History was created at the centenary celebration of the “Tansen Sangeet Samaroh 2024” at Gwalior where a musical ensemble entered the Guinness Book of World Records. The Tansen music festival was hosted by the UNESCO City of Music, Gwalior in its hundredth edition from 15-19 December 2024, in the backdrop of the historic Gwalior Fort and Tansen Tomb.
Guiness had set several stringent criteria for evaluation- a minimum of 300 artists playing at least four instruments, and three songs spanning two minutes each. But the musical ensemble composed by renowned flute player Pandit Ronu Majumdar far surpassed all these criteria. Said Majumdar- “We had 563 artists. I was told by the Indian representative of Guinness that in any international evaluation of legends like Mozart, Beethoven, or Sangeet samrat Tansen, we need three songs and each song should be of minimum two minutes duration. So far, I was only focussing on Raag Miya Malhar but then introducing two more was one of the biggest challenges of my life. Finally at a 90 bpm heartbeat, the speed and tempo of the song and instrumental suited one another and I could compose the final ensemble. Three ragas were never done in an orchestra like this and to so much perfection.”
A Guinness World Record was set for playing nine instruments continuously for nine minutes. There were 76 artists playing tabla, 56 on flute, 80 on violin, 13 on Sarod, three on Santoor, 93 on Sitar, 34 on harmonium, one on Banjo, and several vocalists. In this Swaranjali paid to Swara Samrat Tansen, the three ragas included Malhar, Mian Ki Todi and Darbari Kanhra.
Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav said that the collective performance of music seekers recorded in the Guinness World Record is a true tribute to the music emperor Tansen. He said that music awakens our consciousness and UNESCO City of Music Gwalior is making outstanding efforts to preserve India’s musical heritage.
One of the highlights of Tansen Sangeet Samaroh 2024 was the vintage instrument exhibition. It had on display 530 rarest of the rare instruments which were showcased with QR codes (you could hear the instrument by scanning the QR code). According to Principal Secretary Culture and Tourism Shri Shiv Shekhar Shukla, “We are putting the rich heritage of Madhya Pradesh on the world map. Our whole effort is to showcase our musical heritage in an immersive and engaging manner and to put everything in a format which is internationally accepted. We also have an art exhibition on legendary musicians, put together by Oscar awardee Dipankar Banerjee.”
Contribution of Gwalior was extolled by renowned vocalist and composer, Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty. He dedicated his performance at the Tansen festival to Zakir Hussain with whom he has done hundreds of concerts. He said – “I have known Zakir bhai for the last 45 years. He had immense guru bhakti and was the one who popularized solo vadan and introduced the right kind of fusion music by collaborating with international artists.” Speaking about the relevance of Raga Sangeet, Pandit Chakrabarty said – “The contribution of Indian music is simply unparalleled in the whole world because this kind of frequency, registration, understanding, presentation is not there anywhere in the world. Raga music is the highest form of music – Everywhere whether it’s Germany or China, you find there are 12 frequencies or 12 notes but the detailing of the intermediate frequencies that go from one Swar to the other is not so nuanced as it in raga music of India. You will only find this fine detailing here.”
Performances were there from international artists like Israeli artist Tamar who played Tabla during the Tansen Samaroh and commended India for its “healing power which changed her life. I feel fortunate to have this instrument in my life and grateful to my guruji in Benaras.”
Sitar player from Israel, Tavor Bendor spoke about the uniqueness of Indian culture saying – “I was attracted to India during my spiritual search and fell in love with the country people and sitar drew me. The sense of width, length, depth that one finds in India, you can find nowhere else. Its profound beauty touches your heart in a way that cannot be expressed in words.”
