Indian Musician Signed Sarod Player Ali Akbar Khan Autograph Newspaper Clipping

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (808) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 176283104092 INDIAN MUSICIAN SIGNED SAROD PLAYER ALI AKBAR KHAN AUTOGRAPH NEWSPAPER CLIPPING. A VERY RARE AUTOGRAPH IN BLACK SHARPIE FROM A LARGE NEWSPAPER CLIPPING THE SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER  SUNDAY 3, 1972  THE LIVELY ARTS PAGE SIGNED BY LEGENDARY INDIAN SAROD PLAYER ALI AKBAR KHAN
Ali Akbar Khan, the foremost virtuoso of the lutelike sarod, whose dazzling technique and gift for melodic invention, often on display in concert with his brother-in-law Ravi Shankar, helped popularize North Indian classical music in the West, died on Thursday at his home in San Anselmo, Calif. He was 87. The cause was kidney failure, said a spokesman for the Ali Akbar College of Music. Mr. Khan, who was named a national treasure by the Indian government in 1989, carried on the musical traditions of his father, Allauddin Khan, whose ashram in East Bengal produced some of India’s most celebrated musicians, notably Mr. Shankar, the flutist Pannalal Ghosh and the sitarist Nikhil Banerjee. Unlike his father, a volatile and uneven performer, Mr. Khan maintained an austere demeanor onstage while coaxing passages of extraordinary intensity from his sarod, an instrument with 25 strings, 10 plucked with a piece of coconut shell while the remainder resonate sympathetically. “He was not as flashy as Ravi Shankar, but he had the ability to play a single note, or a simple passage of notes, and draw out such amazing depth,” said John Schaefer, the host of “New Sounds” and “Soundcheck” on WNYC-FM in New York. “That’s why he was able to get a world of emotion and color out of ‘Malasri,’ which is often called a three-note raga. That, for me, stands as the calling card of the genius of Ali Khan.” The violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who brought Mr. Khan to the United States in 1955, called him “an absolute genius” and “the greatest musician in the world.” In 1971, Mr. Khan performed at Madison Square Garden with Mr. Shankar, Alla Rakha and Kamala Chakravarty on a bill with Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and other rock stars at the Concert for Bangladesh, a benefit organized by George Harrison and Mr. Shankar. The album and film of the two performances gave added exposure to Mr. Khan and North Indian music. Dig deeper into the moment. Special offer: Subscribe for $1 a week. Mr. Khan, whose name is often preceded by the honorific Ustad, or master, was born in Shibpur, a small village in Bengal (now Bangladesh). He grew up in Maihar, where his father was the principal musician in the court of the maharajah. He began vocal training at 3 and, after studying the surbahar, sitar and tabla, focused on the sarod. His father was a stern, sometimes brutal taskmaster, rousing his young son at dawn for several hours of practice before breakfast and continuing well into the evening of what were often 18-hour days. Allauddin Khan had elevated the status of instrumental music, previously regarded as inferior to vocal performance, by synthesizing various regional styles into a modern concert style. His son absorbed his encyclopedic knowledge of North Indian music and eventually outstripped him as an instrumentalist. Mr. Khan’s younger sister, Annapurna Devi, who later married Mr. Shankar, developed into an equally accomplished master of the surbahar, but custom prevented her from performing in public. Editors’ Picks The Murky World of Private Spies and the Damage They May Be Doing Kathleen Andrews Dies at 84; Helped Give Ziggy and Others Their Start Big Candy Is Angry Continue reading the main story At 13, Mr. Khan performed for a large audience for the first time, at a music conference in the holy city of Allahabad. By his early 20s he was music director of All-India Radio in Lucknow, broadcasting as a solo artist and composing for the radio’s orchestra. “My father’s main purpose was to hear me play while he was living in Maihar, because I was always being broadcast,” Mr. Khan told Peter Lavezzoli, the author of “The Dawn of Indian Music in the West.” “If I played anything wrong, he would come the next day to Lucknow, straight from the train station, tell me to get my sarod and listen to me play and correct me.” For part of a series of 78s that he recorded in Lucknow for HMV in 1945, he composed and performed the three-minute Raga Chandranandan (“Moonstruck”), a blend of four evening ragas, which became a national hit and a signature piece for Mr. Khan. He later recorded a 22-minute version for the album “Master Musician of India” on the Connoisseur label. After a few years Mr. Khan left Lucknow to become the court musician for the maharajah of Jodhpur. He performed, often for hours at a time; gave lessons; and composed for the court orchestra. The post vanished after the maharajah died in a plane crash in 1948, and before long the chaos surrounding independence and partition put an end to the court system, which was already in decline. Defying his father, Mr. Khan moved to Bombay and began writing scores for films, including Chetan Anand’s “Aandhiyan” (1952), Satyajit Ray’s “Devi” (1960) and Tapan Sinha’s “Hungry Stones” (1960). His father, a friend of the director of “Hungry Stones,” went to see the film and said: “My goodness, who composed the music? He is great.” On being informed that it was his son, the elder Khan sent a telegram of forgiveness. By this time the younger Khan had grown frustrated with the limitations of film work and was eager to return to classical music, though he later composed the scores for “The Householder” (1963), the first Ismail Merchant-James Ivry feature film, and Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Little Buddha” (1993). His collaboration with Ray, in particular, had been less than satisfactory. “Ray was not a connoisseur of Indian classical music,” he told The Times of India in 2008. Intent on exposing Westerners to Asian music, Menuhin brought Mr. Khan to New York in 1955 for a performance at the Museum of Modern Art, where Mr. Khan made what is believed to be the first long-playing record of Indian classical music in the United States, “Music of India: Morning and Evening Ragas,” for Angel. He scored another first when he performed on Alistair Cooke’s television program “Omnibus.” Western interest in Indian music soared after Harrison took up the sitar and Mr. Shankar began touring Europe and the United States. In 1967 Mr. Khan, who had founded a music school in Calcutta in 1956, started the Ali Akbar College of Music, now in San Rafael, Calif., with a satellite school in Basel, Switzerland. “Two or three generations of really fine Indian players — meaning performers of Indian classical music — have come out of that school,” Mr. Schaefer said. Mr. Khan is survived by his wife, Mary; seven sons, including Aashish, a renowned sarod player; and four daughters. In 1989 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian honor, and in 1991 he became the first Indian musician to receive a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.” Noted Sarod player Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, who belonged to Sania Maihar Gharana, breathed his last on Friday at his residence in San Anselmo, San Francisco, USA. He was 87. During his illustrious career, was awarded Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour 1989, National Heritage Fellowship (1997) highest award for traditional Arts in the US, MacArthur Genius Grant (1991) and was nominated for five Grammy Awards. Born in 1922, in village of Shibpur, Comilla in Bangladesh Ali Akbar Khan was the child of Baba Allauddin Khan, the illustrious multi-talented maestro and Madina Begum.   Khan had his training in both vocal and Sarod from his father at a very early age. He began learning music at the age of three. He learnt vocal music from his father and drums from his uncle, Fakir Aftabuddin. He learnt several other musical instruments too but finally decided to concentrate on the Srod and on vocal. Ustad Ali Akbar Khan gave his first public performance in Allahabad at the age of thirteen. In his early twenties, Ali Akbar Khan made his first recording in Lucknow for the HMV label, and the next year, he became the court musician to the Maharaja of Jodhpur. He worked there for seven years and the state of Jodhpur bestowed upon him the title of "Ustad". He was also adept in playing several other instruments like Sur Bahar, Sitar, Tabla, Drums etc. He became a court musician of Jodhpur Kingdom at the age of 22. He performed all over India and extensively in the West. Khan married three times and was the father of 11 children. His son Aashish Khan is a noted Sarod player. He founded Ali Akbar Khan College of Music in 1956 at Kolkata and another College of the same name at Berkeley, California in 1958. A branch of this college was opened in Basel, Switzerland in 1985. The School at US was moved to its present location at San Rafael, California in 1968. Khan's style of Sarod playing was to bring out more melody with fewer strokes. He was known for his long expansion of Raga in Alap and Jod and mesmerising Gat and Jhala. He also performed many Jugalbandis with the likes of Pt. Ravi Shankar, Pt. Nikhil Bannerjee, Pt. Vilayat Khan, Vid. L. Subramanyam and many western musicians. He was the first Indian to cut a Long Play record of Indian music in the West. "For us, as a family, music is like food. When you need it you don't have to explain why, because it is basic to life." -Ali Akbar Khan The classical music of North India is an uplifting and extraordinary music, dating back thousands of years. Ali Akbar Khan is one of today's most accomplished Indian classical musicians. Considered a "National Living Treasure" in India, he is admired by both Eastern and Western musicians for his brilliant compositions and his mastery of the sarode (a beautiful, 25-stringed Indian instrument). Concert violinist the late Lord Yehudi Menuhin called Ali Akbar Khan, "An absolute genius...the greatest musician in the world," and many have considered him the "Indian Johann Sebastian Bach." Ustad Ali Akbar Khan's family traces its gharana (ancestral tradition) to Mian Tansen, a 16th century musical genius and court musician of Emperor Akbar. Ali Akbar Khan's father, the late Padma Vibhusan Acharya Dr. Allauddin Khan, was acknowledged as the greatest figure in North Indian music in this century. Born in 1922 in East Bengal (Bangladesh), Ali Akbar Khan (Khansahib) began his studies in music at the age of three. He studied vocal music from his father and drums from his uncle, Fakir Aftabuddin. His father also trained him on several other instruments, but decided finally that he must concentrate on the sarode and on vocal. For over twenty years, he trained and practiced 18 hours a day. After that, his father continued to teach Khansahib until he was over 100 years old, and left behind such a wealth of material that Khansahib feels he is still learning new things from it. Since his father's death in 1972, Khansahib has continued his father's tradition, that of the Sri Baba Allauddin Seni Gharana of Maihar and Rampur, India. Ali Akbar Khan gave his first public performance in Allahabad at age thirteen. In his early twenties, he made his first recording in Lucknow for the HMV label, and the next year, he became the court musician to the Maharaja of Jodhpur. He worked there for seven years until the Maharaja's untimely death. The state of Jodhpur bestowed upon him his first title, that of Ustad, or Master Musician. Many years later, he received the title of Hathi Saropao and Dowari Tajeem at the Jodhpur Palace's Golden Jubilee Celebraton in 1993. At the request of Lord Menuhin, Ali Akbar Khan first visited the United States in 1955 and performed an unprecedented concert at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He also made the first Western LP recording of Indian classical music, and the first television performance of Indian music, on Allistair Cooke's Omnibus, sowing the seed for the wave of popularity of Indian music in the 1960's. Khansahib founded the Ali Akbar College of Music in Calcutta, India, in 1956. Later, recognizing the extraordinary interest and abilities of his Western students, he began teaching in America in 1965. In 1967, he founded the Ali Akbar College of Music, which moved to Marin County, California, the following year. He currently maintains a teaching schedule of 6 classes a week for 9 months of the year. Khansahib also opened a branch of his college in Basel, Switzerland, run by his disciple Ken Zuckerman, where he teaches yearly during his world tour. Ali Akbar Khan continues to tour extensively in Asia, Europe, The Netherlands, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Khansahib has composed and recorded music for films throughout his career. He composed extensively in India beginning with "Aandhiyan" by Chetan Anand (1953) and went on to create music for "House Holder" by Ivry/Merchant (their first film), "Khudita Pashan" (or "Hungry Stone") for which he won the "Best Musician of the Year" award, "Devi" by Satyajit Ray, and, in America, "Little Buddha" by Bernardo Bertolucci. 1997 was a landmark year for Ali Akbar Khan. In February, he was the second recipient to receive the Asian Paints Shiromani Award - Hall of Fame, following filmmaker Satyajit Ray. He celebrated his 75th birthday in April and AACM's 30th anniversary in June. In August, the Indian Embassy requested Khansahib to perform at the United Nations in New York and at Kennedy Center in Washington DC; both performances were in celebration of the 50th year of India's Independence. In September, Ali Akbar Khan was chosen to receive the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. It was presented by Mrs. Hillary Clinton at a ceremony in the White House. When Ali Akbar Khan first received the title of Ustad as a relatively young man, his father merely laughed. But later, when the patriarch was a centenarian, he told his son one day that he was very proud of him: "I am so pleased with your work in music that I will do something which is very rare. As your Guru and father, I am giving you a title, Swara Samrat (Emperor of Melody)." Khansahib feels most fortunate to have received this blessing from his father, mother, and uncle.   CURRENT PRESERVATION ACTIVITIES Ali Akbar Khan and his family, and in particular his father Sri Baba Allauddin Khansahib, have created vast written, recorded, and oral records of music in their tradition known as the Sri Baba Allauddin Seni Gharana of Rampur and Maihar, India. On June 14th 1994, The Ali Akbar Khan Foundation was created in order to fund the Baba Allauddin Institute, a library and archive to preserve and make available these materials to future generations. The oldest reel to reel tapes of performances in the collection have already been preserved on new master tapes. In old times, there were no written records of music notation in India, only the words of the songs. After learning Western classical music notation when he was young, Baba Allauddin Khan created the first written notation of Indian music. He also went on to invent orchestral compositions in classical ragas with harmony, which was new to India. The Institute is currently scanning and printing copies of over 100 composition books of Baba Allauddin Khan which were brought over from his home in Maihar, India. They are simultaneously being transcribed, cataloged and translated into English by one of Khansahib's senior disciples, Smt. Sisirkana Dhar Choudhury. Khansahib's wife, Mary, his sons, Alam and Manik and his secretary, Karuna Davy, are all actively working on the archives. This project alone encompasses over 10,000 compositions from the 16th through the 20th century including; 360 different exercises for voice and instruments, old traditional--and Baba Allauddin's own--compositions in Tantrakaru style, songs in dhrupad style and old taranas, and a great variety of talas (rhythm cycles). All of the materials are quite rare and much of it is in a state of continuous physical deterioration, so financial help is needed urgently if the Institute is to succeed in preserving this music for future generations. Another equally extensive project will be to preserve and transcribe the recordings of Khansahib's own classes at the Ali Akbar College of Music where he has taught for over 33 years, and continues to teach today. In this year 2000, plans are forming to remodel and expand the college building in San Rafael to include a larger performance space, multi-media library and archive storage, offices, and classrooms.   AWARDS, TITLES & RECORDINGS 1955 Released first western LP recording of Indian classical music: Music of India; Morning & Evening Ragas on Angel label First Indian musician to perform on US television: Omnibus with Allistair Cooke 1960 Best Musician of the Year Award for film music - Hungry Stones (Taipan Sinha) Released one album 1962 Released two albums 1963 President of India award, India's highest award for the arts Released one album 1964 Released one album 1965 Released five albums 1966 Performed at Carnegie Hall and Newport Jazz Festival The President of India award, for the second time Released five albums 1967 Released four albums 1968 The Grand Prix du Disque Released two albums 1969 Released four albums 1970 GRAMMY Nomination for Shree Rag Released one album 1971 Montery Jazz Festival Gold Disc award for Concert for Bangladesh sales,recorded at Madison Square Garden Padma Bhusan award from the Government of India Released one album 1972 Released two albums 1973 Degree of Doctor of Literature - Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta, India Released two albums 1974 Degree of Doctor of Literature - University of Dacca, Bangladesh Released threee albums 1977 Released one album 1979 Released one album 1980 Released six albums 1981 Released three albums 1982 Released four albums 1983 GRAMMY Nomination for Misra Piloo Released two albums 1984 Degree of Doctor of Letters - University of Delhi, India Released four albums 1985 Released three albums 1986 Released six albums 1988 Padma Vibhusan award - the highest honor presented to a civilian in India Released one video 1990 Released five albums 1991 Kalidas Sanman award - by the Madya Pradesh Academy of Music and Fine Arts Honorary Doctorate Degree in Arts from the California Institute of the Arts First Indian musician to receive MacArthur Foundation Fellowship ("genius grant") Released one album 1992 The Mahatma Gandhi Cultural Award in London 1993 The Bill Graham Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bay Area Music Awards Foundation (Bammies) Titles: Hathi Saropao and Dowari Tajeem, from Maharaja of Jodhpur 1994 Founded the Ali Akbar Khan Foundation and Baba Allauddin Khan Institute 1995 Released one album 1996 GRAMMY Nomination for Then and Now Released two albums 1997 GRAMMY Nomination for Legacy for 1998 GRAMMY Nomination for Passing on the Tradition Doctorate Degree - Viswa Bharati University in Shantiniketan, India (pioneered and founded by Tagore) Governor's Award for Outstanding Achievement from NARAS (National Academy of Recording Arts and Science) Indira Gandhi Gold Plaque from the Asiatic Society of Calcutta Compositions commissioned - Meet the Composer / Arts Endowment Commissioning Music / USA - and performed by Khansahib's new AACM Orchestra (made up of 40 senior students and guest artists--vocalists and instrumentalists on a variety of Indian and Western instruments), conducted by Khansahib October 18th "Ustad Ali Akbar Khan Day" as proclaimed by Willie L. Brown Jr., Mayor of San Francisco 1999 "Sangeet Samman" title from the Dover Lane Music Conference in Calcutta Appointment: Adjunct Professor to the Department of Music at the University of California at Santa Cruz 2000 Degree of Doctor of Musical Arts, Honoris Causa from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston (in May) Ali Akbar Khan, (born April 14, 1922, Shibpur, Bengal, India [now in Bangladesh]—died June 18, 2009, San Anselmo, Calif., U.S.), composer, virtuoso sarod player, and teacher, active in presenting classical Indian music to Western audiences. Khan’s music is rooted in the Hindustani (northern) tradition of Indian music (see also Hindustani music). Khan was trained by his father, the master Alauddin Khan, and began performing at age 13, soon becoming the court musician to the maharaja of Jodhpur. He remained in that position for seven years, until the death of the maharaja, at which time the state conferred on him the title of master musician (ustad). In 1955 the violinist Yehudi Menuhin invited him to New York City, and thereafter he often performed and recorded in the West, frequently in collaboration with his brother-in-law, the composer and sitarist Ravi Shankar. As a composer, Khan is known for his film scores—notably for Satyajit Ray’s Devi (1960) and the Ismail Merchant–James Ivry production The Householder (1963)—and as the creator of many ragas. Khan was the first Indian musician to record the long, elaborate manifestations of Indian music performances; among his many albums are The Forty-Minute Raga (1968) and Journey (1990). He founded music schools in Kolkata (Calcutta; 1956); San Rafael, Calif. (1967); and Basel, Switz. (1985). In 1991 he received a MacArthur Foundation fellowship. This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen, Corrections Manager. Learn More in these related Britannica articles: Mridanga; in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. South Asian arts: Interaction with Western music as Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Vilayat Khan, Imrat Khan, and Nikhil Banerjee, were received with overwhelming enthusiasm by Western audiences. By about 1970 the sitar and tabla were heard frequently in Western pop music, jazz, cinema, and television programs, as well as in radio and television advertisements.… Hindustani music Hindustani music, one of the two principal types of South Asian classical music, found mainly in the northern three-fourths of the subcontinent, where Indo-Aryan languages are spoken. (The other principal type, Karnatak music, is found in the Dravidian-speaking region of southern India.) The two systems diverged gradually, beginning in the… Menuhin. Yehudi Menuhin, Lord Menuhin of Stoke d'Abernon Yehudi Menuhin, Lord Menuhin of Stoke d’Abernon, one of the leading violin virtuosos of the 20th century. Menuhin grew up in San Francisco, where he studied violin from age four and where… newsletter icon HISTORY AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Sign up here to see what happened On This Day, every day in your inbox! Email address Email address By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Notice. Learn More! Ali Akbar Khan QUICK FACTS BORN April 14, 1922 Shibpur, India DIED June 18, 2009 (aged 87) San Anselmo, California SAROD ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLE Introduction & Quick Facts MEDIA Videos ADDITIONAL INFO More Articles On This Topic Contributors Article History Home Entertainment & Pop Culture Musical Instruments Sarod musical instrument     WRITTEN BY The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... See Article History Sarod, stringed musical instrument of the lute family that is common to the Hindustani music tradition of northern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The modern classical sarod is about 100 cm (39 inches) long and has a slightly waisted wood body with a skin belly. The broad neck has a wide fretless fingerboard covered in metal to accommodate characteristic sliding pitches. The modern version has four to six main melodic strings, plus two to four others; some of the strings may be paired in double courses tuned in unison or at the octave. In addition, there are sympathetic and drone strings. The seated player holds the instrument across his lap. The strings of the sarod are plucked with a plectrum held in the right hand, while the fingernails of the left hand press the strings. Watch a man playing the sarod, a stringed instrument of Hindustani music Watch a man playing the sarod, a stringed instrument of Hindustani music The sarod, one of the principal melodic solo instruments of Hindustani music. Wesleyan University Virtual Instrument Museum (www.wesleyan.edu/music/vim) See all videos for this article The sarod is an adaptation of the Afghan rabab, which arrived in India during the 16th century. The modern form of the instrument was designed in the 19th century. It is one of the most important concert instruments in Hindustani music and is often accompanied by the tabla (drums) and tambura (drone lute). Two prominent Indian schools of sarod playing are those of Ghulam Ali Khan and Allauddin Khan, each with its own playing style, type of sarod (e.g., size, shape, and number of strings vary), and tuning system. This article was most recently revised and updated by Virginia Gorlinski, Associate Editor. Learn More in these related Britannica articles: Mridanga; in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. South Asian arts: North India …version of the sitar; the sarod, a plucked lute without frets and with a shorter neck than that of the sitar; the sarangi, a short-necked bowed lute; the bansuri, a side-blown bamboo flute with six or seven finger holes; the shehnai, a double-reed wind instrument similar to the oboe, but… koto stringed instrument: The production of sound …instruments of Hindustani music, the sarod and the sitar, possess numerous sympathetic strings tuned according to the notes of the mode being played. The South Asian fiddle, sarangi, has some two to three dozen sympathetic strings; the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle (Hardingfele) has four or… European lute lute Lute, in music, any plucked or bowed chordophone whose strings are parallel to its belly, or soundboard, and run along a distinct neck or pole. In this sense, instruments such as the Indian sitar are classified as lutes. The violin and the Indonesian rebab are bowed lutes, and the Japanese… newsletter icon HISTORY AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Sign up here to see what happened On This Day, every day in your inbox! Email address Email address By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Notice. Learn More! Sarod QUICK FACTS KEY PEOPLE Ali Akbar Khan RELATED TOPICS South Asian music Lute family RAGA ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLE Introduction & Quick Facts MEDIA Audio ADDITIONAL INFO Additional Reading More Articles On This Topic Contributors Article History Home Entertainment & Pop Culture Music Theory Raga Indian musical genre     WRITTEN BY Bruno Nettl Emeritus Professor of Music and of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Author of The Study of Ethnomusicology; Folk and Traditional Music of the Western Continents. See Article History Raga , also spelled rag (in northern India) or ragam (in southern India), (from Sanskrit, meaning “colour” or “passion”), in the classical music of India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, a melodic framework for improvisation and composition. A raga is based on a scale with a given set of notes, a typical order in which they appear in melodies, and characteristic musical motifs. The basic components of a raga can be written down in the form of a scale (in some cases differing in ascent and descent). By using only these notes, by emphasizing certain degrees of the scale, and by going from note to note in ways characteristic to the raga, the performer sets out to create a mood or atmosphere (rasa) that is unique to the raga in question. There are several hundred ragas in present use, and thousands are possible in theory. Sheet music from "The Saint Louis Blues" by W.C. Handy, 1914. (St. Louis Blues) BRITANNICA QUIZ Music in the World (Part Three) Quiz From Bob Marley to Luciano Pavarotti, test what you know about music with this quiz. To South Asian musicians, raga is the most important concept in music making, and the classification of ragas plays a major role in Indian music theory. In northern India, ragas are classified according to such characteristics as mood, season, and time; in southern India, ragas are grouped by the technical traits of their scales. The two systems may use different names for similar ragas or the same name for different ragas. Traditionally, ragas were associated with specific times of day and seasons of the year, and they were thought to have supernatural effects such as bringing rain or causing fire. While some of the seasonal associations are maintained by certain musicians, these restrictions are largely ignored in modern concert life, as most public performances take place in the evening and are concentrated in the cooler parts of the year. Nevertheless, in program notes or verbal introductions, musicians often refer to the traditional associations of time and season. A raga performance typically lasts for half an hour or more. It may be entirely improvised, or it may combine improvisation with a memorized composition that also uses only the stipulated tones of the given raga. See also alapa; Karnatak music; Hindustani music. Ali Akbar Khan (14 April 1922 – 18 June 2009) was an Indian Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod. Trained as a classical musician and instrumentalist by his father, Allauddin Khan, he also composed numerous classical ragas and film scores.[1] He established a music school in Calcutta in 1956, and the Ali Akbar College of Music in 1967, which moved with him to the United States and is now based in San Rafael, California, with a branch in Basel, Switzerland. Khan was instrumental in popularizing Indian classical music in the West, both as a performer and as a teacher. He first came to America in 1955 on the invitation of violinist Yehudi Menuhin and later settled in California.[2] He was a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of California, Santa Cruz.[3] Khan was accorded India's second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1989.[4] Nominated five times for the Grammy Award, Khan was also a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship. Contents 1 Childhood and training 2 Career 3 Illness and death 4 Personal life 5 Awards 6 Selected discography 7 References 8 Cited sources 9 External links Childhood and training Ali Akbar Khan was born in the village of Shibpur, Brahmanbaria, in present-day Bangladesh, to renowned musician and teacher, Allauddin Khan and Madina Begum.[5] Soon after his birth, Khan's family returned to Maihar (in present-day Madhya Pradesh, India) where his father was the primary court musician for the Maharaja of the princely state.[6] From an early age Khan received training from his father in various instruments as well as vocal composition, but finally gravitated towards the sarod. Allauddin was a perfectionist and a strict taskmaster, and Khan's lessons started before dawn and often lasted 18 hours a day.[7] Khan also learned to play the tabla and the pakhavaj from his uncle, Aftabuddin Khan, who he visited at Shibpur.[8] During this period he met several prominent musicians, such as the sarodist Timir Baran and flautist Pannalal Ghosh, who came to study with his father; in later years he was joined in his lessons by his sister Annapurna Devi, who became an accomplished player of the surbahar, and fellow student Ravi Shankar. Shankar and Annapurna Devi were married in 1941.[6] Of his training on the sarod, he wrote: If you practice for ten years, you may begin to please yourself, after 20 years you may become a performer and please the audience, after 30 years you may please even your guru, but you must practice for many more years before you finally become a true artist—then you may please even God.[9] Career Khan on a 2014 stamp sheet of India Khan, after years of rigorous training, gave his debut performance at a music conference in Allahabad in 1936, at the age of 13. Three years later, in December 1939, he accompanied Ravi Shankar on the sarod during the latter's debut performance at the same conference; this was the first of many jugalbandis (duets) between the two musicians. In 1938 Khan gave his first recital on All India Radio (AIR), Bombay (accompanied on the tabla by Alla Rakha), and starting in January 1940, he gave monthly performances on AIR, Lucknow. Finally in 1944, both Shankar and Khan left Maihar to start their professional careers as musicians; Shankar went to Bombay, while Khan became the youngest Music Director for AIR, Lucknow, and was responsible for solo performances and composing for the radio orchestra.[7] In 1943, on his father's recommendation, Khan was appointed a court musician for the Maharaja of Jodhpur, Hanwant Singh.[10] There, he taught and composed music besides giving recitals and was accorded the title of Ustad by the Maharaja. When the princely states were wound down with India's independence in 1947 and Hanwant Singh died in a plane crash in 1948, Khan moved to Bombay.[7] In Bombay, he won acclaim as a composer of several film scores, including Chetan Anand's Aandhiyan (1952). Lata Mangeshkar sang the title song, "Har Kahin Pe Shaadmani" and as a token of her respect to sarod maestro, did not charge any fee.[11] This was followed by Satyajit Ray's Devi (1960), Merchant-Ivry's The Householder, and Tapan Sinha's Khudito Pashan ("Hungry Stones", 1960), for which he won the "Best Musician of the Year" award. He also played Sarod for a song in 1955 film Seema which had the music composed by Shankar Jaikishan. Later in 1993, he would score some of the music for Bernardo Bertolucci's Little Buddha.[12] Beginning in 1945, Khan also started recording a series of 78 rpm disks (which could record about three minutes of music) at the HMV Studios in Bombay. For one such record he conceived a new composition Raga Chandranandan ("moonstruck"), based on four evening ragas, Malkauns, Chandrakauns, Nandakauns and Kaushi Kanada. This record was a huge success in India, and the raga found a worldwide audience, when a 22-minute rendition was re-recorded for the Master Musician of India LP in 1965 − one of Khan's seminal recordings.[13] He performed in India and traveled extensively in the West. In 1956, Khan founded the Ali Akbar College of Music in Calcutta, with the mission to teach and spread Indian classical music. He founded another school of the same name in Berkeley, California in 1967 and later moved it to San Rafael, California.[10] Khan performed in Boston with Shankar Ghosh in 1969 for the Peabody Mason Concert series. In 1985 he founded another branch of the Ali Akbar College of Music in Basel, Switzerland. Khan was the first Indian musician to record an LP album of Indian classical music in the United States and to play sarod on American television.[14] Khan has participated in a number of classic jugalbandi pairings, most notably with Ravi Shankar, Nikhil Banerjee and violinist L. Subramaniam. A few recordings of duets with Vilayat Khan also exist. He also collaborated with Western musicians; he taught Grateful Dead drummers Mickey Hart[15] and, by extension, Bill Kreutzmann. In August 1971, Khan performed at Madison Square Garden for the Concert for Bangladesh, along with Ravi Shankar, Alla Rakha and Kamala Chakravarty; other musicians at the concert included George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr. A live album and a movie of the event were later released.[1][10] Illness and death Khan was based in the United States for the last four decades of his life. He toured extensively until he was prevented from doing so by ill health. He had been a dialysis patient since 2004. He died from kidney failure at his home in San Anselmo, California.[16] Personal life Khan married three times (first Zubeida Begum, then Rajdulari Khan Sahiba, and last one Mary Khan), and is survived by eight sons and four daughters. Six of his children and one grandson are musicians: Aashish Khan Debasharma (b 1939, sarod), Dhyanesh Khan (1941–90; sarod), Ameena Perrera (Sitar), Pranesh Khan (tabla), Rajesh Khan (sarod), Alam Khan (b 1982, sarod), Manik Khan (Sarod); and his grandson, Shiraz Ali Khan (sarod). Awards Khan was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1967[17] and the Padma Vibhushan in 1989,[18] among other awards. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1991,[10] the first Indian musician to receive the so-called "genius grant".[16] In 1997, Khan received the National Endowment for the Arts' prestigious National Heritage Fellowship, the United States' highest honour in the traditional arts.[19] Khan received five Grammy nominations over the course of his life.[16] Selected discography With John Handy: Karuna Supreme (MPS, 1976) Rainbow (MPS, 1981) With Ravi Shankar: The Master Musicians of India (Prestige, 1964) Solo Albums: Sound of the Sarod: Recorded in Concert (World Pacific) (recorded in LA, c1962) The Classical Music of India (Prestige, 1964) Bear's Sonic Journals: That Which Colors the Mind (Owsley Stanley Foundation, 2020)[20][21] SAROD The sarod is one of the leading instruments of Hindustani music today. The origin of the sarod like that of the sitar is undocumented and surrounded by ambiguity. Repeated efforts at modifications has brought the instrument to its present state of sophistication. Written and oral evidences suggest that the sarod is an adapted and improved version of the rabab, but since the antecedents of the rabab itself are extremely confused and unclear. The term sarod, meaning song or melody is of Persian origin. Some scholars suggest that the word might also be used to denote some type of musical instrument of the medieval period. However, there is no consensus on this point. According to Allyn Miner, one scholar has suggested that in order to distinguish the Afghani rabab from the Seniya rabab the players of Afghani rabab started calling it sarod. By joining various links it can be concluded that the instrument sarod is an outcome of the combination of the structural characteristics of the Seniya rabab, Afghani rabab and the sursingar. However, if we take into consideration tuning and the technical aspects, which are strikingly similar to the Seniya rabab, one is tempted to contend that the instrument is indigenous. The invention of the sarod is claimed by the descending students of the two Afghani gharanas of sarod players, Niyamatullah Khan's gharana and Gulam Alt Khan's gharana. The modifications introduced by Niyamatullah Khan in the existing sarod during the years 1858-69, as claimed by his son Karamatullah Khan, are documented in his book Israr- i-Karamat urf Naghmat-i-Niyamat and Risala Sitar (1908). The sarod developed till nineteenth century was probably smaller in size and did not have a good tonal quality. S.M. Tagore says that it is somewhat 'hard' and not as sweet sounding as the been, sitar or rabab. According to Ashish Khan, the sarod prevalent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, had a nine inch belly (parchment), its fingerboard was short and narrow and the neck was very thick. The edge of the belly was very sharp. It had a less number of strings, and less sustenance of sound. The tuning was also different." tl_files/glossar/sarod.gif Sarod in our catalogue Twentieth century legendary musician, Allauddin Khan, a student of Wazir Khan and Ahmed Alt credited with the introduction of the modifications and the changes of very significant dimensions which finally made the sarod a full- fledged developed string instrument set ready to conquer the international music scene. The body of the sarod is made of a single block of wood, preferably teak, but tun and sagwan are also used. The body of the instrument can be divided into three parts: the peg box, the fingerboard and the resonator called pyala, which is enclosed with the parched skin. The peg box is almost one foot long and about seven inches in diameter. This part is solid from inside. Tuning pegs of the main playing strings are put on either side. In some sarods a metal resonator is fixed at the bottom of the peg box. The fingerboard is about one-and-a-half feet long. It is hollow from the inside and narrower near the peg box, but gradually becomes broader near the resonator. The finger- board is covered first with a thin, wooden board and then with a thin metal sheet. On the right side of the fingerboard pegs of sympathetic strings are fixed in two rows. The third portion of the sarod is the resonator. This is roundish in shape and is about nine inches in diameter. This portion is covered with a very thin parched goat skin. Upon the middle portion of this resonator a bridge made of bone about three inches long is fixed. It is a thin bridge like that of the violin. The main playing strings rest upon the bridge in their respective grooves, but the sympathetic strings pass through the holes drilled in the bridge. There are mainly two types of sarods — the sarod with six pegs and the one with eight pegs. Both are equally developed but have distinctive features of their own. The type of sarod which has eight main strings and two chikari strings, has a small extra bridge near the upper nut and four drone strings rest upon it. These strings are tuned to the main notes of the raga which is to be played. This type of sarod also has an extra resonator fixed in the bottom of peg box; also it is longer than the other type of sarod. Apart from these characteristics, there is no other major difference in the structure of the sarod of these two varieties. However, the shape of the drum of both the varieties varies a lot and therefore the tonality is also quite different. The sarod, with almost the identical roundish belly of the Seniya rabab, with eight main and two chikari strings and with a longer body as discussed above, is designed by Allauddin Khan along with his instrument-maker brother Ayet Ali Khan. The principal players of this kind of sarod are Ali Akbar Khan, son of Allauddin Khan, and his disciples. In all the other gharanas, the sarod with six pegs is played. The drum of this type of sarod is comparatively small and oval-shaped. Amjad Ali Khan's sarod is of this type. It has six main plus two chikari strings, with a shorter body and eleven to thirteen tarab strings. He uses three fingers of the left hand to play on the sarod with the help of his finger nails. The sarod of Buddhadeo Dasgupta differs slightly from Amjad All's. His drum or resonator is more roundish and has six plus two main strings. Therefore, it can be concluded that these days there are three models of sarods prevalent among the sarod players. Sympathetic strings vary between eleven and fifteen. Their tuning sequence and their gauge also vary from artist to artist. The sarod is played with the help of a- plectrum held in the right hand by means of two fingers and thumb. This plectrum is called 'jawa' and is made of coconut shell. Formerly a plectrum made of wire was used, which was not good enough. After many experiments with various materials such as horn, stone, etc., it was found that the coconut shell is the best. Indian classical music is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent.[1] It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as Hindustani and the South Indian expression known as Carnatic.[2] These traditions were not distinct until about the 15th century. During the period of Mughal rule of the Indian subcontinent, the traditions separated and evolved into distinct forms. Hindustani music emphasizes improvisation and exploration of all aspects of a raga, while Carnatic performances tend to be short composition-based.[2] However, the two systems continue to have more common features than differences.[3] The roots of the classical music of India are found in the Vedic literature of Hinduism and the ancient Natyashastra, the classic Sanskrit text on performing arts by Bharata Muni.[4][5] The 13th century Sanskrit text Sangeeta-Ratnakara of Sarangadeva is regarded as the definitive text by both the Hindustani music and the Carnatic music traditions.[6][7] Indian classical music has two foundational elements, raga and tala. The raga, based on a varied repertoire of swara (notes including microtones), forms the fabric of a deeply intricate melodic structure, while the tala measures the time cycle.[8] The raga gives an artist a palette to build the melody from sounds, while the tala provides them with a creative framework for rhythmic improvisation using time.[9][10][11] In Indian classical music the space between the notes is often more important than the notes themselves, and it traditionally eschews Western classical concepts such as harmony, counterpoint, chords, or modulation.[12][13][14] Contents 1 History 1.1 Texts 2 Major traditions 2.1 Carnatic music 2.2 Hindustani music 2.2.1 Persian and Arab influences 3 Features 3.1 Raga 3.2 Tala 3.3 Instruments 3.4 Notation system 4 Reception outside India 5 Organizations 6 See also 7 References 7.1 Bibliography 8 External links History The root of music in ancient India are found in the Vedic literature of Hinduism. The earliest Indian thought combined three arts, syllabic recital (vadya), melos (gita) and dance (nrtta).[15] As these fields developed, sangeeta became a distinct genre of art, in a form equivalent to contemporary music. This likely occurred before the time of Yāska (c. 500 BCE), since he includes these terms in his nirukta studies, one of the six Vedanga of ancient Indian tradition. Some of the ancient texts of Hinduism such as the Samaveda (c. 1000 BCE) are structured entirely to melodic themes,[16][17] it is sections of Rigveda set to music.[18] The Samaveda is organized into two formats. One part is based on the musical meter, another by the aim of the rituals.[19] The text is written with embedded coding, where swaras (octave notes) are either shown above or within the text, or the verse is written into parvans (knot or member); in simple words, this embedded code of swaras is like the skeleton of the song. The swaras have about 12 different forms and different combinations of these swaras are made to sit under the names of different ragas. The specific code of a song clearly tells us what combination of swaras are present in a specific song. The lyrical part of the song is called "sahityam" and sahityam is just like singing the swaras altogether but using the lyrics of the song. The code in the form of swaras have even the notation of which note to be sung high and which one low. The hymns of Samaveda contain melodic content, form, rhythm and metric organization.[19] This structure is, however, not unique or limited to Samaveda. The Rigveda embeds the musical meter too, without the kind of elaboration found in the Samaveda. For example, the Gayatri mantra contains three metric lines of exactly eight syllables, with an embedded ternary rhythm.[20] Five Gandharvas (celestial musicians) from 4th–5th century CE, northwest South Asia, carrying the four types of musical instruments. Gandharvas are discussed in Vedic era literature.[21] In the ancient traditions of Hinduism, two musical genre appeared, namely Gandharva (formal, composed, ceremonial music) and Gana (informal, improvised, entertainment music).[22] The Gandharva music also implied celestial, divine associations, while the Gana also implied singing.[22] The Vedic Sanskrit musical tradition had spread widely in the Indian subcontinent, and according to Rowell, the ancient Tamil classics make it "abundantly clear that a cultivated musical tradition existed in South India as early as the last few pre-Christian centuries".[23] The classic Sanskrit text Natya Shastra is at the foundation of the numerous classical music and dance traditions of India. Before Natyashastra was finalized, the ancient Indian traditions had classified musical instruments into four groups based on their acoustic principle (how they work, rather than the material they are made of) for example flute which works with gracious in and out flow of air.[24] These four categories are accepted as given and are four separate chapters in the Natyashastra, one each on stringed instruments (chordophones), hollow instruments (aerophones), solid instruments (idiophones), and covered instruments (membranophones).[24] Of these, states Rowell, the idiophone in the form of "small bronze cymbals" were used for tala. Almost the entire chapter of Natyashastra on idiophones, by Bharata, is a theoretical treatise on the system of tala.[25] Time keeping with idiophones was considered a separate function than that of percussion (membranophones), in the early Indian thought on music theory.[25] The early 13th century Sanskrit text Sangitaratnakara (literally, "Ocean of Music and Dance"), by Sarngadeva patronized by King Sighana of the Yadava dynasty in Maharashtra, mentions and discusses ragas and talas.[26] He identifies seven tala families, then subdivides them into rhythmic ratios, presenting a methodology for improvization and composition that continues to inspire modern era Indian musicians.[27] Sangitaratnakara is one of the most complete historic medieval era Hindu treatises on this subject that has survived into the modern era, that relates to the structure, technique and reasoning behind ragas and talas.[28][27] The centrality and significance of music in ancient and early medieval India is also expressed in numerous temple and shrine reliefs, in Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, such as through the carving of musicians with cymbals at the fifth century Pavaya temple sculpture near Gwalior,[29] and the Ellora Caves.[30][31] Texts The post-Vedic era historical literature relating to Indian classical music has been extensive. The ancient and medieval texts are primarily in Sanskrit (Hinduism), but major reviews of music theory, instruments and practice were also composed in regional languages such as Braj, Kannada, Odia, Pali (Buddhism), Prakrit (Jainism), Tamil and Telugu.[32] While numerous manuscripts have survived into the modern era, many original works on Indian music are believed to be lost, and are known to have existed only because they are quoted and discussed in other manuscripts on classical Indian music.[32][33] Many of the encyclopedic Puranas contain large chapters on music theory and instruments, such as the Bhagavata Purana, the Markandeya Purana, the Vayu Purana, the Linga Purana, and the Visnudharmottara Purana.[34][35][36] The most cited and influential among these texts are the Sama Veda, Natya shastra (classic treatise on music theory, Gandharva), Dattilam, Brihaddesi (treatise on regional classical music forms), and Sangita Ratnakara (definitive text for Carnatic and Hindustani traditions).[6][32][37] Most historic music theory texts have been by Hindu scholars. Some classical music texts were also composed by Buddhists and Jain scholars, and in 16th century by Muslim scholars. These are listed in the attached table. Classical Indian music texts[32] Major traditions Indian classical music performances The classical music tradition of the ancient and medieval Indian subcontinent (modern Bangladesh, India, Pakistan) were a generally integrated system through the 14th century, after which the socio-political turmoil of the Delhi Sultanate era isolated the north from the south. The music traditions of the North and South India were not considered distinct until about the 16th century, but after that the traditions acquired distinct forms.[2] North Indian classical music is called Hindustani, while the South Indian expression is called Carnatic (sometimes spelled as Karnatic). According to Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy, the North Indian tradition acquired its modern form after the 14th or the 15th century.[41] Indian classical music has historically adopted and evolved with many regional styles, such as the Bengali classical tradition. This openness to ideas led to assimilation of regional folk innovations, as well as influences that arrived from outside the subcontinent. For example, Hindustani music assimilated Arabian and Persian influences.[42] This assimilation of ideas was upon the ancient classical foundations such as raga, tala, matras as well as the musical instruments. For example, the Persian Rāk is probably a pronunciation of Raga. According to Hormoz Farhat, Rāk has no meaning in modern Persian language, and the concept of raga is unknown in Persia.[43] Carnatic music Main article: Carnatic Music Purandara Dasa (1484–1564) was a Hindu composer and musicologist who lived in Hampi of the Vijayanagara Empire.[44][45] He is considered Pithamaha (literally, "grandfather") of the Carnatic music. Purandara Dasa was a monk and a devotee of the Hindu god Krishna (Vishnu, Vittal avatar).[44] He systematised classical Indian music theory and developed exercises for musicians to learn and perfect their art. He travelled widely sharing and teaching his ideas, and influenced numerous South Indian and Maharashtra Bhakti movement musicians.[46] These exercises, his teachings about raga, and his systematic methodology called Suladi Sapta Tala (literally, "primordial seven talas") remains in use in contemporary times.[45][47] The efforts of Purandara Dasa in the 16th century began the Carnatic style of Indian classical music.[46] Saraswati is the goddess of music and knowledge in the Indian tradition. Carnatic music, from South India, tends to be more rhythmically intensive and structured than Hindustani music. Examples of this are the logical classification of ragas into melakartas, and the use of fixed compositions similar to Western classical music. Carnatic raga elaborations are generally much faster in tempo and shorter than their equivalents in Hindustani music. In addition, accompanists have a much larger role in Carnatic concerts than in Hindustani concerts. Today's typical concert structure was put in place by the vocalist Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar. The opening piece is called a varnam, and is a warm-up for the musicians. A devotion and a request for a blessing follows, then a series of interchanges between ragams (unmetered melody) and Tanam (the ornamentation within a melorhythmic cycle, equivalent to the jor). This is intermixed with hymns called krithis. The pallavi or theme from the raga then follows. Carnatic pieces also have notated lyrical poems that are reproduced as such, possibly with embellishments and treatments according to the performer's ideology, referred to as Manodharmam.[citation needed] Primary themes include worship, descriptions of temples, philosophy, and nayaka-nayika (Sanskrit "hero-heroine") themes. Tyagaraja (1759–1847), Muthuswami Dikshitar (1776–1827) and Syama Sastri (1762–1827) have been the important historic scholars of Carnatic music. According to Eleanor Zelliot, Tyagaraja is known in the Carnatic tradition as one of its greatest composers, and he reverentially acknowledged the influence of Purandara Dasa.[46] A common belief in South India is that Carnatic music represents a more ancient approach to classical music, whereas Hindustani music has evolved by external influences.[48] Hindustani music Main article: Hindustani classical music The 16th century musician Tansen, who about the age of 60 joined the Mughal Akbar court. For many Hindustani music gharanas (schools), he is their founder. It is unclear when the process of differentiation of Hindustani music started. The process may have started in the 14th century courts of the Delhi Sultans. However, according to Jairazbhoy, the North Indian tradition likely acquired its modern form after the 14th or after the 15th century.[49] The development of Hindustani music reached a peak during the reign of Akbar. During this 16th century period, Tansen studied music and introduced musical innovations, for about the first sixty years of his life with patronage of the Hindu king Ram Chand of Gwalior, and thereafter performed at the Muslim court of Akbar.[50][51] Many musicians consider Tansen as the founder of Hindustani music.[52] Tansen's style and innovations inspired many, and many modern gharanas (Hindustani music teaching houses) link themselves to his lineage.[53] The Muslim courts discouraged Sanskrit, and encouraged technical music. Such constraints led Hindustani music to evolve in a different way than Carnatic music.[53][54] Hindustani music style is mainly found in North India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It exists in four major forms: Dhrupad, Khyal (or Khayal), Tarana, and the semi-classical Thumri.[55] Dhrupad is ancient, Khyal evolved from it, Thumri evolved from Khyal.[56] There are three major schools of Thumri: Lucknow gharana, Banaras gharana and Punjabi gharana. These weave in folk music innovations.[55] Tappa is the most folksy, one which likely existed in Rajasthan and Punjab region before it was systematized and integrated into classical music structure. It became popular, with the Bengali musicians developing their own Tappa.[57] Khyal is the modern form of Hindustani music, and the term literally means "imagination". It is significant because it was the template for Sufi musicians among the Islamic community of India, and Qawwals sang their folk songs in the Khyal format.[58] Dhrupad (or Dhruvapad), the ancient form described in the Hindu text Natyashastra,[59] is one of the core forms of classical music found all over the Indian subcontinent. The word comes from Dhruva which means immovable and permanent.[60][56] A Dhrupad has at least four stanzas, called Sthayi (or Asthayi), Antara, Sanchari and Abhoga. The Sthayi part is a melody that uses the middle octave's first tetrachord and the lower octave notes.[56] The Antara part uses the middle octave's second tetrachord and the higher octave notes.[56] The Sanchari part is the development phase, which builds using parts of Sthayi and Antara already played, and it uses melodic material built with all the three octave notes.[56] The Abhoga is the concluding section, that brings the listener back to the familiar starting point of Sthayi, albeit with rhythmic variations, with diminished notes like a gentle goodbye, that are ideally mathematical fractions such as dagun (half), tigun (third) or chaugun (fourth).[61] Sometimes a fifth stanza called Bhoga is included. Though usually related to philosophical or Bhakti (emotional devotion to a god or goddess) themes, some Dhrupads were composed to praise kings.[60][61] Improvisation is of central importance to Hindustani music, and each gharana (school tradition) has developed its own techniques. At its core, it starts with a standard composition (bandish), then expands it in a process called vistar. The improvisation methods have ancient roots, and one of the more common techniques is called Alap, which is followed by the Jor and Jhala. The Alap explores possible tonal combinations among other things, Jor explores speed or tempo (faster), while Jhala explores complex combinations like a fishnet of strokes while keeping the beat patterns.[62] As with Carnatic music, Hindustani music has assimilated various folk tunes. For example, ragas such as Kafi and Jaijaiwanti are based on folk tunes.[citation needed] Persian and Arab influences Hindustani music has had Arab and Persian music influences, including the creation of new ragas and the development of instruments such as the sitar and sarod.[42] The nature of these influences are unclear. Scholars have attempted to study Arabic maqam (also spelled makam) of Arabian peninsula, Turkey and northern Africa, and dastgah of Iran, to discern the nature and extent.[63][64] Through the colonial era and until the 1960s, the attempt was to theoretically study ragas and maqams and suggested commonalities. Later comparative musicology studies, states Bruno Nettl – a professor of Music, have found the similarities between classical Indian music and European music as well, raising the question about the point of similarities and of departures between the different world music systems.[63][64] One of the earliest known discussions of Persian maqam and Indian ragas is by the late 16th century scholar Pundarika Vittala. He states that Persian maqams in use in his times had been derived from older Indian ragas (or mela), and he specifically maps over a dozen maqam. For example, Vittala states that the Hijaz maqam was derived from the Asaveri raga, and Jangula was derived from the Bangal.[65][66] In 1941, Haidar Rizvi questioned this and stated that influence was in the other direction, Middle Eastern maqams were turned into Indian ragas, such as Zangulah maqam becoming Jangla raga.[67] According to John Baily – a professor of Ethnomusicology, there is evidence that the traffic of musical ideas were both ways, because Persian records confirm that Indian musicians were a part of the Qajar court in Tehran,[68] an interaction that continued through the 20th century with import of Indian musical instruments in cities such as Herat near Afghanistan-Iran border.[69] Features Indian classical music performances Classical Indian music is a genre of South Asian music, the other being film, various varieties of pop, regional folk, religious and devotional music.[1] In Indian classical music, the raga and the tala are two foundational elements. The raga forms the fabric of a melodic structure, and the tala keeps the time cycle.[8] Both raga and tala are open frameworks for creativity and allow a very large number of possibilities, however, the tradition considers a few hundred ragas and talas as basic.[70] Raga is intimately related to tala or guidance about "division of time", with each unit called a matra (beat, and duration between beats).[71] Raga Main article: Raga A raga is a central concept of Indian music, predominant in its expression. According to Walter Kaufmann, though a remarkable and prominent feature of Indian music, a definition of raga cannot be offered in one or two sentences.[72] Raga may be roughly described as a musical entity that includes note intonation, relative duration and order, in a manner similar to how words flexibly form phrases to create an atmosphere of expression.[73] In some cases, certain rules are considered obligatory, in others optional. The raga allows flexibility, where the artist may rely on simple expression, or may add ornamentations yet express the same essential message but evoke a different intensity of mood.[73] A raga has a given set of notes, on a scale, ordered in melodies with musical motifs.[9] A musician playing a raga, states Bruno Nettl, may traditionally use just these notes, but is free to emphasize or improvise certain degrees of the scale.[9] The Indian tradition suggests a certain sequencing of how the musician moves from note to note for each raga, in order for the performance to create a rasa (mood, atmosphere, essence, inner feeling) that is unique to each raga. A raga can be written on a scale. Theoretically, thousands of raga are possible given 5 or more notes, but in practical use, the classical Indian tradition has refined and typically relies on several hundred.[9] For most artists, their basic perfected repertoire has some forty to fifty ragas.[74] Raga in Indian classical music is intimately related to tala or guidance about "division of time", with each unit called a matra (beat, and duration between beats).[71] A raga is not a tune, because the same raga can yield a very large number of tunes.[75] A raga is not a scale, because many ragas can be based on the same scale.[75][76] A raga, states Bruno Nettl and other music scholars, is a concept similar to mode, something between the domains of tune and scale, and it is best conceptualized as a "unique array of melodic features, mapped to and organized for a unique aesthetic sentiment in the listener".[75] The goal of a raga and its artist is to create rasa (essence, feeling, atmosphere) with music, as classical Indian dance does with performance arts. In the Indian tradition, classical dances are performed with music set to various ragas.[77] Tala Main article: Tala (music) According to David Nelson – an Ethnomusicology scholar specializing in Carnatic music, a tala in Indian music covers "the whole subject of musical meter".[78] Indian music is composed and performed in a metrical framework, a structure of beats that is a tala. A tala measures musical time in Indian music. However, it does not imply a regular repeating accent pattern, instead its hierarchical arrangement depends on how the musical piece is supposed to be performed.[78] The tala forms the metrical structure that repeats, in a cyclical harmony, from the start to end of any particular song or dance segment, making it conceptually analogous to meters in Western music.[78] However, talas have certain qualitative features that classical European musical meters do not. For example, some talas are much longer than any classical Western meter, such as a framework based on 29 beats whose cycle takes about 45 seconds to complete when performed. Another sophistication in talas is the lack of "strong, weak" beat composition typical of the traditional European meter. In classical Indian traditions, the tala is not restricted to permutations of strong and weak beats, but its flexibility permits the accent of a beat to be decided by the shape of musical phrase.[78] The most widely used tala in the South Indian system is adi tala.[79] In the North Indian system, the most common tala is teental.[80] In the two major systems of classical Indian music, the first count of any tala is called sam.[80] Instruments Main articles: Indian musical instruments and Vadya Veena Flute Tabla (drums) Cymbals Musical instrument types mentioned in the Natyashastra.[81][24] Instruments typically used in Hindustani music include the sitar, sarod, surbahar, esraj, veena, tanpura, bansuri, shehnai, sarangi, violin, santoor, pakhavaj and tabla. Instruments typically used in Carnatic music include veena, venu, gottuvadyam, harmonium, mridangam, kanjira, ghatam, nadaswaram and violin.[citation needed] Players of the tabla, a type of drum, usually keep the rhythm, an indicator of time in Hindustani music. Another common instrument is the stringed tanpura, which is played at a steady tone (a drone) throughout the performance of the raga, and which provides both a point of reference for the musician and a background against which the music stands out. The tuning of the tanpura depends on the raga being performed. The task of playing the tanpura traditionally falls to a student of the soloist. Other instruments for accompaniment include the sarangi and the harmonium.[citation needed] Notation system Indian classical music is both elaborate and expressive. Like Western classical music, it divides the octave into 12 semitones of which the 7 basic notes are, in ascending tonal order, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni for Hindustani music and Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni for Carnatic music, similar to Western music's Do Re Mi Fa So La Si . However, Indian music uses just-intonation tuning, unlike some modern Western classical music, which uses the equal-temperament tuning system. Also, unlike modern Western classical music, Indian classical music places great emphasis on improvisation.[citation needed] The underlying scale may have four, five, six or seven tones, called swaras (sometimes spelled as svaras). The swara concept is found in the ancient Natya Shastra in Chapter 28. It calls the unit of tonal measurement or audible unit as Śhruti,[82] with verse 28.21 introducing the musical scale as follows,[83] तत्र स्वराः – षड्‍जश्‍च ऋषभश्‍चैव गान्धारो मध्यमस्तथा । पञ्‍चमो धैवतश्‍चैव सप्तमोऽथ निषादवान् ॥ २१॥ — Natya Shastra, 28.21[84][85] These seven degrees are shared by both major raga systems, that is the North Indian (Hindustani) and South Indian (Carnatic) systems.[86] The solfege (sargam) is learnt in abbreviated form: sa, ri (Carnatic) or re (Hindustani), ga, ma, pa, dha, ni, sa. Of these, the first that is "sa", and the fifth that is "pa", are considered anchors that are unalterable, while the remaining have flavors that differs between the two major systems.[86] Contemporary Indian music schools follow notations and classifications (see melakarta and thaat). These are generally based on a flawed but still useful notation system created by Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande.[citation needed] Reception outside India According to Yukteshwar Kumar, elements of Indian music arrived in China in the 3rd century, such as in the works of Chinese lyricist Li Yannian. [87] In 1958, Ravi Shankar came to the US and started making albums. These started a 1960s penchant for Indian classical music in the States. By 1967 Shankar and other artists were performing at rock music festivals alongside Western rock, blues, and soul acts. This lasted until the mid-1970s. Ravi Shankar performed at Woodstock for an audience of over 500,000 in 1969. In the 1980s, 1990s and particularly the 2000s onwards, Indian Classical Music has seen rapid growth in reception and development around the globe, particularly in North America, where immigrant communities have preserved and passed on classical music traditions to subsequent generations through the establishment of local festivals and music schools.[88] Numerous musicians of American origin, including Ramakrishnan Murthy, Sandeep Narayan, Abby V, and Mahesh Kale have taken professionally to Indian Classical Music with great success. In his 2020 released video, Canadian singer Abby V demonstrated 73 different Indian Classical ragas in a live rendering, which went viral on the internet; further establishing the growing prominence of Indian Classical Music around the globe. [89] Organizations SPIC MACAY, established in 1977, has more than 500 chapters in India and abroad. SPIC MACAY claims to hold around 5000 events every year related to Indian classical music and dance.[90] Prayag Sangeet Samiti is also a well established organizastion promoting Indian Classical Music. See also

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