An Introduction to Hindustani Classical Music: A Beginners Guide

By Vijay Prakash Singha

Vijay Prakash Singha studied at Mayo College, Ajmer and Rajasthan University, Jaipur before joining the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun in 1967. He got infatuated with Hindustani classical music in his teens, and was able to indulge in it throughout his career postings all over India. This guidebook is an effort to share his passion with others. He now lives in Kolkata with his wife and continues to enjoy the best of the new generation of artistes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roli Books
• Release date: May 31, 2018
• ISBN: 9788193704943

Book preview

AN INTRODUCTION TO

HINDUSTANI CLASSICAL

MUSIC

OTHER LOTUS TITLES

FORTHCOMING TITLES

ROLI BOOKS

This digital edition published in 2018

First published in 2014 by

The Lotus Collection

An Imprint of Roli Books Pvt. Ltd

M-75, Greater Kailash- II Market

New Delhi 110 048

Phone: ++91 (011) 40682000

Email: [e-mail]

Website: www.rolibooks.com

Copyright © Vijay Prakash Singha, 2014

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic, mechanical, print reproduction, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Roli Books. Any unauthorized distribution of this e-book may be considered a direct infringement of copyright and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

eISBN: 978-81-937049-4-3

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Contents

Foreword

Introduction

1. A Unique Creation of the Human Mind

2. Understanding Hindustani Classical Music

3. Birth and Development of Indian Classical Music

4. The Age of Transitions in Hindustani Classical Music

5. Predominance of the Human Voice

6. The Age of Gharanas

7. Raga Sangeet

8. Ingredients of Raga Sangeet

9. Concert and Recital

10. Percussion and Instrumental Accompaniment

11. Format of an Instrumental Recital

12. Fusion Music

13. Enjoying, Appreciating and Understanding Music

14. The World of Rhythm: Percussion in Hindustani Classical Music

15. Semi-classical Music: The Fabulous World of Thumri and Kathak

16. Recommended Progress: In Stages and by Genres

17. Historical Significance of Bengal in the 19th and 20th Centuries

18. Hindustani Raga Sangeet in Hindi Films

19. The Future of Hindustani Classical Music

Bibliography and Recommended Reading

Index

About the Author

For Devika, a budding musician herself

Foreword

Of all the arts, music is the most abstract and by far the most evocative; emotionally, cerebrally and as some might claim, spiritually.

There is nothing quite like a piece of music of any genre to take you into a moodspace of its choosing. Whether it is light music like bhajans or film songs, or music set to compulsive rhythms such as Rock, Hip Hop, Be Bop, or compellingly improvisatory as Jazz, Blues or Folk from different parts of the world, or classically derived musical compositions from across the planet, music transports you through a range of emotions and feelings, often difficult to describe. Music can make your heart beat faster, blood course more vigorously or conversely sail you into an ocean of calm and tranquility.

Unlike most countries of the world, India is heir to some of the most diverse forms of music; classical, folk, and contemporary. It is an abundance of riches with a vast array of folk-forms and an exceptionally sophisticated classical lexicon.

India has two classical traditions each with its own distinct character yet closely allied to one another – Hindustani, meaning North Indian and Carnatic, representing the traditions of the South. Hindustani classical music ranges all the way from spiritual and religious to secular and profane. There are a myriad musical forms like thumris, dadras, kajris at one end of the spectrum to elaborate renditions of ragas in dhrupad and khayal forms. Each raga is a set of notes in a given order that gives the raga a specific and particular melodic character. The singer or the instrumentalist takes the raga or mode as the basis for musical elaboration which corresponds in many ways to an exciting and serendipitous musical journey into the known and unknown, the familiar and the new.

Hindustani classical music is a highly evolved form that has ragas corresponding to different times of the day from dawn to dusk and through the night. Then again there are ragas that express the unique character of each season.

Unlike Western classical music which took the route of harmonies and counterpoint after the introduction of polyphony, Hindustani classical music is firmly tied to melody.

The aesthetic under-pinning of Indian classical music is based on an aesthetic theory that goes back more than sixteen hundred years – the Rasa theory, originally applied to the performing arts in the treatise Natya Shastra by Bharata. The author elaborated on what constitutes aesthetic experience in Art. He enumerated the basic human emotions as being nine in number.

Sringara: love and longing

Hasya: funny, amusing and unexpected

Karuna: compassion

Raudra: fury and anger

Veer: heroic

Vibhatsa: disgust

Bhayanaka: terrifying

Adbhuta: wonder

Shanta: tranquility, calm and repose

In life, experience of these emotions is real and therefore stable. In an artistic work emotion is savoured rather than experienced. What is savoured, is the essence of the emotion. It is fleeting and unstable and lasts only as long as one is exposed to the work of art. More than any other art form, the appreciation and experience of Indian classical music corresponds most easily and directly to the Rasa theory.

Sadly, not many books have been written for the lay person to help appreciate and savour Hindustani classical music.

A welcome addition to the few books that exist is Vijay Prakash Singha’s comprehensive and uncomplicated introduction to Hindustani classical music which he calls a guidebook for beginners. It is simply written, cogent in its explanation, and will go a long way in making even a casual listener into a rasik.

Shyam Benegal

Introduction

Whenever we meet people familiar with Hindustani classical music, a little digging usually reveals that this familiarity is ‘received knowledge’ from parents, teachers, or from somebody they admired or respected as youngsters. Seldom, if ever, have they acquired it themselves. What about the many others who may be genuinely interested in learning about such music, but had no one to share their knowledge with them? How can they acquire some of it on their own? Where should they turn for guidance? A cursory survey of the market reveals that there is hardly any self-help material available to guide a beginner. Whatever there is on the bookshelves is useful only to those who already have a working knowledge of the subject. There is very little, indeed, for the novice. The greenhorn, rather than finding his way into the enchanted world of Hindustani classical music, is likely to lose it altogether. Worse, he may never come back for fear of getting lost again.

This guidebook is an effort to bridge this gap. It is written specially for novices, by a listener like themselves, who might be a bit more experienced, but is a listener all the same. I am neither a musician nor a musicologist, but an avid listener who, after many years of listening has been transformed into a rasik. A rasik is one who has savoured a flower’s nectar or ras and become addicted to it. A rasik is an ‘informed listener.’ Unlike a glass of wine, which is soon gone, the rasik’s glass gets full every time he sips from it.

People unfamiliar with Indian classical music are often hesitant to take up listening to it because they feel that either they are too obtuse for such heavy stuff, or that it is too abstruse for them. Still others are wary of being thought dilettantes. I hope to alleviate such unfounded beliefs, and assure readers that Hindustani classical music is well within the reach of anyone who desires to learn to appreciate it, irrespective of their complete lack of any prior knowledge.

This guidebook has been written with a view to helping beginners become rasiks.

References to famous musicians from the past might appear dated in a contemporary guidebook, but it must be remembered that in all classical genres, a century or two is not the same thing as it is in their popular counterparts. Till the genre is alive, musicians who practised it are also part of living memory. The skill and expertise they have bequeathed to their succeeding generations continue to be a source of joy and wonderment long after they have shed their mortal coil. This is why we still read the poetry of Mirza Ghalib and the literary works of William Shakespeare. Merely listing out the names of great maestros, past and present, would hardly be of any help. Thus, while explaining the significance of the gharana system of Hindustani classical music, I have made a mention of the better-known musicians belonging to each gharana.

In the world of Hindustani classical music, its practitioners have traditionally been addressed by various appellations: A Hindu male practitioner who has high achievements to his name is addressed as Pandit. Similarly, a Muslim male practitioner is called Ustad. Among Hindu females, Devi is suffixed after their names, for example Siddheshwari Devi, whereas among Muslim ladies, the appellation Begum is added, either as a prefix or suffix, for example Begum Akhtar or Roshanara Begum. In Maharashtra, the practice of suffixing the term Bai after the name of female musicians is in vogue, such as Kesarbai Kerkar. Of late, the prefix Vidushi is also gaining currency, which, in Sanskrit, means a learned woman.

Historical events that occurred during the development of Hindustani classical music over the centuries have been dealt with in a fair amount of detail. It is essential for beginners to understand the relevance of each age and stage that this music has passed through in its evolution, from ancient times to the present day. An accurate account of the circumstances under which various musical instruments evolved into their current shape and form helps clear the myths of antiquity, that might cloud reality. The art of Hindustani classical music is an ancient one, but not everything else associated with it belongs to antiquity. Many facets considered an inseparable part of it today were outside its pale in the past, and have merged into it over the years.

For example, the saraswati veena, associated with the Goddess of Learning, has been around from the beginning of music in India, while the tabla is just over two centuries old. As per Indian/Hindu mythology, the flute has been played by cowherds since the time of Lord Krishna, but it took a genius like Pandit Pannalal Ghosh to transform it from a folk to a classical instrument just over half a century ago. A device of unmatched musical precision, the sarangi, dates back to Ravan, the mythical King of Lanka in the Hindu epic, Ramayana. South Indian musicians borrowed the violin from Western classical music just two hundred years ago and made it an integral part of Carnatic sangeet, whereas Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt reincarnated the Hawaiian guitar as the mohan veena and won an Emmy award for it only a decade ago.

Music recitals today differ vastly, and for the better, from the time when the Indian recording industry came into being a hundred years ago. In those days, the tabla player was no more than an adjunct, a mere timekeeper who played standing on one side of the stage, with the tablas strung in a hammock around his neck. Today, he is an equal partner, seated alongside the main artiste, whom he occasionally even overshadows on the stage. A hundred years ago, the santoor did not exist in the classical firmament and the sarod was but a shadow of what it is today. An informed listener should be aware of these historical developments to achieve a holistic understanding of the subject.

An over-emphasis on the technical configuration of various ragas, their leading musical notes (vadi / samvadi swar) and so on, is something that scares off the beginner. Such instruction is mandatory for, and intrinsic to, the syllabus of a student who is training as a musician. There is really no need to burden an uninitiated beginner with such minutiae, when all he wants to do is to become an informed listener. In the