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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Great recording of Kesarbai Kerkar travelling through space with the Voyager Spacecraft

Morning raga Bhairavi, beautifully sung by Keserbai Kerkar. It’s one of the recordings travelling through space with the Voyager Spacecraft, launched in 1977. I once made a two part-special for the Concertzender concerned with this idea of a musical space message. All the Voyager music was broadcasted in part 1. Part 2 featured my own musical space message: great music from all over the world, representing basic human emotions. I didn’t receive any alien response 🙂

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7 April 2011: Happy Birthday, Ravi Shankar !

Oceanic – Part 1, a beautiful, atmospheric track of Anoushka playing a sitar-duet with her father. Really touching. When I publish this message, it’s 7 April 2011, Ravi Shankar’s 91st birthday. Happy Birthday, Pandit ! 🙂

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Beautiful Bollywood-film ‘Aan’ (1952)

The beautiful Bollywood-film ‘Aan’ (1952) was once brought to my attention by Concertzender-producer Henk Braaksma, who considers this his favourite Bollywood movie.


The complete movie

For the Concertzender Henk Braaksma produced a programme on the soundtrack of this film, see this link (and then listen on demand there by clicking on the speaker icon on top of that page).


The beautiful opening song of ‘Aan’: Aaj Mere Mann Mein Sakhi

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Shashank’s bansuri : music for a listener’s delight from his album ‘Flute Fantasia’

shashank-flute-fantasia

This album of Shashank – Flute Fantasia – has been a longtime favourite of mine. For instance the alap of raag Kafi is such a delight to listen to, especially around midnight. Follow this Spotify-link to play this track for free. The rest of this album is delightful as well and can of course be listened on Spotify as well. Highly recommended.

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Film ‘Raga Unveiled’ sheds light on history and essence of the Hindustani classical musical system

The ambitious film Raga Unveiled, taking a look at the history and essence of the Hindustani classical musical system, has received a lot of praise. Will be screened on Sunday evening, 10 April 2011 at King’s Place in London, as a prelude to the Darbar Festival 2011, on 21 – 24 April 2011, at the same location. Here’s from YouTube a video to promote the film:

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Kaushiki sings in Brussels, June 24th 2011

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Kaushiki / Photo by Daniel Zafir (click on photo to enlarge)

Best news I’ve heard this week: Kaushiki Chakrabarty will sing on June 24th in Brussels :)) in the Palais des Beaux-Arts/Paleis voor de Schone Kunsten. Ahum… anyone in Holland picking this up?

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Interview with brilliant and versatile veena player Jayanthi Kumaresh

I think this is great, an interview in three parts with brilliant and versatile veena-player Jayanthi Kumaresh, a carnatic artist whose work I’ve been following for years. I hugely admire her playing and I really hope to meet and interview her one day.


Interview – Part One


Interview – Part Two


Interview – Part Three

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