Chapter 2: The Sound of Music
(Part I – Evelyn Glennie Listens to Sound without Hearing It)
(Part II – The Shehnai of Bismillah Khan)
Part I – Evelyn Glennie Listens to Sound without Hearing It
Thinking about the Text
Q1. How old was Evelyn when she went to the Royal Academy of Music?
Answer: Evelyn was seventeen years old when she went to the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Q2. When was her deafness first noticed? When was it confirmed?
Answer: Evelyn’s deafness was first noticed when she was eight years old. It was confirmed when she was eleven, after she performed badly in class and her teachers advised her parents to consult a specialist.
Q3. Who helped her to continue with music? What did he do and say?
Answer: Percussionist Ron Forbes helped her. He tuned two large drums to different notes and asked Evelyn to feel the sound through her body instead of hearing it through her ears. He encouraged her by saying, “Don’t listen through your ears, try to sense it in some other way.”
Q4. Name the various places and causes for which Evelyn performs.
Answer: Evelyn performs in concerts worldwide, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. She gives free concerts in prisons and hospitals, and she also gives high priority to teaching young musicians.
Extra Short Questions (for revision)
Evelyn Glennie is a multi-percussionist.
She can play more than a thousand instruments.
She senses music through the different parts of her body, especially by feeling vibrations.
Part II – The Shehnai of Bismillah Khan
Thinking about the Text
Q1. Why did Aurangzeb ban the playing of the pungi?
Answer: Aurangzeb banned the pungi because he disliked its shrill, unpleasant sound and considered it a noisemaker.
Q2. How is a shehnai different from a pungi?
Answer: The shehnai is made with a natural hollow stem with holes, and it produces a soft, melodious sound, unlike the shrill and unpleasant sound of the pungi.
Q3. Where was the shehnai traditionally played? How did Bismillah Khan change this?
Answer: Traditionally, the shehnai was played in temples and on auspicious occasions such as weddings. Bismillah Khan brought the shehnai onto the classical stage and made it a respected instrument of Indian classical music.
Q4. When and how did Bismillah Khan get his big break?
Answer: Bismillah Khan’s big break came in 1938 when he performed at the All India Radio in Lucknow. His performance made the shehnai popular across India.
Q5. Where did Bismillah Khan play on 15 August 1947? Why was the event historic?
Answer: On 15 August 1947, Bismillah Khan played the shehnai at the Red Fort in Delhi. It was historic because it was India’s first Independence Day, and his music was broadcast live on radio.
Q6. Why did Bismillah Khan refuse to start a shehnai school in the USA?
Answer: He refused because he could not bear to live away from India, particularly from the river Ganga in Varanasi, which he considered his greatest inspiration.
Q7. Find at least two instances in the text which tell you that Bismillah Khan loved India and Benaras.
Answer:
He said, “Whenever I am in a foreign country, I keep yearning to see Hindustan.”
He also expressed deep love for Benaras and the Ganga, saying he could never leave them.