classical music, we have to make it more approachable’: Prabha Atre

The 90-year-old Atre, the senior most performing classical artiste of the country, will conclude Abhivaadan – the three-day tribute festival to be held at Pune’s Sawai Gandharva Smarak this week. The main Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Music Festival, which has been headlined by Atre since 2006 (when Pt Bhimsen retired from performing at concerts) stands cancelled this year due to the surging Omicron variant.

Many congratulations to Indian classical vocalist Dr. Prabha Atre ji from #Maharashtra for being conferred upon with the #PadmaVibhushan!
महाराष्ट्रातून ज्येष्ठ शास्त्रीय गायिका डॉ.प्रभा अत्रे जी यांना कलेच्या क्षेत्रात पद्मविभूषण पुरस्कार जाहीर झाला, त्यांचे मनःपूर्वक अभिनंदन! pic.twitter.com/bpQ1YtzCaJ

— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) January 25, 2022

Exactly like the last 70 years of her life, Atre is absorbed in attempting to understand the deeply complex and meditative intricacies of Indian classical music on a daily basis. “Nothing’s changed. I wake up early everyday and practice. There is no other way to hone your art, to discover something more in it,” says Atre in a telephone conversation with The Indian Express.

Atre was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian honour, for her contribution to the arts last week. “It’s important when your government recognises your work,” says Atre, who received a Padma Shri in 1990 and a Padma Bhushan in 2002.

With her practise routines, indulgence with her sadhana, gentle demeanor, reverence for her gurus – the legendary Sureshbabu Mane and Hirabai Barodekar – and deference for the artform, Atre may come across as an orthodox musician who goes by the book. But a look at her oeuvre puts forth a music universe wherein an artiste has nurtured her knowledge and at the same time has also questioned it. Her radical thoughts have riled up many fellow musicians, her seniors and critics over the course of this time. “It’s not about questioning just because you want to. It comes with a reason. One needs to be able to analyse and present that thought with logical reasoning, even when it’s something as technical and abstract as the classical arts,” says Atre.

But one’s thought could be as revolutionary or as traditional but what matters is what gets delivered. According to Mumbai-based musicologist Deepak Raja, “The proof was always in the pudding, because she always delivered. Prabha Atre is an original thinker and for the last 40 years, she’s been the most respectable vocalist in the country. One can’t argue with that. Music is continuously transformative and does not remain stagnant. So every great musician will make their own contribution to thought as well as expression. In that sense she is one of the greats,” says Raja.

Prabha Atre, one of the most respectable vocalists in the country, has transformed thought and expression in Indian classical music over the last 40 years. (Photo: Prabha Atre)

The fortitude may just have come because Atre does not come from a musical family and was never bound by the kind of reverence that others were. “Forget about performing classical music, no one had even heard it in my family,” says Atre. When she was growing up, sometimes the radio played at home in Pune and Atre found herself being pulled by the voices of Noorjehan, Begum Akhtar and Ut Bade Ghulam Ali. But music beyond just listening to it happened “by accident”. Atre was about eight when her mother fell sick and went into a brooding mode. Her father, the headmaster of a nearby school employed a harmonium guru to keep the mother’s mind off the illness. She quit after three-four lessons but Atre continued. Her father’s friend heard her sing once and recommended that she be taught properly. Atre was in her mid-teens when he took her to Mumbai-based Sureshbabu Mane and his sister Hirabai Barodekar, the son and daughter of Ut Abdul Karim Khan of the Kirana gharana. Atre sang Ka karoon sajni, Ut Bade Ghulam Ali’s famed thumri in raag Bhairavi. Mane was impressed with how she approached the famous piece and agreed to teach her. She sang Yaman for a whole year before she was allowed to embark upon another raga.

Four years later, when Mane died, his sister Hirabai, another legend of the gharana, took her on as a student for the next couple of years. After touring with her for two years, where Atre learned more by listening to her than by actually learning at her feet, she decided to practise the form and explore it on her own. “At this time Hirabai was very busy. But the foundation was established by now. I had been made to understand the language of music. My gurus were very open minded and would always say that never be anyone’s photocopy. I felt it was time I explored this world on my own now,” says Atre, who also graduated in science followed by a degree in law from Pune University. “The world of dissecting frogs or that of criminal justice didn’t seem to be the right professional choice,” says Atre.

So Atre joined All India Radio, Mumbai, as an assistant producer, in 1959. It’s here that she met and heard a variety of musicians and genres including Carnatic classical and western pop music. She was fascinated by Ut Amir Khan, the founder of Indore gharana, Patiala gharana legend Bade Ghulam Ali and Roshan Ara Begum of Kirana gharana. “Radio broadened my horizons. This variety really influenced me,” says Atre, who was by now also attempting to critically analyse her own music and the tradition she came from. “There is art and then there is the shastra behind it. Art will change with time, so the shastra can’t stay behind. My background allowed me to have a scientific and logical approach to an abstract form,” says Atre, who by then had begun to perform in Maharashtra and was a rising star in the concert circuit by early 60s.

But there were no recordings to prove her mantle beyond the local concert world. LPs were the only way to reach a wider audience in the 60s and 70s. Atre calls it her own fault. “So many people approached me then, but I was a very shy musician and refused,” says Atre.

Then in the middle of this in 1971 came an HMV record that overwhelmed the rasikas. It was Atre’s presentation of raag Maru Bihag and Kalavati followed by a thumri in Khamaj. Atre was 43 then and presenting her own composition, something that’s not common at such an early stage.

While exploring khayal gayaki, Atre was also using and talking about extensive use of sargam while delineating the khayal. In the world of classical music where aakar (the vocal improvisation using the long vowel ‘a’) is appreciated and sargam is declasse, just a tool to understand the form, Atre decided to do a Phd on the subject. After her stint at the radio, Atre headed the music department at SNDT University in Mumbai from 1980-92 where she ruffled up the entire curriculum making it broader in approach, allowing the students to explore various genres of music because “why should they stick to only classical music”. According to Raja, there is hardly anyone who’s been a full-time academician and retained a top-class status in the performing field. “Full-time teachers don’t always excel as great performing musicians because their performance tends to be academic. But in her case it did not stifle her. She managed to analyse and critically think about her music and presentation much more,” he says.

And amid all of this, Atre also invented new ragas such as Apurva Kalyan, Darbari Kauns, Patdeep-Malhar, Shiv Kali, Tilang-bhairav, Ravi Bhairav, and Madhur-Kauns. A few years ago, one of her compositions was also adapted by Swiss/Dutch singer and composer Susanne Abbuehl, who also trained in Hindustani classical vocal under Atre. According to vocalist and Pt Bhimsen’s son Shrinivas Joshi Atre’s approach is also a result of her training in Kirana gharana which he thinks “is a very open space which allows its artistes to explore more”. “My father did the same apart from a few other vocalists from our gharana,” he says

But Atre also preferred to not get into the rigidity of gharana systems. “I did learn under Kirana and my music reflects that style of sweetness of the notes and expression. But that said, we need to take whatever we can from everywhere and embellish our musical style,” says Atre, who was not just composing and performing, but also writing books on classical music, its analytical thinking and presentation. Her book, Enlightening the Listener — Contemporary North Indian Classical Vocal Music Performance (Coronet Books Inc.; Har/Cas edition (2000)), is famous with foreign students, who want to understand the finer details of classical music. She also wrote Swarangini and Swaranjanee – two books dealing with compositions. The aim was to reimagine and reshape music to acquire new resonances, not just for the audience but for Atre herself. “I think it’s also my nature to analyse. I have an academic bent where I never just wanted to perform. I also wanted to explain the idea behind this system, teaching it to the students, explaining it to the masses,” says Atre, for whom the audience holds a significant role. “We aren’t just doing sadhana. We are presenting our artform. If we want people of today to be able to appreciate classical music, then we have to make it a little approachable too,” says Atre.

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