Prof. Harold Powers of Princeton University is no more

Ramaprasad · Post by **Ramaprasad** » 25 Mar 2007, 22:10

Dr. Harold Powers, Emeritus Professor, Department of Music, Princeton University died last week. A gentle and soft spoken person of immense erudition, he was a mentor, musicologist, amateur musician, with research papers on Indian music to his credit. He came to India, studied Hindustani music, and later Carnatic music under Musri and Rangaramanuja Iyengar. He was fluent in Tamil also, though he told me once recently that it was getting rusty. I believe, in the past, he has given concerts too in Chennai, where he was a well known figure during the music season. Those of us who knew him to some degree or other feel the vacuum left by this scholar. If others have more personal recollections of interacting with him, they could perhaps share them with us.

Ramaprasad.

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The following is the official news release from Princeton University:

From the Princeton University Department of Music

Our friend and colleague Harold S. Powers passed away on March 15 at the age of 78, after an extended battle with liver cancer. Harry was a towering figure in musicology, ethnomusicology, and music theory. A formidable polymath, he was also a force majeure in the classroom and seminar room. Many of us were inspired by his example and galvanized by his presence, and we will miss him immeasurably. Last year, the American Musicological Society initiated a travel fund in his honor (see www.ams-net.org/awards/powers.php). Harry was careful to specify its breadth of availability, and was very pleased to see it established thus. It would be particularly fitting at this time for those interested to contribute a gift to the fund in Harry's memory.

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 25 Mar 2007, 23:02

that is sad news. Hope his soul rests in peace.

BTW, he is to be conferred the title "Seva Rathna" at this year's Cleveland Aradhana next month.

Arun

vijay · Post by **vijay** » 26 Mar 2007, 14:15

I remember once escorting him to an auto after a concert at Indian Fine Arts. Those 2 minutes rubbished my skepticism about westerners trying to understand Indian music. My condolences

msakella · Post by **msakella** » 26 Mar 2007, 17:28

Dear brother & sister-members, After going through the news pertaining to the sad demise of Prof. Herald Powers I have remembered one incident with him about which the details are furnished hereunder.
In 1999, some time in February, when, once, I had been to Dr.R.Sathyanarayana of Mysore in one of my regular trips, I, while going through his library, happened to go through one book containing some articles written by many stalwarts like Dr. R.Sathyanarayana, Prof.Herald Powers, Dr. Premlatha Sharma, Dr. N.Ramanathan etc., etc., in a souvenir brought out in connection with an International Seminar held on â€˜Nisshanka Sharngadevaâ€™s Sangita Ratnakaraâ€™ for which, I remember, Dr. Herald Powers was the Chairman and Dr.N.Ramanathan was the Convenor. In fact, Dr.N.Ramanathan, who is well educated, highly qualified, very knowledgeable, highly cultured gentleman and a very close friend of mine since more than 20 years, very well knows about my in-depth knowledge of Talaprastara but could not invite me to this seminar, I guess, under the pressure of his Teacher, Dr. Premlatha Sharma, who translated much of â€˜Sangita Ratnakaraâ€™ except Taladhyaya of it in which this Talaprastara is the Â¼ part of it in spite of going through the xerox copy of one of my note books taken from me and supplied by Dr. N.Ramanathan himself. (Even though, I became aware of this through this incident I could not clarify with him at the cost our close friendship) There, in his conclusive remarks, Prof. Herald Powers said â€˜One thing which struck me particularly, I must confess, is that I found the Tala-chapter singularly uninteresting. It is full of a long list of things we donâ€™t do anymore, probably it is just as well that we donâ€™tâ€¦â€

mahakavi · Post by **mahakavi** » 26 Mar 2007, 19:33

msakella:
While I consider it unfortunate that your expertise and writings in talaprastara were ignored (and even relegated) by Prof. Harold Powers, it may have been most likely due to a misunderstanding and/or your own personal conflicts with the local organizers (by your own admission) who may have influenced Prof. Powers' remarks. There is no point in rekindling it after Prof. Powers' demise. At death all misdeeds(?) of an individual dissolve and disappear.

msakella · Post by **msakella** » 27 Mar 2007, 07:50

Dear brother-member, mahakavi, I did not have any contacts at all with the organizers of that seminar and only after a lapse of some months after the seminar I came to know about it. And, this is not to rekindle the feelings of others at all but only to rekindle my own spirits in this respect which have been maintained since more than 50 years right from 1957 till date only by the grace of the Almighty. Nobody knows the real history of â€˜Talaprastaraâ€™ except me as the real victim of this. Of course, it has, many a time, been proved that I am the person blessed fully by the Almighty to bring this rarest chapter out. This historical incident started in 1957, when I was learning Violin in the Maharajah Govt. Music College, Vizianagaram, when an un-known person brought a catalogue of music books which are available in a book shop at Thanjavur and asked me to select some of them and to place an order to get them. At that time I was the junior most student of music and I do not know even much of the practical music leave alone the music books. But, the Almighty had driven me to select two Telugu books, 1.Taladashapranapradeepika and 2. Gayakalochanam and within a short time I got them. At that time I do not have any idea at all that this adventure occupying four decades of my precious life is entirely depending upon these two books only. Among them, Taladashapranapradeepika is full of Telugu poems and Gayakalochanam is full of umpteen tables filled with figures and I could not make the head or tail of any of them except some notated Kirtanas of Gayakalochanam. I have shown these two books to hundreds of musicians including the Lecturers of the Music College to know the contents of them at the least. Surprisningly, everybody discouraged me and told that it is a waste and not necessary at all to learn the topic of these books. My question was why such a wasteful topic should be dealt with in a music book. Nobody answered my question. To make this brief, in 1963, when I was working as Lecturer in Violin in the Govt. College of Music & Dance, Hyderabad, one of my colleagues, Late Uppalapati Ankaiah, a great Tavil Vidwan who demonstrated a Pallavi in Simhanandana-tala in the Music Academy, Madras, told that the topic of these books is Talaprastara and that he knows a very little of it which was thrushed upon his head by his father in his teens. He knows only the alphabets of the Talaprastara but nothing else. I have learnt the same from him starting my adventure of thousands of miles ahead. Believe it or not, but for the incessant guidance of the Almighty all along my adventure I would not have found even a little bit of it. In the annals of our music literature, Sangita Ratnakara is the only treatise in which more material of this topic is furnished though with so many unwanted modifications and mistakes. Most unfortunately, this topic has never been made clear to the aspirant by any author of any period. Adding fuel to the fire, includidng all the commentators, editors and publishers of Sangita Ratnakara every other author of this topic had contributed his mite only to create confusion making the aspirants run away far from it. In 1970, when I have demonstrated this topic before Prof. P.Sambamurthy, he exclaimed at it and suggested me to bring it in a book form. Later, when I did so and shown the book and requested him to write the foreword to it he, with great joy and pleasure, immediately wrote and gave it to me. Thus, he was the first person to encourage me and the second person who always helped me in so many ways and encouraged me is Dr. R.Sathyanarayana, the living and walking encyclopaedia of our Indian Culture of Mysore. Later, after handing over this book for publication to A.P.Sangeeta Academy, this was kept in cold storage for 13 years (12 years of Vanavaasam + 1 year of Ajnatavaasam). Even then by the initiation of a gentleman this was first published in 1985 by A.P.Sangeeta Academy and received the award for the â€˜best book written on fine artsâ€™. By the grace of the almighty, this topic was dawned upon me in a phased manner and thus, this topic has also been increased and included in this book in a phased manner. To tell the truth, my research of this topic is not yet over. Even though there is much more to bring out I shall put here a full-stop for the relief of the readers. amsharma.

mahakavi · Post by **mahakavi** » 27 Mar 2007, 08:04

Dear Professor Sharma:
Your story (regarding your research and publication of the book on talaprastara) is pretty poignant. I am totally ignorant on this subject and hence not in a position to comment. My point was Prof. Powers is unable to defend himself now regarding your arguments and I just pointed out the futility of bringing it at this time. That is all.

I sincerely hope your research and assemblage of information is picked up by other scholars and gets you due recognition. Best wishes to you.

msakella · Post by **msakella** » 27 Mar 2007, 16:50

Dear brother-member, mahakavi, I am not bothered about the ignorance of our subject of Prof. Powers because he is not an Indian. I am much bothered about the negligent and irresponsible attitude of our brother Indians by which we are loosing much of our cultural heritage. Long long ago the Germans have taken much of our cultural treasure when our people are negligent and irresponsible. Every Indian must strive hard more to preserve our cultural heritage and to pass it on to the posterity than getting any personal recognition. In this process I have sacrificed much of my Violin profession, regular practice of it, public concerts, A.I.R. & T.V. concerts as a Top-rank Violinist etc., etc. A number of professional Violinists are readily available in our country who can play Violin far better than me but nobody is prepared to dig out this rarest topic at the cost of his professional and personal life. I felt it as my duty to dig out this lost topic of our great Indian culture and to give it to our fellow Indians and only by the grace of the Almighty I could succeed in it.. I did never expect any personal recognition. Recently, when I was invited to Germany through a friend of mine to give a Lecture-demonstration on Talaprastara (combinatorics) in that country I flatly refused and told him that I am more interested in giving this knowledge to my fellow Indians first. This I did not do to get any kind of recognition at all from my society but as a duty and responsibility. Thatâ€™s all. Thanking you for your noble ideas, amsharma.

meena · Post by **meena** » 28 Mar 2007, 01:23

Deleted

msakella · Post by **msakella** » 28 Mar 2007, 03:34

Dear member & moderator, meena, Thanks a lot for your kind reference. amsharma.

Ramaprasad · Post by **Ramaprasad** » 10 Sep 2007, 07:10

A memorial service was held on Saturday, September 8, 2007, for Prof. Harry Powers in the Princeton University Chapel on the campus of Princeton University. Rasikas might recall that Prof. Powers died in March of this year.

Friends and colleagues recalled their association with Prof. Powers. Though it was sad to realize that he was no more, one left the memorial service with a deep appreciation for an extraordinary scholar. One couldnâ€™t but be impressed by the breadth of this knowledge â€“ Western music, especially Italian opera, Carnatic and Hindustani music, and South East Asian music, etc. He was also a linguist.

As part of the memorial service, the pieces that he had set to music, as also his compositions were played. A Carnatic kriti was rendered by B. Balasubrahmanyam (Wesleyan University), with mridangam support from David Nelson. The kriti was Thyagarajaâ€™s Nannu Brova in Sanakarabharanam (C Major scale for the western audience).

Despite the somber ambiance of a Chapel, the occasion was also a celebration of a great life that touched fellow collaborators, generations of students and, many others.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 10 Sep 2007, 08:20

Ramprasad,
Thank you for the post.
There was John Higgins the performer and Prof. Harold Powers the scholar--two americans who made a mark in CM history. Prof. Powers started his relationship with Indian music first as student (of Rangaramanuja Iyengar), and then as a scholar and rasikA. We would miss his presence in Chennai in the coming season.

There is a picture of a young Powers giving a concert in Chennai, in the Vintage Pictures thread...