Recently one of the veterans of Hindustani Classical Music had her birthday. She was a legend and people often confused her voice with that of a nightingale. I am talking about no one else but about Vidushi Kesarbai Kerkar. Most women singers of that time had a deep, resonant and strident female voice, but Kesarbai Kerkar’s voice was marked by its clarity, projection and open quality, all of which were rewards of a long learning from Alladiya Khan, the creator of Jaipur- Atrauli Gharana.
She was one such singer from Indian whose sweet and beautiful voice still resonates in space.
NASA’s Voyager-2 mission enters its 40th year this year. The special thing about this spacecraft is that it carries different sounds and international music with it. The spacecraft which was launched on 20 August 1977. Among the international music and sounds the disc which the spacecraft carries, also carries a bandish from the Indian Classical Music. A Hindustani classical composition called “Jaat Kahan Ho” sung by Surshri Kesarbai Kerkar, who is one of the all time great vocalist of the Hindustani Classical tradition. Kesarbai was born in 1893 in Goa and was awarded by the title of 'Surshri' in 1938 by Rabindranath Tagore on behalf of the residents of Kolkata for her sweet and mellifluous voice. Her song is played in outer space for three minutes and twenty five seconds. Being a student of Indian Classical Music I feel pride in writing that even today in space the Indian Classical Music resonates. The Voyagar-2 carries a 12-inch gold-plated copper disc which stores all the music and sound in it. Carl Sagan, was the one who chaired the NASA appointed committee which chose the Indian Classical Music in the golden disc.
In the book "Murmurs Of Earth - The Voyager Interstellar Record", published in 1978, Ann Druyan, Sagan's wife, says that Robert Brown, the then Executive Director for the Centre For World Music had placed "Jaat Kahan Ho”, which is a composition of Indian Classical Music, at the top of his list of world music for outer space. Forty years on and 11 billion miles from earth in space there is the sound of India. And how did this happen? And this happens due the sweetness and the rich tradition of Indian Classical Music.
So, this is all for today. We will continue talking about music in my future posts.