'Hindustani Classical Music' is an
Indian classical music tradition that took shape in northern India in the 13th and 14th centuries
AD from existing religious, folk, and theatrical performance practices. The origins of Hindustani classical music, the classical music of India, can be found from some of the oldest of scriptures in humanity, the
Vedas of the
Hindu tradition. Thus, Hindustani classical music inherits the oldest musical tradition in humanity. The
Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, created out of Riga-Veda so that its hymns could be sung established its
first principles. Hindustani classical music has its origin as a form of meditation, though available mainly to an elite audience.
Hindustani classical music is based upon
ragas and
taals. Some esoteric cults hold that each was designed to affect different "
chakras" (energy centers, or "moods") in the path of the "Kundalini". Vedic practice traces specific physical, mental, biological and spiritual results associated with activation of these centers. However, the first documented treatise about Indian art-forms, Bharat's 'Natyashastra' explores more physical parameters of Indian music.
Indian classical music has one of the most complicated and complete musical systems ever developed. It has the same aspects of Western classical music, as the 7 basic notes(Sa ''Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni'', in order, replacing ''Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti'').
The practice of singing based on notes was popular even from the
Vedic times where the hymns in
Sama Veda, a sacred text, were sung and not chanted. Developing a strong and diverse tradition over several centuries, it has contemporary traditions established primarily in
India but also in
Pakistan and
Bangladesh. In contrast to
Carnatic music, the other main Indian classical music tradition originating from the South, Hindustani music was not only influenced by ancient
Hindu musical traditions,
Vedic philosophy and native Indian sounds but also by the
Persian performance practices of the
Mughals.
Outside South Asia, Hindustani classical music is often associated with
Indian music, as it is arguably the most popular stream of music outside the
sub-continent.
Hindustani classical music, like Carnatic music, is organized by Ragas (also called raag) which are characterized, in part, by their specific ascent (
Arohana) and descent (
Avarohana.) The ascent notes may not be identical to the descent notes. King (
Vadi) and Queen (
Samvadi) notes and a unique note phrase (
Pakad). In addition each raga has its natural register (Ambit) and
glissando (
Meend) rules, and many other specific features. (See
Raga)
Hindustani music was structurally organized into the current
Thaat scale by Pt.
Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (1860-1936) in the early part of the 20th century. Prior to this, Ragas were classified as Raag (male), Ragini (female) and Putra (children).
When artists, usually performers (as opposed to writers) have reached a distinguished level of achievement, titles of respect are added to their names.
Hindus are referred to as Pandits and
Muslims as Ustads.
History
Music has long been important to
Hinduism, especially for many
Vaishnavite sects. During the ancient period, priests who sung Vedic hymns did so based on notes as assigned by the rules later codified in
Chandogya Upanishad in circa. 1800 BCE. These priests were called
Samans or
Samavedis and a number of ancient musical instruments such as conch (Shankhu), lute (Veena), flute (bansuri), trumptets and horns were associated with this and latter practices of ritual singing.
The word Raga was first found in
Natya Shastra a treatise on all dramatic forms of ancient India circa 200 CE purportedly written by
Bharata Muni. Later periods saw further evolution in music theory and the
purana period was characterized by numerous references to singing, musicians and musical instruments.
Narada's
Sangita Makarandha treatise circa 1100 CE is the earliest text where rules similar to the current Hindustani classical music can be found.
Narada actually names and classifies the system in its earlier form before the advent of changes as a result of Persian influences.
Jayadeva's
Gita Govinda from the 12th century was perhaps the earliest musical composition presently known sung in the classical tradition called
Ashtapadi music.
The advent of Islamic rule under the
Delhi Sultanate and later the
Mughal Empire over northern India caused the traditional musicians to seek patronage in the courts of the new rulers. These Islamic rulers had strong cultural and religious sentiments focussed outside of India; yet they lived in, and administered, kingdoms which retained their traditional
Hindu culture. This helped spur the fusion of Hindu and Muslim ideas to make
qawwali and
khayal. Perhaps the most legendary musician of this period is
Amir Khusrau, who is credited with systematizing the Hindustani methodologies by studying the forms of
Vedic music theory and spurring a chain of creative composition that melded Indian with Persian sensibilities. He is also credited with inventing most of the major genres of Hindustani music (such as qawwali), and some of its most important instruments (such as the sitar). However, we do not have much of evidence in the form of Khayal compositions to support the popular thesis of Amir Khusro of having invented the 'Khayal' form. On the contrary the evidence in the form of around 1000 or more compositions by the court musician Niyamat Khan 'Sadarang' in the court of Muhammad Shah 'Rangiley' suggests that 'Sadarang' was the path breaker and the father of modern day 'Khayal'.
Later, the Mughal Empire intermarried with Indians, especially under Jalal ud-Din
Akbar. Music and dance flourished during this period, and the musician
Tansen is still well-remembered. Indeed, his ragas (which are based on times of the day) were reputed to have been so powerful that according to legend, upon his rendition of a night-time raga in the morning, the entire city fell under a hush and clouds gathered in the sky. It is also said that Tansen used to light fire by singing rag Deepak, which is supposed to be composed of notes in high octaves.
In the
20th century, the power of the
maharajahs (Hindus) and
nawabs (Muslims) declined, and thus so did their patronage. The Indian Government-run
All India Radio helped to counter this development and replaced the patronage system. The first star was
Gauhar Jan, whose career was born out of
Fred Gaisberg's first recordings of Indian music in
1902.
Instrumental music
Outside of South Asia, pure instrumental sub-continental classical music is more popular than vocal music, possibly because the lyrics in the latter are not comprehensible.
A number of musical instruments are associated with Hindustani classical music. The
veena, a string instrument, was traditionally regarded as the most important, but few play it today and it has largely been superseded by its cousins the
sitar and the
sarod. Other plucked/struck string instruments include the
surbahar,
sursringar,
santoor and various versions of the
slide guitar. Among bowed instruments, the
sarangi,
esraj (or
dilruba) and
violin are popular. The
bansuri (bamboo flute),
shehnai and
harmonium are important wind instruments. In the percussion ensemble, the
tabla and the
pakhavaj are the most popular. Various other instruments (including the
banjo and the
piano) have also been used in varying degrees.
Some representative performers (these lists are by no means comprehensive nor are intended to be):
★ Veena:
Dabir Khann,
Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury,
Zia Mohiuddin Dagar,
Bahauddin Dagar,
Asad Ali Khan,
Suvir Misra, Jeff Lewis
★ Vichitra Veena: Dr.
Lalmani Misra, Pt. Gopal Krishna, Dr.
Gopal Shankar Misra,Mrs.Radhika Budhkar'.
★ Sitar:
Imdad Khan,
Enayet Khan,
Wahid Khan,
Mushtaq Ali Khan Ravi Shankar,
Vilayat Khan,
Nikhil Banerjee,Manilal Nag, Purnendu Shekhar Sengupta(Kanu Babu),
Rais Khan,
Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan,
Imrat Khan,
Shahid Parvez,
Indranil Bhattacharya,
Santosh Banerjee,
Kalyani Roy,
Budhaditya Mukherjee,
Sanjoy Bandopadhyay,
Kartik Seshadri, Shriram umdekar
Purbayan Chatterjee
★ Sarod:
Allauddin Khan, Brij Narayan,
Hafiz Ali Khan,
Radhika Mohan Moitra,
Timir Baran,
Ali Akbar Khan,
Jatin Bhattacharya,
Buddhadev Das Gupta,
Vasant Rai,
Sharan Rani,
Dhyanesh Khan,
Aashish Khan,
Ustad Amjad Ali Khan,
Mukesh Sharma
★ Surbahar:
Imdad Khan,
Wahid Khan,
Enayet Khan,
Annapurna Devi,
Imrat Khan
★ Shehnai:
Bismillah Khan, Ali Ahmed Khan
★ Bansuri:
Pannalal Ghosh,
Hariprasad Chaurasia,
Raghunath Seth,
Bari Siddiqui
★ Santoor:
Shivkumar Sharma,Tarun Bhattachrya,
Bhajan Sopori,
Omprakash Chaurasiya
★ Sarangi:
Ram Narayan,
Bundu Khan,
Ustad Sultan Khan,
Abdul Latif Khan
★ Esraj:
Ashesh Bandopadhyay,
Ranadhir Roy
★ Violin:
Parur Sundaram Iyer,
V. G. Jog,
Gajananrao Joshi,
N. Rajam,
Allaudin Khan,
L. Shankar,
L. Subramaniam,
Kala Ramnath, Sisir Kana Dhar Choudhury
★ Harmonium:
Pt. Gyan Prakash Gosh,
Pt. Manohar Chimote,
Ustad Zamir Ahmed Khan,
Ustad Bhure Khan
★ Tabla: Gyan Prokash Ghosh,
Shankar Ghosh,
Ahmed Jan Thirakwa,
Anindo Chaterjee,
Chatur Lal,
Shamta Prasad,
Kanthe Maharaj,
Alla Rakha,
Arup Chattopadhyay,
Anokhelal Misra,
Keramatullah Khan,
Kishen Maharaj,
Zakir Hussain,
Aban E. Mistry,
Yogmaya Shukla,
Shubhankar Banerjee, Subrata Bhattacharya,
Debashis Choudhury.
★ Guitar, slide (modified):
Brij Bhushan Kabra,
Vishwa Mohan Bhatt,
Debashish Bhattacharya
Vocal music
Despite the fact that instrumental music is better known outside India, Hindustani classical music is primarily vocal-centric, insofar as the musical forms were designed primarily for vocal performance, and many instruments were designed and evaluated as to how well they emulate the human voice. Some of the best known vocalists who sing in the Dhrupad style are the members of the Dagar lineage, including Us.
Wasifuddin Dagar, Us.
Fariduddin Dagar, and Us. Sayeeduddin Dagar. Among the khayal singers, the best known today are Pt. Balkrishnabuwa Ichalkaranjikar, Pt. Shankarrao Vishnu Pandit, Pt. Eknath V. Pandit,Pt. Krishna Rao Shankar Pandit, Pt. A.Kanan, Pt.Ramkrishnabuwa Vaze, Pt.Shivram Vaze, Pt. Vishnu Paluskar,Pt.B R Deodhar, Pt. Srikrishna Narayan Ratanjankar,Pt. Shankarrao Vyas,
Jagjit Singh, Pt. D.V.Paluskar, Pt. Vinayak Rao Patwardhan, Pt. Narayan Rao Vyas, Pt. Anant Manohar Joshi, Pt. Yashwant Mirashi buwa, Pt. Gajanan Anant Joshi, Pt. Shankar Rao Vyas, Pt. Omkarnath Thakur,Pt. Eknath Sarolkar, Pt. Rajabhaiyya Poonchhwale, Balasaheb Poonchhwale, Pt. Pandurang Rao Umdekar, Pt. Balabhau Kundal Guru,
Ustad Amir Khan,
Pt Bhimsen Joshi,
Mallikarjun Mansur, Pt.
Kumar Gandharva,
Basavaraj Rajguru,
Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan,
Kishori Amonkar,
Pt.Vijay Kumar Kichlu,
Prabha Atre, pandit madhav gudi,
Gangubai Hangal,
Rajan and Sajan Mishra,
Pandit Jasraj,
Parveen Sultana, Malini Rajurkar,
Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar,Vidushi Sumitra Guha
[1], Ustad Badal Khan, Viswadev Chatterjee, Prasun Bannerjee,Yogiraj Manohar Harkare,Pt.Gangadhar Bhagwat, Meera Bannerjee, Gyan Prokash Ghosh, Chinmoy Lahiri, Begum Akhtar, Gauhar Jan, Malka Jaan, Siddheswari Devi,
Hifzul kabeer
Types of compositions
The major vocal forms-cum-styles associated with Hindustani classical music are
dhrupad,
khayal, and
thumri. Other forms include the
dhamar,
tarana,
trivat,
chaiti,
kajari,
tappa,
tapkhayal,
ashtapadi,
ghazal and
bhajan. Of these, some forms fall within the crossover to folk or semi-classical ('light' classical) music, as they often do not adhere to the rigorous rules and regulations of 'pure' classical music.
Dhrupad
Dhrupad is the
Hindu sacred style of singing, traditionally performed by male singers. It is performed with a
tanpura and a
pakhawaj as instrumental accompaniments. The lyrics, which were in Sanskrit centuries ago, are presently sung in
Brajbhasha, a medieval form of
Hindi that was spoken in Mathura. The
Rudra Veena, an ancient string instrument, is used in instrumental music in the style of Dhrupad.
Dhrupad music is primarily devotional in theme and content. It contains recitals in praise of particular deities. Dhrupad compositions begin with a relatively long and acyclic Alap, where the syllables of the mantra "''Om Anant tam Taran Tarini Twam Hari Om Narayan, Anant Hari Om Narayan''" is recited. The alap gradually unfolds into a more rhythmic Jod and Jhala sections. This is followed by a rendition of Bandish, with the pakhawaj as an accompaniment. The greatest of Indian musicians,
Tansen sung in the Dhrupad style. A lighter form of Dhrupad, called
Dhamar, is sung primarily during the festival of
Holi.
Dhrupad was the main form of northern Indian classical music until two centuries ago, but has since then given way to the somewhat less austere,
khyal, a more free-form style of singing. Since losing its main patrons among the royalty in Indian princely states, Dhrupad ran the risk of becoming extinct in the first half of the twentieth century. Fortunately, the efforts by a few proponents from the
Dagar family have led to its revival and eventual popularization in India and in the West.
Khayal
A form of
vocal music,
khayal is almost entirely improvised and very emotional in nature. A
khyal consists of around 4-8 lines of lyrics set to a tune. The singer then uses these few lines as the basis for improvisation. Though its origins are shrouded in mystery, the
15th century rule of
Hussain Shah Sharqi and was popular by the
18th century rule of
Mohammed Shah. The best-known composer of the period was
Sadarang, a
pen name for
Niamat KhanAdarang,Manrang and kadar bakhsha,Nisar Hussain Khan Gwalior wale..
Later performers include
Ustad Alladiya Khan,
Abdul Karim Khan,
Pt.Dattatreya Vishnu Paluskar,
Faiyaz Khan,
Pt.Vinayak Rao Patwardhan,
Pt. Shankar Rao Vyas,
Pt.Narain Rao Vyas,
Ut.Nazakat Ali And Ut. Salamat Ali Khan,
Pt.Eknath Sarolkar,
Pt.Kashinath Pant Marathe,
Bade Ghulam Ali Khan,
Kesarbai Kerkar,
Mogubai Kurdikar,
Krishnarao Shankar Pandit,
Amir Khan,
Pt. Gajananrao Joashi,
Pt. Ram Marathe,
Pt. Ratnakar Pai,
Kumar Gandharva,
Jitendra Abhisheki,
Pt. A. Kanan and
Mallikarjun Mansur.
Some of the present day vocalists are
Bhimsen Joshi,
Gangubai Hangal,
Pt. Yeshwantbua Joshi,
Girija Devi,
Kishori Amonkar,
Pandit Jasraj,
Satyasheel Deshpande,
Iqbal Ahmad Khan,
Dr. Rajshekhar Mansur,
Pt Ulhas Kashalkar,
Pt. Arun Bhaduri,
Malini Rajurkar,
Prabakar Karekar,
Rashid Khan,
Aslam Khan,
Sanjeev Abhyankar,
Shruti Sadolikar,
Ashwini Bhide,
Ajay Pohankar,
Chandrashekar Swami,
Pt. Venkatesh Kumar,
Mashkoor Ali Khan,
Vidushi Subhra Guha,
Pt. Parameshwar Hegde,
Indrani Choudhury,
Pt. Ganapathi Bhat.
Tarana
Another
vocal form,
Tarana are songs that are used to convey a mood of elation and are usually performed towards the end of a concert. They consist of a few lines of rhythmic sounds or
bols set to a tune. The singer uses these few lines as a basis for very fast improvisation. It can be compared to the
Tillana of
Carnatic music.
Thumri
Thumri is a semiclassical vocal form said to have begun with the court of
Nawab Wajid Ali Shah,
1847-
1856. There are three types of thumri:
Punjabi,
Lucknavi and poorab ang thumri. The lyrics are typically in a proto-
Hindi language called
Braj bhasha and are usually romantic.
Ghazal
Ghazal is an originally Persian form of poetry. In the Indian sub-continent, Ghazal became the most common form of poetry in the Urdu language and was popularized by classical poets like
Mir Taqi Mir,
Ghalib,
Zauq and
Sauda amongst the North Indian literary elite. Vocal music set to this mode of poetry is popular with multiple variations across
Iran,
Afghanistan,
Central Asia,
Turkey,
India and
Pakistan. Ghazal exists in multiple variations, including
folk and
pop forms but its greatest exponents sing it in a semi-classical style..
Principles of Hindustani music
The rhythmic organization is based on rhythmic patterns called
tala. The melodic foundations are "melodic modes" called
thaats, thats are part of "musical personalities" called
ragas. Thaat and Raga are often mixed and confused. See the early 20th century musicological research of
Bhatkhande for further details.
Thaats - and so Ragas - may consist of up to seven scale degrees, or
swara. Hindustani musicians name these pitches using a system called
sargam, the equivalent of Western movable do
solfege:
sa = do
re = re
ga = mi
ma = fa
pa = sol
dha= la
ni = ti
sa = do
Both systems repeat at the octave. The difference between sargam and solfege is that re, ga, ma, dha, and ni can refer to either "pure" (shuddh) or altered--"flat/soft" (komal) or "sharp" (tivra)--versions of their respective scale degrees. As with movable do solfege, the notes are heard relative to an arbitrary tonic that varies from performance to performance, rather than to fixed frequencies, as on a xylophone.
The fine intonational differences between different instances of the same swara are sometimes called
śruti. The three primary registers of Indian classical music are Mandra, Madhya and Tara. Since the octave location is not fixed, it is also possible to use provenances in mid-register (such as Madra-Madhya or Madhya-Tara) for certain ragas. A typical rendition of Hindustani raga involves 2 stages:
Alap - a rhythmically free improvising to the rules for the raag in order to give life to the raga, shape out its characteristics, further divisible into alap, jod and jhala.
Bandeesh/Gat: a fixed composition set in a specific raga, performed with rhythmic accompaniment by a tabla or pakhavaj. There are different ways of systematizing the parts of a composition, either:
1.sthay,
2.antara,
3.samcari,
4.abhog.
or lets say:
A slow composition
B variations of the composition
C fast composition
D variations on the fast interpretation
E speeding up, excelling more and more in performance til end
See also
★
Indian classical music
★
Carnatic music
★
Raga
★
Tala
★
Gharana
★
Sitar
External links
★
ITC Sangeet Research Academy
★
Imagination Concept in Indian Classical Music
★
Patiala Gharana Classical Music Academy of Pakistan
★
Pt. Vishawanath Rao Ringe "tanarang"
★
Indian Classical Music for the Subtle system or the chakras
★
Patrick Moutal Indian Music Page
★ [http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~mrahaim/ Online Tanpura Recordings (Very good tanpura recordings that are long in length. I have checked the tuning of the tanpura recordings with the program Finale Notepad. I found that the C# sa-pa is out of tune, but everything else is fine. I recommend using the Sa-Pa versions for better practice. Sa-Ma tunings are good for Ragas without a Pa or where the Ma is a important note. There is also a link on this page to more tanpura recordings. On the linked page, all the tanpura recordings starting with the name Shruti are out of tune according to Finale Notepad. All the ones that say 1 min or 8 min are in tune. All the recordings on this website are Sa-Pa.)
★
Indian Music Research Material by Scholars
★
Rajan Parrikar's Indian Music Articles
★
Chandra and David Courtney's Indian Music Info Site
★
Omenad, A website for Online Indian Music Education
★
Musical Nirvana, A Site with biographies of musicians. Also info about instruments, Ragas and much more.
★
Biswabrata Chakrabarti, a wonderful sitar player with a beautiful website
★
Music India Online, a site to listen to Indian music and read articles
★
SwarGanga, Indian classical music site. Has a raga and tala database with other interesting features
★
A Dhrupad Site, giving information about Dhrupad and the Gundecha Brothers
★ [http://sarangi.info/ Sarangi, A site with Indian music clippings. The clippings are of Vocal or Sarangi. The Site has also articles, videos, and a gallery.
★
Films Division, A site with Indian music documentaries. Search under the category "Music of India" and will get a listing of many videos to watch
★
Ragapedia, an online music notation editor for Sargam notation which also will create high quality western notation and midi from Sargam
★ 'Raga-Rupanjali'. Ratna Publications: Varanasi. 2007.
A collection of Compositions of Sangeetendu Dr. Lalmani Misra by Dr. Pushpa Basu.
Video
★
MehfilTube (Hindustani classical and semi-classical videos)
★
BeenkarTube (Dhrupad, Dhamar and Veena videos)
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