Ustad Bismillah Khan

The video presents a shehnai performance by the eminent Hindustani classical musician Ustad Bismillah Khan. Ustad Bismillah Khan (1916-2006) is one of the most recognizable faces of Hindustani classical music. His attention to pitch, phrasing and the expert execution of meends, pukars, khatkas, murkis, zamzams, taans and gamaks on the shehnai transformed the instrument. Under Bismillah Khan the shehnai came out of its ceremonial context and began to be acknowledged as a classical music instrument. One of the highlights of his concert performances was the performance of passages where the shehnai took centre stage and all other accompaniments fell silent. The shehnai alone would explore musical intensity and emotion in full silence only to break it with a crescendo on the mukhda or the sam.