|
CD and book: "How
to play the Bansuri"
A manual for Self-Instruction, based
on the teaching of DEVENDRA MURDESHWAR,
by Pandit Lyon Leifer,
plus the Audio CD also entitled "How to play the Bansuri".
A new book designed to offer a
comprehensive beginning course in the technique of the north Indian keyless bamboo flute.
Profusely illustrated with charts, exercises, photographs
of playing positions, and decorative material, the manual
will enable the student to learn authentic raga materials
and methods of development, as taught by the master flutist
and flutemaker, Shri Devendra Murdeshwar.
The manual explains fundamentals of a number of essential
topics in Hindustani music. The scalar system, the concept
of raga, microtonalism, the system of teaching and learning,
and the instrument's history are all covered. Students of the bansuri will, of course, find this book
particularly useful. In addition, this manual will prove
helpful to all flutists seeking to broaden their viewpoint
and range of expression. Other students of Indian music
may also find its viewpoint and method for teaching the
music's performance highly useful. Jazz musicians will
find in it an especially useful compendium of scales and
scale patterns which can be put to use in various contexts.
The available CD presents examples of all the major
exercises and performed versions of all the compositions
included here, as well as providing drone tambura and
tabla accompaniment for the student's own practice.
About master musician and teacher Pdt. Lyon Leifer: Pdt. Lyon Leifer began studying Indian music and bansuri
in 1965, after obtaining a degree in flute from the Juilliard
School and holding the second flute chair in the St. Louis
Symphony. In addition to Devendra Murdeshwar, his flute
teachers have included Julius Baker, Walfrid Kujala and
Emil Eck. Pdt. Leifer resides in the Chicago area where
he is an active performer and teacher of both Western
and Indian classical music. Appearances have taken him
to venues ranging from New York's Lincoln Center to the
hall of the Shanghai Symphony, with appearances in any
number of places in-between. His performances of raga
music on the bansuri have been particularly welcomed by
Indian audiences and by music critics of the Indian press.
.
Lyon Leifer represents the approach to bansuri developed by
Pannalal Ghosh and carried on by his principal disciple, the
late Devendra Murdeshwar, who was Lyon Leifer's
guru
from 1965 until his death in 2000. Lyon Leifer's
instructional manual for bansuri,
How
to Play the Bansuri: A Manual for Self-instruction Based on
the Teaching of Devendra Murdeshwar,
has won wide praise for clarity, enthusiasm and
effectiveness at conveying both the technique and spirit of
this vital and highly authentic approach.
Lyon Leifer has performed widely in
India and additionally benefitted from personal contact with
lessons from a wide range of India's finest Hindustani
musicians of the 20th century. In the course of
numerous Fulbright, American Institute of Indian Studies'
and other grants, he gained much from such now-departed
luminaries as Pt. KG Ginde, Shri Gyan Prakash Ghosh, Ud.
Yunus Hussein Khan, Shri Ramesh Nadkarni, and Ud. Amir
Hussein Khan, as well as from the very much alive Smt.
Girija Devi. More recently, Lyon Leifer has been learning
from the doyen of Gwalior Gharana, Pt. LK Pandit and from
Shri Nayan Ghosh. Lyon Leifer's critically acclaimed
performances throughout India date from 1965 to the present.
Based in his native Chicago and performing on a bansuri he
made himself (pictured above), he is available for
performances and teaches bansuri to select students.
He also maintains a discography of high quality digital
recordings of his own and of his guru's performances,
available on audio CDs.
|
