From the Peter van Hoboken Collection : beautiful S. Balachander veena recital-folder from the sixties

Earlier today I published a short message on great footage – published on YouTube – of veena player S. Balachander. In addition to this I thought it’d be nice to show a folder used for one of his concerts in the sixties.

Front- and backpage of the veena recital-brochure (click on the picture to enlarge, twice for extra large)

I found this beautiful veena recital-brochure in the Peter van Hoboken papers at Radio Netherlands, a small, but very fine collection I try to write about now and then.

Inside pages of the veena recital-brochure (click on the picture to enlarge, twice for extra large)

I don’t know how Van Hoboken did get this folder, but it seems to me it was either sent to him or he visited a concert of veena maestro S. Balachander himself. Neither the date, nor the location of the concert recital are mentioned, but I guess it was used to inform an audience in India, since the folder was printed in Madras.

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From the Hoboken Collection : Arnold Bake’s radiotalk (script) on Rabindranath Tagore


It’s certainly been too long – but better late, than never – since I announced to write on some of the interesting documents I found three years ago at Radio Netherlands from the legacy of Peter van Hoboken (1901-1994), Head of Transcription Service at Radio Netherlands from 1948 to 1966 and one of the great pioneers and promotors of Indian classical music in the Netherlands*. For several decades already there has been another and bigger Van Hoboken-collection that is incorporated in the Felix van Lamsweerde-collection, but most of the material that I came across at Radio Netherlands is different and therefore an interesting addition to the material that was known already.

Peter van Hoboken
Peter van Hoboken in his office at Radio Netherlands

From here I’d like to refer to these documents as the Radio Netherlands Hoboken Collection, abbreviated as RNHC. My find in January 2002 of a unique recording by Radio Netherlands in 1957 of sitarist Ravi Shankar already illustrated the great value of Peter van Hoboken, who organised this recording. As an adept of Indian classical music and dance Van Hoboken organised recordings of concerts in The Netherlands and he produced many Radio Netherlands programmes on Indian classical music.


At this point I want to proceed with some interesting documents I found among the RNHC, concerning radiotalks done in 1950 by world famous dutch ethnomusicologist Arnold Bake (1899-1963), radiotalks Bake did in english and hindi about the musical life and culture of India, recorded for the Radio Netherlands Transcription Service to be distributed to presumably India and Surinam for broadcasts by stations over there. What I found of these radiotalks is only paperwork, Bake’s typed scripts along with his handwritten corrections. Unfortunately, the recorded tapes can’t be found in the Radio Netherlands Audio Archives, as these were sent to stations outside Holland, the main task of the Transcription Service.


Arnold Bake

It’s a great pity the recordings of Bake can’t be found in the archives of Radio Netherlands. I’ve asked Felix van Lamsweerde and they’re not in his Van Hoboken Collection. I would assume that they could have been stored in the Arnold Bake Archives, kept at the University of Leiden, but Felix and another expert, Fred Gales, told me that the collection over there contains only papers of radiotalks and not recordings. So, if not in Hilversum and not in Leiden, where can they be? Did the Radio Netherlands Transcription Service sent them to All India Radio and/or to Surinam or are they kept somewhere at the University of London’s School of Oriental & African Studies where Bake lectured? At this point I can’t believe they’re lost. I hope they can be found somewhere, as I’d like to hear how the scripts I found in Hilversum come alive in a radio transmission with Bake’s voice and with the music he talks about.


Rabindranath Tagore

The radiotalk-script I like to present here contains Bake’s thougths on India’s world famous writer, poet, philosopher and Nobelprize winner Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941), in particular on ‘Tagore and his music’ and when I publish this it’s 7 May 2011, precisely the 150th birthday of Tagore. So, yes, this update on the RNHC took me too long, but I think I’m right on time with presenting these particular papers. 🙂


scriptpage 1, click a few times on the photo to enlarge


scriptpage 2, click a few times on the photo to enlarge


scriptpage 3, click a few times on the photo to enlarge


scriptpage 4, click a few times on the photo to enlarge

Let me add that I consider my short writings here on the RNHC as a work in progress. I don’t wanna pretend that I know all the details or have all the answers. That would be stupid and a false claim. If someone sees mistakes or things I overlook or has interesting additional information, please let me know.

* Radio Netherlands and Peter van Hoboken’s son Alexander have given me permission to publish these documents and write about them.

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Artikel uit 2002 nav vondst Wereldomroep-opnamen Ravi Shankar uit 1957

Hieronder een stukje dat ik schreef voor het personeelsblad van de Wereldomroep nav mijn sensationele vondst op 4 januari 2002 in het Wereldomroeparchief van tot dan toe anoniem weggeborgen opnamen uit 1957 van Ravi Shankar. Zie hierover ook mijn video op Youtube. Ravi Shankar speelde op maandagmiddag 27 mei 1957 – zo heb ik achterhaald – bij de Wereldomroep twee stukken: Raag Tilak Shyam en een Dhun (volksmelodie), met begeleiding van Chatur Lal op tabla en Nodu Mullick op tanpura. In 2002 heb ik de opnamen laten horen in een door mij geproduceerde special over Ravi Shankar voor De Concertzender en enkele jaren daarna zijn de opnamen ook uitgezonden door de NPS-radio.
Klik op de foto hieronder (en daarna opnieuw om verder te vergroten) om mijn korte artikel te lezen.

rskopie_

In de VPRO-Gids (Nr.8, 2002) werd ook aandacht besteed aan mijn vondst. Klik op de foto hieronder om een kort VPRO Gids-artikel te lezen over een door mij geproduceerde Ravi Shankar radiospecial voor de Concertzender, waarin de historische Wereldomroepopnamen voor het eerst op de radio te horen waren.

shankar_vpro-2002

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Youtube-video on my find of Ravi Shankar recordings from 1957

Ravi ShankarMy latest Youtube-video is concerned with a sensational find I did of a recording of Ravi Shankar, made by Radio Netherlands in 1957. I did this find already in January 2002. It might be nice for viewers of my Youtube-channel who are interested in Indian classical music to learn about this interesting historical recording. For more details, see the ‘more info’-section attached to the Youtube-video .