English(Beehive) Class 9 : Lesson 2 - The Sound of Music (part 1 and part 2)

In this page you get NCERT Solution Class 9 English Beehive Lesson 2 The Sound of Music being given. English have two parts. English Beehive Class 9th has been set by the CBSE Board. The speciality of this page is that here you can download pdf of NCERT Solution Class 9 English Beehive. I expect that the given Class 9 English Beehive solution Lesson 2 The Sound of Music will be immensely useful to you.

Lesson 2
The sound of music

Part I
Evelyn Glennie Listens to Sound without Hearing It.

I. Answer these questions in a few words or a couple of sentences each.

1. Old was Evelyn when she went to the the Royal Academy of Music?

Ans: Evelyn was seventeen years old when she went to the Royal Academy of music in London.

2. When was her deafness first noticed? when was it confirmed?

Ans: Evelyn defines was first noticed when she was eight years old and it was confirmed when she was eleven.

II. Answer each of these questions in a short paragraph (30–40 words).

1. Who helped her to continue with music? What did he do and say?

Ans: Percussionist Ron Forbes helped Evelyn to continue with music.He began by tuning two large drums to different notes.He asked her not to listen to them through her ears but to try and sense the sound in some other manner. 

2. Name the various places and causes for which Evelyn performs.

Ans: Evelyn gave solo performances at regular concerts.She gave free concerts in prisons and hospitals. She also accorded high priority to classes for young musicians.

III. Answer the question in two or three paragraphs (100–150 words).

1. How does Evelyn hear music?

Ans: Evelyn heard music by sensing the notes in different parts of her body. When Ron Forbes turned two drums to different notes and asked her to sense the sound without using her ears,she realised that she could feel the higher drum from the waist up and the lower drum from the waist down.She learnt how to open her mind and body to sounds and variations it was shreer determination and hard work when she played the xylophone she could sense the sound passing up the stick into the finger tips by leaning against the drums she could feel the the resonance s flowing into hair body. On a wooden platform,she removed the shoes so that the music vibrations could pass through her bare feet and up her legs.She herself said that music poured in through every part of her body. It tingled in the skin, her cheekbones and even in her hair.

Extra Questions 

1. How was it proved that Evelyn had lost her sense of hearing?

Ans: At the age of eight Evelyn was waiting for her turn to play piano but when her name was called out, she did not respond and her mother first time realized that Evelyn had some problem with hearing. After that she gradually started loosing her sense of hearing. At the beginning she could hear partially bit from the age of eleven her marks had started deteriorating and her headmaster requested her parents to take her to the doctor. When the doctor checked upon Evelyn he found out that Evelyn had lost the sense of hearing.

2. How did Ron forbes teach Evelyn to respond to different sound?

Ans: Though most of the teachers of Royal Academy of Music discouraged Evelyn, but Ron forbes decided to do something for Evelyn because he saw her real passion for music. He took too large dreams and tuned them to different notes, the sound produced by the drums was different and he told Evelyn to sense it rather to listen it through ears. He taught her how to feel the music some other way. By this the upper part of Evelyn’s body, above the waist could feel the higher notes of the drum and the lower part of her body, down from the waist could feel the lower notes of drum. In this way Ron Forbes taught Evelyn to respond to different sound.

3. How did Evelyn identity music?

Ans: Music created sensation in her skin, in her cheekbones and even in her hair. While using xylophone she used to use sticks, so that the sound produced by the xylophone passed through the sticks and while using drums, she learned towards the dream, so that she could feel the echo flowing into her body. Again, whenever she used to perform, she performed an a wooden platform and removed her shoes, so that she could feel the vibrations of the musical instruments passed though the floor, into her feet and up her legs like this she used to identity music.

4. When was Evelyn’s deafness first noticed? When was it confirmed?

Ans: Evelyn’s deafness was first noticed by her mother when she was 8. She was waiting to play the piano;her name was called but she did not move. That was when her mother realized that Evelyn had not heard anything.

She could able to hide her disability from friends till the time she turned 11. However, her academics was getting deteriorated. As advised by her headmistress, she was taken for medical checkup and doctor confirmed her deafness.

5. Why did Bismillah Khan refuse to start a shehnai school in the U.S.A.?

Ans: Bismillah loved Banaras and India from the bottom of his heart. He never wanted to leave his country. Whenever he was in another country, he missed his place a lot. He refused one of his student’s request to start a Shehnai school in USA. The student also promised to recreate the atmosphere there by building temples. He denied saying the fact that he would miss River Ganga.

6. How does Evelyn hear music?

Ans: Evelyn learnt to open her body and mind to sounds and vibrations, feeling the higher drum from her waist up and the lower one from her waist down. She could sense the sound passing up the stick into her fingertips while playing xylophone. She removed her shoes on wooden floors to feel vibrations through her bare feet and up her legsand it tingled all over her body.

Part II
The Shehnai of Bismillah Khan

III. Answer these questions in 30–40 word

1. Why did Aurangzeb ban the playing of the pungi?

Ans: Aurangzeb ban the playing of musical instrument pungi because it had a shrill unpleasant sound.

2. How is a Shehnai different from a pungi?

Ans: Shehnai has a better tonal quality than pungi. It is a natural hollow stem pipe with the holes on its body and is longer and border than the pungi. Shehnai is, in a way an improvement upon the pungi.

3. Where was the Shehnai played traditionally? How did Bismillah Khan change this?

Ans:Shehnai was traditionally played in Royal courts temples and weddings ustad Bismillah Khan an undisputed monarch of Shehnai brought this instrument into the classical stage.

4. When and how did Bismillah Khan get his big break?

Ans:Bismillah Khan got his big break in 1938 all India radio opened in Lucknow and Bismillah Khan played Shehnai on radio he soon became and often heard player on radio. He became the first Indian to greet the nation with his Shehnai from the Red fort on 15 August 1947.

5. Where did Bismillah Khan play the Shehnai on 15th August 1947.Why was the event historic?

Ans:On 15 August 1947 Bismillah Khan played the Raag Kaafi on his Shehnai from the Red Fort.The event was historic because it was on the occasion of India's independence from British Rule.

6. Why did Bismillah Khan refused to start a Shehnai school in the USA?

Ans: Bismillah Khan refused one of his students request to start a Shehnai school in the USA because he would not leave away from Hindustan specially from Banaras the river Ganga and Dumraon.

7. Find at least two instances in the text which tell you that Bismillah Khan loves India and Banaras.

Ans:The first instance is when he turned down his students offer to start Shehnai school in the u in USA the second instance is when Kaun Sahab was asked by Shekhar Gupta about moving to Pakistan during the partition he said that he would never leave Banaras.

Extra Questions

1. what was the story behind the name, given to the new instrument, shehnai?

Ans: As pungi was banned by Aurangzeb due to its unpleasant sound, a barber, who belonged to a family of professional musicians tried to give it s new shape. He took a pipe with a hollow stem, longer and broader than the pungi and made seven holes on the body of the pipe.

This time a sweet, melodious sound was coming from it. When he started blowing air into the pipe and closing and opening different hole .He played it for the first time in the royal residence of the Shah or the mughal king. The first part of the word ‘sheh’stands for shah’ and the second part of the word ‘nai’ stands for the Indian term used for  a barber  , ‘nai’ .so this  instrument was named as Shehnai.

2. How was Ustaad Bismillah Khan honoured by the entire world?

Ans: Ustaad Bismillah Khan was honoured with many awards. In 2001, He received India’s highest civilian award- Bharat Ratna. Not only in India, he spreaded the spark of his talent through his work in all over the world. He performed in United States of America at the prestigious Lincoln centre hall, He also took part in the world Exposition in Montreal in the canes Art festival and in the Osaka trade fair. He was so famous all over the world that in Tehran an auditorium named offers him.

3. Why did Aurangzeb ban the playing of the pungi?

Ans: Aurangzeb banned the playing of pungi because it had a very shrill and unpleasant sound. So ‘Pungi’ became the generic name of all the reeded instruments which were considered as noisemakers.

4. How is a Shehnai different from a Pungi?

Ans: Shehnai has a longer hollow stem in comparison to Pungi. This stem has about 7 holes which are used to played by pressing fingers on it. Pressing fingers and opening the holes creates different vibrations of wind inside the pipe. The sound of Shehnai is less shrill and has a soothing effect on ears.

5. Why Ustaad Bismillah Khan is a legend?

Ans: He is a legend because he did something which has historical significance. He played the shehnai on the day; India got Independence 15^th August 1947 before the speech of the prime minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. He played it to signify that something all spacious for the whole country was about to happen.