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The British Raj - Page 2

      
Chaturpandit Bhatkhande      
 British Raj - Pg 1        British Raj - Pg 3

  The British Raj
         Gwalior and other vocal Gharanas
         Development of Tumri
         Development of Ghazal
         Chaturpandit Bhatkande
         V D Pulaskar and Gandharva Mahavidhyalaya
         Recorded Music
         Dikshitar and Thyagaraja Shishya Parampara
         Mysore - The model state
         Word origin of Carnatic
         Madras - The new center
         Violin - A successful adaptation

Development of Tumri

The thumri is said to have originated in the court of Wajid Ali Shah (1822-1887, ruled 1847-1857) of Lucknow in the mid-nineteenth century. At that time it was presented in medium or fast tempos using taals like rupak and ek taal. It is believed that the thumris that arose at that time were closely allied to the khayal and originated as melodies to accompany dances presented by courtesans or tawaifs in the Mughal courts. The themes of the thumri are essentially romantic and based on the ‘shringar rasa’. The compositions were written in the dialect Braj-Bhasha, spoken in the Agra-Mathura regions of the Uttar Pradesh. On account its lyrical and lilting quality the thumri is often rendered in lighter ragas like Piloo, Pahadi or Kafi.

At the beginning of 20th century thumri lost much of its seductive romantic content and became a purer form of music with an emphasis on its aesthetic features as part of the discipline of classical music. Also was also taken up by male singers especially vocalists known for their khayal renditions like Ustad Abdul Karim Khan and Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan who sang their thumris in the Punjab Ang. With the decline of Lucknowi Thumri, Benaras gharana with its ‘Purab ang gayaki’ of the thumri gained prominence. Benaras Gharana produced such stalwarts as Siddeshwari Devi, Begum Akhtar, Rasoolan Bai and Girija Devi. The modern classical vocalists usually conclude their pure classical performances with a thumri rendered in a wonderfully light Mishra Bhairavi or Piloo.

Thumri has several varieties such as the Kajri sung during the monsoon, the Hori sung during the colorful festival of Holi and other harvest melodies such as the Chaiti, Saawan, Jhoola etc

Development of Ghazal

Ghazal as a literary form evolved in Persia in 10th century. The poetic form was brought to India by the Muslim rulers. At first, most of the ghazals were written in Persian. Urdu as the preferred language of Ghazals first emerged in the courts of southern muslim rulers of Golconda and Bijapur in the 17th century by poets like Wali Mohammed Wali (1667 - 1707) . By 18th century Urdu poetry was being in the north as well by poets like Meer Taqi Meer (1722 - 1810). 19th century was the golden age of Ghazal poetry in Delhi with poets like Mirza Ghalib (1797-1869) , Zauq, Ibrahim (1789 - 1854) and Momin Khan Momin (1800 - 1851) .

Ghazal as a musical form was probably an offshoot of light classical forms like Thumri. Ghazal, like Thumri, probably became associated the courtesan. The courtesans, known as tawaif were educated in many forms of fine arts like music, dance and poetry. Many of them were poets themselves and probably started singing the Ghazals in the same way Thumri's were sung for the benefit of their Muslim masters, who were connoisseurs of Urdu Poetry. Like Thumri's, Ghazals are based on romantic lyrics and thus the Thumri style of singing was ideally suited to sing Ghazals as well. Ghazals were also set to particular Raags and formed a part of light classical Hindustani music.

Not surprisingly, most well known Ghazal singers of 19th and 20th centuries were Thumri exponents as well like Begum Akhar and Barkat Ali Khan. Even Khayal singers like Ustad Abdul Karim Khan and Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan occassionally sang ghazals. In the later part of 20th century Ghazal went through dramatic changes, finally losing much of its classical roots and imitating popular film songs in style.

Chaturpandit Bhatkande

Chaturpandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (1860-1936) is considered by many to be the father of modern Hindustani music. A lawyer by profession, Pandit Bhatkhande was the most important Hindustani musicologist of the 20th century.

He researched prevalent practices in various gharanas in early 20th century north India. This followed his trip to south Indian musical centers where he learnt about the work of Venkatmukhi and the classification of Raagas into 72 Melas. His treatise on Hindustani music was presented in 4 volumes of his Marathi book Hindustani Sangeetha Padhathi between 1909 - 1932. He described hundred and eighty ragas and classified them into ten basic thaats, or musical scales or frameworks -Bilawal, Kalyan, Khamaj, Bhairav, Poorvi, Marwa, Kafi, Asavari, Bhairavi and Todi. He also devised musical notation that could be used to write music. That was perhaps the first attempt at writing music in India ... where for thousands of years music had been orally transmitted. He also collected more than two thousand compositions from different gharanas and brought them out into the public sphere. He helped starting a college of music, Sangeeta Maha Vidyalaya in Baroda using his system of music teaching. He trained music teachers. He wrote graded text- books on music. They are known as Kramic Putstaka Malika. With the help of the Maharaja of Baroda, Bhatkhande convened in 1916 the first All-India Music Conference in Baroda, a first of its kind. In the 5th All-India Music Conference in 1925 it was decided to open a College of Music at Lucknow and the following year the Marris College of Hindustani Music was established in the name of Governor of the province. Bhatkhande used to supervise the work of this college in its early years.

V D Pulaskar and Gandharva Mahavidhyalaya

Pt Vishnu Digambar Paluskar (1872-1931) is primarily responsible for bringing Hindustani music from out of the courts of the ruling classes and making it available to everyone, accessible to all sections of the population. V D Pulaskar, who lost his vision because of an accident, learnt music from Balakrishna Bua Ichalkaranjikar, the important Gwalior Gharana exponent of Maharashtra at that time. After traversing through much of North India he ended up in Lahore. He felt that it was a waste of time to just serve the guru instead of utilizing all the time to learn music and thus wanted to create a different vehicle for learning music, instead of the traditional Guru-Shishya parampara. On May 5,1901 he founded the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya in Lahore. It was the first school run by a middle class musician without the direct patronage of rajas and maharajas. The vidyalaya (school) was run by public support, donations from the richer classes and funds raised by the concerts of Vishnu Digambar - it was truly a school of the people for the people. This was to change the course of Hindustani Music. Anyone interested could learn music here. It was also the beginning of the end of guru-shishya parampara.

He returned to Bombay in September, 1908 to found a branch of the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya there. Eventually Lahore school was shifted to Bombay. Here he brought together a set of pupils whom he trained not only in music, but also inculcated in them a respect for the art and a missionary zeal. This group of his early students became later some of the most distinguished performers and teachers in North India. What was more important was the atmosphere in the institution: while there was strict discipline in musical training, there was stricter discipline in moral training. The usual odium attached to the clan of musicians was thus removed and they began to be treated with respect. Economically, the school was a losing cause and was eventually auctioned off by the creditors in 1925.

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   Musical Nirvana . com Top Last Updated on 21-Feb-03   
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