Four versions of raag Jog Kauns that prove why breaking barriers is a great idea

First appeared in www.scroll.in on October 31, 2015. Composers in the twentieth century have continued to create new raags, just as their predecessors did several centuries ago.  Of these, a few have become part of a shared repertoire going beyond gharana distinctions. Jog Kauns, composed by eminent composer and guru Jagannathbuwa Purohit, is a raag that has not only been shared across gharanas, but has also been performed by the best-known musicians who may not have necessarily learnt it

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More namesake raags: Three classic renditions of Bilaskhani Todi

First appeared in www.scroll.in on October 24, 2015. Continuing our series on raags named after their creators, today we turn to Bilas Khan, one of Mia Tansen’s sons, who is believed to have devised Bilaskhani Todi.  One of the stories surrounding the creation of this raag describes Bilas Khan singing this variant of Todi as a musical tribute at Tansen’s funeral. The first track features an aalaap in the raag Bilaskhani Todi by the famous rudra veena player Zia Mohiuddin Dagar.

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Three classic sitar renditions of raag Mia ki Todi

First appeared in www.scroll.in on October 17, 2015. The second part of the series on raags associated with specific composers features sitar renditions of raag Mia ki Todi this week.  Mia ki Todi, also known as Shuddha Todi, is believed to have been composed by Mia Tansen, one of the Navratnas or nine jewels in the court of Emperor Akbar. Many gharanas owe their allegiance to Mia Tansen through guru-shishya or master-disciple lineages.  One of these is the Maihar-Senia gharana founded

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The Namesakes: Musicians and the raags named after them

First appeared in www.scroll.in on October 10, 2015. Among the plethora of raags in Hindustani music, a large number have been handed down through several generations without any information about the names of their creators. In fact, some musicians believe that the raags existed in the ether and were discovered by one or the other musician, and gradually became part of the tradition after undergoing the test of time. Others vehemently oppose the idea of creating new raags, as

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‘Vaishnav Jan to Tene Kahiye’: One of Gandhi’s favourite bhajans played by classical maestros

First appeared in www.scroll.in on October 3, 2015. Community singing of bhajans or devotional song-texts was part of the daily routine at the ashrams set up by Mahatma Gandhi.  He asked vocalist and music educationist Vishnu Digambar Paluskar (1872-1931) to depute a disciple to conduct these community singing sessions at the Sabarmati Ashram.  Accordingly, Paluskar sent his disciple Narayan Khare to the Ashram.  Khare was mainly responsible for compiling the Ashram Bhajanavali or the prayer book containing bhajans and

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The raags of the Ganesh pandals: The duets of Vinayakrao Patwardhan and Narayanrao Vyas

First appeared in www.scroll.in on September 26, 2015. Vinayakrao Patwardhan (1898-1975) and Narayanrao Vyas (1902-1984) were among the vocalists who were popular during the Saarvajanik Ganeshotsavs or public celebrations of Ganesh Chaturthi. Both were disciples of vocalist and music educationist Vishnu Digambar Paluskar (1872-1931).  They were among those who trained directly under Paluskar until 1915 at the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya in Bombay. Despite their enrolment as students at this music school set up originally by Paluskar in Lahore in 1901 and

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The raags of the Ganesh pandals: The magic of Master Krishnarao

First appeared in www.scroll.in on September 19, 2015. Last year, this column featured compositions from the Hindustani stream pertaining to Ganesh or Ganpati, the elephant-headed Hindu deity. The first Saarvajanik Ganeshotsav or public festivity held to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi that falls in the month of Bhaadrapada in the Hindu calendar, was organised in Poona in 1893.  Lokmanya Tilak introduced an educational angle to the festivities in 1894. The Saarvajanik Ganeshostav has had firm roots in Bombay since 1895 and has been

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India meets Australia: Re-imaginations of a 19-century musical encounter

First appeared in www.scroll.in on September 12, 2015. Long before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Australia, a seemingly insignificant gesture in the nineteenth century attempted to build a bridge between the two countries. Sourindro Mohun Tagore (1840-1914), a prominent musicologist, patron of music of the Pathuriaghata Raj family, and a key figure in Calcutta’s Hindustani music scene in the nineteenth century, sent a collection of traditional and hybrid musical instruments and books written by him to Australia.  The collection

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Watch: An ode to Maihar gharana maestro Allauddin Khan by film-maker Ritwik Ghatak

First appeared in www.scroll.in on September 5, 2015. Those involved in Hindustani music regard Guru Purnima as a day for felicitating the guru or master as a vital and irreplaceable component in the guru-shishya or master-disciple pedagogical structure that forms the backbone of an essentially oral tradition. In a sense, September 5, the birthdate of India’s second President, Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, which is celebrated as Teacher’s Day in India, does not hold the same significance in the realm of Hindustani

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Echo chamber: Exploring music that celebrates music

First appeared in www.scroll.in on August 29, 2015. One of the themes in Hindustani song-texts pertain to the very elements that form a part of the music-making process.  Vaggyekars or composers, who create the musical framework for compositions and also write the lyrics, have composed pieces that are a tribute to music.  Some of these place music on a mystical plane, portraying the act of making music as the perfect medium to attain oneness with the Almighty or the

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