Harman23 at 23:02, 10 December 2025

2025-12-10T23:02:02Z

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{{Short description|Indian musician and patron (1922–2011)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Geeta Sarabhai Mayor
| image = [[File:Gita Sarabhai Mayor, Ahmedabad, 1952.jpg|200px]]
| caption = Geeta Sarabhai Mayor, Ahmedabad, 1952
| birth_date = 1922
| birth_place = [[Ahmedabad]], [[British Raj|British India]]
| death_date = 11 March 2011 (aged 88-89)
| death_place = Ahmedabad, [[Gujarat]], India
| education = [[Bhatkhande Music Institute Deemed University]] earlier known as Marris School of Music
| occupation = Musician
| known_for = Music composition
| module = {{Infobox musical artist
| embed = yes
| genre = [[Hindustani Classical]]
| instrument = [[Pakhawaj]]
}} 
| spouse = Satya Dev Mayor
| children = Pallavi Satyadev Mayor
| relatives = Ajay Mayor (Grandson)
| family = [[Sarabhai family]]
}}

'''Geeta Sarabhai Mayor''' ({{Née|Sarabhai}}; 1922 – 11 March 2011) was an Indian musician, well known for her patronage in music. She was among the first women to play the [[pakhavaj]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Geeta Sarabhai « Women on Record |url=http://www.womenonrecord.com/music-makers/media-makers/geeta-sarabhai |access-date=15 June 2022 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Somasundaram |first=Kannan |date=12 March 2011 |title=Vikram's sister, the musical Sarabhai passes away |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/vikrams-sister-the-musical-sarabhai-passes-away/articleshow/7683479.cms |access-date=15 June 2022 |website=[[The Times of India]] |language=en}}</ref> a traditional barrel-shaped, two-headed drum.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pakhawaj |url=https://rohatgimusicandartgallery.com/pakhawaj |website=Rohatgi Music and Art Gallery |access-date=20 June 2022 |archive-date=9 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409150122/https://rohatgimusicandartgallery.com/pakhawaj |url-status=dead }}</ref> She promoted exchanges between Indian and Western music, particularly for bringing [[Ahmedabad]] to New York City.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Subcontinental Synth: David Tudor and the First Moog in India |url=https://eastofborneo.org/articles/subcontinental-synth-david-tudor-and-the-first-moog-in-india/ |access-date=15 June 2022 |website=East of Borneo |language=en-US}}</ref> During a study stay in New York, she taught Indian music and philosophy to the experimental composer [[John Cage]], in exchange for a course on the theory of Western music.<ref name="Marvelly">{{cite news |last1=Marvelly |first1=Paula |title=John Cage: Silence – The Culturium – |url=https://www.theculturium.com/john-cage-silence/ |access-date=20 June 2022 |work=The Culturium |date=29 October 2015}}</ref> The course included the [[twelve-tone technique]] of [[Arnold Schoenberg]].<ref name="Silverman">{{cite book |last1=Silverman |first1=Kenneth |title=Begin Again: A Biography of John Cage |date=11 July 2012 |publisher=Northwestern University Press |isbn=978-0-8101-2830-9 |pages=66–67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i11wgznLRZIC&pg=PA479 |access-date=20 June 2022 |language=en}}</ref> In 1949, Geeta Sarabhai founded the ''Sangeet Kendra'' in Ahmedabad, whose mission is to document and promote classical and popular Indian musical traditions.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sangeet Kendra |url=https://www.discogs.com/label/832760-Sangeet-Kendra |website=Discogs |access-date=20 June 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Sangeet Kendra |url=http://www.sangeetkendra.org/ |website=Sangeet Kendra |access-date=20 June 2022}}</ref> Gita was a part-time faculty of music at [[National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mp |first=Ranjan |title=NID Documentation 64-69 |url=https://www.academia.edu/7251034 |archive-date=4 February 2024 |access-date=9 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240204112953/https://www.academia.edu/7251034 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Life and career ==
[[File:This luncheon group photo with several members of the Sarabhai family. Baroda, 1951.jpg|thumb|315x315px|Geeta Mayor, sitting, extreme left, along with her father [[Ambalal Sarabhai]] 3rd seat from the right, sister Gira Sarabhai sitting on the extreme right and,, their brother [[Vikram Sarabhai]], seated, 4th from the left.]]
Geeta Sarabhai is the daughter of Gujarati industrialist [[Ambalal Sarabhai]] (1890–1967), who played a key role in the struggle for Indian independence. Ambalal Sarabhai supported [[Mahatma Gandhi]] as early as 1916, notably by providing him with financial aid, and it was at Ahmedabad where Mahatma Gandhi established his first Ashram.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Leonard |first1=Karen |last2=Lynton |first2=Harriet Ronken |last3=Rajan |first3=Mohini |date=1975 |title=The Days of the Beloved. |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2755481 |journal=Pacific Affairs |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=134 |doi=10.2307/2755481 |jstor=2755481 |issn=0030-851X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

[[File:Pakhavaj Mrudang Rathaava Community Gujrat.jpg|thumb|alt=Pakhavaj, traditional Indian drum|Pakhavaj, a traditional barrel-shaped, two-headed drum]]
For eight years, Geeta Sarabhai trained in vocals, percussion and music theory of Hindustani classical music. She learned to play the [[pakhavaj]] with masters Govindrao Burhanpurkar, Kumari Chitrangana, Kumari Poorva Naresh and [[Rasoolan Bai]]. However, she was concerned about the overwhelming ascendancy exercised by Western music over the traditional music of her country. She decided to better understand the Western musical tradition to understand its influence.<ref name="Patterson 41–60">{{Citation |last=Patterson |first=David W. |title=Cage and Asia: history and sources |date=1 August 2002 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ccol9780521783484.004 |work=The Cambridge Companion to John Cage |pages=41–60 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/ccol9780521783484.004 |isbn=9780521783484 |access-date=15 June 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Her sister [[Gira Sarabhai]] trained and worked with [[Frank Lloyd Wright]] at [[Taliesin Fellowship]], where she assisted with the design for the spiral-shaped [[Guggenheim Museum]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bhagat |first=Shalini Venugopal |date=2021-09-23 |title=Gira Sarabhai, Designer Who Helped Shape Modern India, Dies at 97 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/23/world/asia/gira-sarabhai-dead.html |access-date=2022-06-19 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Gita was a musician with a fine knowledge of India's traditional music which she worked to preserve. Among many of the initiatives the Sarabhais funded, Gita notably introduced the great pakhavaj legend, her master Govindrao Burhanpurkar, to Ahmedabad, contributing decisively to his fame. ''Sangeet Kendra's'' collection has recordings of Indian musicians like [[Kesarbai Kerkar]], Rasoolan Bai, [[Junior Dagar Brothers|Dagar Brothers]], [[Asad Ali Khan]] amongst others.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sangeet Kendra |url=http://www.sangeetkendra.org/ |access-date=15 June 2022 |website=Sangeet Kendra |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=21 February 2012 |first=Kannan |last=Somasundaram |title=The rise of Amdavadi culturati |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/the-rise-of-amdavadi-culturati/articleshow/11971013.cms |access-date=15 June 2022 |website=The Times of India |language=en}}</ref>
[[File:Gita and Ambalal, Ahmedabad, 1952.jpg|alt=Geeta Sarabhai Mayor and her father, Ambalal Sarabhai, while out for a morning walk in the spacious grounds of their residential complex called "The Retreat", designed by Le Corbusier.|thumb|Geeta Sarabhai Mayor and her father, [[Ambalal Sarabhai]], while out for a morning walk in the spacious grounds of their residential complex called "The Retreat", designed by [[Le Corbusier]].|261x261px]]

=== Geeta Sarabhai and John Cage ===
In 1946, Geeta Sarabhai went to New York to study Western music. Through [[Isamu Noguchi]], she met the composer John Cage, then in the midst of personal slump.<ref name=":0" /> In ''Indeterminacy'', Cage recounted how he met Gita Sarabhai.<ref name="Indeterminacy"/> Sarabhai was interested in the influence of Western music on traditional Indian music. She was going to study Western music and she had contemplated the [[Juilliard School]].<ref name=refj/>

{{blockquote|She studied contemporary music and counterpoint with me. She said, “How much do you charge?” I said, “It’ll be free if you’ll also teach me about Indian music.” We were almost every day together. At the end of six months, just before she flew away, she gave me ''[[The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna]]''. It took me a year to finish reading it.<ref name="Indeterminacy">{{cite web |last1=Cage |first1=John |title=Transcript of Story 79, Indeterminacy: New Aspect of Form in Instrumental and Electronic Music. Ninety Stories by John Cage, with Music. John Cage, reading; David Tudor, music. Folkways FT 3704, 1959. Reissued as Smithsonian/Folkways CD DF 40804/5, 1992. |url=https://www.lcdf.org/indeterminacy/s/79?var=r |website=Indeterminacy |access-date=20 June 2022}}</ref>}}

This exchange influenced Cage's career and, by extension, the history of Western avant-garde music.<ref name=refj>{{Cite web |title=ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG ORAL HISTORY PROJECT : The Reminiscences of Asha and Suhrid Sarabhai |url=https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/sites/default/files/Sarabhai_FINAL_1.pdf}}</ref> Cage would go on to write ''[[Sonatas and Interludes]]''. Sarabhai and Cage formed a close friendship – Cage wanted to eliminate personal expression in music and Sarabhai had learned from her Indian master that music is not a conscious activity, but is given to someone fit to receive it.<ref name="Patterson 41–60"/>

Following this, Cage and his companion, choreographer [[Merce Cunningham]], maintained a strong bond with Geeta Sarabhai. Thus the Cunningham Dance Company was invited to perform in Ahmedabad during its world tour in 1964.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bharucha |first=Rustom |title=Chandralekha Woman Dance Resistance |publisher=HarperCollins India |year=1999 |isbn=978-8172232542}}</ref> Cage and [[David Tudor]] were also a part of the program with Merce Cunningham. Tapes are extant that show that Sarabhai was one of the first Indian women to have composed on the [[Moog synthesizer]], under the tutelage of Tudor in 1969.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Electronic India 1969–73 revisited – The Wire |url=https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/interviews/electronic-india-moog-interview-paul-purgas |access-date=15 June 2022 |website=The Wire Magazine – Adventures In Modern Music |language=en}}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Sarabhai family]]
* [[Darpana Academy of Performing Arts]]
* [[John Cage]]
* [[Isamu Noguchi]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarabhai, Gita}}
[[Category:Indian women musicians]]
[[Category:Gujarati people]]
[[Category:Sarabhai family]]
[[Category:1922 births]]
[[Category:2011 deaths]]
[[Category:Artists from Ahmedabad]]
[[Category:Pakhavaj players]]
[[Category:Mridangam players]]
[[Category:Designers at National Institute of Design]]
[[Category:Academic staff of National Institute of Design]]

Gita Sarabhai - Revision history

Harman23 at 23:02, 10 December 2025