I was chatting to Sandipan, a fellow sarod player based in Sydney and we were discussing Shri Tejendra Narayan Majumdar (who has guided him) and his style. We got around to discussing some compositions and eventually onto Raga Pilu
Pilu (Piloo) is a light raga with a vast canvas to paint. Mishra Pilu allows tremendous scope for the artist to bring in melodic lines from other ragas.
Pilu belongs to the Kaafi thaat and uses both the Gandhars (Ga). However, in the Mishra (mixed) form, almost all notes are used.
One of the best Pilus on the sarod is by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. I’ve taken his Teental composition and changed it a bit, however the key characteristics remain, in particular, the ascending antara leading up to the upper Sa from the 9th and use of some ekhara phrases.
Following this, I also remembered a Deepchandi gat (14 beats) popular with sitar players – it has been played by sitar players including Ustad Shahid Parvez:
Then we have a Pilu in Madhaylay Deepchandi (which has been played by Tejendra da), however, I conclude the piece very differently to him, and have essentially simplified the ending…
Ud Amir Khan was one of the greatest musicians of the last century. Although very well known to regulars of Indian classical music, he remains relatively unknown among the population generally.
He inspired many stalwarts including Ud Vilayat Khan, Pt Nikhil Banerjee and others. I personally consider his Darbari as the mother of all renditions of North Indian Classical Music of this raga – maybe only Tansen could have surpassed him.
A little while ago, I was listening to Pt Budhaditya Mukherjee’s recital of the popular raga: Maru Bihag. This raga is a complex one – and is credited to Ustad Alladiya Khan for its invention. Growing up in Varanasi, Maru Bihag was a popular raga used in light classical music- thumris in particular.
Leaving aside academic discussion of its structure -here’s what I feel about this raag -it’s a romantic raga with a bit of longing but also a “here and now” feel to it. So, its longing does not last, when you come back to the Shuddha Re. You feel back in control. It also uses two Madhyams and is fertile ground for improvisation. Therein lies the trap for the sarod player. The more the degrees of freedom, the greater the risk of technical error.
Here’s a vilambit gat composed by me (inspired by numerous artists- the chalan is very common and not unique). The drut version will come later.
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Raag Desh is easily the most well recognised melody in the Khamaj camp. While omnipresent in every form of music, it received widespread recognition due to the well known TV clip on India: Baje Sargam Har Taraf Se, in which a who’s who of Indian classical musicians performed this Raag.
Desh has countless compositions – I’ll start off with a sarod composition based on a very famous drut khayal in Ektaal ” Beeti Jaat Barkha Ritu Piya Na Aaye Aeri” (translation: this monsoon season is passing me by, but my beloved hasn’t arrived).
This composition was “ported” to the sitar by the Imdadkhani musicians (I’ve heard Ud Imrat Khan play this) as well as the sarod (Ustad Amjad Ali Khan). Here is the sarod version (with my tweaks) and the notation for it:
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1. The Manjha is played by Imdadkhani musicians – but not by all. I also have modified it slightly from the original manjha.
2. The “killer” meend (portamento) is the one from the Pa to the upper Ma. You have to use your second finger on the sarod to do this, and be careful not to under or overshoot the mark.
Lastly, as always, this being a one take recording on my Zoom, all errors and omissions are entirely my fault.
I’ll put up more compositions in different taalas next.
My New Year’s resolution is to keep content on this site updated regularly – aim is to cover off one raga a month at least. I start off with Khamaj.
Khamaj is a huge repository of very melodious and sweet tunes – so sweet sometimes, it’s unbearable !. Key ragas of this camp include Khamaj itself, the beautiful raag Des (or Desh), Tilak Kamod and Jhinjhoti. Variants include Jaijaywanti, Gorakh Kalyan and the like. Even Kalawati is technically in the Khamaj camp.Khamaj dominates semi classical and Bollywood songs as well.
I start off with a tribute to one of the greatest leaders of mankind : Mahatma Gandhi, whose death anniversary was marked this week – and whose favourite song was the Bhajan “Vaishnav Jan To” composed by 15th Century Poet Narsinh Mehta, set to Khamaj.
Vaishnav-ism is a sect of Hinduism, with particular emphasis on kindness, non-violence and empathy towards fellow beings. A Vaishnav is a follower of the God Vishnu. The first line says ” He/She who is a Vaishnav is one who understands the pain of others”
Here’s a rendition of this classic (first stanza only) on my sarod, with a bit of Desh tacked on to the end. As always, this is a one-take affair, no computer skullduggery to hide the rough spots, recorded on the Zoom in my music room.
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In my random ramblings on Classical music, here’s something that all musicians know but rarely acknowledge – a performance is in many cases, significantly rehearsed, even in North Indian classical music.
Let’s take the construct called Tihai – that’s a sequence which, repeated thrice, ends in the Sam.
Tihais need preparation. In fact, other than simple tihais, ALL tihais need preparation. If a musician tells you that they spontaneously think of complex tihais, they are part of the 1%. For mere mortals like us, we need to rehearse.
The key skill is to factor in the tihai within the music, so it doesn’t sound manufactured and blends in well with the rest of the taan. When amateurs do it, a tell tale sign is that of the musician waiting, marking time, for the start of the beat where they can launch into their prepared tihai.
Tihais are often generic, so a tihai for a taal can be applied to all compositions in that taal, irrespective of the raag.
Tabla repertoire (and Kathak bols) are fertile ground for “pinching” tihais to incorporate into instrumental performances. No wonder, some of our compulsive tihai players (whose every taan ends in a tihai) are formidable tabla players. Some WERE actually tabla players.
Tihais are not used that often in vocal music- whose presentation doesn’t try to “dazzle” the audience like instrumental music.
On that note, let’s look at a “medium” level 3 x 3 tihai – taken from Kathak. It is a set of three phrases, at different speeds.
The sequence goes like this: (repeated thrice to arrive at the Sam)
The first five notes are the same, and the last three notes are progressively slower…
1234567 (fast)
1234 5- 6- 7 (slow)
1234 5– 6– 7 (slower) (last 3 notes are at different speeds
Click on the picture to see a large version with the bols and taals notated.
As you can see, the last three beats are spaced out. Yellow shows rest beats.
Teentaal tihai borrowed from Kathak
I’ll upload a sound file with this tihai on it.
In the meantime, here’s the original version : Kathak maestro Birju Maharaj demonstrating this
(He explains the background of the tihai – the sprightly deer being hunted by the lion).
Recently, sarangi maestro Sultan Khan passed away – a great loss to the musical community. I met Khan sahab on his 2009 tour of Melbourne, where he performed in the Arts Centre with his brother on the tabla. I will post a clip of that recording – it has a few interesting parts – when he started off, he said “My English is like your Chinese or Japanese – pretty bad”. Then he demonstrated the complex trio of Puriya, Shree and Puriya Dhanashree. In the last raga, he sang the well known khayal ” Payaliya Jhankar Mori” – stopping to explain to the audience the difficult “saas -nanad” (mother -in-law and sis-in-law- who usually give the wife a hard time) relationship.
His performance was also marked by an outburst at the organisers on stage. (about a glass of water).
Musically, I was most inspired by a rather unique rendering of Malkauns that you can find here: (Tarana in 12 beat drut Ektaal)
What’s so special about this rendition? A few points come to mind
1. The points of emphasis are very deliberate. He really “beds” down the note e.g the Ga Ma movement. This is not that typical of Malkauns treatment. It’s more a reflection of the sarangi (vocal) treatment.
2. He introduces a quirky movement (around the 0.16 second mark and again at 0.21) -it is a quick Ga-Ma-Dha movement, done very quickly, but I had never heard this movement before. Note, that this movement is not directly translated in his playing (except at one point). This adds a new “angle” to Malkauns
3. He doesn’t dwell on the lower Dha Ni much – which is pretty much a Malkauns signature- he’s up on the middle octave most of the time
This is precisely the kind of innovative raga treatment that I crave. He also played “benchmark” compositions, instead of settling for lesser ones.
Following on from the previous post, here are some of the Darbari gats that I learnt (often without “official” permission, as Darbari is meant to be learnt/taught at senior levels only.
The first one is a Vilambit gat – which is a variation of one played by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan:
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Again, this is a raw recording with my Zoom H2 with Mr. Electronic tabla.
The notation is fairly easy: (starts from the 12th beat on Vilambit teentaal)
Dha Ni Sa Re Ga – - Re-Re Sa-Sa-Re Dha
Ni Pa — Ma-Ma Pa – Dha Dha Ni Sa – Ni ReRe Ga Re Sa
Now, a few points:
1. The trouble with Darbari is that every little microtone has to be perfect. The above rendition has a couple of points which could have been better (this was a one take recording) – as always, all errors and omissions are mine. If I ever find the time to re-record (unlikely), then I’ll fix these.
2. I’ve modified the gat somewhat – both the mukhda and the antara. Instead of a linear motion up and down the scale, I’ve tried to bring in a bit more gamak than in the original. One movement towards the end was inspired by Ustad Ali Akbar Khan’s rendition in the Emperor
3. I recorded this sitting in a large empty room (my wife’s dance studio), so as to get a bit of a space effect – most sarod Darbaris seem to have a bit of reverb in them (natural or artificial)
Playing Darbari requires patience and calibration. By calibration I mean that you must be “coloured” and “soaked” in Darbari. Before recording this, I spent the whole week playing Kafi, so found it hard to “calibrate” myself. Anyway, I’d rather publish than talk about the raag.
There are several other finer points to be mindful of. One is the play on the Kharaj string:
Ma- Pa Ma Pa – Ni Pa Ga – the gamak between Ma Pa and back to Ga is extremely delicate and requires great skill to execute.
Overall, the vilambit should be slow and reposeful – something I’ve tried to maintain.
Back to posting after a while… busy with working on a musical project – I thought I’d get on with my eternally favourite raga : the emperor of Ragas: Raga Darbari.
Words cannot adequately describe the majesty of this Raga. In many ways, Darbari encapsulates all there is to say about Hindustani Classical music: the repose, the space, the meditative nature, the plaintive aspect, the introspection… the list goes on. For those who ponder the difference between Carnatic and Hindustani music, Darbari is the prominent example of the philosophical difference between these two systems and the contrast in their approach. While some say the origins may have been in Carnatic music, Darbari is the encapsulation of the Hindustani style, in particular, the meditative nature of the music.
Darbari has influenced everyone from ancient Dhrupad singers to Himesh Reshammiya to Abhijit Pohankar. Such is the scale of this monumental raga, etiquette demands its performance in a respectful manner, taking care not to transgress the boundaries of the raga.
Historically performed by Miyan Tansen in the court of Mughal emperor Akbar, Darbari has been restricted to performance by senior musicians only – as a matter of tradition. For a long time, women performers were not allowed to sing this raga. Darbari is also not well tolerated by purists on newer instruments.
The essence of Darbari is its repose and majestic build up. Due to heavy meend work (portamento), Darbari carries shades of previous notes onto the next notes. Without sympathetic strings, that flavour is lost.
The perfect Darbari that I can think of has been rendered by Ustad Amir Khan : the link can be found here:
Why do I consider this the perfect Darbari?
One, it is slow and full of repose. Two, it dwells upon the lower octave and draws out the gravity of the raag. Third, it “lets go” down to the lower Dha and stays there for a while, without rushing back to the Sa.
Instrumental Darbaris
Darbari rendered on instruments face the challenge of keeping the music interesting after the alaap. As the raga is not designed for high speed, this proves a bit of a challenge. The sarangi, surbahar, veena and sarod are particularly well suited for rendition, however, the published repertoire on the sarod does go up to higher speed, which, in my opinion, diminishes the appeal of the pure raga.
Note that dwelling on a lengthy, repetitive alaap is probably not good either – unless you have the musical material, you’ll put audiences to sleep.
Three instrumental renditions stand out – each for different reasons
The first is Pt Ram Narayan on the sarangi: pure Darbari -vocal equivalent
The second is Ustad Vilayat Khan with Shankar Ghosh – recorded in the 60s – he takes Darbari on a “sitarised” journey – it’s spectacular though – I was gobsmacked when I first heard it. This is also an adaptation of the famous khayal “Anokha Ladla”.
The third is Ustad Amjad Ali Khan with Sabir Khan - this is a master class of how to approach Darbari on the sarod – the approach of the compositions is very fresh and not the traditional sarod approach. I will record and document the notation in my next post.
More on Darbari compositions soon
PS – following comments by Smt Maitreyee Sarcar of www.surtarang.co.uk, I edited this post, by linking to the masterpieces of Ustads VK and AmAK. A few points about these two masterpieces:
Ustad Vilayat Khan’s piece is loosely based on the drut khayal “Anokha Ladla” sung by greats such as Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan.
Ustad Amjad Ali plays no vilambit (he has a policy of not playing vilambit if the alaap jor jhala is extensively treated, especially in a time constrained situation -e.g cassette recording). Secondly, the drut ektaal piece has two parts: the second part settles into the famous ektaal composition Yareman Biyan Biyan, however, the mukhda is a complex rhythmic piece which uses an off beat Sam (I’ll publish the notation shortly). Thirdly, the drut teentaal piece is possibly the highest clarity Darbari played on the sarod at that speed – especially if you pay attention to the right hand bols being executed at the same time in the ekhara phrases. Fourthly, the sound engineer has gone nuts over adding a concert chamber effect to the sound, although it sounds ok. Fifthly, I was advised that Ustadji waited for a long time before recording this masterpiece and used his largest sarod for this performance.
