[edit]Characteristics
The tradition was born out of a cultural synthesis of several musical traditions: the
Vedic chant tradition, dating back to approximately one thousand BCE,
[1] the equally ancient
Persian tradition of
Musiqi-e assil, and various folk traditions prevalent in the region.
It is traditional for performers who have reached a distinguished level of achievement to be awarded titles of respect;
Hindus are usually referred to as
pandit and
Muslims as
ustad. An aspect of Hindustani music going back to
Sufi times is the tradition of religious neutrality: Muslim ustads may sing compositions in praise of Hindu deities, and vice versa.
Around the 12th century, Hindustani classical music diverged from what eventually came to be identified as Carnatic classical music. The central notion in both these systems is that of a melodic mode or raga, sung to a rhythmic cycle or tala. The tradition dates back to the ancient Samaveda, (sāma meaning "ritual chant"), which deals with the norms for chanting of srutis or hymns such as the Rig Veda. These principles were refined in the musical treatises Natya Shastra, by Bharata (2nd–3rd century CE), and Dattilam (probably 3rd–4th century CE);
In medieval times, the melodic systems were fused with ideas from Persian music, particularly through the influence of
Sufi composers like
Amir Khusro, and later in the
Moghul courts. Noted composers such as
Tansen flourished, along with religious groups like the
Vaishnavites. After the 16th century, the singing styles diversified into different
gharanas patronized in different princely courts. Around 1900,
Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande consolidated the musical structures of Hindustani classical music, called
ragas, into a number of
thaats. Indian classical music has seven basic notes with five interspersed half-notes, resulting in a 12-note scale. Unlike the 12-note scale in Western music, the base frequency of the scale is not fixed, and intertonal gaps (
temperament) may also vary; however, with the gradual replacement of the
sarangi by the
harmonium, an
equal tempered scale is increasingly used. The performance is set to a melodic pattern called a
raga characterized in part by specific ascent (
aroha) and descent (
avaroha) sequences, which may not be identical. Other characteristics include "king" (
vadi) and "queen" (
samavadi) notes and characteristic phrases (
pakad). In addition each raga has its natural register (ambit) and
portamento (
meend) rules. Performances are usually marked by considerable improvisation within these norms.
[edit]History
Music was first formalized in India in connection with preserving the
sruti texts, primarily the four
vedas, which are seen as
apaurasheya (meaning "not created by man"). Not only was the text important, but also the manner in which they had been enunciated by the immortals. Prosody and chanting were thus of great importance, and were enshrined in the two
vedangas (bodies of knowledge) called
shiksha (pronunciation, chants) and
chhandas (prosody); these remained a key part of the brahmanic educational system till modern times.
The formal aspects of the chant are delineated in the
Samaveda, with certain aspects, e.g. the relation of chanting to meditation, elaborated in the
Chandogya Upanishad (ca. 8th century BC). Priests involved in these ritual chants were called
samans and a number of ancient musical instruments such as the
conch (shankh), lute (
veena), flute (
bansuri), trumpets and horns were associated with this and later practices of ritual singing.
[edit]Sanskritic tradition
The
Samaveda outlined the ritual chants for singing the verses of the Rigveda, particularly for offerings of
Soma. It proposed a tonal structure consisting of seven notes, which were named, in descending order,
krusht,
pratham,
dwitiya,
tritiya,
chaturth,
mandra and
atiswār. These refer to the notes of a flute, which was the only fixed-frequency instrument. This is why the second note is called
pratham (meaning "first", i.e., produced when only the first hole is closed).
Music is dealt with extensively in the Valmiki
Ramayana.
Narada is an accomplished musician, as is
Ravana;
Saraswati with her
veena is the goddess of music.
Gandharvas are presented as spirits who are musical masters, and the gandharva style looks to music primarily for pleasure, accompanied by the
soma rasa. In the
Vishnudharmottara Purana, the Naga king Ashvatara asks to know the
svaras from Saraswati.
The most important text on music in the ancient canon is
Bharata's
Natya Shastra, composed around the 3rd century CE. The
Natya Shastra deals with the different modes of music, dance, and drama, and also the emotional responses (
rasa) they are expected to evoke. The scale is described in terms of 22 micro-tones, which can be combined in clusters of four, three, or two to form an octave.
While the term
raga is articulated in the
Natya Shastra (where its meaning is more literal, meaning "colour" or "mood"), it finds a clearer expression in what is called
jati in the
Dattilam, a text composed shortly after or around the same time as
Natya Shastra. The Dattilam is focused on gandharva music and discusses scales (
swara), defining a tonal framework called
grama in terms of 22 micro-tonal intervals (
sruti[3]) comprising one octave. It also discusses various arrangements of the notes (
murchhana), the permutations and combinations of note-sequences (
tanas), and
alankara or elaboration. Dattilam categorizes melodic structure into 18 groups called
jati, which are the fundamental melodic structures similar to the
raga. The names of the jatis reflect regional origins, for example
andhri and
oudichya.
Music also finds mention in a number of texts from the
Gupta period;
Kalidasa mentions several kinds of veena (Parivadini, Vipanchi), as well as percussion instruments (
mridang), the flute (vamshi) and conch (shankha). Music also finds mention in
Buddhist and
Jain texts from the earliest periods of the Christian era.
Narada's
Sangita Makarandha treatise, from about 1100 CE, is the earliest text where rules similar to those of current Hindustani classical music can be found. Narada actually names and classifies the system in its earlier form before the Persian influences introduced changes in the system.
Jayadeva's
Gita Govinda from the 12th century was perhaps the earliest musical composition sung in the classical tradition called
Ashtapadi music.
In the 13th century,
Sharngadeva composed the
Sangita Ratnakara, which has names such as the
turushka todi ("Turkish
todi"), revealing an influx of ideas from Islamic culture. This text is the last to be mentioned by both the Carnatic and the Hindustani traditions and is often thought to date the divergence between the two.
[edit]Medieval period: Persian influence
The advent of Islamic rule under the
Delhi Sultanate and later the
Mughal Empire over northern India caused considerable cultural interchange. Increasingly, musicians received patronage in the courts of the new rulers, who in their turn, started taking increasing interest in local music forms. While the initial generations may have been rooted in cultural traditions outside India, they gradually adopted many aspects from their kingdoms which retained the traditional
Hindu culture. This helped spur the fusion of Hindu and Muslim ideas to bring forth new forms of musical synthesis like
qawwali and
khyal.
The most influential musician of the
Delhi Sultanate period was
Amir Khusrau (1253–1325), sometimes called the father of modern Hindustani classical music.
[4] A composer in
Persian,
Turkish,
Arabic, as well as
Braj Bhasha, he is credited with systematizing many aspects of Hindustani music, and also introducing several ragas such as
Yaman Kalyan,
Zeelaf and
Sarpada. He created the
qawwali genre, which fuses Persian melody and beat on a dhrupad like structure. A number of instruments (such as the
sitar and
tabla) were also introduced in his time.
Amir Khusrau is sometimes credited with the origins of the
khyal form, but the record of his compositions do not appear to support this. The compositions by the court musician
Sadarang in the court of
Muhammad Shah bear a closer affinity to the modern khyal. They suggest that while khyal already existed in some form, Sadarang may have been the father of modern khyal.
Much of the musical forms innovated by these pioneers merged with the Hindu tradition, composed in the popular language of the people (as opposed to Sanskrit) in the work of composers like
Kabir or
Nanak. This can be seen as part of a larger
Bhakti tradition, (strongly related to the
Vaishnavite movement) which remained influential across several centuries; notable figures include
Jayadeva (11th century),
Vidyapati (fl. 1375 CE),
Chandidas (14th–15th century), and
Meerabai (1555–1603 CE).
As the Mughal Empire came into closer contact with Hindus, especially under Jalal ud-Din
Akbar, music and dance also flourished. In particular, the musician
Tansen introduced a number of innovations, including ragas and particular compositions. Legend has it that upon his rendition of a night-time raga in the morning, the entire city fell under a hush and clouds gathered in the sky, and that he could light fires by singing the raga "Deepak", which is supposed to be composed of notes in high octaves.
At the royal house of
Gwalior,
Raja Mansingh Tomar (1486–1516 CE) also participated in the shift from Sanskrit to the local idiom (
Hindi) as the language for classical songs. He himself penned several volumes of compositions on religious and secular themes, and was also responsible for the major compilation, the
Mankutuhal ("Book of Curiosity"), which outlined the major forms of music prevalent at the time. In particular, the musical form known as
dhrupad saw considerable development in his court and remained a strong point of the Gwalior gharana for many centuries.
After the dissolution of the Mughal empire, the patronage of music continued in smaller princely kingdoms like
Lucknow,
Patiala, and
Banaras, giving rise to the diversity of styles that is today known as
gharanas. Many musician families obtained large grants of land which made them self sufficient, at least for a few generations (e.g. the
Sham Chaurasia gharana). Meanwhile the
Bhakti and
Sufitraditions continued to develop and interact with the different gharanas and groups.
[edit]Modern era
Until the late 19th century, Hindustani classical music was imparted on a one-on-one basis through the guru-shishya ("mentor-protégé") tradition. This system had many benefits, but also several drawbacks; in many cases, the shishya had to spend most of his time serving his guru with a hope that the guru might teach him a "cheez" (piece or nuance) or two. In addition, the system forced the music to be limited to a small subsection of the Indian community. To a large extent it was limited to the palaces and dance halls. It was shunned by the intellectuals, avoided by the educated middle class, and in general looked down upon as a frivolous practice.
[5]Then a fortunate turn of events started the renaissance of Hindustani classical music.
First, as the power of the
maharajahs and
nawabs declined in early 20th century, so did their patronage. With the expulsion of
Wajid Ali Shah to
Calcutta after 1857, the Lucknavi musical tradition came to influence the music of renaissance in
Bengal, giving rise to the tradition of
Ragpradhan gan around the turn of the century.
Also, at the turn of the century, two great stars emerged on the horizon:
Vishnu Digambar Paluskar and
Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande. Independent of each other, they spread Hindustani classical music to the masses in general, and the
Marathi middle class in particular. These two gentlemen brought classical music to the masses by organizing music conferences, starting schools, teaching music in class-rooms, and devising a standardized grading and testing system, and by standardizing the notation system.
[6]Vishnu Digambar Paluskar emerged as a talented musician and organizer despite having been blinded at age 12. His books on music, as well as the
Gandharva Mahavidyalaya music school that he opened in
Lahore in 1901, helped foster a movement away from the closed gharana system.
Paluskar's contemporary (and occasional rival)
Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande recognized the many rifts that had appeared in the structure of Indian classical music. He undertook extensive research visits to a large number of gharanas, Hindustani as well as Carnatic, collecting and comparing compositions. Between 1909 and 1932, he produced the monumental four-volume work
Hindustani Sangeetha Padhathi,
[7] which suggested a transcription for Indian music, and described the many traditions in this notation. Finally, it consolidated the many musical forms of Hindustani classical music into a number of
thaats (modes), subsequent to the
Melakarta system that reorganized Carnatic tradition in the 17th century. The ragas as they exist today were consolidated in this landmark work, although there are some inconsistencies and ambiguities in Bhatkande's system.
In modern times, the government-run
All India Radio,
Bangladesh Betar and
Radio Pakistan helped to bring the artists to public attention, countering the loss of 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. With the advance of films and other public media, musicians started to make their living through public performances. As India was exposed to Western music, some Western melodies started merging with classical forms, especially in popular music. A number of
Gurukuls, such as that of
Alauddin Khan at
Maihar, flourished. In more modern times, corporate support has also been forthcoming, as at the
ITC Sangeet Research Academy. Meanwhile, Hindustani classical music has become popular across the world through the influence of artists such as
Ravi Shankar and
Ali Akbar Khan.
[edit]Principles of Hindustani music
The rhythmic organization is based on rhythmic patterns called
tala. The melodic foundations are called ragas. One possible classification of ragas is into "melodic modes" or "parent scales", known as
thaats, under which most
ragas can be classified based on the notes they use.
Thaats may consist of up to seven scale degrees, or
swara. Hindustani musicians name these pitches using a system called
Sargam, the equivalent of the Western movable do
solfege:
- Sa (Shadaj) = Do
- Re (Rishab) = Re
- Ga (Gandhar) = Mi
- Ma (Madhyam) = Fa
- Pa (Pancham) = So
- Dha (Dhaivat) = La
- Ni (Nishad) = Ti
- Sa (Shadaj) = 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 "Natural" (
shuddha) or altered "Flat" (
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 called
srutis. The three primary registers of Indian classical music are mandra (lower), madhya (middle) and taar (upper). Since the octave location is not fixed, it is also possible to use provenances in mid-register (such as mandra-madhya or madhya-taar) for certain ragas. A typical rendition of Hindustani raga involves two stages:
- Alap: a rhythmically free improvisation on the rules for the raga in order to give life to the raga and flesh out its characteristics. The alap is followed by a long slow-tempo improvisation in vocal music, or by the jod and jhala in instrumental music.
- Bandish or Gat: a fixed, melodic 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. For example:
- Sthaayi: The initial, rondo phrase or line of a fixed, melodic composition.
- Antara: The first body phrase or line of a fixed, melodic composition.
- Sanchaari: The third body phrase or line of a fixed, melodic composition, seen more typically in dhrupad bandishes
- Aabhog: The fourth and concluding body phrase or line of a fixed, melodic composition, seen more typically in Dhrupad bandishes.
- There are three variations of bandish, regarding tempo:
- Vilambit bandish: A slow and steady melodic composition, usually in largo to adagio speeds.
- Madhyalaya bandish: A medium tempo melodic competition, usually set in andante to allegretto speeds.
- Drut bandish: A fast tempo melodic composition, usually set to allegretto speed or faster.
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.
[edit]Types of compositions
The major vocal forms or styles associated with Hindustani classical music are
dhrupad,
khyal, and
tarana. Other forms include
dhamar,
trivat,
chaiti,
kajari,
tappa,
tap-khyal,
ashtapadis,
thumri,
dadra,
ghazal and
bhajan; these are folk or semi-classical or light classical styles, as they often do not adhere to the rigorous rules of classical music.
[edit]Dhrupad
Dhrupad is an old style of singing, traditionally performed by male singers. It is performed with a
tambura and a
pakhawaj as instrumental accompaniments. The lyrics, some of which were written in Sanskrit centuries ago, are presently often sung in
brajbhasha, a medieval form of North and East Indian languages that was spoken in Eastern India. The
rudra veena, an ancient string instrument, is used in instrumental music in 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 following mantra is recited:
"Om Anant tam Taran Tarini Twam Hari Om Narayan, Anant Hari Om Narayan".
The alap gradually unfolds into more rhythmic jod and jhala sections. These sections are followed by a rendition of bandish, with the pakhawaj as an accompaniment. The great Indian musician
Tansensang 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, when it gave 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 risked becoming extinct in the first half of the twentieth century. However, the efforts by a few proponents from the
Dagar family have led to its revival and eventual popularization in India and in the West.
Khyal is a Hindustani form of vocal music, adopted from medieval Persian music and based on
Dhrupad. Khyal, literally meaning "thought" or "imagination" in
Hindi-Urdu, is unusual as it is based on improvising and expressing emotion. A Khyal is a two- to eight-line lyric set to a melody. The lyric is of an emotional account possibly from poetic observation.
[clarification needed] Khyals are also popular for depicting the emotions between two lovers, situations of ethological significance in Hinduism and Islam, or other situations evoking intense feelings.
Th importance of the Khyal's content is for the singer to depict, through music in the set
raga, the emotional significance of the Khyal. The singer improvises and finds inspiration within the
raga to depict the Khyal.
The origination of Khyal is controversial, although it is accepted that this style was based on Dhrupad and influenced by Persian music. Many argue that
Amir Khusrau created the style in the late 16th century. This form was popularized by Mughal Emperor
Mohammad Shah, through his court musicians. Some well-known composers of this period were
Sadarang,
Adarang, and
Manrang.
Another vocal form, taranas are medium- to fast-paced 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 poetry with soft syllables or
bols set to a tune. The singer uses these few lines as a basis for fast improvisation. The
tillana of Carnatic music is based on the tarana, although the former is primarily associated with dance.
Tappa is a form of Indian semi-classical vocal music whose specialty is its rolling pace based on fast, subtle, knotty construction. It originated from the folk songs of the camel riders of Punjab and was developed as a form of classical music by
Mian Ghulam Nabi Shori or Shori Mian, a court singer for
Asaf-Ud-Dowlah, the
Nawab of Awadh. "Nidhubabur Tappa", or tappas sung by
Nidhu Babu were very popular in 18th and 19th-century Bengal. Among the living performers of this style are Laxmanrao Pandit, Shamma Khurana, Manvalkar,
Girija Devi, Ishwarchandra Karkare, and Jayant Khot.
Thumri is a semi-classical vocal form said to have begun in Uttar Pradesh with the court of
Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, (r. 1847–1856). There are three types of thumri: poorab ang, Lucknavi and Punjabi thumri. The lyrics are typically in a proto-Hindi language called
Brij 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, Daagh, 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, Bangladesh andPakistan. Ghazal exists in multiple variations, including semi-classical, folk and pop forms. [edit]Instrumental music
The Royal Musicians of Hindustan circa 1910: Ali Khan, Inayat Khan, Musheraff Khan and Maheboob Khan Although Hindustani music clearly is focused on the vocal performance, instrumental forms have existed since ancient times. In fact, in recent decades, especially outside South Asia, instrumental Hindustani music is more popular than vocal music, partly due to a somewhat different style and faster tempo, and partly because of a language barrier for the lyrics in vocal music.
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, both of which owe their origin to Persian influences. Other plucked or struck string instruments include the surbahar, sursringar,santoor, and various versions of the slide guitar. Among bowed instruments, the sarangi, esraj andviolin are popular. The bansuri, shehnai and harmonium are important wind instruments. In the percussion ensemble, the tabla and the pakhavaj are the most popular. Various other instruments have also been used in varying degrees.
courtesy-
Wikipedia.
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