![]() The Abha CylindersPartho Datta THE WONDER THAT WAS THE CYLINDER: EARLY AND RARE INDIAN CYLINDRICAL RECORDS By A.N. Sharma and Anukriti A. Sharma Spenta, Mumbai, 2014, pp. 300, Rs. 6000.00 VOLUME XXXIX NUMBER 4 April 2015 This is a remarkable story. The author,
his wife and daughter (the book has
been authored by the father-daughter
duo)—all enthusiasts, music lovers, avid
collectors are rummaging through a kabadi
shop when Abha (wife) stumbles across dusty
cartons of cylinders which the shopkeeper
tells her are textile yarn winding accessories.
They bring the cartons home. Some of the
cylinders are labelled and dated. Going back
to the late 1890s they are without doubt
some of the oldest wax cylinder recordings
of Indian music. Their survival is a miracle.
In honour of Abha who discovered this precious
trove the cylinders are appropriately
named the Abha cylinders.
A.N. Sharma is already well-known as
the author of the rich documentary history
of Indian music Baajanama (2012). But this
book surpasses the early volume. Tastefully
designed and in large format, with many rare
photographs and illustrations, the text is accompanied
by a DVD which presents excerpts
from these early recordings. Historians
of recorded music will have to revise their
chronology and engage with these new findings.
For historians of music the opportunity
to hear maestros from the past—whose
voices were presumed lost for ever, these discoveries
are very exciting, even humbling.
There is certainly something magical about
listening to the voice of the legendary vocalists
like Alladiya Khan, Vishnu Digambar
Paluskar and many others.
There were almost 200 cylinders and the
authors found them in three different sizes—
the large concert size and the smaller 6 inch
and 4 inch ones. All the cylinders neatly
encased in paper and cotton were placed inside
metallic and cardboard covers. A century
had passed since they had been issued
and the careful encasing had either decayed
or moulded. After careful cleaning, two
batches of 28 and 40 cylinders were recovered—most
of these had labels and a precious
handful could be played. The authors
have provided a complete list of these batches.
The labelling and details in Urdu have been
translated. Some of the cylinders had ‘Columbia
Company’ written on the boxes
which gives a clue to their provenance. The
large format cylinders the authors tell us cannot
be heard since appropriate machines for playing them are now unavailable.
The first list of 28 has different genres
of Islamic religious songs or recitations from
the Quran—the Naat, Hamd, Qataa, Qarat.
The second batch is more varied and there
are recordings of ragas, thumri, bhajan,
ghazal, dramatic dialogue, recitations as well
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