The Tabla Tradition
by Gert Matthias Wegner
Prof. Dr. Gert-Matthias Wegner is the founder and director of the Kathmandu University Department of Music and professor for the Seminar für Vergleichende Musikwissenschaft/Ethnomusicology at the Free University Berlin.
From 1971 to 1995 Wegner studied tabla, dholak, and pakhavaj drumming, and dhrupad and Indian music theory with the tabla virtuoso Pandit Nikhil Ghosh in Bombay (funded by Deutsches Studentenwerk, Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst, German Academic Exchange Service, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft).
He has a fluent speaking knowledge of German, English, Hindi, Nepali and Newari and a reading knowledge of French, Sanskrit, Italian, Swedish.
Photo by Don Robertson
Dr. Wegner is the author of the very important publication Vintage Tabla Repertory, the first time the hitherto unpublished repertoire of the Laliyana gharana of Ustad Munir Khan has been unlocked for the tabla-playing world. Based on his 24 years of apprenticeship with the late tabla virtuoso, Pandit Nikhil Ghosh, the author presents his entire repertoire of traditional tabla compositions in a meticulously transcribed and annotated form, along with recorded examples on CD. Based on his 24 years of apprenticeship with the late tabla virtuoso, Pandit Nikhil Ghosh, Dr. Wegner presents his entire repertoire of traditional tabla compositions in a meticulously transcribed and annotated form, along with recorded examples on CD.
“The Tabla Tradition” (below) is excerpted from the Vintage Tabla Repertory.