NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Chapter 2 The Sound of Music

i) Evelyn was sixteen years old when she went to the Royal Academy of Music.

ii) Her deafness was first noticed when she was just eight years old. It was confirmed by the time she was eleven.

 Evelyn hears music through different parts of her body. Ron Forbes asked her to try to sense the music some other way instead of ears. He started by tuning two big drums to varied notes.

Evelyn realized that she could feel the higher drum from her waist up and the lower drum from her waist down. Forbes kept repeating the same exercise, and then Evelyn realized that she could sense certain notes in different parts of her body.

She says that when she plays the xylophone, she can feel the music passing up the stick into her fingertips. When she leans against the drums, she could sense the resonances flowing into her body. When she performs on a wooden platform, she removes her footwear so that the vibrations pass through her bare feet and up her legs.

i) The pungi was a ‘reeded noisemaker.’

ii)  A barber transformed the pungi into a shehnai.

iii)  Bismillah Khan’s paternal ancestors were professional musicians.

iv) Bismillah Khan learnt to play the shehnai from Ali Bux.

v) Bismillah Khan’s first trip abroad was to Afghanistan.

i) Ron Forbes who was a percussionist, helped her to continue with music. He asked Evelyn not to listen through ears but to try to sense it some other way.

ii) Apart from the regular concerts, Evelyn performs in prisons and hospitals. She also takes classes for young musicians.

Aurangzeb banned the playing of the pungi because of the shrill unpleasant sound of the instrument.

Two instances in the text which tell us that Bismillah Khan loves India and Benaras are given below:

• He says that whenever he is in a foreign country, he keeps yearning to see Hindustan.

• He also says that when he is in Mumbai, he thinks of only Benaras and the holy Ganga.

A shehnai’s stem is hollow, longer and broader than that of a pungi. Shehnai has holes in its body.

Traditionally, shehnai was a part of the naubat or traditional ensemble of nine instruments found at royal courts. It was played in temples and at marriages.

Bismillah Khan took it onto the classical stage.

Bismillah Khan got his big break with the opening of All India Radio in Lucknow in 1938. He became an often-heard shehnai player on radio.

Bismillah Khan played the shehnai from the Red Fort on 15th August 1947. He was the first Indian to greet the nation with his Shehnai. The event was historic because that is the day when India got independence. Bismillah Khan played Raag Kafi to an audience that included Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

Bismillah Khan refused to start a shehnai school in the U.S.A because he did not want to leave his country. He felt an unbreakable bond with his towns – Dumraon and Benaras, and with River Ganga.

1. When something is revived, it lives again.

2. When a government bans something, it wants it stopped.

3. When something is considered auspicious, welcome it.

4. When we take to something, we find it interesting.

5. When you appreciate something, you find it good and useful.

6. When you replicate something, you do it for the second time.

7. When we come to terms with something, it is no longer upsetting.

1. The school sports team hopes to win the competition.

2. We all want to succeed in our lives.

3. They advised the hearing-impaired child’s mother to take care of the child.

4. The authorities permitted us to perform the dance in the stadium.

5. A musician decided to play the music in front of an audience.

1. the home of royal people (1) royal residence

2. the state of being alone (5) solitude

3. a part which is absolutely necessary (2) indispensable

4. to do something not done before (5) invent

5. without much effort (13) effortlessly

6. quickly and in large quantities (9) thick and fast

Indispensable: Electronic gadgets have become indispensable to modern life.

Impressed: He was impressed by his friend’s speech.

Afraid: Raghav is afraid of dark.

Outdoor: Outdoor games are necessary for keeping yourself healthy.

Paternal: My paternal uncle lives in Mumbai.

Countless: There are countless stars in the sky.

Priceless: Children’s smiles are priceless.

I am honoured to introduce you to the finest female vocalist of her generation, Kishori Amonkar. She is a Padma Bhushan awardee who was born in 1931 to another great artist Smt. Mogubai Kurdikar. She is a singer besotted by the mysterious world of the ragas. She dissects them until the most subtle of shades emerge and re-emerge. She is highly inspired by the teachings of the Vedic sages. She has been bestowed with several significant awards – Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1985), the Padma Bhushan (1987), and one of the most prestigious awards in Indian Classical Music- Sangeet Samradhini Award (1997).

Do it yourself.

Yes, they both worked extremely hard. They wanted to pursue music as their career and achieve heights.

Evelyn Glennie is an inspiration to everyone. She became profoundly deaf by the time she was eleven years old. But, she did not let the disability become a hurdle in pursuing her career in music. She auditioned at the Royal Academy of Music in London when she was not even seventeen years old and scored one of the highest marks in the history of the academy. In a field like music that’s entirely linked to listening, she began to sense music through different parts of her body. She brought percussion to the front of the orchestra. She was awarded with the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Soloist of the Year Award in the year 1991. She inspires people with her life and optimism.

Ustad Bismillah Khan belonged to a family of professional musicians. Shehnai was being used in temples and at marriages, but the credit of bringing the shehnai onto the classical stage goes to Ustad Bismillah Khan. He took to music in the early years of his life. At the age of three, he was quite fascinated watching his uncles play the shehnai. On the day of  India’s independence, he was the first Indian to greet the nation with his shehnai. He was strongly bonded to Benaras and the holy Ganga. He was awarded India’s highest civilian award – the Bharat Ratna.