From sign to sound (6/6): Ravi Shankar, the “fifth Beatle

The final episode of From Sign to Sound, our journey of discovery into the world of interpretation! This time, the spotlight is on world music and one of its leading figures: Indian sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar, whose real name was Robindra Shaunkor Chowdhury, who passed away 10 years ago.

A true legend of Indian music and a great sitar master, the young Ravi Shankar actually began his artistic life as a dancer in his brother Uday Shankar’s troupe. But a meeting with the great musician Allauddin Khan was to change his life. At the age of 18, Ravi Shankar gave up dancing, left everything behind and joined his guru. Seven years were devoted to the rigorous study of the sitar. During this time, he realized that he would become a professional musician and interpreter of Hindustani (North Indian) music. No sooner said than done! From the 1950s onwards, Ravi Shankar’s extensive worldwide tours introduced Indian music and the sitar to Western audiences. He became the “Godfather of World Music”.

His creativity, his style, his originality, his ability to share his knowledge, his talent for improvisation and his virtuoso sitar playing become a source of inspiration. For many rock musicians of the 1960s in particular! In search of spirituality and, above all, of new exotic and psychedelic sounds, they let themselves be transported by Ravi Shankar’s art and the sound of his instrument. In 1966, George Harrison, guitarist with The Beatles, became his pupil. He introduced the sitar and the tabla, a North Indian percussion instrument, to the music of The Four Boys in the Wind. The popularity of the British quartet made Ravi Shankar an international pop star. He was even dubbed “the fifth Beatle”. A status that embarrassed him greatly and that he never liked. However, this fame enabled him to fulfill his “mission”: to disseminate, popularize and make accessible Indian music, an unwritten form of music that is passed down orally from generation to generation.

His pupils also included classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin and jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. He rubbed shoulders with Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones and befriended American composer Philip Glass and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. His daughter Anoushka Shankar soon proved herself a worthy heir to his immense talent, while his eldest daughter Norah Jones took the path of jazz and pop music.

The dialogue established between Indian and Western musical culture, and the collaborations that ensued, elevated the sitarist to the rank of inexhaustible messenger and interpreter of excellence of Indian music. India awarded him its highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1999. The American music industry honored him with four Grammy Awards. In 2010, the Ohrid Academy of Humanism in Macedonia awarded him the World Humanism Prize.

Now it’s your turn to discover interpretations that give you emotions and thrills. Enjoy the BCU’s music collections!