First appeared in www.scroll.in on November 15, 2014. Colonialism impacted Indian music in myriad ways. One of the more obvious influences of Western music was evident in the manner that many princely states put together bands and orchestras. Art or classical music in India was and still continues to be predominantly a soloistic tradition, but contact with the West saw several such experiments featuring larger ensembles. The Indian defence and police forces have bands that perform martial tunes, folk
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First appeared in www.scroll.in on November 8, 2014. In the past, veena was a generic name used to denote any stringed instrument. It is for this reason that the name appeared as a suffix to many instruments, such as the rudra veena, the saraswati veena, the kacchapi veena, and the shatatantri veena. Of these, the rudra veena, also called the been, dates back several centuries. It does not enjoy the popularity of the sitar, sarod or santoor, but it continues
First appeared in www.scroll.in on November 1, 2014. Vocalist Amir Khan (1912-1974) was one of the major trendsetters in Hindustani music in the second half of the twentieth century. Son and disciple of Shahmir Khan, Amir Khan was originally a resident of Indore, but spent many years in Bombay, Delhi and Calcutta. He incorporated several influences and went on to create a style of khayal singing that impacted successive generations of vocalists. The slow and sombre quality that he
First appeared in www.scroll.in on October 25, 2014. Unlike Holi, the festival of colours, which has obvious representation in Hindustani music, Diwali, the festival of lights, does not seem to feature similarly in Hindustani compositions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=B4EuV_y3niU Bansuri maestro Pannalal Ghosh’s raag Deepavali is probably a rare instance of a reference to the festival. The contemplative mood of the maestro’s presentation of other raags is equally reflected in this raag. Music lovers would be aware that it was Pannalal Ghosh
First appeared in www.scroll.in on October 18, 2014. Uninformed concert presenters and event managers, and uninitiated listeners often rush to the conclusion that Hindustani instrumental concerts are duets or jugalbandis between the main performer and the percussionist. While the word “duet” is apt for a performance featuring two artistes, it often does not represent the musical process in which an instrumental performer is accompanied by a percussionist. More boisterous listeners mistakenly believe that the performance is in fact a
First appeared in www.scroll.in on October 11, 2014. Sangeet in the Indian tradition originally referred to the shared and composite aesthetic space for vocal and instrumental music and dance. The exchange of ideas between the three disciplines resonates to this day in their use of common terminology. Unfortunately, we seem to have lost much of this shared space, due to a variety of reasons, although vocal and instrumental music continue to enjoy close ties. Professional hereditary women performers until
First appeared in www.scroll.in on October 4, 2014. On September 19, Indian music lost one of its finest and youngest ambassadors, U Srinivas. Mandolin Shrinivas, as he was more often called, was single-handedly responsible for bringing the mandolin to the prestigious status it enjoys in Carnatic music. Many would be surprised to know that the music educationist and vocalist Vishnu Digambar Paluskar trained some of his students to play this stringed instrument and featured them in his orchestra way
First appeared in www.scroll.in on September 27, 2014. Over the past few years, many people have spoken in favour of introducing music education to the national school curriculum. This is not a new phenomenon. Experiments of this nature were carried out in the 19th century as well. Of course, classical musicians continue to argue that it is their system of music that is best suited to teaching at the school level. But how would children respond to a style
First appeared in www.scroll.in on September 20, 2014. Musicians have always worked closely with craftsmen to enhance the capabilities of established musical instruments and to develop new instruments. These conversations have involved experiments with different raw materials that go on to give each instrument a characteristic timbre and texture. There have also been occasions when musicians have taken on the role of the craftsmen. In recent times, the sundari, a lesser-known cousin of the northern Indian shehnai, was developed
First appeared in www.scroll.in on September 13, 2014. It has long been a practice among impresarios, music organisations and foreign universities to arrange radio and television recordings of touring Indian musicians. These recordings of interviews and performances are often made with a view to informing potential audiences of forthcoming concerts in the area. Such engagements are at times hosted by community radio and television channels that expressly cater to the South Asian community. Fortunately, many of these older broadcasts