This essay is now published in my fourth book:
Removing it from here was proper, though not obligatory, in order that my publisher's investment in the book is protected.
DR
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Pandit Shivkumar Sharma – “The foundation of the 'Musician's Truth' is sincerity and seriousness of purpose”
Foreword to Deepak Raja’s book:“Hindustani music – a tradition in transition”
signed on May 16, 2004.
Change is the only permanent reality in music. Even the music of the same gharànà changes from generation to generation. No musician can be a perfect xerox of his guru. This is the way it has been, this is the way it will remain, and this is the way it should be. It is this process that allows new styles to emerge, and new genres of music to be created. If classical music does not change constantly, it will stagnate, and become irrelevant to society.
Along with accepting the permanence of change, we have to acknowledge that, in music, as in other fields, each generation is attuned to certain values based on the environment in which it has been brought up. Because of their conditioning, a majority of people tend to develop firm notions about what is good and what is bad, or what is right and what is wrong, and find change difficult to accept. Their initial response to anything new is often rejection, and even condemnation. It is only gradually that society begins to discover the elements of truth in the newer manifestations of human endeavour, and concedes legitimacy to them.
To develop an intelligent approach to change and diversity in music, we have to recognize that classical music, like any other art form, evolves in society in response to the changing socio-economic realities, and sustains itself by fulfilling the cultural needs of society. Its evolution is the result of an interaction between musicians and their audiences and reflects the quality of the relationship they wish to forge between them.
In our own era, say a little before that, performances of classical music were confined to the courts of the Mahàràjàs and Nawàbs. Outside this circle, concerts took place primarily in private gatherings. They were either “Jumme-kà-takiyà” (Friday evening gatherings) or special occasions where either a musician's son was getting married, or some musician was hosting a commemorative concert for a deceased father or relative. Sometimes, a local aristocrat hosted these concerts. In most cases, the organizers and the audiences were either musicians, or close friends and relatives of musicians -- in short, people of considerable discernment in matters of classical music. The event had virtually no financial implications for anyone. This was the chamber-music stage of evolution of our tradition. Considering the context of these gatherings, the music of the era was naturally of a very high standard, very intellectual, very competitive, and perhaps even intimidating.
In the second quarter of the twentieth century, music came out of the chamber music context into the public arena. These were also the sunset years of British rule and the era of Mahàràjàs and Nawàbs as patrons of music. That was the time when scholars like Pandit V.N. Bhatkhande, and enthusiastic patrons like Jeevanlal Mattoo in Lahore and Lala Babu in Calcutta started organizing music conferences. At that stage, musicians were still poorly paid; and audiences were not large -- maybe 500 or 700 people at the most. But, musicians got an opportunity to acquire a following, and create a market for their music. Around the same time, the radio and the gramophone record also started taking music all over the country. So, there was an opportunity as well as an attraction for reaching out to audiences -- of shaping a career in music. From this stage onwards, the receptivity of audiences became an important determinant of the quality of music that was performed.
I am sure that, out of audiences 500 or 700 strong in that era, 100 per cent of the listeners were not knowledgeable about the intricacies of music. The proportion of audiences who understood, for instance, the nuances of the komal gàndhàra of Darbàri was probably not much higher than it is today. From that stage to present times, audiences have become larger, their profile has changed, their expectations from music have changed, and the media for exposure to music have grown in number and reach. But, as a percentage of the total population, I doubt if classical music audiences are much larger today than they were 50 years ago. I also doubt if the ratio of the discerning to the rest is very much smaller today.
I am driving at two points here. Firstly, that music has changed much more because society has changed, and not as much because the discerning audiences have been reduced to a small minority. Secondly, despite dramatic changes in the quality of music, which some regard as signs of decay, the musicians who enjoy stature along with popularity today exhibit the same values as those of the early twentieth century, whom we mention with reverence. And this quality is what I call the “Musician's Truth.”
The “Musician's Truth” touches the mind, heart, and soul of audiences irrespective of their level of discernment. This truth goes beyond ràga grammar, and aspects of music theory. People relate to music in a million different ways, and it is futile for a musician to think that he can tailor his music to specific audience profiles and needs. The only thing he can rely on is a steadfast commitment to the “Musician's Truth” and help his audiences to become receptive to it. He may not accomplish this in a year, or five years, or even ten years. But, abandoning it is no solution to his relevance as a musician. If this element of “Truth” is missing from a musician's art, even the undiscerning listener will be uneasy, though he may not be able to tell you why he is uneasy. If it is present, even the total ignoramus will go home happy, and will return for more. In the short run, a musician may be able to create a niche for himself without the “Musician's Truth” But, he will find it impossible to retain that position without a secure grip over it.
The foundation of the “Musician's Truth” is sincerity and seriousness of purpose. This is reflected in several facets of music, which have remained, and will remain, fundamental to our music. A musician's intonation should be perfect. Whatever his interpretation of a ràga, his exposition of it should be consistent and coherent. He should organize his musical material neatly and logically. There should be a reasonable balance between the melodic and rhythmic elements in his music. While a degree of partiality to either melodic or rhythmic elements is acceptable in our tradition, an obsession with either of them at the cost of the other deprives the music of its aesthetic value. These qualities qualify as good music by any yardstick of value.
The “Musician's Truth” has exhibited amazing resilience for over a century now, and I have no doubt that it will continue to attract musicians in sufficient numbers for the tradition to survive. However, I am concerned about the threats that have emerged in the last decades of the twentieth century. The threat comes from two recent developments -- the tidal wave of consumerism, and the “commoditization” of music.
It takes 10 or 15 years of rigorous training to groom a classical musician, and another 10 to 12 years of concert experience for him to reach his peak level in the profession. A life in classical music requires the musician to defer his economic aspirations until he is about 40. This is asking for a lot of self-denial from a musician who sees a successful pop singer achieve a glamorous lifestyle at the age of 20 or 25.
This reality may, or may not, shrink the inflow of top class talent into classical music. But, it will certainly encourage classical musicians to think in terms of a “strategy,” in which the “Musician's Truth” becomes the first casualty. With the growing impatience of musicians to live well, and an environment that offers ample opportunities for exposure, we now find a large number of talented musicians struggling -- somehow, and even anyhow -- to create a comfortable niche for themselves. This tendency is crowding the music market with a lot of dishonest classical music.
However, there is no reason to be pessimistic about the future of Hindustani music. I believe so because a few of the musicians struggling in the “somehow-anyhow” circuit might stumble upon the “Musician's Truth,” even if inadvertently. Moreover there will always be musicians outside this circuit who have the junåna (passion/commitment) to pursue the “Musician's Truth” irrespective of the financial consequences. The number of such musicians has always been small, and will remain small.
The task before the community of musicians and music-lovers is to make the world of Hindustani music more receptive to the “Musician's Truth,” which will continue to shine forth, though almost certainly in less homogeneous and more unfamiliar manifestations. This requires us to rise above our conditioning, and open our minds to change and variety. It also requires us to drop the arrogance of the classical music world, and appreciate the manifestations of the “Musician's Truth” in other forms of music -- semi-classical, folk and even popular. It is in this context, that I commend Deepak Raja's book “Hindustani Music: A Tradition in Transition” as a panoramic, and serious, review of the Hindustani music tradition in the post-Independence era.
Deepak is an author with a keen analytical mind, imbued with a scientific approach. His chapters on ràga grammar, ràga authenticity, ràga chemistry, and his introductory essays on Dhrupad, Khayàl, Thumaree and Tappà can be of immense value to music students and scholars. His essay on the time-theory of ràgas is a thought-provoking piece of writing, which deserves the attention of the music fraternity in view of the changing context of music performance and enjoyment. I may not personally agree with all his views on the current trends in Hindustani music. However, I acknowledge them as representing those of his generation of hard-core rasikas, who find themselves in a minority today.
I sincerely hope that this book will be widely read, and will encourage serious discussion and debate on different facets of Hindustani music. I wish Deepak success in his endeavours as a student of Hindustani music and as an author.
Along with accepting the permanence of change, we have to acknowledge that, in music, as in other fields, each generation is attuned to certain values based on the environment in which it has been brought up. Because of their conditioning, a majority of people tend to develop firm notions about what is good and what is bad, or what is right and what is wrong, and find change difficult to accept. Their initial response to anything new is often rejection, and even condemnation. It is only gradually that society begins to discover the elements of truth in the newer manifestations of human endeavour, and concedes legitimacy to them.
To develop an intelligent approach to change and diversity in music, we have to recognize that classical music, like any other art form, evolves in society in response to the changing socio-economic realities, and sustains itself by fulfilling the cultural needs of society. Its evolution is the result of an interaction between musicians and their audiences and reflects the quality of the relationship they wish to forge between them.
In our own era, say a little before that, performances of classical music were confined to the courts of the Mahàràjàs and Nawàbs. Outside this circle, concerts took place primarily in private gatherings. They were either “Jumme-kà-takiyà” (Friday evening gatherings) or special occasions where either a musician's son was getting married, or some musician was hosting a commemorative concert for a deceased father or relative. Sometimes, a local aristocrat hosted these concerts. In most cases, the organizers and the audiences were either musicians, or close friends and relatives of musicians -- in short, people of considerable discernment in matters of classical music. The event had virtually no financial implications for anyone. This was the chamber-music stage of evolution of our tradition. Considering the context of these gatherings, the music of the era was naturally of a very high standard, very intellectual, very competitive, and perhaps even intimidating.
In the second quarter of the twentieth century, music came out of the chamber music context into the public arena. These were also the sunset years of British rule and the era of Mahàràjàs and Nawàbs as patrons of music. That was the time when scholars like Pandit V.N. Bhatkhande, and enthusiastic patrons like Jeevanlal Mattoo in Lahore and Lala Babu in Calcutta started organizing music conferences. At that stage, musicians were still poorly paid; and audiences were not large -- maybe 500 or 700 people at the most. But, musicians got an opportunity to acquire a following, and create a market for their music. Around the same time, the radio and the gramophone record also started taking music all over the country. So, there was an opportunity as well as an attraction for reaching out to audiences -- of shaping a career in music. From this stage onwards, the receptivity of audiences became an important determinant of the quality of music that was performed.
I am sure that, out of audiences 500 or 700 strong in that era, 100 per cent of the listeners were not knowledgeable about the intricacies of music. The proportion of audiences who understood, for instance, the nuances of the komal gàndhàra of Darbàri was probably not much higher than it is today. From that stage to present times, audiences have become larger, their profile has changed, their expectations from music have changed, and the media for exposure to music have grown in number and reach. But, as a percentage of the total population, I doubt if classical music audiences are much larger today than they were 50 years ago. I also doubt if the ratio of the discerning to the rest is very much smaller today.
I am driving at two points here. Firstly, that music has changed much more because society has changed, and not as much because the discerning audiences have been reduced to a small minority. Secondly, despite dramatic changes in the quality of music, which some regard as signs of decay, the musicians who enjoy stature along with popularity today exhibit the same values as those of the early twentieth century, whom we mention with reverence. And this quality is what I call the “Musician's Truth.”
The “Musician's Truth” touches the mind, heart, and soul of audiences irrespective of their level of discernment. This truth goes beyond ràga grammar, and aspects of music theory. People relate to music in a million different ways, and it is futile for a musician to think that he can tailor his music to specific audience profiles and needs. The only thing he can rely on is a steadfast commitment to the “Musician's Truth” and help his audiences to become receptive to it. He may not accomplish this in a year, or five years, or even ten years. But, abandoning it is no solution to his relevance as a musician. If this element of “Truth” is missing from a musician's art, even the undiscerning listener will be uneasy, though he may not be able to tell you why he is uneasy. If it is present, even the total ignoramus will go home happy, and will return for more. In the short run, a musician may be able to create a niche for himself without the “Musician's Truth” But, he will find it impossible to retain that position without a secure grip over it.
The foundation of the “Musician's Truth” is sincerity and seriousness of purpose. This is reflected in several facets of music, which have remained, and will remain, fundamental to our music. A musician's intonation should be perfect. Whatever his interpretation of a ràga, his exposition of it should be consistent and coherent. He should organize his musical material neatly and logically. There should be a reasonable balance between the melodic and rhythmic elements in his music. While a degree of partiality to either melodic or rhythmic elements is acceptable in our tradition, an obsession with either of them at the cost of the other deprives the music of its aesthetic value. These qualities qualify as good music by any yardstick of value.
The “Musician's Truth” has exhibited amazing resilience for over a century now, and I have no doubt that it will continue to attract musicians in sufficient numbers for the tradition to survive. However, I am concerned about the threats that have emerged in the last decades of the twentieth century. The threat comes from two recent developments -- the tidal wave of consumerism, and the “commoditization” of music.
It takes 10 or 15 years of rigorous training to groom a classical musician, and another 10 to 12 years of concert experience for him to reach his peak level in the profession. A life in classical music requires the musician to defer his economic aspirations until he is about 40. This is asking for a lot of self-denial from a musician who sees a successful pop singer achieve a glamorous lifestyle at the age of 20 or 25.
This reality may, or may not, shrink the inflow of top class talent into classical music. But, it will certainly encourage classical musicians to think in terms of a “strategy,” in which the “Musician's Truth” becomes the first casualty. With the growing impatience of musicians to live well, and an environment that offers ample opportunities for exposure, we now find a large number of talented musicians struggling -- somehow, and even anyhow -- to create a comfortable niche for themselves. This tendency is crowding the music market with a lot of dishonest classical music.
However, there is no reason to be pessimistic about the future of Hindustani music. I believe so because a few of the musicians struggling in the “somehow-anyhow” circuit might stumble upon the “Musician's Truth,” even if inadvertently. Moreover there will always be musicians outside this circuit who have the junåna (passion/commitment) to pursue the “Musician's Truth” irrespective of the financial consequences. The number of such musicians has always been small, and will remain small.
The task before the community of musicians and music-lovers is to make the world of Hindustani music more receptive to the “Musician's Truth,” which will continue to shine forth, though almost certainly in less homogeneous and more unfamiliar manifestations. This requires us to rise above our conditioning, and open our minds to change and variety. It also requires us to drop the arrogance of the classical music world, and appreciate the manifestations of the “Musician's Truth” in other forms of music -- semi-classical, folk and even popular. It is in this context, that I commend Deepak Raja's book “Hindustani Music: A Tradition in Transition” as a panoramic, and serious, review of the Hindustani music tradition in the post-Independence era.
Deepak is an author with a keen analytical mind, imbued with a scientific approach. His chapters on ràga grammar, ràga authenticity, ràga chemistry, and his introductory essays on Dhrupad, Khayàl, Thumaree and Tappà can be of immense value to music students and scholars. His essay on the time-theory of ràgas is a thought-provoking piece of writing, which deserves the attention of the music fraternity in view of the changing context of music performance and enjoyment. I may not personally agree with all his views on the current trends in Hindustani music. However, I acknowledge them as representing those of his generation of hard-core rasikas, who find themselves in a minority today.
I sincerely hope that this book will be widely read, and will encourage serious discussion and debate on different facets of Hindustani music. I wish Deepak success in his endeavours as a student of Hindustani music and as an author.
Reproduced with the consent of the publishers of the book, DK Printworld Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi. dkprintworld@vsnl.net
Friday, January 25, 2008
Raga Ahir Bhairav... and issues in raga grammar
Since Bhatkhande’s documentation of raga grammar in the first quarter of the 20th century, “Vadi” and “Samvadi” swaras have been the pivotal notions describing the melodic personalities of ragas. This set of notions, identifying two dominant swaras, one primary and the other secondary, each located in a different tetrachord, has immense intuitive appeal. But, on close scrutiny, the theory as well as practice of specific ragas appears to warrant re-examination of the “Vadi-Samvadi” notion. Ahir Bhairav, a mature and popular raga, is an interesting example of this phenomenon.
Ahir Bhairav belongs to the Bhairav parent scale, and is a variant of Bhairav, the foundation raga of the scale. It is documented as a compound raga, derived as a blend of a folk/ tribal melody called Ahiri and Bhairav. Texts on raga grammar do not appear to suggest a standardised melodic identity for Ahir Bhairav. In terms of characteristic melodic patterns, Subbarao [Subbarao, B. Raga Nidhi, Vol. I, 4th edition, 1996, Music Academy, Madras] lists two variants of Ahir Bhairav. Thakurdas, [Thakurdas, Manikubuwa, Raga Darshan, Vol.IV, 1st edition, 1997, Lakshminarayan Trust, Rajpipla] presents a third and, substantially different, interpretation of the raga.
For the Ahir Bhairav of his era, Bhatkhande considers Sa as the vadi swara. He avers that because the frequent stand-alone use of Ma, this swara could also be considered the vadi. However, he argues that [komal] Re is also an important swara in the treatment of the raga. Thakurdas suggests Pa and Sa as the vadi and samvadi.
Survey of recordings
Important clues to the raga’s melodic personality may be gleaned from a survey of seven recordings by modern masters: Gangubai Hangal [Inreco:2711-0078], Bhimsen Joshi [TCICL-062C], Kishori Amonkar [Music Today: A91006], Ravi Shankar [STCS:850094], Brij Bhushan Kabra [STCS:850321], Shivkumar Sharma [6TCS:O4B:7175], Pandit Jasraj [STCS:O4B:7402].
The trickiest issue in decoding raga grammar pertains to identification of the “vadi” and “samvadi” swaras in the raga. The raga is consistently treated as a Bhairav variant, with its Bhairav personality being highlighted by the oscillated [komal] Re in the descent [G-M-r-S]. If the vadi [primary dominants] is intended to indicate dominance over the totality of the aural experience, [komal] Re would be a probable choice. Considering the melodic contours of the mukhdas of most bandishes, Ga would also be a candidate for the status.
While Sa and Pa do not enjoy even near-dominant status in the surveyed recordings, Ma appears to have a following, though not categorical enough to qualify it as a dominant. Kishori Amonkar, Pandit Jasraj, Brij Bhushan Kabra, and Shivkumar Sharma have invested a considerable amount of improvisational energy with Ma as a melodic focus. Kabra and Shivkumar have reinforced this emphasis with an appropriate tuning of the acoustic ambience [chords/ drones] on their instruments, exploiting the first-third harmony of Ma and Dh. Kabra’s bandish itself is centred around Ma, and is perhaps the only conscious treatment -- in this sample of recordings -- of the swara as a “Vadi”.
While the “vadi” seems elusive on the surveyed recordings, the “samvadi” does not even appear faintly on the horizon. In the uttaranga, Dh appears to enjoy some significance, but not sufficient to claim samvadi status. The samvadi of the raga remains indeterminate.
The evidence considered here suggests a debatable vadi, and an indeterminate samvadi, with almost all swaras [Ni excluded] usable as terminal points in phrasing [Nyasa swaras]. Ahir Bhairav is thus a raga whose melodic personality is sustained entirely by its distinctive swara material, and a reasonable consistency in its “Chalan”. This makes it a raga of immense melodic tenacity, and improvisational potential. But, this does not make for a comfortable relationship between theory and practice.
The fundamental issue
Ahir Bhairav is supposedly a compound raga, and it has often been argued that compound ragas, by definition, defy the codification of their grammar. But, this is not an isolated case. There are many ragas whose melodic personalities are adequately sustained by their swara-material and their “Chalan” [skeletal phraseology] or what the Dhrupad tradition describes as “Raga Swarup” [melodic form], without reference to “Vadi-Samvadi” swaras.
All this is not terribly original. For many ragas, Bhatkhande himself has shied away from identifying the “Vadi-Samvadi” pair. Later grammarians, also of formidable stature, have often either differed from Bhatkhande’s documentation, or been vague on this matter. A similar divergence is noticed in the practice of several ragas by the leading musicians of our times, including those known for their theoretical soundness. Despite the vagueness of grammar on this dimension long believed to be crucial, several ragas identify themselves beyond reasonable doubt when performed.
What we are looking at is not simply a chasm between theory and practice [Lakshya-Lakshana divergence]. What we are looking at is the inadequacy of analytical rigour used by grammarians, and insufficient commitment to empirical research. The research method required for such enquiries is simple enough, and need not hold our attention here. What is perhaps more crucial is our willingness to make a conceptual leap in understanding the role of raga grammar, and accept its implications.
The purpose of raga grammar is to establish the identity of the raga beyond reasonable doubt, without the risk of confusion with other known ragas. It appears possible to prove that this purpose is served without the categorical identification of “Vadi-Samvadi” pair in musical performance across a large number of ragas. This could mean that this notion of dominant tones is superfluous, though probably not redundant.
In such an event, we may need to acknowledge two levels of raga grammar -- a “mandatory” level which identifies the raga beyond reasonable doubt, and a “prescriptive” level which helps by its observance, but does no damage by its breach. The notion of “Vadi-Samvadi” may, then, belong more appropriately to the “prescriptive” level rather than the “mandatory” level at which it is currently regarded in musicological literature.
After I proposed this two-level notion of raga grammar in my book [Hindustani music: a tradition in transition], experts in linguistics took strong objection. They argued that there is no such thing as “prescriptive grammar”. If anything is grammar, it can only be mandatory. The answer to this is that, the notions of grammar must take into account the nature of the language to which they pertain. Notions relevant to a spoken and written language need not be binding on a “language” that uses melody as its vehicle of ideas. Moreover, when we consider the uniquely Indian problem of codifying the “raga-ness” of ragas, we are persuaded that Indian musicology will have to develop its own “grammar” with its own conceptual and analytical tools.
© Deepak S. Raja 2007
Ahir Bhairav belongs to the Bhairav parent scale, and is a variant of Bhairav, the foundation raga of the scale. It is documented as a compound raga, derived as a blend of a folk/ tribal melody called Ahiri and Bhairav. Texts on raga grammar do not appear to suggest a standardised melodic identity for Ahir Bhairav. In terms of characteristic melodic patterns, Subbarao [Subbarao, B. Raga Nidhi, Vol. I, 4th edition, 1996, Music Academy, Madras] lists two variants of Ahir Bhairav. Thakurdas, [Thakurdas, Manikubuwa, Raga Darshan, Vol.IV, 1st edition, 1997, Lakshminarayan Trust, Rajpipla] presents a third and, substantially different, interpretation of the raga.
For the Ahir Bhairav of his era, Bhatkhande considers Sa as the vadi swara. He avers that because the frequent stand-alone use of Ma, this swara could also be considered the vadi. However, he argues that [komal] Re is also an important swara in the treatment of the raga. Thakurdas suggests Pa and Sa as the vadi and samvadi.
Survey of recordings
Important clues to the raga’s melodic personality may be gleaned from a survey of seven recordings by modern masters: Gangubai Hangal [Inreco:2711-0078], Bhimsen Joshi [TCICL-062C], Kishori Amonkar [Music Today: A91006], Ravi Shankar [STCS:850094], Brij Bhushan Kabra [STCS:850321], Shivkumar Sharma [6TCS:O4B:7175], Pandit Jasraj [STCS:O4B:7402].
The trickiest issue in decoding raga grammar pertains to identification of the “vadi” and “samvadi” swaras in the raga. The raga is consistently treated as a Bhairav variant, with its Bhairav personality being highlighted by the oscillated [komal] Re in the descent [G-M-r-S]. If the vadi [primary dominants] is intended to indicate dominance over the totality of the aural experience, [komal] Re would be a probable choice. Considering the melodic contours of the mukhdas of most bandishes, Ga would also be a candidate for the status.
While Sa and Pa do not enjoy even near-dominant status in the surveyed recordings, Ma appears to have a following, though not categorical enough to qualify it as a dominant. Kishori Amonkar, Pandit Jasraj, Brij Bhushan Kabra, and Shivkumar Sharma have invested a considerable amount of improvisational energy with Ma as a melodic focus. Kabra and Shivkumar have reinforced this emphasis with an appropriate tuning of the acoustic ambience [chords/ drones] on their instruments, exploiting the first-third harmony of Ma and Dh. Kabra’s bandish itself is centred around Ma, and is perhaps the only conscious treatment -- in this sample of recordings -- of the swara as a “Vadi”.
While the “vadi” seems elusive on the surveyed recordings, the “samvadi” does not even appear faintly on the horizon. In the uttaranga, Dh appears to enjoy some significance, but not sufficient to claim samvadi status. The samvadi of the raga remains indeterminate.
The evidence considered here suggests a debatable vadi, and an indeterminate samvadi, with almost all swaras [Ni excluded] usable as terminal points in phrasing [Nyasa swaras]. Ahir Bhairav is thus a raga whose melodic personality is sustained entirely by its distinctive swara material, and a reasonable consistency in its “Chalan”. This makes it a raga of immense melodic tenacity, and improvisational potential. But, this does not make for a comfortable relationship between theory and practice.
The fundamental issue
Ahir Bhairav is supposedly a compound raga, and it has often been argued that compound ragas, by definition, defy the codification of their grammar. But, this is not an isolated case. There are many ragas whose melodic personalities are adequately sustained by their swara-material and their “Chalan” [skeletal phraseology] or what the Dhrupad tradition describes as “Raga Swarup” [melodic form], without reference to “Vadi-Samvadi” swaras.
All this is not terribly original. For many ragas, Bhatkhande himself has shied away from identifying the “Vadi-Samvadi” pair. Later grammarians, also of formidable stature, have often either differed from Bhatkhande’s documentation, or been vague on this matter. A similar divergence is noticed in the practice of several ragas by the leading musicians of our times, including those known for their theoretical soundness. Despite the vagueness of grammar on this dimension long believed to be crucial, several ragas identify themselves beyond reasonable doubt when performed.
What we are looking at is not simply a chasm between theory and practice [Lakshya-Lakshana divergence]. What we are looking at is the inadequacy of analytical rigour used by grammarians, and insufficient commitment to empirical research. The research method required for such enquiries is simple enough, and need not hold our attention here. What is perhaps more crucial is our willingness to make a conceptual leap in understanding the role of raga grammar, and accept its implications.
The purpose of raga grammar is to establish the identity of the raga beyond reasonable doubt, without the risk of confusion with other known ragas. It appears possible to prove that this purpose is served without the categorical identification of “Vadi-Samvadi” pair in musical performance across a large number of ragas. This could mean that this notion of dominant tones is superfluous, though probably not redundant.
In such an event, we may need to acknowledge two levels of raga grammar -- a “mandatory” level which identifies the raga beyond reasonable doubt, and a “prescriptive” level which helps by its observance, but does no damage by its breach. The notion of “Vadi-Samvadi” may, then, belong more appropriately to the “prescriptive” level rather than the “mandatory” level at which it is currently regarded in musicological literature.
After I proposed this two-level notion of raga grammar in my book [Hindustani music: a tradition in transition], experts in linguistics took strong objection. They argued that there is no such thing as “prescriptive grammar”. If anything is grammar, it can only be mandatory. The answer to this is that, the notions of grammar must take into account the nature of the language to which they pertain. Notions relevant to a spoken and written language need not be binding on a “language” that uses melody as its vehicle of ideas. Moreover, when we consider the uniquely Indian problem of codifying the “raga-ness” of ragas, we are persuaded that Indian musicology will have to develop its own “grammar” with its own conceptual and analytical tools.
© Deepak S. Raja 2007
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Book Review : "Hindustani music: a tradition in transition" by Deepak Raja
By: Prof. N Ramanathan, Former Head of Department of Music, Madras University, Published in: Sruti, Issue of May 2006."This book is a collection of essays written between 1996 and 2003. Some of them have appeared in Sruti, ..."(p.xiii). Deepak Raja is well known to the readers of SRUTI and more of his articles have appeared in SRUTI since the publication of this book. His articles on the music of Faiyaz Khan, Vilayat Khan, Girija Devi and Ulhas Kashalkar have been model essays on music analysis.
The articles in this book under review have been distributed over five parts titled (i) Culture, Technology and Economics, (ii) Form, Idiom and Format, (iii) The World of Ragas, (iv) The Major Genres and (v) The Major Instruments. In fact the book comes with a built-in efficient summary-cum-review by Lyle Wachovsky, Managing Director of India Archive Music Ltd., New York, which forms the 'Introduction' and which makes any further review redundant.
The first part is mainly about a) Young and senior artists, b) Quality differences among performers, c) Archiving - use and benefit and d) Marketing of music. The first article, 'Populism and Rival Forces," while lamenting the current populist tendencies among certain performers that work towards "exploiting the undiscerning majority of audiences by selling Rolls Royce bodies, fitted with Volkswagen engines" (p.29) hails the role played by institutions like the Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata and the Dhrupad Kendra, Bhopal in creating quality musicians. Again while admiring the committed performers and scholars from the West he expresses his fear about the emergence of a class of musicians of foreign origin in the West which is totally unconnected with the 'motherland of the music' and which might lead to "deculturation" of Hindustani music.
The piece 'If Peanuts is what you Pay' discusses the Music market and Quality product. Deepak Raja establishes that the consumer is paying less and less while the musician gets more and more and the difference is being made up by the recording companies and concert sponsors "... without having either the need or the desire to promote quality music" (p.40). With great concern he adds "... music is more likely to attract truly dedicated and discerning audiences when it demands an economic sacrifice, than when it is subsidized" (p.41).
The aspect of patronage is taken up in the next article 'Government, Business and Classical Music'. Making a distinction between 'sponsorship' and 'patronage', ("Concert sponsorship is contractual and event-specific, while patronage is unconditional and permanent. Event sponsorship is a business deal, while patronage is a passionate commitment.” p.45) author points out that the "The traditional patronage model has faded into history, and is impossible to reconfigure." (p.47) and way out is for the "community of musicologists, professional musicians, and specialist media to pressurize the contemporary Indian benefactor into maturing at a faster rate" (p.48).
The next one, 'Pandits and Ustads Aplenty' advocates the artists to organise themselves into a guild to circumvent exploitation by intermediaries. In the market the intermediaries rate the professionalists by their grade and although AIR is an institution that grades musicians, "today it is possible to shape a successful career without having qualified as an AIR artist" (p.50). Musicians should strive to work towards achieving a grade so that "they can avoid having to negotiate rates for every engagement" (p.51).
For today's musician, the commercial recording is his/her advertisement as well as the product itself intended for developing a concert market. At the same time the recorded music of the previous generation should be restored and made available as a 'virtual guru' for a student. Thus the article 'Archival Music and the Cultural Process' explains how the music community could exploit the technology to its advantage taking care to recognise the 'one original' and discriminate it from the umpteen 'xeroxes' that are bound to sprout.
'A Requiem for the Gharanas' is the last of the essays in the 'Market based Music' section of this book and shows how Gharana too served as a commercial factor since both 'music' and 'patronage' "were 'assets' “to be protected and, if possible, bequeathed to direct descendants" (p.75). The Gharana cast its net wider since "heredity turned out to be an unreliable guarantee of musicianship potential ... , musicians began to groom promising talent beyond the orbit of kinship" (p.76).
Deepak Raja in these essays has approached the area of 'Music Market' from many angles, namely, the quality of the artists, patronage, the intermediaries, technology and music, and the consumers. He has had many perceptive observations to make and he has made them in a forthright manner with a tinge of humour. The generalisations have been drawn carefully. But the thrust would have been greater if a few case studies or specific instances had been discussed. Musicologists might blush to see concert music being treated as a marketable product for they view a musician as a 'museum housing an exhibit' and not as an 'exhibit housed in a museum'. It is quite possible that a quality product may lack an attractive packaging and consequently not have sale value. Thus an able musician devoid of showmanship usually has no market value and ends being elevated to the status of a 'Musician's musician'. Thus to be a marketable product an artist has to equip himself with many other skills than just music. Perhaps this is one area that has been left untouched by the author.
The second section 'Form, Idiom and Format' has four short essays. The first essay "Architecture in Modern Hindustani Music" appears to belong rightly to the third section hence would be considered along with the articles in that section. Taking up the instrumental presentations in "Instrumental Idioms: Anga or Apanga?", surprisingly makes some statements relating to history (which has otherwise avoided in this book) like "Originally, Indian art music regarded instruments capable only of accompaniment to vocal music." and "... rudra vina ... was once considered a suska vadya and forbidden for solo performance". There does not seem to be any reference in history to substantiate the former while 'suska' performance probably related to drum instruments and not the melodic ones. In fact the author could have left out references to the 'music' of pakhawaja and tabala in this essay, since they technically do not belong to the realm of musical or melodic instruments. In fact in the last section of the book dealing with musical instruments the author has rightly chosen to leave out skin percussion instruments.
Taking vocal musical expression as having the highest ranking, the author without arguing out the case makes many statements like, "no instrument can match the acoustic and melodic potential of the human voice", "vocal expression ranks supreme as a unified and unfettered expression of the body, the mind, and the soul, being activated by prana". Author forgets that whether it is vocal or sitara or flute, the musical idea is generated by the human mind, for an instrument does not play by itself. The musical idea has to be shaped according to the nature of the vehicle conveying it, voice, sitara or flute, as it happens in Western music. There is no reason why 'Instrumental music' should be inferior to 'vocal music played on instrument' or why a different 'instrument music' should not be conceived for instruments. The author feels that sitara can create only an 'illusion' or 'semblance' of vocal music and it is 'anaucitya' to play a 'sitara music' on a flute or sarangi, and that the 'gayaki anga' should not become 'gayaki apanga'. But he concedes at the end that "a worthwhile direction can emerge only from a discovery and exploitation of the distinctive character of each instrument" (p.109), a bold statement indeed. On the sly this has been happening with the entry of 'Harmonium', 'Jalataranga', 'Santura', 'Electronic Keyboard' and such other instruments into the system. But let things come into the open and bifurcation of the system be recognised.
The author has, curiously, coined a term 'percussive-melodic instrument' (p.107) to refer to Saroda and Santura and also holds that "the act of plucking creates an element of melodic discontinuity as well as rhythm" (p.103) and that "Melodic discontinuity is inherent in the sitara's design" (p.106). He looks at the 'meenda' or notes produced through the deflection of the string as "extracting longer acoustic sustain from the instrument .... strongly suggestive of singing" (p.106). Music (vocal) is not aiming only towards manifesting a continuous uninterrupted vowel extension. Consonants are required for marking the limits of a melodic phrase, although, at a pinch, stressed vowels too can be deputed to perform this task, but ultimately a marker is what is required. Plucking is only a counterpart of the utterance of a consonant in vocal, discharging the function of a marker. Further apart from the facility of sliding, sitara has the advantage of string deflection which is not possible on a sarangi and which gives it an edge over the latter and cannot be considered alien to the idiom or just an illusion.
"The Jugalbandi Racket" is a well-analysed criticism of the jugalbandi format of concert presentation. The author is negative about the presence of this genre which evolved as an 'experimentation' despite some combinations being 'box-office success' and goes to the fundamentals of it "A duet, as a presentational format, is fundamentally inconsistent with the meditative-contemplative character of Hindustani music." However, he defends the traditional vocal duos - "Without exception, these pairs are brothers not far removed from each other in age, and trained simultaneously by the same guru, in most cases their father." (pp.112-113) It is not the question of 'the meditative-contemplative' character which the duo must be capable of achieving but one of aesthetics, namely, whether two artists can jointly create a single homogeneous musical edifice. It would be like two artists working on a single painting. It could perhaps be possible if the entire structure is conceived by one artist and the roles are distributed, as in the case of the art of film where the conception is that of the Director but hundreds are contributing to the creation of the artistic piece. If that be so even a trio or a quartet could work. This reviewer feels that vocal duos are still one step below serious art music notwithstanding their 'do badan ek dil' incarnation on the stage.
"Tihayis . . . and the Rape of Melody" is a serious academic study of the subject of Tihayi although the title may appear a bit sensational. After discussing the artistic function of 'tihayi' the author speaks of three kinds of tihayis, 'mukhadaa tihayi', 'aamada tihayi' and 'badhata tihayi'. While going into raptures over the tihayis unfurled by Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Ustad Vilayat Khan, "it was almost as if their tihayis took shape in their minds unbeknownst even to themselves", he contrasts them with "a recording of a young sitarist which had a 14 minute presentation of a slow-tempo bandisa with 18 tihayis, one every 45 seconds.” and concludes aptly "The grotesque has a place in art. But when art becomes grotesque, it gets derailed from its elevating ideals." (p.122).
In the second section except for the first article the remaining three give the appearance of disapproving and hitting at practices that have come into concert performances. Far from being casual, the entire treatment of the subject is very serious and the observations, views and comments are very balanced and wise.
The third section 'The World of Ragas' has five articles. The first article of the second section "Architecture in Modern Hindustani Music" considers the musical forms and styles of musicians as edifices and which could be classified as architecture-dominant [dhrupada / style-Kesarbai Kerkar or Ameer Khan], sculpture oriented [khayala / Onkarnath Thakur or Roshnara Begum] or ornamentation oriented [thumari / Bade Gulam Ali Khan]. It is in this article that the author takes up a case study of a seventy-four minute presentation of raga Sanjh Saravali spread over three stages, Alapa, Laya-banta and Tana and analyses its architecture. The structure of the presentation is abstracted and the author beautifully concludes that "At the highest level of musicianship, the soundness of architecture is therefore a fundamental differentiator between durable and ephemeral music, ... a discriminator between music and merely pleasant sounds at the lowest level of musicianship" (p.101). What, however, one feels uncomfortable with are usages like 'exposition of the raga', 'exploration of raga', since architecture relates to the concretised presentation of a 'musical form' and not of the 'melodic source' (raga), unless of course the author is using the term 'raga' as a synonym for musical form, dhrupada, khayala etc.
In fact we are confronted with this very problem of usage in "Raga-ness of Ragas", the first article in the third section. The author understands raga to be (a) a melodic structure, (b) a stimulus in a communication process, (c) melodic representation of an emotional statement. If raga is understood as 'melodic structure' how is it different from a musical composition, namely, Mukta Alapa, Khayala or Dhrupada Bandisa and the improvisation element? It is true that today the presentation of a Khayala in, say Yaman, is announced as the 'prastuti' or 'presentation' of raga Yaman.
This is a secondary sense of the word 'raga' where it is used as a synonym of 'gita' or musical structure, encompassing both 'nibaddha' (pre-composed) and 'anibaddha' (improvisation-based); there being historical reasons for the word to acquire this secondary sense. A ‘rāga’ is a specific melody source, not given to perception without the melodic forms that exemplify it. And as a 'melody source' raga is only an assemblage of melodic features or characteristics that are abstracted from the musical structures that commonly share them and being an abstract entity, raga has a virtual existence. And the author himself outlines these features, under the heading 'Melodic Grammar of Ragas' - permissive svara-s, aroha-avaroha, calana, pakada, nyasa /vadi-samvadi, preference for purvanga, madhyanga or uttaranga (melodic epicentre as author likes to refer to it, placing it under 'aesthetic grammar', although it still belongs to 'melodic grammar').
Again music presentation is neither a communication process nor an emotional statement. Music is non-representational and it is received and perceived for what it is and not for what it carries, for it carries nothing. Again the raga-rasa relationship that the author brings up has meaning only in the context of drama or Natya and there too rasa is evoked by action and context and music is only an external associate.
The author also raises the question "Why does Indian tradition require ragas, when the art music traditions of other mature civilizations have produced great music even without such a device?" (p.127). Every art music system has a 'virtual' musical source for drawing upon material for structuring its music. And if 'raga' is taken in the general sense of 'musical source', then Western music too has a 'raga'-basis, only that, the grammar of that 'raga' would be defined by 'chords', 'transposition', 'counterpoint' etc.
In the article "Raga Chemistry and Beyond" the author, trying to explain the transformations taking place in the melodic images of ragas, brings in the analogy of allotropes, compounds and emulsions from the discipline of Chemistry. Allotropes are different physical forms of the same element, Coal and diamond being allotropes of Carbon. Darbari Kanada and Enayeti Khani Kanada of Vilayat Khan, incorporating in addition suddha-ga and suddha-ni, are portrayed as allotropes. Compound, as different from heterogeneous mixture, is a fusion of two entities that makes the resultant homogenous and for this Kafi-kanada is 'compound raga' fusing Kafi ascent with Darbari descent. Emulsion is a fine disposition of minute droplets of one liquid in another in which it is not soluble or miscible. Sampurna-Malkauns of Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana mixing together Malkauns, Bagesvari, Kafi and Khat (which itself is a mixture of six raga-s), is seen as an Emulsion in which the phrases of the member raga-s are made clearly perceptible. Using terms from other disciplines as metaphors for explaining music has had precedence (see Joep Bor, “Raga, Species and Evolution”, Sangeet Natak-35 in which the author brings in Biology) in musicological writings. The author has used the analogy well to drive home the distinction perceived in the different kinds of 'Joda' and 'Misra' raga-s. But more strong and valid is his criticism of the practice of 'Raga-malika' and the resulting dilution in the serious presentation of a single raga.
"Ragas: Right and Wrong" raises a very important issue of the existence of two differing images under the same raga name. Candrakauns of Agra gharana different from the normal Candrakauns, Khambavati of Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana resembling Ragesri and differing from the traditional Khambavati, Onkarnath Thakur's treatment of the svara 're' in Bihaga, two differing melodic pictures of the same raga Tilak Kamod by Kesarbai Kerkar, are instance that have been taken up and a very dispassionately discussed. The issue finally boils down to the laksya-laksana clash. Certain observations of the author could raise arguments. "In a specific context, great musicians have a variety of "reasons" for deviating from the familiar, and they are not accountable to us for their exercise of creative license." (p.154) They may not be 'accountable to us' but are they accountable to no one, not even to the system, especially since art music denotes a well defined and disciplined practice? Musician is not bigger than music, even though without musicians there is no music. The author then adds, "... raga-s are not static melodic entities." (p.156) Invariably when a raga changes or a new raga emerges it happens at the cost of another raga dying or paling into insignificance. Again "In a performing art tradition, theory can document practice, but it cannot expect to dictate it." (p.156) In no art can theory dominate, performing or plastic. But in all arts there are two levels of theorisation. One is the codification of practice in an unwritten form, which is there in the mind of all guru-s and surfaces when they pull up the student, "Betaa! Your rikhab is too flat, raise it a bit." When these do-s and dont-s get documented in a written form they become the musicologist's theory. So, there is initially, a musician's grammar and then another, the musicologist's. And it is the unseen former, that defines the system, within which framework, the art music operates.
"Kedara at Sunrise?" brings up the same issue of Raga-Time association, which most of the musicologists are not able to rationally accept and most of the musicians are not emotionally give up. After citing the theory underlying the organisation of ragas within the hours of the day, the author concludes, "The theory, as understood so far, falls short of being a comprehensive and fully organised system of relationships. Some psychometric experiments have been conducted to verify the association of melodic patterns with time-slots in the audience mind. The results are, so far, only tentative in their affirmation." (p.165) His conclusion appear to endorse the views of another musicologist, "It is one thing to find common features in ragas that have been placed in a single time bracket but quite another to show that this points at a deeper psycho-physiological basis for the phenomenon. ... I think that the association made between a raga and its allotted time is an arbitrary association ... is culturally conditioned." (Mukund Lath, 'An Enquiry into the Raga-Time Association' in Transformation As Creation, p.173). This reviewer feels that as in the case of rasas, the origin of association of time can be traced to Drama (Natya) and to non-artistic environments like temple rituals and marriage functions, in which environments the association still exists even in the Southern part of the country.
"The Experience of Melody: From Dhrupad to Santura" is the last article in this section and takes up an interesting area of how music perception is felt the same despite the different genres - Vocal (Dhrupada and Khayala), sitara, saroda, santura etc. it stems from. This article feels like a continuation and elaboration of the earlier one ‘Instrumental Idioms ... ‘. Despite the vilambita, long and contemplative Alapa section ("consuming over 60 per cent of the duration" p.198), the author regards total Dhrupada presentation itself displaying a "narrative path" approach and speaks of a 'melodic line' rather than a 'melodic phrase' as the building block of melody with emphasis on 'continuity between phrases', all attributed to the overbearing presence of the text dominated composition. On the other hand the Khayala is described as having a symmetrical and geometrical, phraseological approach to melodic presentation. The melodic expressions in Sitara and Saroda playing have been discussed in terms of the frequency of right hand plucking, timbre variation and svara patternings influencing the melodic phrasing. Author has been very objective and unsparing in his assessment of the melodic expression of Santura and some of the statements are very forceful, although at times bordering on euphemism. "Melodic discontinuity is as effortless a feature of the instrument as is its rhythmicality."(p.175) "With the santura, raganess could be totally atomized, and pushed into a territory beyond melody, and into a region so far alien to Hindustani music." (p.176) " "... its inclination appears to be towards the atomization of melody and the search for extra-melodic pathways to musical ideation and expression." (p.178) “The Santura is not the villain of the piece. It merely represents a historical and socio-cultural direction. Contemporary tendencies in Santura music reflect a progressive crystallization of this inevitability." (p.181) One gets a feeling that the author is giving too much importance to this instrument although the focus on melodic expression does not get diverted.
The themes in the articles in the third section seem to overlap with those in the second, the approach continues to be objective and discussions pinpointed.
The titles of articles in the fourth and fifth sections - An Introduction to Dhrupada, An Introduction to Khayala, An Introduction to Thumari, An Introduction to Tappa, The Rudra Vina, The Sitara, The Surbahara, The Saroda, The Santura, The Sehnayi, The Sarangi, The Indian Classical Guitar, give the impression of being textbook lessons but they are not. The write up extends beyond the description of the formal structures to presentation styles of schools and artists and to the evolution.
Using the term 'Gharana' in the context of Dhrupada too, the author mentions five - Dagar, Darbhanga, Bettiah, Talwandi and Mathura. Name of Falguni Mitra is missing in Bettiah and Siyaram Tewari in the list from Bihar region. When the author says "The melodic progression in the dhrupad alapa often appears less methodical than that of the modern khayala genre." (p.196), one feels that it was the other way about. Again when he says, "This nom tom phonetic [in dhrupada] is a remnant of what was once a rhythmic chanting of the name of Lord Visnu - om hari ananta narayana." (p.196), one wonders whether there is any historical evidence to substantiate that. Why should 'meaningless syllables' be considered having less spiritual significance (if at all that matters) since even the earliest musical system of Samagana had a lot of it and in addition made the meaningful text itself unrecognisable, a feature common to all art music systems? The observations on Khayala styles, although brief, are very perceptive and significant are the usages 'formalism' and 'aloofness'. Reference to 'Dombika' dance (mentioned by Abhinavagupta), in the context of history of Thumari is interesting. Very significant is the concluding observation, "Starting with Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Khayala vocalism moved towards a libertarian approach to architecture ... he was the forerunner of the romantic brigade -- Kumar Gandharva, Kishori Amonkar, and Pt. Jasraja -- who rebelled against either the formalism of the Khayala, or its aloofness, or both, thus driving the classicist genre closer to the emotional expressiveness of the thumari." (p.256)
Analysing the Sitara compositions, the author speaks of the Masit Khani gata - dir da dir da dir - da ra da - dir da dir da dir - da ra da -, starting on the twelfth matra, superimposing a 5-3-5-3 asymmetry on the 4-4-4-4 symmetry of the teen-tala cycle. (p.292). But the Tabala theka bola-s ‘dha dhin dhin dha – dha dhin dhin dha dha – tin tin ta ta – dhin dhin dha’ have already superimposed a 4-5-4-3 asymmetry on the symmetrical kriya vibhaga of teen-tala. So one is dealing with a three-tier system and not a two-tier one.
A Glossary comes at the end, which could as well be taken to be the six section of the book. Spread over 65 pages we have practically mini articles on most of the 220 odd entries.
The articles in the last two sections and the glossary together, apart from their analytical and documentary value, would eminently serve as textbook lessons for institutions too. At present textbook lessons in institutions confine themselves to only structures of genres and instruments and do not include style of presentation by artists and in this respect Deepak Raja's articles would have that extra dimension. In this context one is also tempted to compare this part of the book with the recently published book 'NAD: Understanding Raga Music' by Sandeep Bagchee.
The 'Select Bibliography' has one error. The author of 'Thumri ki utpatti, vikas aur shailiyan' should be 'Shukla, Shatrughna' and not 'Sinha, Shatrughna', although the attribution might do the Actor-MP proud.
This book reveals the author's involvement with the subject, extensive thinking that he has done, high command of the language laced with humour and an organised presentation. Although some of the topics might give the appearance of dealing with peripheral issues, there is a serious treatment of the various aspects of these issues. Discussion and analysis are always objective and technical. In fact his way of building up an article reminds one of the Sastraic writings in Samskrta where a discussion has two parts, the ‘purvapaksha’ and the ‘uttarapaksha’, and in the former part the commentator will argue against himself and in the latter part present his real view with all the force and conviction. And our author too discusses the issue impartially from all points of view before he puts forward his conclusion in a clear manner.
If one can fault the author on anything it is that much of the discussion on the music scene in the first two sections is based on artists and goings on in Mumbai and the West, ignoring other parts of country. This is not a coffee-table book. It is eminently readable but mainly for the connoisseurs, artists, scholars and students, in other words, not for a general music lover.
Reproduced with the kind permission of the Author, and the Editor, Sruti.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Prof. Ashok Ranade -- "Dhrupad represents the precomposed tendency in Hindustani music"
Approved transcript of an interview
with Deepak Raja on August 19, 1998.
In this discussion, I am happy to explore some themes related to Dhrupad, which are in circulation today, and enjoy varying degrees of popularity amongst different categories of audiences.
Conventionally, such discussions begin with its origin. In my opinion, it is not proper or valid to associate the word "origin" with the emergence of any musical form. Musical forms are a cumulative result, a progressive crystallization, of certain tendencies, and this process takes generations, even centuries. Therefore, the specific attribution of origination to an individual, or a period in history, is untenable.Of the two tendencies in Indian music -- Nibaddha (pre-composed) Sangeet and Anibaddha (improvised) Sangeet -- Dhrupad is a crystallization of the former tendency i.e. Nibaddha Sangeet. In Nibaddha Sangeet, we accept the possibility of pre-composing all the important elements of music making.
This strategy certainly has its advantages. If all important elements are pre-composed, the resulting whole can be esthetically very tight, and coherent. Very little is left to chance. It is a perfectly crafted totality. Whenever musical forms crystallize this kind of tendency, all elements -- the Swara, the Laya , the Tala , the thematic element, the poetic , and the orchestral -- have a very significant and purposeful relationship with each other. In this sense, it becomes a very well structured piece of music.
Nibaddha Sangeet was a very important phase in Indian music making. It also suggested that music had a larger relationship with other facets of life. Otherwise, it would have had no need to be pre-composed.
Indian music in general -- not merely art music -- distinguishes itself by its ability and intention to relate to three important cycles governing human life -- the cycle of birth and death, the cycle of night and day, and the cycle of the six seasons. I am suggesting that if you want to have a system of music that responds to all these three cycles, then music will inevitably tend towards being pre-composed.
It would appear that, at one stage, Nibaddha Sangeet, of which Dhrupad is one manifestation, was interested in responding to all the three cycles. And, that is why you find compositions for birth, death, marriage, birth of the first son, initiations, coronations, and every conceivable landmark. This suggests the pre-composed, structured attitude to music, leading to a consolidation in this particular form of Nibaddha Sangeet.
People have expressed an interest in imagining a relationship between the Dhruvas, as described in Bharata's Natya Shastra, and Dhruva-Pada (Dhrupad) as we know it. We know that the word "Pada" always refers to the textual/linguistic aspect of the music. We know that Dhruvas are totally pre-composed. They have been placed in a very specific dramatic context. Their musical parameters have also been defined -- the tempo, the meter, the Tala, the language -- everything.
If we accept continuity between the two, Dhruva of Bharata's Natya Shastra emerges as the pre-composed music in a dramatic context. And Dhrupad, as we know it, represents a continuity of that tendency towards pre-composed music outside the dramatic context. By removing it from its original context, you are not necessarily altering its basic characteristics.
Let us speculate upon the situation in the 15th or 16th centuries. This is the time when , Jatigayan has disappeared from the scene, Moorchhana has faded away, the principle of Swaragrama had been established and we are led to tonality as the basis of Raga-based music. You have all the musical intervals within one octave. This was the state of evolution of the melodic ideas.
As far as rhythm is concerned, the Mridanga, the two-faced drum, continued to be the prototype of the language of all the other avanaddha & ghana instruments, just as the veena remained the prototype of the language for all melodic instrumental music.
During this period, I surmise that Nibaddha Sangeet continued to dominate music making. But, music had begun to step out of the ritualistic context. A part of it could have remained anchored in the ritualistic context; but an independent stream had certainly begun to flow .
We have no reason to believe that this was caused by court influences because the forces of secularization need not necessarily work through the instrumentality of power or patronage.
This is suggested to us by the emergence of the Dhamar form, as an adjunct to the Dhrupad form. Dhamar is related to the Holi festival, a secular festival, and has nothing to do with either the ritualistic context or the feudal aristocracy. Also, notice that the name itself is the name of a Tala. Dadra is the only other musical form which carries the name of a Tala. You will find that no major musical form carries the name of the Tala.
To me, it appears significant that, in more recent times, Dhrupad and Dhamar have evolved as a pair. In Dhrupad, you might have themes that deal with courtly life or theological themes. But, alongside Dhrupad, you have Dhamar, which deals with secular themes. Even tempo-wise, Dhamar is a very different kind of music making.
I am suggesting that Dhrupad, being a Nibaddha form, wanted to relate to a wider area of human experience. In that search, it gathered, under its rubric, other forms like Dhamar. But, its own central shaping force was Nibaddha Sangeet.
Let us consider the context in which Raja Mansingh Tomar functioned as a major force in shaping the secular tendencies in Dhrupad. At that time, there was Haveli Sangeet. And, you had the parallel tradition of Vishnu Pada. Within these different musical forms, secular or otherwise, there was something happening which was seeking a different direction. But, the basic tendency of all of these forms was Nibaddha Sangeet.
It seems reasonable to conclude, therefore, that Dhrupad, as we know it, has the tendency to imitate prototypes created in earlier times within the tradition of Nibaddha Sangeet. As its predecessors were more drama oriented and ritualistic, Dhrupad was an attempt at extending the area of operation for this strategy/tendency of music making. We should also therefore resist the temptation of attributing the origins of Dhrupad either to any single person or to a particular period in history.
The transition
Let us now consider the present corpus of musical forms. We have Dhrupads as such, then we have Dhrupads which are slightly liberated, and then we have Khayals which are akin to Dhrupads. And, of course, we have Khayals. All these forms are interacting with each other. The moment a form tends to get too rigid, there is bound to be a reaction.
Originally, we had Dhrupads which had four stanzas. Later on, one stanza disappeared, and then you had three left. Then, you had Khayals which had three stanzas. But, in today's Khayal, the manjha has disappeared, and now Dhrupad and Khayal both have only two left.
In the Khayal genre, we have a form called sadra, which is akin to Dhrupad; actually, it is called langda Dhrupad. I have myself been taught, by Prof. BR Deodhar, a composition in Lalit Pancham which is a Khayal version . I have also learnt the same from Pt. Ganu as a Dhrupad-oriented composition.
The dialectic process will work in the other direction also. When we find the tendency of the form becoming too loose or amorphous, we move to give it a more definite shape. This is, therefore, a dynamic process. Every decision to impose or loosen the form will automatically activate its reaction in the opposite direction.
Khayal is therefore to be understood as the a crystallization of one of the reactions against Nibaddha Sangeet. Historically, even if we take Sadarang as a landmark figure in the history of Khayal, Dhrupad and Khayal co-existed for at least two centuries before Dhrupad began its decline. And, this is the way musical forms co-exist, with different degrees of popularity, acceptability and expressive power at different stages in the life of a society.
I believe that there is nothing like the death of any musical form. Forms, when in decline, tend to go underground for a while, and resurface in some other form. Therefore, to talk of art-music in the context of art-music alone does not make much sense. Unless you have all the five categories of music in view -- primitive music, folk music, religious music, popular music and art music -- you cannot speak intelligently about any of them. In India, this is even truer because all these are living traditions.
When we speak about India's traditional music, which tradition in particular are we talking about ? We can talk about art music. But, the same tendencies have prevailed in religious music. For instance, take Haveli Sangeet. Why is it that certain compositions in Haveli Sangeet do not permit melodic or rhythmic elaboration ? The reason is, obviously, their tie-up with religious rituals which prohibits freedom of musical elaboration.
The moment we come to Khayal, we are moving from Nibaddha to Anibaddha Sangeet. The name itself signifies imagination. This does not mean that Dhrupad does not have imagination. It means that imagination is the primary moving force in Khayal while in Dhrupad it is co-existing strategy. In Khayal the priority is accorded to imagination or the improvisational process overriding other music-making strategies/ techniques etc.
But, you notice that even in Khayals, you have not isolated yourself from the wider aspects of human experience. Why, for instance, why do you have Mubarakbadi ? Why do you have seasonal songs ? This is because we feel that if music becomes too abstract, it may forfeit its moorings in the totality of human life, and might cease to be contemporary with it.
There is interesting evidence of this. In 1904 or thereabouts, the Rampur Nawab published five volumes of his own compositions with notations. For these, the composer has taken themes from folk music to turn them into Khayals. In the introduction to that publication, he specifically mentions that compositions composed especially for different occasions were going out of circulation, and that he was making an effort to bring back music appropriate to special occasions by composing and publishing these volumes.
It is clear that this was a man who had seen the era in which art-music was bound closely to different facets of human life, and felt that contemporary art music was becoming too formalistic, too much of an abstraction. I believe that Indian music finds it difficult to drift too far away from such a reference point.
Consider instrumental music which has made great "progress" in the last five decades. If you discuss his music with any instrumentalist, he will speak in terminology of gayaki. Instrumental music has developed its own forms, but musicians remain wedded to the concepts of vocal music.
This is because they feel that to formalize the independent idiom of their music through its own terminology would abstract their music from the mainstream of music. They might see the relationship with the totality of human experience as belonging to the territory of the poetic form, because it is explicit there. One might say that there is some guilt associated with the process of abstraction. But, this might equally well be pure and simple nostalgia.
There are, of course, other, more general, trends that support nostalgia. For instance, the loss of intimacy between the performer and the audience in the modern auditorium. This is also a form of losing a sense of connection with the world. But, the loss of the explicit meaning of poetry is certainly a contributor to the instrumentalist's nostalgia.
Coming back to the transition, Khayal is often playing hide-and-seek between explicit meaning in poetry, and the abstraction of the melodic form. Can you imagine the incongruity of a Mubarakbadi, related to greeting a person on his marriage, composed in Darbari ? The textual and musical contents are totally incompatible. But, there it is. We Indians are not very comfortable about dispensing with explicit meaning, even when we wish to make a statement contrary to it.
Recently, I came across the writings of DL Roy, who had heard all the leading Dhrupadiyas in the 1920's and 1930's. He has strongly criticized them for the total absence of either emotional or esthetic appeal in their music. On this basis, he came to the conclusion that Dhrupad had no chance of survival as a dominant musical form.
It has been argued that Dhrupad drifted towards being an excessively cerebral, rhythm-obsessed, and even unpleasant, form of music in a desperate effort to counteract the growing influence of the Khayal form. But, considering the way Dhrupad was structured, there was little else it could do.
Every musical form has its own genetic plan, by which its maneuverability is determined. Dhrupad was genetically handicapped in meeting the esthetic forces it had to contend with. It was limited in its range of ragas, talas, instrumental accompaniment, thematic content, compositional variety, and improvisational freedom.
Dhrupad was also constrained by the Pakhavaj, whose language rules out the rendering of a theka, and whose sonorous acoustics would drown any melodic subtleties. And, notice how closely the language of the pakhavaj and the melodic idiom are tied up with each other. There is a tal-paran, and there is a sur-paran. They go hand in hand.
The same can be said of the Rudra veena accompaniment. Its acoustics are rich in sustain and the harmonics they deliver. Every time the string is struck, the resulting sound has a long shadow, which again tends to drown out melodic subtleties in the vocal rendition.
The issue of accompanying instruments becomes even more critical in the contemporary environment of amplification acoustics. Unless this is very astutely controlled, the rhythmic contours of the Pakhavaj and melodic contours of the Rudra veena can create a blurred, and even confusing aural experience.
Dhrupad finds itself, esthetically, in a dead-end street. Given this reality, how else, other than an accentuation of rhythmic dexterity, could Dhrupad have even tried to counteract the growing Khayal influence ?
Consider also the interesting fact that Dhrupad has had no female singers, until recently. All these are, no doubt, offshoots of the socio-cultural environment at a certain stage in history. But, they are inter-related. If you develop an excessively masculine style of music which does not attract women, you are not only restricting your pool of talent, but also your audience profiles.
Khayalias were clever. They started picking up elements of Dhrupad. This is how the sadra form in jhaptal came into being. And, they created Langda Dhrupad which is part-Dhrupad, part non-Dhrupad. In this form, they could introduce tans, bol-tans, sargams, any form of improvisation, which Dhrupad would not permit.
Largely, the same logic holds for the future of the Rudra veena and the surbahar, instruments associated with the Dhrupad-dominated era. Or even to the Pakhavaj in relation to the tabla. They are in a dead-end street because the Sitar and Tabla have taken over their music, and extended it into a territory they cannot enter.
Khayal was setting up an alternative model of music making which accentuated tendencies which were not allowed to prosper in Dhrupad, and it acquired a following because of its appeal to the cultural and social environment of the modern times.
We are not saying that Dhrupad and Khayal are contrasting forms. What we are saying is that the two epitomize two distinct tendencies -- Nibaddha and Anibaddha -- in Hindustani music.
When we look at the emergence of Khayal as the dominant form, we should look at how any musical form achieves and sustains its dominant position.
First, it attracts all kinds of performers towards it. Second, it tries to assimilate the musical tendencies of other forms. Third, it allows individuals enough freedom to express themselves, especially in the initial stages. Fourth, it makes allowances for a distinction between the larger disciplinary model of a gharana, and the style of an individual musician.
All these factors can bee seen in the case of Khayal, when Dhrupad and Khayal were both active in the field of Hindustani music, and Khayal was overtaking Dhrupad.
The dynamics of a multiple-genre environment
In the present context, we are not looking at just this pair of competing musical forms. You have other forms contending.
First, we have the Thumree, which you may not consider to be a major contender at the moment. But, Thumree is also a fairly recent development. The Nibaddha/ Anibaddha formulation had become well consolidated by late-16th/ early 17th century. So, even the Thumree can be considered, in dialectic terminology, as an anti-thesis to the dominant Nibaddha form of Dhrupad. Its content was attractive enough. So, Thumree came into being.
Then, you have the evolution of Persian influences. It entered through poetry. The ghazal form evolved from a purely recitative expression (tarannum) to its contemporary song form.
So, we could, at one stage, look at Thumree and ghazal the same way as we were looking at Dhrupad and Khayal; Thumree representing the Anibaddha form, and the Ghazal representing the Nibaddha form. So, whenever you have an Anibaddha form, you will find a Nibaddha form parallel to it.
But, our understanding of the phenomenon can not stop there. The Ghazal, sensing that Thumree has greater freedom, has started picking up elements from the Thumree. You have heard Beghum Akhtar introducing the practice singing "shers" in a Thumree. Poetically, you are not talking of an independent unit. But, musically, you have created a slot of freedom, and are interpolating poetry into it merely to validate its presence.
It is interesting to observe that the bol-banav Thumree is now becoming expansive. It is also no longer being sung only in light ragas. In effect, the bol-banav Thumree might be doing to the bada Khayal precisely what the Bada Khayal did to Dhrupad more than two centuries ago.
On the other hand, the chhota Khayal consists almost totally of compositions from the bandish-ki-Thumree genre. In the process, it has almost destroyed the bandish-ki-Thumree form altogether. Thus, you find that all musical forms are vying for supremacy by borrowing elements from each other.
Esthetic appraisal
It would appear that the Khayal form provides the esthetic satisfaction that Dhrupad delivered, and in addition, it provides those satisfactions Dhrupad could not provide. Only such a formulation can validate the present status of Khayal in relation to Dhrupad.
It also appears that, progressively, Dhrupad distinguished each element to such an extent, that they had become almost segregated, and even isolated from each other. They had acquired a purely sequential relationship with each other without any degree of coherence between them.
I believe that Dhrupad declined also because it progressively lost the richness of its multi-faceted personality.
Let us consider the textual or poetic element of Dhrupad. There is a general impression that Dhrupads were written in a very limited range of themes -- either in praise of God or emperors, and at best, to describe seasons. The evidence suggests otherwise. Dhrupads have a very wide thematic coverage. Obviously, the width reflects a certain quality audience.
Consider the evidence that Nayak Bakshu is rated, in contemporary texts, as being superior to Tansen. One of the reasons mentioned for this assessment is that he never used a vocal accompanist. Secondly, he used to accompany himself on the Pakhavaj. Thirdly, he used to sing in a very high pitched voice.
If you analyze the textual content of Nayak Bakshu's compositions covered in Sahasarasa, you will be surprised to find that there are many esoteric musicological themes, along with general themes. My contention is that if Bakshu was popular during his lifetime, and the King ordered a compilation of his compositions a hundred years after his death, Bakshu’s listeners must have been of a very high intellectual level. The textual sophistication of his compositions, many of which deal with esoteric aspects of esthetics, Raga and Tala, is truly amazing. .
This evidence emphasizes the stable chain of expectations and familiarity which binds a musician to his audiences in Nibaddha Sangeet. Every element of the music can afford to be stable and predictable, because audience profiles are also stable and predictable.
Whatever the reasons for the textual impoverishment of Dhrupad, the truth is that it did shrink in terms of its thematic coverage. At the same time, you find that Thumree, ghazal, and Khayal are conquering new territories, whether thematically or not. If poetry, which was the mainstay of Dhrupad, starts getting weaker, the locus standi of the genre itself starts slipping.
Another suggestion of history is that, with the Khayal form, the individual musician was coming to the fore. The argument for the distinction of Nayak Bakshu -- that he sang without vocal accompaniment -- suggested that traditionally Dhrupad was not as a solo a performing art as Khayal has been.
Even today, you find that several leading Dhrupad musicians perform in pairs. But, you do not come across as many Khayal singers singing in pairs. This is because Khayal is Anibaddha, and demands greater individual freedom. Dhrupad, being in the Nibaddha tradition, does not require individual freedom.
The same tendency is visible in the role of percussion. In Dhrupad, the Pakhavaj has a major share in the music making. But, in Khayal you want merely an accompanist, playing only a supportive role.
Who likes what kind of music?
The original audience for Dhrupad was a homogeneous, sophisticated, elite audience. The audience for Khayal was probably not as highly initiated, but perhaps a more heterogeneous, with a more diverse set of expectations from the process of music making. One of the aspects of this expectation would be not only that of intellectual satisfaction, but also emotional satisfaction. Khayal, I believe, started delivering this emotional satisfaction, and hence scored a point over Dhrupad.
In an extreme expression of man's needs for emotional satisfaction from music, Rabindranath Tagore complains about this handicap of Hindustani music. He says that he wants to sing about his own individual sorrow; but the moment he breaks into Hindustani music, he finds himself singing about universal sorrow. Where, he asks, is the place for his personal joys and sorrows in Hindustani music ? This is why he says that he wanted to write his own poetry, to compose his own music, and also to sing it.
We therefore come to the notion that every society has certain musical needs. At one stage, we needed music to provide primarily intellectual satisfactions. Then, we realized that we also required music to provide emotional satisfactions.
To fulfill this need, there was either religious music, which did not allow an individualized expression, or folk music, which had the same problem. Then came the growth of popular music. Here, you will observe that in every region which has witnessed a growth of popular regional genres after the advent of British rule, the music tends to be of a strongly emotional nature, and outgoing to the extent that some of it even became obscene. There was a general impetus towards liberating the mind.
As evidence, notice the thumrees in the north, the tamasha lavnis in Maharashtra, the jatra in Bengal. Imagine, at one stage, Nidhu Babu's tappas were considered obscene, much as the waltzes of Strauss were considered licentious in the Europe of his times. If you look at the texts of these tappas, there was nothing obscene in it. They were only singing of individual love, instead of the leela of Radha and Krishna. This became sufficiently titillating for the cultural environment of that time.
In this context, Khayal has the flexibility to handle personalized emotional statements as well universalized emotional statements. Thus, Khayal is capable of a much wider appeal than Dhrupad. And, the converse is also valid. If there are segments of society which have musical needs narrower than those that Khayal satisfies, Dhrupad is there to fulfill those needs.
So, when we observe that Western audiences favor Dhrupad on a larger scale than Khayal, it is easy to understand why. They are getting a structured form of music which is comprehensible. It is also solo music, and also melodic music, these being the points of divergence from the Western classical tradition. For them, Dhrupad probably fulfills, in a very broad sense and at a different level, the same needs that pop music does.
Western audiences probably also find Dhrupad tonally more cohesive than their own classical music. It may lack tonal color; it is monochromatic in a way. But, it is one single color presented very solidly.
In addition, the Western mind values a musical genre that is broadly -- even if wrongly -- described as ancient music. It creates a kind of nostalgia. Nostalgia need not necessarily be evoked by a cultural affinity with the object of the feeling; it can also be a more universal sense of loss, in purely historical terms. I am capable of feeling very nostalgic when I visit the monuments of ancient Greece or renaissance Italy because, somewhere deep within myself, I have been through the phases of evolution that they represent.
The Dhrupad revival
I am willing to grant that the very features that make Dhrupad appealing to Western audiences, might also explain its growing popularity with the younger, less initiated audiences in India. Classical music is being projected now as the voice of culture, an expression of the Indian identity. And, Dhrupad is being projected as ancient, as the authentic voice of the Indian tradition.
The character of Dhrupad and this configuration of images cannot have much appeal for those who are exposed to thumrees, or Khayals, or taranas or even folk music. It is more likely to have an appeal for those who are exposed only to other kinds of music, like film music, or popular music -- contemporary music, not necessarily rooted in any tradition.
Could the so-called Dhrupad revival in India be a backlash against declining standards of musicianship in Khayal ? Might the freedom of Khayal have allowed it to decay to such an extent, that even initiated audiences are beginning to feel safer with Dhrupad ? The structure at least guarantees a certain minimum degree of aesthetic coherence !
This is a distinct possibility. We might have started doing to Khayal, precisely what Dhrupad did to itself over the last three centuries. We are chopping off some of its assets.
For instance, in the 19th century, people stared saying that the poetic form has no importance in Khayal music. Look at the corpus of Khayal music. You will find a tremendous variety of themes. But, look at the Khayals in circulation. Very few people sing traditional compositions. New compositions have no literary value; they are diluted versions of earlier prototypes.
We know that many Dhrupads were transformed into Khayals. Those Dhrupads were high in poetic value. How many people sing those Khayals today ? That variety has gone.
Consider the Khayals which, for instance, form Bhatkhande's compilation of 1800 compositions. You find Khayals in Marwadi, Brijbhasha, Sindhi, Punjabi, Persian, Maithili, Bhojpuri, and several other dialects. Analyze what is being sung today. So, even the linguistic variety is lost.
The same can be said of variety in talas. Tilwada, which was called the Khayal Theka, associated with the Khayal just as Dhrupad is associated with Chautal, has become a rarity now. Then, there were Ada Chautal, Roopak, and several other talas. What remains in circulation today is only Ektal.
Then, there is the issue of significance in Khayal compositions. The great composers used to write poetry and compose it into its rhythmic-melodic frame on special occasions. In the olden days, it was customary for a musician to narrate the history of the composition, which put all the facets of the composition in a perspective.
Today, hardly any musician knows the compositional context of his compositions. As a result, the composer's intention ceases to guide the presentation, the poetic content is often mauled by ignorance of its context, and the Khayal is expected to make sense in a contextual vacuum.
Another important aspect of the decay is that because you are now projecting the individual singer and his talent, the quality of the voice has become more important. This trend was, of course, aided by the growth of amplification technology.
If you consider the generation of giants who emerged in the pre-amplification era -- Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Faiyyaz Khan, Kesarbai, Abdul Kareem Khan, Vaze Buva, Omkarnath Thakur -- all of them had very distinctive voices. None of them was similar to any of the others, and their voices were their respective individual responses to the dissemination environment of their times.
Today's Khayal singers have not yet realized that with amplification electronics, the pitch and volume of their voices has ceased to be a major issue in audience appeal. And, unless they work on the distinctiveness of the timbre in their voices, and the nuances created by the manipulation of the timbre, they will all begin to sound the same, and fail to hold audience interest. In achieving an appealing timbre, today's Khayal vocalist is competing with the fantastic variety and richness of the timbres being offered by instrumental music, which enjoys greater popularity than vocal music.
If you look at the totality of this perspective on the contemporary Khayal scene, Dhrupad might seem like a safer esthetic package, especially to uninitiated audiences.
There are, of course, other, more general, trends that support nostalgia. For instance, the loss of intimacy between the performer and the audience in the modern auditorium. This is also a form of losing a sense of connection with the world. But, the loss of the explicit meaning of poetry is certainly a contributor to the instrumentalist's nostalgia.
Coming back to the transition, Khayal is often playing hide-and-seek between explicit meaning in poetry, and the abstraction of the melodic form. Can you imagine the incongruity of a Mubarakbadi, related to greeting a person on his marriage, composed in Darbari ? The textual and musical contents are totally incompatible. But, there it is. We Indians are not very comfortable about dispensing with explicit meaning, even when we wish to make a statement contrary to it.
Recently, I came across the writings of DL Roy, who had heard all the leading Dhrupadiyas in the 1920's and 1930's. He has strongly criticized them for the total absence of either emotional or esthetic appeal in their music. On this basis, he came to the conclusion that Dhrupad had no chance of survival as a dominant musical form.
It has been argued that Dhrupad drifted towards being an excessively cerebral, rhythm-obsessed, and even unpleasant, form of music in a desperate effort to counteract the growing influence of the Khayal form. But, considering the way Dhrupad was structured, there was little else it could do.
Every musical form has its own genetic plan, by which its maneuverability is determined. Dhrupad was genetically handicapped in meeting the esthetic forces it had to contend with. It was limited in its range of ragas, talas, instrumental accompaniment, thematic content, compositional variety, and improvisational freedom.
Dhrupad was also constrained by the Pakhavaj, whose language rules out the rendering of a theka, and whose sonorous acoustics would drown any melodic subtleties. And, notice how closely the language of the pakhavaj and the melodic idiom are tied up with each other. There is a tal-paran, and there is a sur-paran. They go hand in hand.
The same can be said of the Rudra veena accompaniment. Its acoustics are rich in sustain and the harmonics they deliver. Every time the string is struck, the resulting sound has a long shadow, which again tends to drown out melodic subtleties in the vocal rendition.
The issue of accompanying instruments becomes even more critical in the contemporary environment of amplification acoustics. Unless this is very astutely controlled, the rhythmic contours of the Pakhavaj and melodic contours of the Rudra veena can create a blurred, and even confusing aural experience.
Dhrupad finds itself, esthetically, in a dead-end street. Given this reality, how else, other than an accentuation of rhythmic dexterity, could Dhrupad have even tried to counteract the growing Khayal influence ?
Consider also the interesting fact that Dhrupad has had no female singers, until recently. All these are, no doubt, offshoots of the socio-cultural environment at a certain stage in history. But, they are inter-related. If you develop an excessively masculine style of music which does not attract women, you are not only restricting your pool of talent, but also your audience profiles.
Khayalias were clever. They started picking up elements of Dhrupad. This is how the sadra form in jhaptal came into being. And, they created Langda Dhrupad which is part-Dhrupad, part non-Dhrupad. In this form, they could introduce tans, bol-tans, sargams, any form of improvisation, which Dhrupad would not permit.
Largely, the same logic holds for the future of the Rudra veena and the surbahar, instruments associated with the Dhrupad-dominated era. Or even to the Pakhavaj in relation to the tabla. They are in a dead-end street because the Sitar and Tabla have taken over their music, and extended it into a territory they cannot enter.
Khayal was setting up an alternative model of music making which accentuated tendencies which were not allowed to prosper in Dhrupad, and it acquired a following because of its appeal to the cultural and social environment of the modern times.
We are not saying that Dhrupad and Khayal are contrasting forms. What we are saying is that the two epitomize two distinct tendencies -- Nibaddha and Anibaddha -- in Hindustani music.
When we look at the emergence of Khayal as the dominant form, we should look at how any musical form achieves and sustains its dominant position.
First, it attracts all kinds of performers towards it. Second, it tries to assimilate the musical tendencies of other forms. Third, it allows individuals enough freedom to express themselves, especially in the initial stages. Fourth, it makes allowances for a distinction between the larger disciplinary model of a gharana, and the style of an individual musician.
All these factors can bee seen in the case of Khayal, when Dhrupad and Khayal were both active in the field of Hindustani music, and Khayal was overtaking Dhrupad.
The dynamics of a multiple-genre environment
In the present context, we are not looking at just this pair of competing musical forms. You have other forms contending.
First, we have the Thumree, which you may not consider to be a major contender at the moment. But, Thumree is also a fairly recent development. The Nibaddha/ Anibaddha formulation had become well consolidated by late-16th/ early 17th century. So, even the Thumree can be considered, in dialectic terminology, as an anti-thesis to the dominant Nibaddha form of Dhrupad. Its content was attractive enough. So, Thumree came into being.
Then, you have the evolution of Persian influences. It entered through poetry. The ghazal form evolved from a purely recitative expression (tarannum) to its contemporary song form.
So, we could, at one stage, look at Thumree and ghazal the same way as we were looking at Dhrupad and Khayal; Thumree representing the Anibaddha form, and the Ghazal representing the Nibaddha form. So, whenever you have an Anibaddha form, you will find a Nibaddha form parallel to it.
But, our understanding of the phenomenon can not stop there. The Ghazal, sensing that Thumree has greater freedom, has started picking up elements from the Thumree. You have heard Beghum Akhtar introducing the practice singing "shers" in a Thumree. Poetically, you are not talking of an independent unit. But, musically, you have created a slot of freedom, and are interpolating poetry into it merely to validate its presence.
It is interesting to observe that the bol-banav Thumree is now becoming expansive. It is also no longer being sung only in light ragas. In effect, the bol-banav Thumree might be doing to the bada Khayal precisely what the Bada Khayal did to Dhrupad more than two centuries ago.
On the other hand, the chhota Khayal consists almost totally of compositions from the bandish-ki-Thumree genre. In the process, it has almost destroyed the bandish-ki-Thumree form altogether. Thus, you find that all musical forms are vying for supremacy by borrowing elements from each other.
Esthetic appraisal
It would appear that the Khayal form provides the esthetic satisfaction that Dhrupad delivered, and in addition, it provides those satisfactions Dhrupad could not provide. Only such a formulation can validate the present status of Khayal in relation to Dhrupad.
It also appears that, progressively, Dhrupad distinguished each element to such an extent, that they had become almost segregated, and even isolated from each other. They had acquired a purely sequential relationship with each other without any degree of coherence between them.
I believe that Dhrupad declined also because it progressively lost the richness of its multi-faceted personality.
Let us consider the textual or poetic element of Dhrupad. There is a general impression that Dhrupads were written in a very limited range of themes -- either in praise of God or emperors, and at best, to describe seasons. The evidence suggests otherwise. Dhrupads have a very wide thematic coverage. Obviously, the width reflects a certain quality audience.
Consider the evidence that Nayak Bakshu is rated, in contemporary texts, as being superior to Tansen. One of the reasons mentioned for this assessment is that he never used a vocal accompanist. Secondly, he used to accompany himself on the Pakhavaj. Thirdly, he used to sing in a very high pitched voice.
If you analyze the textual content of Nayak Bakshu's compositions covered in Sahasarasa, you will be surprised to find that there are many esoteric musicological themes, along with general themes. My contention is that if Bakshu was popular during his lifetime, and the King ordered a compilation of his compositions a hundred years after his death, Bakshu’s listeners must have been of a very high intellectual level. The textual sophistication of his compositions, many of which deal with esoteric aspects of esthetics, Raga and Tala, is truly amazing. .
This evidence emphasizes the stable chain of expectations and familiarity which binds a musician to his audiences in Nibaddha Sangeet. Every element of the music can afford to be stable and predictable, because audience profiles are also stable and predictable.
Whatever the reasons for the textual impoverishment of Dhrupad, the truth is that it did shrink in terms of its thematic coverage. At the same time, you find that Thumree, ghazal, and Khayal are conquering new territories, whether thematically or not. If poetry, which was the mainstay of Dhrupad, starts getting weaker, the locus standi of the genre itself starts slipping.
Another suggestion of history is that, with the Khayal form, the individual musician was coming to the fore. The argument for the distinction of Nayak Bakshu -- that he sang without vocal accompaniment -- suggested that traditionally Dhrupad was not as a solo a performing art as Khayal has been.
Even today, you find that several leading Dhrupad musicians perform in pairs. But, you do not come across as many Khayal singers singing in pairs. This is because Khayal is Anibaddha, and demands greater individual freedom. Dhrupad, being in the Nibaddha tradition, does not require individual freedom.
The same tendency is visible in the role of percussion. In Dhrupad, the Pakhavaj has a major share in the music making. But, in Khayal you want merely an accompanist, playing only a supportive role.
Who likes what kind of music?
The original audience for Dhrupad was a homogeneous, sophisticated, elite audience. The audience for Khayal was probably not as highly initiated, but perhaps a more heterogeneous, with a more diverse set of expectations from the process of music making. One of the aspects of this expectation would be not only that of intellectual satisfaction, but also emotional satisfaction. Khayal, I believe, started delivering this emotional satisfaction, and hence scored a point over Dhrupad.
In an extreme expression of man's needs for emotional satisfaction from music, Rabindranath Tagore complains about this handicap of Hindustani music. He says that he wants to sing about his own individual sorrow; but the moment he breaks into Hindustani music, he finds himself singing about universal sorrow. Where, he asks, is the place for his personal joys and sorrows in Hindustani music ? This is why he says that he wanted to write his own poetry, to compose his own music, and also to sing it.
We therefore come to the notion that every society has certain musical needs. At one stage, we needed music to provide primarily intellectual satisfactions. Then, we realized that we also required music to provide emotional satisfactions.
To fulfill this need, there was either religious music, which did not allow an individualized expression, or folk music, which had the same problem. Then came the growth of popular music. Here, you will observe that in every region which has witnessed a growth of popular regional genres after the advent of British rule, the music tends to be of a strongly emotional nature, and outgoing to the extent that some of it even became obscene. There was a general impetus towards liberating the mind.
As evidence, notice the thumrees in the north, the tamasha lavnis in Maharashtra, the jatra in Bengal. Imagine, at one stage, Nidhu Babu's tappas were considered obscene, much as the waltzes of Strauss were considered licentious in the Europe of his times. If you look at the texts of these tappas, there was nothing obscene in it. They were only singing of individual love, instead of the leela of Radha and Krishna. This became sufficiently titillating for the cultural environment of that time.
In this context, Khayal has the flexibility to handle personalized emotional statements as well universalized emotional statements. Thus, Khayal is capable of a much wider appeal than Dhrupad. And, the converse is also valid. If there are segments of society which have musical needs narrower than those that Khayal satisfies, Dhrupad is there to fulfill those needs.
So, when we observe that Western audiences favor Dhrupad on a larger scale than Khayal, it is easy to understand why. They are getting a structured form of music which is comprehensible. It is also solo music, and also melodic music, these being the points of divergence from the Western classical tradition. For them, Dhrupad probably fulfills, in a very broad sense and at a different level, the same needs that pop music does.
Western audiences probably also find Dhrupad tonally more cohesive than their own classical music. It may lack tonal color; it is monochromatic in a way. But, it is one single color presented very solidly.
In addition, the Western mind values a musical genre that is broadly -- even if wrongly -- described as ancient music. It creates a kind of nostalgia. Nostalgia need not necessarily be evoked by a cultural affinity with the object of the feeling; it can also be a more universal sense of loss, in purely historical terms. I am capable of feeling very nostalgic when I visit the monuments of ancient Greece or renaissance Italy because, somewhere deep within myself, I have been through the phases of evolution that they represent.
The Dhrupad revival
I am willing to grant that the very features that make Dhrupad appealing to Western audiences, might also explain its growing popularity with the younger, less initiated audiences in India. Classical music is being projected now as the voice of culture, an expression of the Indian identity. And, Dhrupad is being projected as ancient, as the authentic voice of the Indian tradition.
The character of Dhrupad and this configuration of images cannot have much appeal for those who are exposed to thumrees, or Khayals, or taranas or even folk music. It is more likely to have an appeal for those who are exposed only to other kinds of music, like film music, or popular music -- contemporary music, not necessarily rooted in any tradition.
Could the so-called Dhrupad revival in India be a backlash against declining standards of musicianship in Khayal ? Might the freedom of Khayal have allowed it to decay to such an extent, that even initiated audiences are beginning to feel safer with Dhrupad ? The structure at least guarantees a certain minimum degree of aesthetic coherence !
This is a distinct possibility. We might have started doing to Khayal, precisely what Dhrupad did to itself over the last three centuries. We are chopping off some of its assets.
For instance, in the 19th century, people stared saying that the poetic form has no importance in Khayal music. Look at the corpus of Khayal music. You will find a tremendous variety of themes. But, look at the Khayals in circulation. Very few people sing traditional compositions. New compositions have no literary value; they are diluted versions of earlier prototypes.
We know that many Dhrupads were transformed into Khayals. Those Dhrupads were high in poetic value. How many people sing those Khayals today ? That variety has gone.
Consider the Khayals which, for instance, form Bhatkhande's compilation of 1800 compositions. You find Khayals in Marwadi, Brijbhasha, Sindhi, Punjabi, Persian, Maithili, Bhojpuri, and several other dialects. Analyze what is being sung today. So, even the linguistic variety is lost.
The same can be said of variety in talas. Tilwada, which was called the Khayal Theka, associated with the Khayal just as Dhrupad is associated with Chautal, has become a rarity now. Then, there were Ada Chautal, Roopak, and several other talas. What remains in circulation today is only Ektal.
Then, there is the issue of significance in Khayal compositions. The great composers used to write poetry and compose it into its rhythmic-melodic frame on special occasions. In the olden days, it was customary for a musician to narrate the history of the composition, which put all the facets of the composition in a perspective.
Today, hardly any musician knows the compositional context of his compositions. As a result, the composer's intention ceases to guide the presentation, the poetic content is often mauled by ignorance of its context, and the Khayal is expected to make sense in a contextual vacuum.
Another important aspect of the decay is that because you are now projecting the individual singer and his talent, the quality of the voice has become more important. This trend was, of course, aided by the growth of amplification technology.
If you consider the generation of giants who emerged in the pre-amplification era -- Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Faiyyaz Khan, Kesarbai, Abdul Kareem Khan, Vaze Buva, Omkarnath Thakur -- all of them had very distinctive voices. None of them was similar to any of the others, and their voices were their respective individual responses to the dissemination environment of their times.
Today's Khayal singers have not yet realized that with amplification electronics, the pitch and volume of their voices has ceased to be a major issue in audience appeal. And, unless they work on the distinctiveness of the timbre in their voices, and the nuances created by the manipulation of the timbre, they will all begin to sound the same, and fail to hold audience interest. In achieving an appealing timbre, today's Khayal vocalist is competing with the fantastic variety and richness of the timbres being offered by instrumental music, which enjoys greater popularity than vocal music.
If you look at the totality of this perspective on the contemporary Khayal scene, Dhrupad might seem like a safer esthetic package, especially to uninitiated audiences.
Reproduced, with the publisher’s consent, from “Perspectives on Dhrupad”, edited by Deepak Raja, and Suvarnalata Rao, published by the Indian Musicological Society, Baroda/ Bombay. 1999
Monday, November 26, 2007
Ramakant Sant -- “You can forget about the Shehnai’s future”
Sant spoke to Deepak Raja on April 04, 2004 My father, Gangadhar Sant, was a Shehnai player and a violinist, who served the princely state of Baroda, and later taught at the Faculty of Performing Arts of the University. He came from a small town in Maharashtra called Yeola. He was orphaned at an early age, and was adopted by his uncle, Ganpatrao Bidwe, one of the leading Shehnai players in the service of the Baroda court. Bidwe taught him the Shehnai and sent him to study the violin with Prof. Hirji Doctor, the principal of the Baroda music school. My mother was the daughter of Shankarrao Gaekwad, the famous Shehnai player from Pune in Maharashtra, and well versed in Hindustani music.
The Baroda tradition of Shehnai is an offshoot of the Maharashtra tradition. It began in the early 20th century when Ganpatrao Vasaikar came from Maharashtra to the Baroda court. In addition to performing duties at the court and the palace, court musicians were required to teach at the state music school. Vasaikar groomed several students, the principal amongst them being my father’s uncle, Ganpatrao Bidwe, Bhagwantrao Waghmare, and Govindrao Shinde. I am the fourth generation of Shehnai players in the family from my father’s side, and a descendant of famous Shehnai players from my mother’s side.
Ours is a Khayal based tradition while the Benares tradition is allied to the Thumree and the regional and folk genres of that region. Maharaja Sayajirao wanted the Shehnai players of the state to be systematically trained by Khayal vocalists. The Baroda court employed some of the greatest vocalists of the era. But, in his wisdom, the king chose to have Vasaikar trained, at the state’s expense, by Ustad Aman Ali Khan of the Bhindi Bazaar gharana in Bombay. Because of this legacy, our repertoire uses Khayal bandish-es; our treatment of the bandish-es follows the khayal style, our tan-s are also of Khayal type, and we perform several profound or complex ragas, which Shehnai players from Benares do not generally play.
The Baroda shehnai tradition flowered as long as the princely states were under British rule. However, a Shehnai player’s life was precarious even before my father’s time. The State paid Shehnai players a salary. But, the Shehnai was a ceremonial instrument; Shehnai players had neither enough performing to do, nor students to teach. The state ran an orchestra. So, Shehnai players trained themselves on at least one more instrument – usually a bow instrument -- in order to ensure their usefulness. In line with this pattern, my father’s uncle trained my father on the Shehnai at home, and had him groomed as a violinist at the state music school.
My father started life as a member of the Baroda State Orchestra, in which he played the violin as well as the Shehnai. He also taught the Shehnai at the music school. When the princely state merged with the Indian Union at the time of independence, the orchestra and the Shehnai classes were both wound up. By this time, the Shehnai class had virtually no students anyway. My father retained his job as a violin teacher at the music school, which later became a part of Baroda University. This gave him his livelihood, while he continued his Shehnai profession on the side in a shrinking market. The violin became the principal bread-earner for my family, and it was obvious that the situation would not change. It was natural that I should have been trained on the violin and the Shehnai, in addition to vocal music, which is the foundation. I also learnt to play the harmonium, the Tabla and the sitar. I might have done well enough without the Shehnai. But, the family tradition kept me wedded to it. Of course, I have no regrets. But, under less hostile circumstances, I could have done much more with the Shehnai.
I started life at 20 as a violin teacher at the Music Academy in Rajkot (Gujarat). After that, I taught music at several schools in different cities of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Of course, there were no students anywhere for the Shehnai. I taught vocal music, the violin and other instruments. I continued to perform on the Shehnai whenever an opportunity arose -- even for paltry sums of money because I had to keep in touch. I practiced on the Shehnai religiously for two hours a day, no matter what I did for a living. One of those teaching jobs took me to Udaipur, where I performed part-time at the famous Lake Palace Hotel. There, I had occasion to play for Yehudi Menuhin, who gave me a letter of appreciation, and an autographed copy of his photograph. These are my most precious possessions. My life stabilized only at 40, when I was appointed on the staff of All India Radio -- as a violinist. The job gave me financial stability without requiring me to be a Jack-of-all-trades. I could then concentrate on just two instruments – the violin for my livelihood, and the Shehnai for whatever else.
Interestingly, I got my rewards as a Shehnai player after I joined the radio staff as a violinist. These rewards came from abroad, and not from within the country. Thanks only to them, I could buy the simple house I live in, and have retired peacefully. My father had predicted that, some day, the Shehnai art would attract a premium. This has begun to happen, but not visibly enough to motivate my sons. One of my sons is a sitarist and works for the radio station. Another has studied the Shehnai, but has only casual interest in it because he teaches the violin at the music college. I doubt there will be another Shehnai player in my family. I will happily teach others, but there are no students.
After retiring from the radio station, I continue to broadcast on the violin as well as the Shehnai. Other than this, my occupation revolves around the Shehnai. However, the opportunities are largely in the ceremonial market, which demands popular and folk music. Even in that context, I try to remain true to my training by performing music based on classical raga-s. Invitations for classical concerts on Shehnai are few and far between. The market for the Shehnai has to be primarily local. Shehnai performance is a group effort because of its extra-ordinary demands on the breath. Long-distance travel becomes unviable. So, my skills are not being refined by wider exposure and competition. I have grown largely on my own steam, and this is hardly sufficient. This must be the story of classical Shehnai players all over the country.
Every village in Northern India has Shehnai players. But, they survive by playing folk and film songs at marriages. Marriages are a highly seasonal affair, so they live by other means during the lean season. Even the marriage market is dying out, as people are moving to pre-recorded music and brass-bands. There is no incentive for Shehnai players to go through 15/20 years of training to become classical musicians. The Shehnai can now survive only as a classical instrument, and with the encouragement of international audiences. By the time the support gathers momentum, there will be no decent Shehnai players left either to perform or to teach. You need at least a hundred serious Shehnai players to produce another Bismillah Khan. It is too late now. You can forget about the Shehnai’s future.
© Deepak S. Raja
The finest recordings of Ramakant Sant have been produced by India Archive Music Ltd., New York. IndiaArcMu@aol.com
The Baroda tradition of Shehnai is an offshoot of the Maharashtra tradition. It began in the early 20th century when Ganpatrao Vasaikar came from Maharashtra to the Baroda court. In addition to performing duties at the court and the palace, court musicians were required to teach at the state music school. Vasaikar groomed several students, the principal amongst them being my father’s uncle, Ganpatrao Bidwe, Bhagwantrao Waghmare, and Govindrao Shinde. I am the fourth generation of Shehnai players in the family from my father’s side, and a descendant of famous Shehnai players from my mother’s side.
Ours is a Khayal based tradition while the Benares tradition is allied to the Thumree and the regional and folk genres of that region. Maharaja Sayajirao wanted the Shehnai players of the state to be systematically trained by Khayal vocalists. The Baroda court employed some of the greatest vocalists of the era. But, in his wisdom, the king chose to have Vasaikar trained, at the state’s expense, by Ustad Aman Ali Khan of the Bhindi Bazaar gharana in Bombay. Because of this legacy, our repertoire uses Khayal bandish-es; our treatment of the bandish-es follows the khayal style, our tan-s are also of Khayal type, and we perform several profound or complex ragas, which Shehnai players from Benares do not generally play.
The Baroda shehnai tradition flowered as long as the princely states were under British rule. However, a Shehnai player’s life was precarious even before my father’s time. The State paid Shehnai players a salary. But, the Shehnai was a ceremonial instrument; Shehnai players had neither enough performing to do, nor students to teach. The state ran an orchestra. So, Shehnai players trained themselves on at least one more instrument – usually a bow instrument -- in order to ensure their usefulness. In line with this pattern, my father’s uncle trained my father on the Shehnai at home, and had him groomed as a violinist at the state music school.
My father started life as a member of the Baroda State Orchestra, in which he played the violin as well as the Shehnai. He also taught the Shehnai at the music school. When the princely state merged with the Indian Union at the time of independence, the orchestra and the Shehnai classes were both wound up. By this time, the Shehnai class had virtually no students anyway. My father retained his job as a violin teacher at the music school, which later became a part of Baroda University. This gave him his livelihood, while he continued his Shehnai profession on the side in a shrinking market. The violin became the principal bread-earner for my family, and it was obvious that the situation would not change. It was natural that I should have been trained on the violin and the Shehnai, in addition to vocal music, which is the foundation. I also learnt to play the harmonium, the Tabla and the sitar. I might have done well enough without the Shehnai. But, the family tradition kept me wedded to it. Of course, I have no regrets. But, under less hostile circumstances, I could have done much more with the Shehnai.
I started life at 20 as a violin teacher at the Music Academy in Rajkot (Gujarat). After that, I taught music at several schools in different cities of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Of course, there were no students anywhere for the Shehnai. I taught vocal music, the violin and other instruments. I continued to perform on the Shehnai whenever an opportunity arose -- even for paltry sums of money because I had to keep in touch. I practiced on the Shehnai religiously for two hours a day, no matter what I did for a living. One of those teaching jobs took me to Udaipur, where I performed part-time at the famous Lake Palace Hotel. There, I had occasion to play for Yehudi Menuhin, who gave me a letter of appreciation, and an autographed copy of his photograph. These are my most precious possessions. My life stabilized only at 40, when I was appointed on the staff of All India Radio -- as a violinist. The job gave me financial stability without requiring me to be a Jack-of-all-trades. I could then concentrate on just two instruments – the violin for my livelihood, and the Shehnai for whatever else.
Interestingly, I got my rewards as a Shehnai player after I joined the radio staff as a violinist. These rewards came from abroad, and not from within the country. Thanks only to them, I could buy the simple house I live in, and have retired peacefully. My father had predicted that, some day, the Shehnai art would attract a premium. This has begun to happen, but not visibly enough to motivate my sons. One of my sons is a sitarist and works for the radio station. Another has studied the Shehnai, but has only casual interest in it because he teaches the violin at the music college. I doubt there will be another Shehnai player in my family. I will happily teach others, but there are no students.
After retiring from the radio station, I continue to broadcast on the violin as well as the Shehnai. Other than this, my occupation revolves around the Shehnai. However, the opportunities are largely in the ceremonial market, which demands popular and folk music. Even in that context, I try to remain true to my training by performing music based on classical raga-s. Invitations for classical concerts on Shehnai are few and far between. The market for the Shehnai has to be primarily local. Shehnai performance is a group effort because of its extra-ordinary demands on the breath. Long-distance travel becomes unviable. So, my skills are not being refined by wider exposure and competition. I have grown largely on my own steam, and this is hardly sufficient. This must be the story of classical Shehnai players all over the country.
Every village in Northern India has Shehnai players. But, they survive by playing folk and film songs at marriages. Marriages are a highly seasonal affair, so they live by other means during the lean season. Even the marriage market is dying out, as people are moving to pre-recorded music and brass-bands. There is no incentive for Shehnai players to go through 15/20 years of training to become classical musicians. The Shehnai can now survive only as a classical instrument, and with the encouragement of international audiences. By the time the support gathers momentum, there will be no decent Shehnai players left either to perform or to teach. You need at least a hundred serious Shehnai players to produce another Bismillah Khan. It is too late now. You can forget about the Shehnai’s future.
© Deepak S. Raja
The finest recordings of Ramakant Sant have been produced by India Archive Music Ltd., New York. IndiaArcMu@aol.com
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Kaivalya Kumar – “Musicians should think, all the time, about enriching the content of their music”
Introduction: Kaivalya Kumar (born: 1963), the son of the Kairana stalwart, Sangameshwar Gurav [Born:1932] tried very hard to avoid a career in music. Discouraged by his father's moderate success in the profession, Kaivalya educated himself for a career in business, and engineering, achieving academic distinctions in both. When none of these gave him a professional opening, he turned to classical music. He took a degree in music, surrendered himself to rigorous training under his father, and launched himself into the ancestral profession. Finally, destiny smiled. Kaivalya occupies the “A” grade of All India Radio, enjoys a respectable presence on the concert platform, has released several commercial recordings, and received honours from cultural organisations all over the country.
Kaivalya spoke to Deepak Raja on June 4, 2001
My training with my father has the strong Kairana gharana bias of his own music. But, I have also been taught some ragas and bandishes, which my grandfather, Ganpatrao, had learnt from Bhaskarbuwa, and documented with detailed notations. A good part of the Bhaskarbuwa legacy came from other gharanas – Gwalior, Jaipur and Agra. Our family archive has over 250 ragas, with several bandishes in each of them. My father had chosen not to master some of these ragas or bandishes because they either did not suit his musical temperament, or were too demanding considering the manner in which his voice had been trained. He found me capable of handling some of them, and trained me in their exposition.
Beyond the family’s musical legacy, I have been influenced a lot by Kumar Gandharva’s music. My father and he were close friends; he visited us often. He was an exceedingly creative musician, with a passion for tonal precision, inspired by our own Kairana gharana fountainhead, Abdul Kareem Khan. I liked Kumarji’s short tans, and his use of the poetic form as a musical element. I have tried to incorporate these into my singing.
I try to think about the content of my music from the angle of compensating for its weaknesses. Our Kairana tradition is very strong on the communication of a raga’s emotional content. But, do we utilise all the elements of music to achieve the desired result? We tend not to give due respect to the poetic form of the bandishes. And, especially in vilambit laya [slow tempo] rendition, we are inclined to make the rhythm almost irrelevant. Without disturbing the essential melodic fluidity of Kairana vocalism, I try to allow the poetry and the rhythm a bigger role in the communication of the emotionality of the raga.
As a performer, I am concerned that my music should be as satisfying an emotional experience for the audiences, as for me. When I am practicing, I sing to an imaginary audience, and try to anticipate its responses to my music. Fortunately, our audiences have a tradition of responding overtly to music. In the performing situation, I hear exclamatory remarks, such as “Wah”, or “Ahahaha” or “Aaaah”, or I suddenly find people listening with their eyes closed. Each of these is a different category of response. Over the years, I have begun to understand what each of them means, even if I cannot describe their precise connotation. The understanding is important because I should know which of these makes more sense to me than the others.
It is important for musicians to think, all the time, about enriching the content of their music. In many ways, Khayal music has become much richer in the last few decades. But, in many ways, it has been impoverished. Unfortunately, in today’s world, there is very little dialog between scholars and connoisseurs on the one hand and musicians on the other. Musicians themselves, too, are no longer interested in discussing and thinking together about the content of music.
You rarely find musicians even attending concerts of other musicians, especially those of comparable stature. Each one is so involved with his own little world, that the sharing of musical ideas is negligible; and that too is taking place by imitation, rather than by an interactive process. From the accounts of our elders, this was not so in earlier days. There was a healthy exchange of ideas even between rivals. Great musicians attended each other’s concerts with great respect. The music of our generation is missing out on something valuable because we are not willing to make such efforts.
(c) Deepak S. Raja 2001
Kaivalya spoke to Deepak Raja on June 4, 2001
My training with my father has the strong Kairana gharana bias of his own music. But, I have also been taught some ragas and bandishes, which my grandfather, Ganpatrao, had learnt from Bhaskarbuwa, and documented with detailed notations. A good part of the Bhaskarbuwa legacy came from other gharanas – Gwalior, Jaipur and Agra. Our family archive has over 250 ragas, with several bandishes in each of them. My father had chosen not to master some of these ragas or bandishes because they either did not suit his musical temperament, or were too demanding considering the manner in which his voice had been trained. He found me capable of handling some of them, and trained me in their exposition.
Beyond the family’s musical legacy, I have been influenced a lot by Kumar Gandharva’s music. My father and he were close friends; he visited us often. He was an exceedingly creative musician, with a passion for tonal precision, inspired by our own Kairana gharana fountainhead, Abdul Kareem Khan. I liked Kumarji’s short tans, and his use of the poetic form as a musical element. I have tried to incorporate these into my singing.
I try to think about the content of my music from the angle of compensating for its weaknesses. Our Kairana tradition is very strong on the communication of a raga’s emotional content. But, do we utilise all the elements of music to achieve the desired result? We tend not to give due respect to the poetic form of the bandishes. And, especially in vilambit laya [slow tempo] rendition, we are inclined to make the rhythm almost irrelevant. Without disturbing the essential melodic fluidity of Kairana vocalism, I try to allow the poetry and the rhythm a bigger role in the communication of the emotionality of the raga.
As a performer, I am concerned that my music should be as satisfying an emotional experience for the audiences, as for me. When I am practicing, I sing to an imaginary audience, and try to anticipate its responses to my music. Fortunately, our audiences have a tradition of responding overtly to music. In the performing situation, I hear exclamatory remarks, such as “Wah”, or “Ahahaha” or “Aaaah”, or I suddenly find people listening with their eyes closed. Each of these is a different category of response. Over the years, I have begun to understand what each of them means, even if I cannot describe their precise connotation. The understanding is important because I should know which of these makes more sense to me than the others.
It is important for musicians to think, all the time, about enriching the content of their music. In many ways, Khayal music has become much richer in the last few decades. But, in many ways, it has been impoverished. Unfortunately, in today’s world, there is very little dialog between scholars and connoisseurs on the one hand and musicians on the other. Musicians themselves, too, are no longer interested in discussing and thinking together about the content of music.
You rarely find musicians even attending concerts of other musicians, especially those of comparable stature. Each one is so involved with his own little world, that the sharing of musical ideas is negligible; and that too is taking place by imitation, rather than by an interactive process. From the accounts of our elders, this was not so in earlier days. There was a healthy exchange of ideas even between rivals. Great musicians attended each other’s concerts with great respect. The music of our generation is missing out on something valuable because we are not willing to make such efforts.
(c) Deepak S. Raja 2001
Read a detailed profile of the artist in: "Khayal Vocalism: Continuity within Change".
The finest recordings of Kaivalya Kumar have been produced by India Archive Music Ltd., New York. IndiaArcMu@aol.com.
The finest recordings of Kaivalya Kumar have been produced by India Archive Music Ltd., New York. IndiaArcMu@aol.com.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Benares: Culture? Yes. Gharana of vocalism? Doubtful.
The semi-classical genres of Hindustani music, the Thumree being the principal amongst them, evolved in late 18th century Lucknow followed thereafter by Benares. In the early stages, the Thumree accompanied Kathak (North Indian classical dance), later to acquire independent status as a vocal art form. The link with Kathak, however, remains strong as ever. As a performing tradition, the Thumree of Benares got associated with several folk-derived genres from the neighbouring districts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Collectively, these semi-classical genres represent an attempt by classical musicians to raise folk genres to a level of sophistication worthy of genteel society. The resultant musical forms retain a reference point in art-music through raga-s, compositional formats, and tala-s. However, they lack the architectural imperatives characteristic of the classicist genres.
Prof. Peter Manuel of the City University of New York, an authority on the Thumree, regards them as a romanticist reaction to the feudal values, triggered off by the rise of bourgeois capitalism. Though Lucknow withered as a centre of the semi-classical genres in the 19th century, Benares remained vibrant until the early years of the 20th century. By the time India gained independence, the way of life, which supported these genres, faded into history, taking the music with it.
Vocalists, instrumentalists, and even Kathak dancers are known to claim membership of the “Benares gharana”. The term “gharana” is, however, inappropriate in this context. The so-called Benares gharana is an entire culture that revolved around the salons of the courtesans supported by the aristocracy of the region during the 18th and 19th centuries. Its performing arts were Kathak dance, and the semi-classical genres of vocal music. Its accompaniment arts were those of the Sarangi and the Tabla. These were supported by a group of composers, choreographers, and teachers. The culture of the salons required all performers to study dance as well as music, irrespective of their profession. Teachers, choreographers and composers also cultivated a similar versatility.
The offerings of the courtesans had to be responsive to the profiles of a diverse clientele. Heredity, though a factor, played only a small part in populating the courtesan districts. The courtesans, enlisted for their talent as well as personality, came from different backgrounds, and brought with them their respective folk traditions and stylistic orientations. Each salon had teachers affiliated to it to groom the recruits into polished performers. They were first trained in Khayal vocalism as the foundation and then taught semi-classical genres – Thumree, Tappa, and Dadra – and the folk-derived genres such as Hori, Chaiti, Kajri, Jhoola, Savan etc. The diversity of the repertoire required them to study with a multiplicity of teachers who, in turn, came from different cultural backgrounds, and could be vocalists, Kathak dancers or even Sarangi players.
Neither the grooming of courtesans, nor the nature of their relationship with their clients, could have permitted the crucial ingredient of the gharana concept -- stylistic continuity over several generations of a well-defined lineage of tutelage. The notion of a "gharana" in the music of Benares may be valid for lineages of Tabla exponents, and even Kathak dancers. The semi-classical genres of vocal music, or even Khayal vocalism, however, have evolved primarily as an individualistic art form within a very broad stylistic identity defined by the Kathak-Thumree culture of Benares. This is not to deny the formidable quality of musicianship these art forms have delivered with great consistency over several generations. It is, however, proper that the notion of a "gharana" be approrpiately understood and applied.
(c) Deepak S. Raja, 2004
The finest contemporary recordings of the Benares tradition of vocal and instrumental music have been produced by India Archive Music Ltd., New York. IndiaArcMu@aol.com
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