On June 19th, in Bulgaria Hall in Sofia a concert of Gundecha Brothers will take place. Gundecha Brothers are prominent representatives of dhrupad – the oldest genre in Hindustani classical music, which has been preserved in its original form to this day. The two famous singers Umakant and Ramakant Gundecha are gifted with beautiful and strong voices. Thanks to their education they have developed the ability to sing in a very low register. They are followers of the Dagar School, in which 19 generations of teachers have already passed their knowledge to students through the methods of the millennium-old educational system of guru-shishya parampara.

The brothers are founders of an Institute in the Bhopal Districtof Madhya Pradesh state in central India. The two brothers have received their education in the city of Bhopal and today they teach students from India and from all across the world. Gundecha Brothers arrive in Bulgaria after a series of concerts and seminars held in North America and Europe. The two have also had concert tours across Asia, Australia and Africa.

Together with Umakant and Ramakant, players of tanpura and pakhawaj will also perform on Bulgarian stage. These ancient instruments are also part of the tradition of dhrupad. According to the description, tanpura is a string instrument whose sound, vibration and harmony are closest to those of the human voice and energy centers of the human body. Its construction is similar to that of the sitar.

The percussion instrument pakhawaj is unique with its deep, resonant sound that matches nature and character of ancient music styles. There are many legends about pakhawaj. One of them tells of a renowned teacher who had a rather lazy student. One day the teacher became so angry that he broke the instrument in two and thus the tabla emerged, which is another popular Indian music instrument.

Nearly all string instruments, as well as flutes, and even saxophone are suitable for the dhrupad. However, very specific tones are part of the harmony of traditional Indian instruments. One of the peculiarities of the ancient style presented by Gundecha Brothers is the use of microtones - intervals smaller than a semitone.

English: Alexander Markov