YVES BERTHOU AND PRANAYAMA
Most people in the west are
now aware of the Yogic Breathing, Pranayama, which is used for relaxation as
well as treatment for some of the ailments. It forms a fundamental part of the
Yogic Breathing practice.
The first person to teach me
the fundamentals of Yogic Breathing was Vandana Yadav, who had worked as a
Flight Attendant for Singapore Airlines and who suffered for years with Asthma.
On leaving Singapore airlines and taking up Yoga as a full time practitioner
she was able to throw away her nebulizers and bronchodilators.
That story came to my mind
when I was told that Yves Berthou, one of the leading proponents of the Breton
traditional instrument, Bombarde, had suffered from Asthma as a young man and
once he took up playing Bombarde on arrival in Brittany from Lille where he had
been born, the Asthma did disappear as he had to train his breathing to play
this rather difficult double reed wind instrument.
In medical school they had
taught us that professional trumpet players do develop Emphysema which is ballooning
of the saccules that exchange air in the lung as they loose their elasticity. There
is some controversy to this, first it was thought it was blowing against the
pressure and then it was thought that it was due to the contaminants in the air
that caused the inflammation. The generally accepted wisdom now is that
wind/brass instruments do not cause Emphysema. It is curious that it had been
observed in 1874 but the myth persisted over the next 130 years!
Annual reports on diseases of
the chest, Volume 1
By Horace Dobell and it was
written in .......1875.
After a small gauge had been
inserted into the mouth at one of its angles various wind instruments were
tried trained performers only being used for the purposes of experiment and the
pressure exerted being only just sufficient for the production of an average
orchestral tone The greatest difference between the highest and lowest note was
found in the clarionet these requiring fifteen and eight inches of pressure respectively
It was noted that the force required was in general small not exceeding or
indeed attaining the pressure of a fit of sneezing or of coughing and it was
therefore concluded that wind instruments are very unlikely to injure the lungs
or to produce the emphysema erroneously attributed to them. London Med Eec Oct
7 1874
There is no doubt that
Pranayama can cure or alleviate asthma and related conditions.
Int J Yoga. 2009 Jan-Jun;
2(1): 22–25.
doi: 10.4103/0973-6131.53838
PMCID: PMC3017963
The effect of various
breathing exercises (pranayama) in patients with bronchial asthma of mild to
moderate severity
Tarun Saxena and Manjari
Saxena
A ASTHMATICS DOING PRANAYAMA, B ASTHMATICS DOING MEDITATION
Deep breathing (deep
inspiration and deep expiration): subjects sit in sukhasana and perform deep
inspiration and expiration through both nostrils.
Sasankasana breathing:
subjects sit in vajrasana with their hands back, holding the right wrist with
the left arm, with inhalation the person bends backward and with exhalation
bends forward touching his/her forehead to the ground.
Anuloma viloma: common
breathing practice, in which subjects breathe through alternate nostrils while
sitting in sukhasana.
Bhramari chanting: sitting in
sukhasana subjects inhale through both nostrils and while exhaling produce
sound of female humming bee.
Omkara (modified): commonly
used for meditation, but not included in regular breathing exercises, is an
important exhalation exercise. Changes to this exercise, keeping in mind the
asthmatic expiratory difficulty with air trapping, were made so as to
strengthen expiration. Patients were advised to sit in sukhasana and to inhale
deeply and then while exhaling produce Omkara with maximum force and to
continue until further exhalation is not possible.
During conventional Omkara,
Omkara is pronounced as ooooo…mmm, but patients were advised to practice
OOOOOOOOO…MMM (high pitch/forceful) with prolonged exhalation.
First three breathing
practices were to normalize the breathing, while Bhramari and Omkara are
expiratory exercises.
Who is Yves Berthou and what
is the instrument he plays?
Yves Berthou is a well-known
Breton traditional musician who just celebrated his 50 years of playing the
Bombard. He is a familiar figure at the various Fest Noz, the traditional
Breton music and dance get together in the many scattered, isolated villages of
Brittany. He has also represented France as its cultural representative in
various international musical encounters including China, Scotland, Lebanon and
Algeria.
(photo from archives showing a breton talabarder playing the Bombard)
The bombard (Breton:
talabard, ar vombard, French: bombarde) is a contemporary conical-bore
double-reed instrument widely used to play traditional Breton music. The
bombard is a woodwind instrument, and a member of the shawm family. Like most
shawms, it has a broad and very powerful sound, vaguely resembling a trumpet.
Bombards in their most
traditional setting are accompanied by a bagpipe called a biniou kozh
("ancient bagpipe"), which plays an octave above the bombard. The
bombard calls, and the biniou responds. The bombard requires so much lip
pressure and breath support that a talabarder can rarely play a sustained
melody line. The biniou plays the melody continuously, while the bombard takes
breaks, establishing the call-and-response pattern. Prior to World War I, a
given pair of Soners would typically cover all of the weddings, funerals, and
other social occasions within a given territory, which would be jealously
guarded from other performers. This duet of bombard and pipes, also
occasionally accompanied by a drummer in past centuries, has been practiced for
at least 500 years in Brittany in an unbroken tradition and must be considered
the heart and soul of this instrument's place in Breton culture. (From
Wikipedia)
From my limited understanding
and watching the bombard being played by large number of people over the course
of hours, there seems to be a larger expiratory effort, much as seen in
Pranayama.
Scientific studies do show
that instruments that require greater respiratory efforts, such as the double
reed instruments, have beneficial effects on the health of the player (such as
lower rates of Sleep Apnoea)
Keeping the scientific facts
away, it is so wonderful to be immersed in the ambience of Fest Noz still practiced
in Brittany after centuries, the repeated coupled instruments or voices of the
players and the trance atmosphere. So both the player and the listener
benefits. It is relaxing for all. I also noticed that the bombard players were
on stage only for three songs at a time, and most of the couples performed only
once during the night
(all night the music plays and there is breton traditional dancing, the steps varying with the region of Brittany from where the music came from)
The idea to write this blog
came to me, after meeting Yves Berthou at a Fest Noz in Poullaouen deep in the
heart of Brittany.
My informant who had known
him for over 50 years told me that Yves had suffered from Asthma as an adolescent
and it disappeared when he took up Bombard on discovering his ancestral music
from Brittany.
He was also intrigued by the
similar sounds in the countries he had visited. Since we now know that the
ancient people of the European continent, among whom Bretons can be counted,
originated in the Middle East perhaps even further east.
(a sacred double reed instrument from South India)
This has piqued my interest
in the history of the Breton people and the peopling of the European continent.
Certainly there has been a southern and northern movement of people in or
around 10 000 BCE, originating in the Middle East taking the southern route
across the continent to the British Isles, the northern routes taking in the
middle European and northern European countries.
