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Cyclic Time in Indian Art Music.Pdf

Cyclic Time in Indian Art Music.Pdf

JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY journal of the

The Journal of the Indian Musicological Society, founded in 1970, is dedicated to promoting the study and research of music from the South Asian indian musicological society subcontinent, including folk music and dance. Apart from the Journal, the Society publishes Editors: books and organises seminars, exhibitions, and Wim van der Meer Suvarnalata Rao lectures. Wouter Capitain VOL. 41 • 2011-2012 • 41 VOL.

INDIAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY VOLUME 41 • 2011-2012 • Oricon House - 2nd Floor - 12 K Dubash Marg - Mumbai 400 023 / INDIA Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under Regd. R.N. 20468/71 Indian Musicological Society, ESTABLISHED in other cultural performances, exhibitions, concerts PUBLICATIONS OF THE INDIAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY November 1970, is a body, registered under the or lectures as are likely to promote the aims and All prices subject to revision Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860, holding objectives of the “Society”. State Registration No. Bom, 21/1971 01. Journal of the Indian Musicological Society : Annual : volume 33 : 2002 : Jan- Dec. GBBSD Dated 18.1.1971. It is also registered as a MEMBERSHIP: is open to teh citizens of all Subscription : India : Institutions : Rs. 100 / Individuals : Rs. 60.00. 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Wim van der Meer (chief editor) Suvarnalata Rao (assistant editor) Wouter Capitain (layout)

VOLUME 41 • 2011-2012 • MUMBAI INDIA ISSN 0251-012X

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ii Preface This issue is the combined 2011-2012 edition of the Journal of the Indian Musicological Society. We dedicate this volume to the memory of Dr. Ashok Da Ranade (b. 1937), an eminent ethnomusicologist, who passed away on July 30, 2011 in Mumbai. His path-breaking thoughts and volume of works in the area of not only music but also theatre & film are indeed overwhelming. Dr. Ranade has also been one of the Founding members of the Indian Musicological Society, We feel the great void created by his demise and miss his scholarly presence, guidance, support and advice. This volume is our humble offering to the memory of this great son of India. We would also like to share with our readers that this is the last issue edited by the present team of editors. In 2006, we took the baton from the Founding Editor, Prof. R. C. Mehta and brought out five volumes (36-41). The journey has been richly rewarding and personally gratifying. In some measure we have been able to improve the standard of contributions and also the level of general presentation, lay out etc. Given the amount of interest and level of scholarship in Indian music worldwide, we tried to expand the canvas and give it an international color, both from the perspective of contributions and readers. We take this opportunity to thank all the friends who supported us in this endeavor, and hope that they will continue to support with equal enthusiasm the future activities of the Society, including the Journal. Volume 41 offers scholarly articles, essays, talks and panel discussions on various topics covering a large ground from cross-cultural musical interactions & influences, philosophical issues to organizational aspects. As usual, respecting the choice of the authors, we have done only light editing. Though we try to maintain uniformity on the level of language and formatting, we have left many choices to the authors. The first three papers highlight the aspect of interculturalism with respect to music. Durga Bor provides an interesting account of contributions made by several non-Indians towards popularizing the dance form of . She juxtaposes this with the changes she has personally experienced as a practitioner of the dance form over three decades. Notwithstanding the Indian origin of , today, it is played by drummers from various cultural, ethnic, religious and socio-economic backgrounds. Denise Nuttall takes a look at the globally changing ethnoscape of the iii Hindustani tabla communities and its emergence along with the Hindustani music as part of a larger movement or category of world music. Based on a case study of a musical form, nottuswara sahithya, composed by the legendary composer Muthuswami Dikshitar in the early 19th century, S A K Durga convincingly argues that the concept of interculturalism is found in all musics of the world and Indian music is no exception. The next two papers study the relations between music, culture and the society which surrounds it. They observe that music is only a part of the cultural change and cannot be kept in isolation and preserved as it was; the people involved are reinventing themselves. While Simonne Bailey looks at the changes from a perspective of a shawm player in Bhaktapur, Nepal, Wim van der Meer examines the classical music of North India. Whereas Bailey outlines changes in terms of “development” and “deterioration”, van der Meer points to the significance of such changes in keeping the music alive and not “frozen” as in in some other traditions of the world. Subroto Roy engages in a philosophical enquiry with a hypothesis; Avartan is both the physical and phenomenal property of North Indian art music and therefore, we can say that it considerably contributes to creativity in khayal, a popular North Indian vocal music genre. Huib Schippers’ article offers details of “Sustainable futures for music cultures – Toward an ecology of musical diversity”, which is a long-term collaborative project between six universities and three NGOs, funded by the Australia Research Council to develop an instrument to empower communities to forge musical futures on their own terms. Primarily directed at traditions in acute danger, it also looks at successful traditions (like Hindustani music) to find mechanisms that support a vibrant music culture. Interrelations between India and is an area which is extremely significant, and yet, we find not much research work happening perhaps due to the languages and other cultural factors involved. Dilorom Karomat observes that music had a pivotal role to play in the inter-relations between these two civilisations, and interestingly the cultural exchanges date back to the time before Islam’s entry in to India. She argues that such exchanges continued at least until the 20th century. We are privileged to present to our readers one of the last expose by the Late Dr. Ashok Ranade. This paper was meant to set the pitch for the seminar on “Approaches to Melody, Rhythm and Language”, which was also

iv organized by the ITC-SRA (w) in Jan 2011. Ranade maintains that these fundamental concepts are common to all the music traditions across different cultures, although perception of the same may vary depending upon the cultural group involved, genres & their usage and employment. The next paper by Amelia Cuni presents a practitioner’s attempt at recreating a musical work. Inspired by John Cage’s SOLO for VOICE 58, she discusses the salient aspects of her engagement with the Cagean and describes the practical realisation of its intricate modalities and remarkable challenges. Indian music is regarded as a very traditional art. Several values and tenets have been evolved over the centuries, which have been followed scrupulously by practitioners of Indian music. In recent times, various intellectuals and practicing musicians have thought it essential and useful to review such prescriptions as it was felt that many of the disciplines meticulously evolved are occasionally not followed in actual music performances. With this background, in January 2010, ITC-SRA (w) organised a seminar on the subject of “New Trends in Indian Music since Independence”. The seminar brought together prominent vocalists, instrumentalists and musicologists from both the north and the south Indian traditions as well as from overseas. Great maestros like and contributed actively to the discussions. We have included only a selection from the proceedings; the full text can be obtained by sending a mail to the publisher of the JIMS (see p. ii). Dr. Ranade led the panel on vocal music in the session on “Changing Aesthetic Norms”. The panelists were three vocalists: , and Uday Bhawalkar, representing Hindustani (khayal), Carnatic and Hindustani (dhrupad) traditions respectively. The discussions centered round the role and characteristics of Indian voices, possibility of classifying them, and the assessment of any change in the use of voice. A similar session followed with respect to instrumental music. Arvind Parikh moderated the panel comprising of maestro Shivkumar Sharma, chitravina expert N. Ravikiran, tabla exponent Aneesh Pradhan and Prof. Joep Bor, a historian and expert on the subject of . Primarily, two areas were covered: changes made to the physical structure of instruments and those related to the stylistic aspect. The panel also took cognisance of the emerging technology and its effect on music at large, and the current trend of cross-cultural musical collaborations. Interestingly, the musicians

v welcomed the idea of North-South exchange and possibility of learning from each other’s system. Some part of the discussion was specifically devoted to the tabla: its vocabulary and tonal quality, art of playing solo vis-à-vis accompaniment and percussion ensembles. Organisation of music events and cultural institutions/organisations engaged in this activity form a core of music life in any culture. K. Ganesh Kumar conducted a panel having representatives of various prominent cultural organisations, mainly in Mumbai but also in . The deliberations centered round the facilities provided by the organisations and issues related to government, audiences and many more. It was clear that although there are areas in which these organizations could aspire to achieve higher levels, there is no doubt that they are rendering relentless service to the cultural life of the respective cities. Audiences surely constitute the most important component of any musical activity, either live or virtual. Keshav Paranjpe engaged three panelists representing a cross-section of audiences in to a debate. The objective was to understand their views about the influence of media coverage, corporate sponsorship, marketing strategies, stage-craftsmanship etc in today’s music scene. There was also some discussion about the dwindling audiences for the classical music events. While on one hand musicians and audiences lament about the “decline” of classical music, there seems to be growing interest amongst both practitioners and audiences, especially the younger generation of artistes and audiences, to experiment with timbres, rhythms, voices and instruments that are hitherto unexplored. The panel on Fusion music moderated by Dr. Aneesh Pradhan aroused a lively discussion from the eminent panelists including Zakir Hussain, Louiz Banks, , Arvind Parikh and Aruna Sairam. Most panelists have had a first hand experience with cross-over music and could provide a glimpse in to their personal journey. It was interesting to hear that they consider this genre as “still evolving” and hence having a lot of scope for further experimenting. Wim van der Meer & Suvarnalata Rao

vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Tribute to Dr. Ashok Da Ranade Audience Response 216 Suvarnalata Rao 1 Fusion Music 237 Transformations of Indian Dance – An Odissi Odyssey Durga Bor 3 Contributors 256

Tracking the Intercultural Borders, Fusions, Traditions and the Global Art of Tabla Denise Nuttall 16

Western Influence on Indian Music – Nottuswara Sahithya of Muthuswami Dikshitar: An Intercultural Musical Form S.A.K. Durga 31

Music and Change – Shawm Playing in Bhaktapur Nepal Simonne Bailey 36

Cultural Evolution – A Case Study of Indian Music Wim van der Meer 53

Cyclic Time in Indian Art Music & Creativity Subroto Roy 72

Towards an Ecology of Hindustani Music Huib Schippers 95

Some Aspects of Musical Interrelations Between India and Central Asia Dilorom Karomat 100

Melody, Rhythm and Text Ashok Ranade 122

Chance Generated Ragas in Solo for Voice 58: A Dhrupad Singer Performs John Cage Amelia Cuni 127

Selected Panels from the SRA Conference January 2010, Mumbai Changing Aesthetic Norms : Vocal Music – Role of Voice 155

Changing Aesthetic Norms : Instrumental Music – Role of Instruments 173

Changes in Organizational Aspects Cultural Institutions/Organizations 194

vii Tribute to Dr. Ashok Da Ranade Audience Response 216 Suvarnalata Rao 1 Fusion Music 237 Transformations of Indian Dance – An Odissi Odyssey Durga Bor 3 Contributors 256

Tracking the Intercultural Borders, Fusions, Traditions and the Global Art of Tabla Denise Nuttall 16

Western Influence on Indian Music – Nottuswara Sahithya of Muthuswami Dikshitar: An Intercultural Musical Form S.A.K. Durga 31

Music and Change – Shawm Playing in Bhaktapur Nepal Simonne Bailey 36

Cultural Evolution – A Case Study of Indian Music Wim van der Meer 53

Cyclic Time in Indian Art Music & Creativity Subroto Roy 72

Towards an Ecology of Hindustani Music Huib Schippers 95

Some Aspects of Musical Interrelations Between India and Central Asia Dilorom Karomat 100

Melody, Rhythm and Text Ashok Ranade 122

Chance Generated Ragas in Solo for Voice 58: A Dhrupad Singer Performs John Cage Amelia Cuni 127

Selected Panels from the SRA Conference January 2010, Mumbai Changing Aesthetic Norms : Vocal Music – Role of Voice 155

Changing Aesthetic Norms : Instrumental Music – Role of Instruments 173

Changes in Organizational Aspects Cultural Institutions/Organizations 194

viii Tribute to Dr. Ashok Da Ranade (October 25, 1937 - July 30, 2011) Suvarnalata Rao

“Indian music is not classical music.” “All Indian culture is governed by its response to the three cycles of birth- death, day-night and the seasons.” The genius who offered such profound—and, at times even radical— formulations is no more. Dr. Ashok Da Ranade, the voice that spoke about music, theatre and literature with equal authority and conviction is silent forever. How do we come to terms with the untimely departure of a multifaceted and immensely passionate individual who almost single-handedly led the academic scene of Indian music and theatre for over four decades, and gave it a direction that it deserved in independent India? Where do researchers look for critique and guidance now, be it in the areas of literature, musicology, theatre or films? Dr. Ranade’s journey began with music—with a firm determination to study it, yet never to pursue it as a profession to earn a livelihood, lest he compromises on his principles. Trained with several stalwarts of different styles including Prahlad Ganu, Gajananrao Joshi, Laxmanrao Bodas and Prof. B. R. Deodhar, unlike his mentors, he had an exceptionally eclectic approach to music and to life itself. With a deep interest and expertise in subjects as wide-ranging as literature, sociology, economics, law, psychology, history and religion, Dr. Ranade believed in a holistic approach to study music. His pioneering contribution in the areas of art, folk and film music, theatre documentation and voice production is indeed stupendous. His writings in English as well as in Marathi on various topics were significant in bringing together the performing and scholastic streams, which otherwise tend to assume isolated positions in the domain of Indian performing arts. No wonder, he consistently maintained that performers themselves must strive to articulate concepts they theorise instead of leaving the task to theoreticians. As a champion of ethnomusicology, Dr. Ranade redefined Indian music with his thought-provoking categorisation of the huge palette of performing traditions available in India. It was his lifelong mission to break down the

1 preconceived hierarchies and barriers that exist within musical categories and genres. With the unbiased mind of a scientist and the curiosity of a child, he was a firm believer in the tradition of change and change in tradition. His publications include 20 books dealing with subjects as varied as esthetics, musicology, folk music, stage and popular music, and a number of articles that he regularly penned through newspaper columns and thematic musical presentations on various topics. At the organisational level, he initiated many pioneering projects including the degree course in music at the Mumbai University; research on regional music traditions at the American Institute of Indian Studies; and the Theatre Development Centre at the NCPA for documentation of not only Marathi but also other language theatre traditions. Dr. Ranade will be long remembered for some of the important initiatives in connection with this project. These include the bulletin Facts and News, and scores of workshops conducted at the NCPA on theatre- related topics such as voice culture, music and background score, set design & light arrangements, costume & make-up and many more. Thanks to his vision, today we can access a huge repository of reference material—rare documents, scripts, interviews, photographs and many more, at a single loca- tion. At the NCPA, Dr. Ranade innovatively applied his research to curate several musical productions on interesting themes like Radha, Devgani, Sangeet Rang and Sawan, to name a few. Most recently, he revived Baithakichi Lavani, which the NCPA was privileged to present at the Tata Theatre on April 9, 2011. This was perhaps the last public appearance of the master composer whose life- long endeavour was to bring an amazing depth and unparalleled richness of connections, while giving perfect structure to every subject he handled... from his life to his work. A communicator par excellence, his discourses were a sheer delight. With equal command over several languages including Russian, Dr. Ranade could keep audiences spellbound with his erudition, eloquence and confidence peppered with wry wit, which made even dreary subjects come alive and sound musical! One sensed the peace he felt within himself in the way he signed off his communications—“baki anand, Ashok”. But now that he has “finally signed off”, we can only seek solace by following the course set by this great scholar, academician, administrator, researcher and, above all, a human being of unparalleled depth and honesty. Adieu Ranade Sir!

2 Transformations of Indian Dance An Odissi Odyssey Durga Bor

For more than seven centuries European travelers have been fascinated with the female temple dancers of India, and have reported about them in their narratives. But, as far as I know, it was not until the 20th century that Westerners have had an active role in learning, performing and researching the many genres of Indian dance. In the first part of this paper I’ll focus on what has become known as Odissi, and how several non-Indians helped to popularize it. In the second part I’ll pay attention to the different interpretations of the masters, and the changes I have personally experienced since I began studying Odissi over 30 years ago.

I.

As is well known, present-day Odissi dance is a re-creation or reconstruction for the modern Indian stage after dancing ceased to exist in the temples of Orissa, more specifically, the famous Jagannath temple of . It was in 1957 that we see the inception of the Jayantika, which was the coming together of dance scholars, gurus and performers in the Raghunath Mandir, (the former capital city of Orissa), to codify Odissi dance by deciding on a repertoire, and creating a standard for its technique. Members of this alliance drew from what had been performed by the few remaining dancers of the Puri temples, known as maharis (who were marginalized and not a part of this alliance due their low social status), the young male acrobatic dancers dressed as females referred to as , temple sculptures which helped to set the form, and dance treatises such as the Natyashastra, Abhinaya Darpana, and Abhinaya Chandrika. Gurus and dancers were also employed by the Anapurna Theatre in Cuttack during the 1940s to create dances to be integrated into dramas, and some of these, particularly Das Avatara by Guru , had an impact on the repertoire as well. But even before the Jayantika took place, a Jewish refugee from Budapest, the archeologist, dance critic and journalist Dr. Charles Fabri, was promoting the young Odissi dancer Priyambada Mohanty, after seeing her perform at the Inter University Youth Festival, New , in 1954 where she took third prize. This was the first time Odissi was recognized outside Orissa. Almost two decades earlier, in , Rukmini Devi had popularized Bharat

3 Durga Bor Natyam by reformatting it to meet the public’s approval. What Priyambada had in common with Rukmini was that she too was an “upper caste” Brahmin, but according to her, young girls had started learning Odissi and were already competing on a state level by the late 1940s (Mohanty Hejmadi and Hejmadi Patnaik 2007: 56). Oriyan dance scholar Dhirendranath Patnaik also performed Odissi at this competition, dancing a version of Das Avatara. Of Mohanty’s performance, Fabri writes in The Satesman, “there was a strikingly original Odissi dance by Kumari Priyambada Mohanty, obviously a born dancer ...” (ibid.: 59). Again in 1956, she participated in the same festival winning first prize, and the dance was referred to as “Classical Dance (Oriya)” on Priyambada’s prize certificate, even though the term Orissi or Odissi had already been coined. (ibid.: 120) Earlier, the temple dance of Orissa was simply referred to as natch or . While Dinanath Pathy claims that the late Kavichandra Kalicharan Patnaik introduced the name Orissi in 1948 (Pathy 2007: 25), in a 1990 interview Pankaj Charan Das explained to me that when he was choreographing for the Anapurna Theatre, someone asked him what the name of this dance form was. Embarrassed by the stigma surrounding the maharis at the time, he came up with the name Orissi, obviously based on the name of the state of Orissa. (It is interesting to note that the pronunciation of “Odeshi” is a current practice, keeping truer to the transliteration from the Oriya script, by “un-Anglicizing” it.) It was under the patronage and interest of Charles Fabri that Priyambada Mohanty gave full evening performances at Sapru House in New Delhi on October 14 and 15, 1961. She had been initially trained by the doyen of Odissi music and dance, Singari Shyam Sundar Kar. He belonged to the singari caste, the men of which were appointed to dress the wooden statue of Lord Jagannath in the Puri temple in the evening ritual known as Bada Singhara Vesha, at which time a mahari would sing and dance. Shyam Sundar Kar had been teaching her music, when he came to know that she was learning a dance style developed by Rabindranath Tagore. He thought she should be learning the dance of Orissa, and thus began teaching her Odissi dance, which eventually led to her success (1990 interview with Priyambada Mohanty). There is no doubt that Odissi would continue to grow and prosper, but it is fair to say that an European helped to put Odissi on the Indian dance map. In the March 1960 issue of Marg he had written an article defending the style,

4 Transformations of Indian Dance: referring to a paper he had published seven years earlier, where he ventured to call it one of “the most perfect classical systems of Indian dancing surviving”. In this article, he also claims to have been the first person to have written the name “Orissi dance” (Fabri 1960: 4). As an introduction to Pryambada’s 1961 performance, he described it as “a purer and older edition of Bharat Natya, less codified, less punditic and that it preserves a tradition certainly identical with that depicted on the ancient temple walls of Orissa ...” (Mohanty Hejmadi and Hejmadi Patnaik 2007: 63). By this time the repertoire that we are now familiar with consisted of a mangalacharan, Batu or sthai, pallevi, abhinaya (which drew from traditional Oriyan poems as well as the Gita Govinda), and ended with Mokshya (ibid.: 61). But in the youth competitions a few years earlier, Pryambada had performed one continuous item, having elements from all of the above pieces. Her 1954 performance took only six to eight minutes, while her 1956 performance was about ten minutes longer. Fabri also helped to style the present-day costume, being critical of the exaggerated make-up and the heavy jewelry, which often fell off while dancing. His suggestions lent to the simplification of the dress, which still takes up to two or three hours to don including hair and make-up, and perhaps could further be simplified without compromising the effect. It was also Fabri who convinced Bharat Natyam dancer Indrani Rehman in 1957 to study in Orissa after her mother had told her about this newly discovered form (ibid.: 60). She was among the earliest, if not the first non- Oriyan, to learn this form. Her search for a master led her to , then based in Puri. Indrani’s role was major in that she was the first modern-day Odissi dancer to perform outside India. She was half Western, her mother being American, which created quite a stir in India when Indrani won the very first Miss India competition in 1952. Not only was she half American, she was also married and a mother, which certainly put her out of the “Miss” category. It is interesting to note that the Miss India contest was promoted by the manufacturer of Afghan Snow Beauty Aids (Afghan Snow being a face crème which whitens the skin), and two American companies, Pan American Airways and Catalina swimwear. After being spotted by scouts, who were sent to her house to convince her to compete first in the Miss Calcutta pageant and later in the Miss India competition, she initially declined (Rehman 2001: 77).

5 Durga Bor Indrani’s mother, born Esther Luella Sherman, used many different aliases throughout her dance career, but settled on the name Ragini Devi. Gaining some notoriety in the United States, she danced in Vaudeville, often in the “orientalist” style, and was said to have turned down an offer by Ruth St. Dennis to join her troupe. Esther Sherman was among the earliest Western pioneers heading for India in search of dance, arriving in 1930. While St. Dennis never studied Indian dance, she preceded Sherman when she toured India in 1926-1927, having been well-received by colonial audiences with her interpretation of the Nautch. (This was parallel to the anti-nautch movement that was gaining great momentum). Just prior to that, in the early 1920s, the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova performed in India (ibid.: 24-25). As is known, Pavlova also collaborated with dancer Uday Shankar. Ragini Devi wrote Dances of India (1928) which she claimed to be the first book on Indian dance to be written in English (ibid.: 88). Though she never learned Odissi, as her daughter did, she did help to bring it to the public’s attention in a 1958 article published in The Illustrated Weekly of India, featuring Guru Deba Prasad Das, with photographs of her master taken by her son-in- law, Habib Rehman. She also devoted a chapter to Odissi in her volume Dance Dialects of India, published in 1972. Ragini Devi began learning Bharat Natyam, and eventually studied Mohiniattam and Kathakali. She was the first non-Indian to learn Kathakali, and the first woman to study it at the famous Kalamandalam in Kerela. She toured throughout India with a troupe of musicians and dancers in a type of variety show, performing both traditional and non-traditional pieces in different styles. After leaving India, she returned in the late 1940s and again tried to take to the stage, but saw the change that had taken place was not conducive to the variety shows that were earlier in vogue in the 1920s and 1930s. Well-trained solo dancers became the norm, presenting their traditional styles with fixed repertoires. Her daughter followed suit. It was the Odissi dancer Sanjucta Panigrahi who allowed a deeper definition of the form by her involvement with the Italian-born dramatist and theatre anthropologist Eugenio Barba. Barba is known for his cross-cultural research at the School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA) (Watson 2002: 1). He first met the Indian dancer in Holstebro, Denmark, in 1977. Sanjucta was arguably Odissi’s most extensively-toured exponent. She and Barba began collaborating in 1980 at the first ISTA meeting in Bonn, Germany. In an interview with Ian Watson, Panigrahi describes her time with Barba as mind-

6 Transformations of Indian Dance: opening to the way other dance forms execute movement and use of space. She was able to apply that knowledge, making her aware of certain aspects of Odissi. As she explained, she learned by mimicking her guru without thinking or questioning the underlying use of tension and body mechanics. (Those who have studied dance in India know that the teaching is done through imitation, which is referred to as anukarana, with little or no explanation in regards to body principles.) But even with her newly-found knowledge of the moving body, Sanjucta claims her time with Barba did not affect her performance of Odissi in the least, as it was so imbedded into her from an early age. It did, however, affect the way she taught, using ISTA’s way to define and analyze the body (ibid.: 68-75). Barba also learned much from Odissi and other dance forms such as Balinese and Noh. According to Watson, “one of his basic pre-expressive principles lies in the manipulation of balance and one’s center of gravity” (ibid.: 7). Drawing from these styles, Barba observed the alteration of the normal center of gravity and the way the body weight is distributed, first at the feet, then the way the legs are bent, followed by the manipulation of the spine, as in the basic Odissi pose tribhangi (ibid.: 7). The stances of Odissi and other non-Western forms are fundamentally different from the daily use of the body. These stances take much more energy to execute and infuse a greater presence emanated by the dancer. When the basic principles of stance and weight distribution, so obvious in Odissi, are applied to a character in a Western play for instance, without any attempt at imitating the form, Barba points out that the actor’s character is thus enhanced. Though not a new theory to Western theatre, eastern forms helped Barba to make his point. Sanjucta continued to collaborate with Barba, attending ISTA meetings all over the world until her death in 1997. It can, therefore, be said that she was not only a collaborator, but his student as well as his teacher.

II.

Now that we have seen something of the influence the West has had on Odissi, and visa versa, I would like to discuss the impact Odissi has had on me, a second-generation American. I will share my observations of its transformation from the first time I became aware of it in 1975 to the present day.

7 Durga Bor It was not until I attended Naropa Institute (now Naropa University) in Boulder, Colorado, as a dance and philosophy major that my quest for a dance form got stimulated and satisfied. I had already taken lessons in Bharat Natyam and was a fan of , having lived in close proximity to the Ali Akbar School of Music in northern California during the India craze of the 1970s. Knowing nothing of this remote style, as Bharat Natyam and Kathak had already gained some popularity in the States, I began to study with Guru Surendranath Jena at Naropa and learned intensely with him in 1975 and 1976. Group classes were taught for three hours per class, three days a week. At the end of 1976 I found my way to India, and enrolled at Triveni Kala Sangam, a school for music, dance and the visual arts in New Delhi, where I was able to eventually earn a five-year diploma. When I was taught by Guru Jena, I had no idea that his style was quite unique and further removed from what came out of the Jayantika than some of the other prominent guru’s styles. Surendranath Jena had come from a jatra, or street theatre tradition, before becoming a student of Odissi. When I first started, he had not yet developed his own basic steps, but did teach some of the basic kundis and arasas that were used by other gurus (kundis being short combinations of steps, the arasas are a little longer combinations in specific talas). Later he had developed his own kundis and arasas based on his own particular style, which I did eventually learn. The style of Surendranath Jena has been criticized as being deshi, or of the village, which neither he nor his successors, his three daughters and son, dispute. He spent little time on fundamental training before delving into the dance pieces, and felt that the student’s body would eventually fall into his style without a rigorous basic training. In my last year in Delhi, not feeling satisfied with my progress while still a pupil of Guru Jena, I had taken lessons with Aloka Panikar, Guru ’s leading exponent at that time. Aloka gave me a greater definition of basic training, paying attention to the dance theory (bini-yoga) of the Natyashastra. I left Guru Jena in the mid 1980s, and it is only now that I have come to really appreciate the depth of his style after recently seeing his daughter Pratibha perform. He was a great choreographer, and perhaps his main hindrance in producing professional dancers, aside from his children, was that he paid too little attention to fundamental training. In addition, his students came from upper middle class or upper class families, whose time devoted to

8 Transformations of Indian Dance: dance was often limited, and who were, with few exceptions, hobbyists. He received no government support, and had to depend solely on the tuition of his students at Triveni Kala Sangam to support his family. After I left him, he did develop a systematic training, as I learned from watching a video made by Alessandra Lopez y Royo, who wrote about Surendranath Jena’s style and videoed Pratibha teaching these basic steps to students. After five years with Guru Jena, and many dance items later, I was fortunate to have been invited to attend an intensive training workshop at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Bombay, in 1986, taught by the renowned Guru , who was affectionately referred to as Kelubabu. I was very familiar with his style, having attended performances in New Delhi and Orissa of many of his disciples, including Sanjucta’s performance when she received the National Academy Award in 1976. But I had never before, not in any style of dance, experienced such a rigorous basic training. I could apply the fundamentals of what Kelubabu taught to Guru Jena’s items, putting more attention to grace in the general body movements and the mudras. I also began to notice subtle differences in the styles of the well-known masters, even when dancing the same ukuta or theka. The lucid chest movements unique to Odissi (dakshyachala and bamachala) were executed differently in all three styles that I studied. Guru Jena pushes the chest out and up, while the thrust in Kelubabu’s chest movement is downward. Jenaji uses rasas such as bibhatsa and raudra (disgust and anger) in his abhinaya, drawing on themes from Tantric traditions and every-day moods and actions, particularly of women. Kelubabu’s dances more often highlight sringara and (romance and devotion). Jena’s choreographies are characterized by rapid changes in both rhythm (tala), song and movement. Kelubabu’s pieces more often follow the development and flow of a – as in alap, jod and jala. With an emphasis on grace and beauty and a mastery of rhythm, Keluji is best known for his pallevis (non-literal dances which express the melody) and ashtapadis. Guru Jena prided himself with being different from the other gurus. While I was with him, he more or less stuck with the above-mentioned standard repertoire, often substituting Mokshya with his own rendition of Das Avatara. By that time he had composed his own mangalacharan, called Matru Pranam, which depicts the goddess in all her manifestations. While the other gurus were expanding on the “traditional” mangalacharan dedicated to Lord

9 Durga Bor Ganesha, referred to as Namami, by adding verses (slokas) known as vandanas dedicated to different gods and goddesses, they still kept the opening and closing steps more or less the same. The standard mangalacharan begins with bhumi pranam, or respectful greetings to Mother Earth. (The Jagannatha sloka was added later at the beginning.) This is followed by the Istadeva Vandana, and the dance ends with sabapranam trikundi (respectful greetings to the god, guru and public). Guru Jena kept these elements in his mangalacharan, though he executed them with completely different steps and movements. He never added the Jagannath sloka to his mangalacharan, but rather at the beginning of a dance he first called Archana Pallevi, but later changed the name to Archana Puri. It should also be mentioned that earlier pallevis, such as Basant and Kalyani, had an element of nritya, opening with verses describing the raga and using abhinaya which often personified the raga. But later this practice was dropped. As noted, Guru Mohapatra is famous for his ashtapadis, and Guru Jena, though having choreographed many ashtapadis, leans towards dances depicting Shiva and his consorts, which the late Debuprasad Das also favored in his choreographies. While I never had the opportunity to study with Guru Das, he should not go unmentioned when talking about the revival of Odissi, nor should Guru Pankaj Charan Das, Mayadhar Raut or Mahadev Raut, all seemingly present at the Jayantika (Pathy 2007: 25). Mayadhar Raut’s style is very similar to Kelucharan’s, but with obvious differences. Having been groomed in Bharat Natyam and Kathakali at Rukmini Devi’s Kalakshetra in his younger years, his Odissi reflects a more rigid execution of movement, and is less lucid than some of the other styles. Of the senior gurus, only Mayadhar Raut is still alive. Guru Pankaj Charan Das was the only master who came directly from the mahari tradition. In his early choreographies there is an element of hip movement which is not present in the other styles. Though Odissi dancers switch effortlessly from a right to a left tribhangi, which changes the position of the hip, this is done by shifting the weight through the feet (keeping with the ideas mentioned by Barba) and not by moving the hip itself. Pankaj Charan Das worked as a choreographer in the Anapurna theatre, and between sets both he and Debuprasad Das were employed as stand-up comedians, in a type of Abbot and Costello or Laurel and Hardy role, Debu being short and a bit stocky, while Pankaj was tall and slim. According to my 1990 interview with him, Pankaj Das stated that he was paid for his comedic

10 Transformations of Indian Dance: role, but not for his choreographies. While in his later years, to some he appeared to be curmudgeonly, during my interview he had a keen sense of humor and had me laughing heartily. I found nothing unpleasant about this man, on the contrary. My current master, Guru , spent the most time grooming me in the fundamentals of Odissi. A student of all of the above masters with the exception of Guru Jena, he chooses to follow Kelubabu’s style of movement more closely. He is adept at creating dance dramas, and is a scout for talent, having brought young men in their early teens from villages to his school, the Orissa Dance Academy, training them rigorously to go on to be both performers and teachers. Most of the males performing Odissi come from humble backgrounds, while the women are, by and large, from middle or upper middle class families. The boys are trained in the guru-shishya tradition, often living under the same roof as the guru and seeing to his needs. The girls, on the other hand, are brought to the school for their dance classes by family members. Guru Pradhan started his traing as a gotipua, having been dedicated to the temple of a neighboring village. The newborn Gangadhar did not respond like a healthy baby for the first three to four hours of his life. His eyes remained closed and he was listless. His grandmother placed him on a banana leaf, and she and his parents performed a puja, making a deal with the gods that if he survived, he would be given to the gotipua troupe belonging to the Shiva temple in the village of Dimiresena for five years. Before he was old enough for temple service, he fell off a bullock cart, which rendered him unconscious and bleeding profusely. Again his father prayed, promising to give his son to the Balunkeshwara Mandir for an additional five years if he would survive. A year-and-a-half later (it was in the early 1950s, though Guru Pradhan cannot pin down the dates exactly, not even of his birth), he was given to gotipua master Banchhanidhi Pradhan for training. But he considers his first true guru to be Chandrashekar Patnaik, who was the keeper of the temple. For a time he trained with them simultaneously. At his dedication ceremony to the temple there was a small puja and he received a sari, but in our 1990 interview he told me he forgotten most of the details, though he remembers being wrapped in a sari in mahari fashion. He was no longer considered a part of his family as he belonged to the temple. In spite of this, his parents would regularly visit him. Guru Pradhan showed not only a talent as a dancer, but also for the mardal, the cylindrical drum used to accompany Odissi. He

11 Durga Bor continued on to study with the best gotipua gurus and eventually Odissi masters (often one in the same) as well as with the above-mentioned Singari Shyam Sundar Kar. During the period Gangadhar was training with Chandrashekar Patnaik, Dhirendranath Patnaik was researching the gotipua tradition, and Gangadhar remembers him coming to the village to consult with Chandrashekar Patnaink. As is known, D.N. Patnaik has played a major role in the reconstruction and popularization of Odissi, both as a dancer and as a scholar. In an interview with him in 1990, he told me that during the period of the Jayantika, on a quiet night while he was visiting the Jangannath Temple in Puri, he noticed that the arms of the deity, in their 90 degree angular bend at the “elbow”, would add a classical touch on par with the outstretched arms of Bharat Natyam. Thus, he takes credit for adding the chouk or squared position of the arms, which represents the first mudra of the Natyashastra’s verse for pataka hasta, natyarambhe, which means, “the beginning of a dance”. Earlier, he had been confronted by Rukmini Devi at an annual function at Kala Vikash Kendra, who thought that Odissi was a poor imitation of Bharat Natyam, and suggested codifying it to meet classical standards. He wrote the first book on Odissi, called Odissi Dance, which was first published in Oriyan in 1958, and later (in 1971) in English by the Orissa Sangeet Natak Academy. Gangadhar now runs the Konark Natya Mandap, an impressive dance village in the town of Konarak where the great Surya Temple or “Black Pagoda” resides. His annual dance and music festival at Konark has become internationally famous. I am very grateful to him for the time he spent with me. I had returned to India in 1989 on a fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) to study with Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra in Orissa. After my time with him in Bombay in 1986, I was keen to continue where I had left off. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived in , he had taken ill. During that period he was employed by the Odissi Research Centre where he spent his time grooming senior students. His illness eventually led me to seek out an alternative. Dhirendranath Patnaik and Illeana Citaristi both assured me that Gangadhar Pradhan was following in Kelubabu's footsteps as a guru. How lucky I was, as Gangadhar was not yet as busy and known as he is today. He took the time to teach me for two solid hours, six and sometimes seven days a week. Simultaneously I was learning new dances from his cousin at the Orissa Dance Academy, Manoranjan Pradhan, now a guru in his own

12 Transformations of Indian Dance: right. Gangaji’s basic exercises are gotipua based, and very athletic, which strengthened my body considerably. The floors of the Orissa Dance Academy were cement. I had been spoiled with the wooden floors of Triveni Kala Sangam, and in my studio in Amsterdam, where I settled in 1981. At one point both my feet felt broken, but I continued on, mentally blocking out the pain while I danced and limping around after dancing, but they eventually toughened to the cement. After learning a reasonable amount of material from both Gangadhar and Manoranjan, I was able to join the senior group class in the evenings which lasted as long as three to four hours. The group classes lent themselves to my most profound dance experience during that period in India. What a time that was! The musicians also had more time on their hands, and would drop into class, lending their talent. Sometimes we had a full Odissi orchestra in class, with vocal, flute, and Guru Gangadhar on mardal. These were some of the best accompanist in the business, like vocalist Ganeshyamo Panda, and Ramesh Misra dropping in to play violin. Today it is almost impossible to engage a live orchestra, as the tour schedules of the musicians get filled up fast and it is becoming common place for professional dancers to use recorded music, even in Orissa. When I first visited Orissa in 1978 there were few accomplished dancers and even fewer dance schools, the prominent ones being Kala Vikash Kendra in Cuttack and Sangeeta Mahavidyalaya in Bhubaneswar. Odissi dancers of the new generation, such as Sanjucta Panigrahi, , Kumkum Lal and Dr. Minatri Misra were known in Orissa, but it took time for this dance form to lose its stigma and to be accepted as a “classical” art. Now Odissi has become Orissa’s pride and joy, and good dancers and dance gurus are multiplying. When I was there again in 2005, I was amazed by the number of children studying dance, the amount of dance troupes performing at professional levels, and the innovations in the deliverance, as seen by troupes like Nrityagram who have taken this art to another level of performance. Nrityagram was established by fashion model and Odissi dancer Protima Bedi (1948–1998), and is based outside Bangalore, not in Orissa. Choreographers are taking on new themes expressing social issues. Feminism, the Devi, and powerful females throughout history have become in vogue, not just in Odissi but in other Indian dance forms as well. The music, which is a topic unto itself both historically and theoretically, has taken on new dimensions with some non-Indian influences, such as the use of vibraphones as in Hindi film songs. I was amused to see that Guru

13 Durga Bor Gangadhar Pradhan had once engaged a synthesizer to emulate the sound of a conch at the beginning of a dance drama. Surely, any one of the musicians could blow a clean sound from a conch, which are readily found in the markets by the coastal areas, and it would have been less costly, but because this modern “convenience” was available, it was more intriguing to be used than an actual conch. While there are scores of aspiring young Odissi dancers from around the globe who swarm to India to learn in institutes throughout India, there are those who learn it in their native countries. Some are able to study with non-Indians who have spent considerable time in India, while others train with Indians who have settled abroad. Since the 1970s, it is common for gurus and dancers to be invited to teach outside India, giving workshops at universities and other institutions. Thanks to the pioneers and the gurus, it is fair to conclude that Odissi is becoming increasingly popular outside India both as an academic and practical study and a performing art. More than ever, expatriots and non-Indians are learning Odissi, and established dancers are borrowing ideas and movements from outside of India. Non-Indians are also receiving recognition from the Indian government, such as the Italian Odissi dancer , who received the title Padma in 2006 for her contribution to Odissi. With these recent developments, Odissi will continue to flourish both on the Indian subcontinent and beyond, and has entered the global mainstream of dance.

In this paper I have made a first effort of documenting taped interviews I made in Orissa from October 1989 through November 1990. With the culmination of personal experience, having lived in India exclusively for the study of dance for over seven years, coupled with the accumulation of resource material, it is the beginning of a larger project in book form. I am indebted to those who were so cooperative, sharing their time and lives with me in order to understand the art form I chose as my path.

References 1. Fabri, Charles 1960. “Introduction to Orissi Dance,” in Marg 13/2: 4-5. 2. Lopez y Royo, Allesandra. “Odissi, temple rituals and temple sculptures,” http://humanitieslab.stanford.edu/117/868.

14 Transformations of Indian Dance: 3. Mohanty Hejmadi and Hejmadi Patnaik 2007. Odissi: An Form. New Delhi: Aryan Books International. 4. Pathy, Dhinath 2007. Rethinking Odissi. New Delhi: Harman Publishing House. 5. Rehman, Sukanya 2001. Dancing in the Family. New Delhi: Harper Collins. 6. Watson, Ian 2002. Negotiating Cultures: Eugenio Barba and the Intercultural Debate. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

15 Tracking the Intercultural Borders, Fusions, Traditions and the Global Art of Tabla Denise Nuttall

Global and Local Articulations

While ethnomusicologists have been concerned with the historical routes and melodic crossings of Hindustani classical and South Asian popular musics stemming outward from India to Western or European cultures (Farrell 2005: 1997) for some time, little attention has been given to the variety of rhythmic reformulations which constitute, in part, the rise of tabla as a global art form. This paper is based on past fieldwork as well as recent observations of Hindustani tabla communities around the globe.1 When I began my fieldwork with tabla players in Vancouver (1994) I found a teacher, Satwant Singh, who had direct ties to one of the most celebrated tabla players of the latter twentieth century, Ustad Alla Raka Khan of the Punjab (school).2 I was fortunate enough to be sent to as a student and learn from him in the winter seasons from 1994 until 2000 when he passed away. During this time I got to know and study with his son, Ustad Zakir Hussain (hereafter referred to as Zakir). Zakir is undoubtedly one of the most prolific and innovative musicians of our time who pivots back and forth between Hindustani classical music and numerous other musical styles. Like his father and other learned masters before him, Zakir has played a leading role in the development of tabla and Hindustani music as global art forms. As musical and cultural borders are constantly crossed by percussion and tabla players my anthropological and ethnomusicological “fields” are necessarily multi-local ones. In this paper I

1 This paper is based on my doctoral research and dissertation Embodying Culture: Gurus, Disciples and Tabla Players” (1998). An earlier version of this paper was presented as “Interculturalism and Performance: The Traveling Traditions of Tabla in the Global Village” for the Department of Sociology Seminar Series at the National University of Singapore in 2006. My research would not have been possible without the financial support of the Shastri Indo- Canadian Institute (Doctoral and Post-Doctoral research grants) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Junior Scholar Grant). 2 Gharana, a Hindi word literally translates as “household”. The usage in Hindustani music or tabla circles often refers to both consanguineal and fictive kin. As a member of a gharana, tabla players are considered to be of the same house or family of musicians. In the case of performing arts in general the term is often used to refer to a style or school. Ustad or “master”. Ustad is often used as a form of address for Muslim teachers. 16 Tracking the Intercultural seek to track partial connections between tabla musicians, their communities and the music they make based on work completed in Mumbai, Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle and San Francisco and Bremen, Germany. Increasingly tabla is becoming an international phenomenon. Although its origins are in Indian and diaspora cultures tabla is played by drummers from various cultural, ethnic, religious and socio-economic backgrounds. Today a tabla player could just as easily be German, Italian, Australian, Canadian, American, Japanese, South African or Indian (not to mention the possible multiplicity of hyphenated identities arising from those localities). And although some students develop into full time musicians I have met others, from India, North America and Europe, who are also chefs, sales clerks, doctors, lawyers, businessmen and women, computer analysts, architects, school teachers and house painters. Tabla players are actively involved in creating musical and cultural communities around the globe. They are building networks of alliances with other tabla players, other percussionists as well as with other musicians both inside and outside of the Hindustani and Karnatic classical music traditions.3 In creating and maintaining their communities’ tabla players are incorporating both local and global elements. These moments of networking or community building flow back and forth between cultural borders, between cultural music systems. The communities that I have spent time with in Toronto, Ontario, the Bay Area of California, and Seattle, Washington account for only a few of the many emerging organizations, schools or groups of tabla artists in the North American context. At the same time these tabla communities are connected to larger groups () in India. In the North American context alone the continuous movement of masters and disciples is overwhelming. While I attended Zakir’s classes in Berkeley, other students arrived from such places as Edmonton Alberta, Vancouver British Columbia, Los Angeles California, Bremen Germany, Ghent Belgium, and Detroit Michigan. In-between giving classes and co-running a record label Zakir flew off to Switzerland and India and then returned to California all within a week and a half. Contemporary tabla players are on the move. However, it is important to note that other tabla players can and do lead more of a localized existence. Although a

3 Hindustani refers to the North Indian system of classical music in India whereas Karnatic refers to the Southern system. 17 Denise Nuttall limited number of tabla players are increasingly traveling and performing outside of India many do not. And while some such as Aditya Kalyanpur, a rising star in the world of tabla and Hindustani music, who represents a younger generation of the , seek to perform and teach in America or elsewhere in the world, others choose to construct their musical identities back home performing classical, fusion and other styles to audiences in South Asia. Those with more extensive socio-cultural networks (Latour 1987) are heard more loudly on the global stage. In the creation of a musical ethnography or an anthropological analysis of “lived experience” it is necessary to account for both local and global links between individuals and communities wherever they may be. These cultural flows are complex, multiple, and tied to an ever increasing number of other musical cultures. Musicologists, ethnomusicologists and anthropologists alike need to develop new ways of talking about musical communities, their complexities, and the connecting webs of musical styles, forms, and players which constitute them. In doing so, it is essential to challenge and re- conceptualize the global/local and dominant/minority dualisms which are characteristic of past studies of ethnicity and deterritorialzed peoples. Recent diaspora and intercultural studies have shown that anthropological encounters are increasingly based in multiple locations (Marcus 1986; Clifford 1997; 1993). The tabla players and other musicians I met in various locales such as Toronto, Vancouver, Mumbai, Seattle and the Bay Area of California, were in turn connected to other players throughout the world. It seems that developing multi-local ethnographies will be crucial for a contemporary anthropology and ethnomusicology. Creating the necessary tools for a successful multi-local ethnography requires that the analyst attend to the phenomenon of subjects living their lives as simultaneously here (local) and there (global). Arjun Appadurai (1991) provides such an avenue in his theory of “ethnoscapes”. Appadurai uses the idea of ethnoscapes in an attempt to capture the dynamic flow of people (immigrants, tourists, guest workers and many more.) and things as they move around the globe. Appadurai suggests that ethnographers replace older conceptions of communities, villages and and localities (1991: 209) with the more ambiguous term scapes (these include ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, finascapes and ideoscapes). “The landscapes of group identity—the ethnoscapes—around the world are no longer familiar anthropological objects, insofar as groups are no longer

18 Tracking the Intercultural tightly territorialized, spatially bounded, historically unselfconscious or culturally homogeneous” (Appadurai 1991: 191). Re-conceptualizing cultural movement in this way, as scapes or networks of interactions and the exchange of commodities, allows the analyst to envision groups/individuals as both here (local) and elsewhere at the same time. How, then, are we to understand locality in an ethno-exploding, fast moving, transcultural, transnational world? Appadurai suggests that “the task of ethnography now becomes the unraveling of a conundrum: what is the nature of locality, as a lived experience, in a globalized, deterritorialized world? (Appadurai 1991: 196). Crucial to the development of a multi-local (global) ethnography and the study of cosmopolitan cultural forms is the task of rendering locality or subjectivity without resorting to or presupposing “either the authority of the Western experience or the models derived from that experience” (Appadurai 1991: 92). Appadurai (1997) takes this idea further in a recent discussion on contemporary art in Asia. He asks how are we to study globalization as processes which promote the idea of Asia as both active and critical in these processes? The constant in all these cultural flows or movements is the body. Cultural bodies are envisioned as the site of the local. Global processes, Appadurai notes, are localized upon and into bodies in the most extreme forms (Appadurai 1997). Theorizing a multi-local ethnography will also depend upon developing sophisticated concepts of transcultural and traveling bodies.

Sites of Crossing: Studying the Intercultural and the Transcultural

Tablascapes or tablacultures provide a good way to think about the cultural processes at work in tabla communities around the world.4 Like traveling bodies tablascapes are constantly moving back and forth between borders, diasporas, and other ethnoscapes or localities. It is essential to note,

4 It is important to note that although tablascapes emerge from and are dependent upon the South Asian diaspora (economically, socially, and politically) they also extend beyond it. In a sense tabla communities enjoy a certain amount of autonomy from the established Hindustani musical circles in diaspora contexts because the players that constitute these communities are also European, African, and other percussionists as well as South Asian. The global art of tabla, although embedded within Hindustani music circles, continuously branches outwards into other musical communities creating bridges between South Asian and other cultural or musical styles and traditions. 19 Denise Nuttall however, that cultural flows such as the ones tabla players are involved in are not uni-directional. As Clifford points out in his article Sites of Crossing: Borders and Diasporas in the Late 20th Century (1993) “cultural flows…are not linear but involved complex branches and feedback loops” (Clifford 1993: 3).5 These complex cultural flows which branch out and feedback into each other form the basis for a study of the intercultural. According to Clifford “border and diaspora cultures are produced through intercultural experiences of crossing” (Clifford 1993: 3). Studying the intercultural necessitates that researchers account for many kinds of crossings. That people are moving between cultures of origin and the newly formed or on- going diaspora cultures are one such type of crossing. However, in the case of tabla players there are multiple crossings taking place between musical and cultural contexts. Players of non-Indian origin are also crossing borders into diaspora and Indian musical cultures in increasingly larger numbers than ever before. Although the presence of non-Indian players, in some ways, re-configures tabla music as something other than classical or Hindustani I have also found that many players of South Asian origin are also re-inventing and transforming the sounds of the tabla into other styles and types of music. The hybridization, mixing or fusion of tabla sounds and rhythms with , pop, lounge, electronica, hip-hop, bluegrass or other musical styles has formed the basis for a vibrant, ever-expanding category of world music. Players, such as Zakir who collaborated with other Indian percussionists and John McLaughlin to form Shakti, the North American based Rhythm Experience and Diga Rhythm Bands alongside others, such as Trilok Gurtu, who also merged tabla with John McLaughlin’s jazz fusion style, have been instrumental in promoting the kind of musical atmosphere necessary for the development and proliferation of tabla as a transglobal phenomenon. More recently transcultural crossings have given rise to collaborations between older and younger generations of tabla players mixing electronica, Hindustani sarangi and tabla rhythms such as that produced in Tabla Beat Science with Zakir, , Talvin Singh and Karsh Kale. In North and South America popular music artists such as Shakira have incorporated Latin American melodies and rhythms with tabla player Rajesh Bhandari. Gurpreet Chana (“The Tabla Guy”) has collaborated with Nellie Furtado and Wyclif Jean

5 See also Clifford (1997) Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century, for more about the relation between diaspora and border cultures and transcultural processes. 20 Tracking the Intercultural fusing hip-hop, tabla rhythms and other styles. In New York, Suphala Patankar, who has studied with Zakir and Alla Rakha, collaborated with Timbaland on a recent release. As the movement of tabla and Hindustani music spreads out from South Asian diasporic contexts to other cultural landscapes, we see that the newer generation of artists is actively crossing musical borders from rock, to hip-hop, to American and other folk styles. The current hybridizations fusing tabla and Hindustani music with other musical styles seem endless. The emergence of tabla as a celebrated artistic form and as part of world music, however, must be seen as stemming from the movements and labors of the tabla masters in India who were active in re-creating tabla as both a solo and accompaniment instrument.6 Hindustani music, its players and the instruments which constitute it were originally connected to the Mogul courts in the North of India.7 The re-invention/reformation of tabla outside of court patronage in the early parts of the twentieth century was indeed a crucial element for the continuance and development of tabla and Hindustani classical music in India. Zakir attributes the success of this movement to the contributions of tabla masters such as his father, Ustad Alla Rakha Khan, and others such as Pandit Kishen Maharaj and Pandit Shanta Prasad. Unlike today where consumers are saturated instantaneously with media accounts of tabla solos, concerts and the whereabouts of performers, Zakir reminds us that the images of tabla masters were passed on from person to person by oral accounts throughout India. According to Zakir: ….it was at the time when there was very little media coverage available, conservatism was at its peak, tabla was still a second class instrument and the tabla player was still a lowly being on the ladder of Indian classical music. So to have taken that and worked with that and then developed it up to a point where these people became household names and were in demand as such …that audiences demanded to see them with certain musicians—to

6 Kippen (1991) has written about the changing social status of tabla players over the last 100 years. His article provides a preliminary sketch of the various images of tabla players in Indian cultures. Where once public perceptions associated with tabla players were of a “brothel” (courts and salons) existence (Kippen 1991: 17) today tabla artists are out in the public domain performing at conferences, music schools and colleges (Kippen 1991: 21). 7 Ethnomusicologist John Erdman outlines how the patronage of tabla music changed from the court system to a more public one in Rajasthan (Erdman 1985). 21 Denise Nuttall have achieved that level of acceptance and popularity with such little media attention and support and coverage is pretty amazing. (Hussain 1995) Along with other tabla masters such as Pandit Kishen Maharaj of Benares, and Ustad Ahmedjan Thirakwa of Delhi, Ustad Alla Rakha Khan’s achievements in the world of Hindustani classical music have been far reaching. His association with Shankar (sitarist) in the 1960s and 70s brought tabla and Hindustani classical music to millions of people. (Nuttall 2007: 327). This literally opened the door for the study of tabla in North America and Europe. The phenomenon of tabla playing and its development in Canada and the States can be seen as stemming from Alla Rakha’s involvement with percussionists in America and elsewhere. For example Alla Rakha developed relationships with percussionists Mickey Hart, Buddy Rich and others. Between 1968-69 Ustad Alla Rakha also began to teach tabla in various cities in the United States. In 1970 Zakir immigrated to America and started teaching as well. Zakir continues to pass on his father’s traditions today although adopting a different teaching style from his father by combining elements of North American and indigenous Indian ways of teaching musically. (Nuttall 2007).8 The types of crossings (both musical and cultural) for tabla masters such as Ustad Alla Rakha were located within the South Asian Diaspora cultures as well as within the emerging rock cultures in North America and Europe. I should also note here that others have played significant roles in re- establishing tabla either within or beyond classical musical circles such as Chattur Lal, , MahaParush Mishra, , , , Kishen Maharaj, and as well as many others. The diffusion of the Punjab gharana as a major style of tabla continues today in America and around the globe with the next generation of disciples, performers and composers taught by both Alla Rakha and Zakir Hussain. Students such as Aditya Kalyanpur, , Prafulle Athalye, and Anuradha Pal play alongside other instrumentalists in classical concerts both inside and outside the sub-continent. Yogesh Samsi, for example, has become

8 In Ustad Alla Rakha’s school compositions were passed on orally either by reciting compositions or by imitation of the master’s playing. In Zakir’s classes we often wrote down the compositions, notating them either on a blackboard in front of the classroom to visually refer to during class or were encouraged to write down the compositions immediately after class. 22 Tracking the Intercultural a much sought after accompanist and soloist representing the Punjab school around the globe. Percussion students who have studied with Zakir in California for many years, such as Dana Pandey, Michael Lewis, Emam, Ty Burhoe, Salar Nadar, and Suphala Patankar, are also actively performing, producing, innovating and representing the Punjab style from a mainly American base.9

Mediascapes

In the past within the South Asian Diaspora classical music lovers could attend public concerts, workshops or perhaps home gatherings (mehfils). Today tabla moves quickly from one locale to another through various mediums such as video, DVD, TV (particularly MTV and “ethnic” specific or “multicultural” channels) cassettes, CDs, CD ROMs, and through the internet (on-line tabla classes, you-tube concert shorts, tabla discussion networks, facebook and other virtual communities, or information/web pages) as well as through public concert events. Media technology has not only influenced the types of venues used for classical Hindustani music it has also helped to promote and diffuse various images of tabla players as well as the many soundscapes of tabla around the world. Basic internet searches using google increasingly yield a wider variety of tabla images, sounds, and concert clips (both old and new) of the masters as they perform and tour. One can also find web pages or myspace pages of older masters who have passed such as Ustad Alla Rakha Khan and Ustad A. Thirakwa alongside current day performers. The images and soundscapes of the elders are, no doubt, created by devoted fans or disciples suggesting that their presence and importance in the repertoire and performance of tabla is still strong today. The developments of mediascapes such as the ones outlined above have also changed, to some extent, how and when tabla players communicate with each other and/or collaborate together as artists. With the advent of internet communication students everywhere are increasingly connected on a daily basis discussing compositions, exchanging ideas, passing on stories of their masters and other celebrated artists as well as forming ties with other

9 While many of these students are based in the United States they are actively performing both classically and in the areas of world music or world fusion in various parts of the globe. Often students based in the United States travel to India in the winter months to continue instruction, further network with other musicians and/or perform. For example, Emam while primarily based in San Rafael, California also lives, works and performs in Wroclaw, as well as in India. 23 Denise Nuttall artists in various tabla communities outside of their own. As tabla students travel from North America to India in the winters for the classical music season they connect with others back home instantaneously. Computer technology is yet another way in which players circulate stories about other musicians or the masters and exchange valuable composition based resources. It is also a space of learning about traditions and styles that until recently were not easily accessible except through cassettes or the odd DVD/VCD circulating through government agencies (Indian) or home collections. Interesting to note here is also the emergence of ‘compositions for sale’ on the internet. This is quite a controversial topic for many disciples and masters whose compositions are literally “up for sale” elsewhere in the global music market. As compositions are traditionally family owned or gharana specific, the idea and practice of purchasing such compositions suggests a new type of commodification of Hindustani music resulting, in part, from its entrance into world music or its formation as a global art. Being able to purchase compositions on-line can be seen as either positive or negative by tabla players depending on your position within tabla and Hindustani networks. On the positive side this suggests a greater accessibility to material for practice and performance, however the downside to this aspect of global tabla seeks to undo formerly established musical traditions where the student receives compositions orally from a master. It becomes difficult to imitate one’s teacher without his presence in the moments of learning. However, I have heard of accounts of some performers teaching on-line using skype connections which allow for orally based instruction and therefore it becomes possible to check the position of the student’s hands and listen for aesthetic improvement.

Other Tabla Crossings of the Cultural and Musical Kind

The crossing over of non-South Asian players into tabla communities has changed how musicians communicate with each other but it has also changed tabla music stylistically. Zakir attributes some stylistic change to the presence of non-South Asians in the learning and performance of tabla. I asked him if his teaching and performance of tabla outside of India was changing tabla traditions. I don’t think I’m changing it, what is happening is whoever is embracing it is expressing it in his or her own fashion. Now the people who are taking this tradition on are not just Indians anymore, they are Africans or Australians or

24 Tracking the Intercultural Germans and so their approach to it is their [own] and therefore it is different. It technically changes [and] it creatively changes…because they have their own approach. They have their own way of looking at music, at rhythm, at patterns, at accents. They have heard jazz, they have heard Western classical music….so they have their own approach. It is not Indian any more so therefore it is different. And I think that my contribution can only be that I have helped it to be globally available. And people all over the globe who are embracing it are actually changing the way it looks because it is becoming part of their vocabulary and therefore it is becoming a tradition with a language that is more universal. It’s making more sense to people in South Africa at the same time to people in Argentina at the same time to people in Tokyo. (Hussain 1995) Tabla is indeed becoming a “language which is more universal”. For many South Asians who play tabla in Canada or America tabla can just as easily symbolize Indian tradition and culture while at the same time it can be used to represent Canadian or transglobal experiences. Stylistically, tabla performances outside of the classical genre are often seen as a collaboration of musical peoples, styles and forms. These types of musical groups are involved in fusing together often diverse rhythmic structures, patterns, and traditions such as Japanese taiko, African darbuka and Indian tabla. Even if percussionists are not trained classically in the art of tabla, the voicings of tabla bols, various compositions or partial compositions, are used around the globe in multiple music making communities. In San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto and other cities around the world, tabla players area also actively re-forming tabla patterns and rhythms with other percussive influences into their performances. For musicians such as Peter Altenberg10 who lives in San Francisco and Bremen and Leen Min- ton11 who lives in Ghent playing outside of the Hindustani musical tradition is seen as the only path to take economically and artistically. And while they

10 Peter Altenberg has studied tabla with Ustad Alla Rakha and Ustad Zakir Hussain. He is currently studying sarangi (upward bowed fiddle) with Ustad Sultan Khan in Mumbai. Peter has recently been fusing tabla rhythms with various musical styles in his band Warm Wires which is based out of San Francisco. The band mixes acoustic and electric guitar with Indian sarangi and tabla. 11 Leen Minton, a student of Ustad Zakir Hussain, actively collaborates with various musicians in Europe. In our interviews Leen mentioned that she hopes to bring together diverse influences such as differing styles of flamenco dance and music with tabla patterns/sounds into her recorded and live performances. 25 Denise Nuttall love to play classically it is important for them to have their own “voices” heard and create their own musical niche. Often in Toronto I heard various students declare “tabla is something no one can take away from me”. Tabla, then, becomes a significant element in identity construction whether that identity is “musician”, “percussionist”, “Indian”, “Canadian”, “American” and many more. The global art of tabla continues to shift ground reformulating stylistically as artists dissect and/or build upon their classical training or participation in workshops. And as such the art of tabla takes on new meanings, new forms separate from its “Indian” origins for both the artists using tabla as a resource in music making and for audiences worldwide whether they are connoisseurs of Hindustani music or whether they simply like the sounds and voicings of Hindustani rhythms within other styles. The routes that tabla players travel today suggest that tabla music will continue to be re-invented or transformed in various ways. These re- inventions, fusions, or mixings are felt and heard in India as well as in the Diaspora cultures. ’s (son of Ustad Alla Rakha Khan) collaborative efforts with the Swedish group Mynta is an interesting case in point. In November of 1987 Fazal toured Europe with his own Indian fusion band Divya. After playing a concert in Stockholm, which had been arranged by Mynta, he was asked to record with the Swedish musicians. Over the years Fazal has toured with the group in Europe and in India. Today Mynta plays to full houses in Mumbai, Bangalore as well as in other Indian cities. In their performances and recordings they have brought together diverse musical elements such as Swedish folk, Indian classical and American rap. Although Fazal’s involvement with world musicians has been constant his role as a tabla player/composer in classical circles has not altered. Recently I witnessed a concert directed and organized by Fazal in Mumbai (2009) where he presented a tabla ensemble consisting of students from the Alla Rakha School alongside Rajasthani folk musicians, a Kathak (North Indian) dancer, instrumentalists from both the Hindustani and Karnatic traditions and keyboard accompaniment. This spectacular concert and recital is indicative of recent tabla ensembles emerging around the globe which integrate various music and dance styles and cultures together. Taufiq Qureshi’s (Zakir’s and Fazal’s younger brother) contribution to percussive movements both inside and outside of India is also of importance to note here. Taufiq has long been praised as a creative, innovative composer and percussionist with such musical productions as Rhydhun. With his expert

26 Tracking the Intercultural knowledge in Indian classical percussion and African and world fusion percussion Taufiq has developed a system to transpose tabla bols (sounds) and rhythms onto African and other world percussion instruments.

Transcultural Tabla

Mapping transcultural experiences through sites of crossing can lead us to a multi-layered set of lived experiences and meanings. Although I have explored some of the connections between various tabla players, communities and locales these are partial ones. Crossing sites involves on- going moments of network building, communication and include the passing on of tabla knowledge, technique, and ways of being. Central to the study of intercultural experiences (and therefore the global art of tabla), is this continuous movement of people and things branching out and looping back. The traveling nature of people and sound, of players and their music, demands that researchers focus on the emerging ethnoscapes of group and individual identities which make up these cultural flows between diasporas and other contexts. These cultural flows are fuelled, in part, by the circulation and consumption of classical Hindustani tabla as well as by the various reformations and re-inventions of tabla into “world” and “other” music categories. It is difficult to make a living as a classical tabla player in Indian and diaspora contexts. Classical Indian music enjoys a limited but faithful audience world wide. As such tabla players (South Asian and others) actively search out alternative musical contexts. It is these newly formed alternative spaces where tabla is being re-invented as a “tradition with a language which is more universal”. Over the past few years I have met and befriended many tabla players who in the process of becoming tabla disciples and performers have, in various ways, dedicated their lives to playing and learning about classical tabla. For those who lead a double professional life as both doctors, computer analysts, businessmen and businesswomen etc. and as tabla players learning tabla also becomes a devotion, an act of worship. Learning tabla as an apprentice drummer has changed my life significantly. The more I learn the more I realize how much more there is to learn. I too have developed a deep love and passion for tabla as an instrument and for Hindustani classical music as a sophisticated cultural/musical system. I am in awe of those who attempt to take up tabla as a way of life both in India and in diaspora cultures. For many, learning tabla means entering into a life of struggle which includes training in the body and the embodied mind to adapt to Indian ways of knowing, feeling 27 Denise Nuttall and being. And for those who do not also work within other professions becoming a tabla player can also mean a life of financial struggle. Further research into the relation between Indian and diaspora musical systems and communities could focus on the efforts of instrumental and vocal masters such as Pandit , Ustad and Pandit as well as the tabla masters who accompanied them to establish Hindustani musical institutions in California and other locales in North America and Europe over the past fifty years. Equally significant for the creation of a global ethnography of tabla would be the collection of life histories of tabla masters such as Ustad Alla Rakha Khan, Pandit Kishen Maharaj, Ustad Amir Hussain Khan, Pandit Nikel Ghosh and others which document the transition of tabla from an accompaniment instrument of the court system to its more modern adaptations as a transglobal rhythmic source and art form. Tracking these earlier ethnoscapes will be crucial in unraveling the many musical and cultural networks formed and reformed by the masters allowing for the virtual explosion of tabla rhythms and Hindustani classical music in the globe today.

Global Tabla and the Question of World Music

In this paper I have discussed the emergence of tabla and Hindustani music as part of a larger movement or category of “world music”. World music, often difficult to describe and analyze, is a hotly contested concept among scholars, artists and consumers alike. Bor (2008) has recently provided a necessary corrective to older concepts of world music stating that the historical roots of world music and dance must be seen as exiting prior to the late 1980s and 1990s unlike where transnational corporations, music industry types, and academic institutions seem to locate it. Rather, the globalization of artistic forms and indeed world music itself has a much longer, more complex history. No matter which definition of the concept we subscribe to, ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, music makers and music listeners are actively involved in the changing the ethnoscapes of tabla and the many musical crossings taking place today. While noting the significant possibilities for musicians in crossing physical and aesthetic boundaries in the music industry, ethnomusicologist Steven Feld (2001) warns of the many pitfalls globalization presents in the reproduction of world music. Over the years Hindustani music, Bollywood or filmi music, tabla and world fusion incorporating tabla ultimately are bought and sold

28 Tracking the Intercultural under the umbrella category of world music. The distinct genres of Indian music as classical, popular and folk give way to a culturally de-contextualized space of global or world music. However, in a competing view offered by Stokes (2003) the question of world music, he suggests, cannot be reduced to one of cultural imperialism alone. He goes on to state that “the transnationals have not been entirely successful in controlling the market of the music…” (Stokes 2003: 301). As Stokes notes globalization theories tend to focus on the circulation of commodities and capital (Stokes 2001: 302) and what is often left out are people, their lives, histories and cultures. Perhaps Appadurai’s model of globalization (1996; 1991; 2001) best describes what we are witnessing in the globalization of tabla music. He states, “The various flows we see-of objects, persons, images and discourses-are not coeval, convergent, isomorphic or spatially consistent. They are…”relations of disjuncture.”(Appadurai 2001: 5). Attention to the local in the larger framework of the global translates into following the scapes, networks, and localities of musicians and their music.

References 1. Appadurai, Arjun 2001. “Grassroots Globalization and the Research Imagination,” in Globalization, edited by Arjun Appadurai. Durham & London: Duke University Press: 1-21. 2. Appadurai, Arjun 1997. “Genealogies of the Present: Asian Modernity in the Era of Globalization,” Opening Address, Traditions/Tensions: A Symposium on Contemporary Art in Asia. Vancouver, B.C. April 26-27. 3. Appadurai, Arjun 1996. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Public Worlds, Volume 1. Minneapolis & London: University of Minnesota Press. 4. Appadurai, Arjun 1991. “Global Ethnoscapes: Notes and Queries for a Transnational Anthropology,” in Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present. School of Advanced Research Seminar Series. Santa Fe, New Mexico: 191-210. 5. Bor, Joep 2008. Then There Was World Music And Dance…. Inaugural lecture delivered at the acceptance ceremony of the Extra European Performing Arts Studies Professorship on behalf of the Leiden Ethnological Fund at Leiden University – on March 25, 2008. Leiden University: 25-40. 6. Clifford, James 1997. Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

29 Denise Nuttall 7. Clifford, James 1993. “Sites of Crossing: Borders and Diasporas in Late Twentieth Century Expressive Culture,” in Cultural Currents. January (1):1-4. 8. Erdman, Joan L. 1985. Patrons and Performers in Rajasthan: The Subtle Tradition. Delhi: Chanakya Publishers. 9. Farrell, Gerry with Jayeeta Bhowmick and Graham Welch 2005. “South Asian music in Britain,” in Diasporas and Interculturalism in Asian Performing Arts: Translating Traditions. Hae-kyung Um Editor. London and New York: Routledge Curzon. 10. Farrell, Gerry 1997. Indian Music and the West. New York: Oxford University Press. 11. Feld, Steven 2001. “A Sweet Lullaby for World Music,” in Globalization, edited by Arjun Appadurai. Durham & London: Duke University Press. 12. Fox, Richard G. Ed. 1991. Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present. School of Advanced Research Seminar Series. Santa Fe, New Mexico. 13. Hussain, Zakir 1995. Personal Interviews. Seattle, Washington. 14. Kippen, James 1991. “Changes in the Social Status of Tabla Players,” in (8):16-29. 15. Latour, Bruno 1987. Science in Action. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. 16. Marcus, George E. 1986. Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Edited by George E. Marcus and James Clifford. Berkeley: University of California Press. 17. Nuttall, Denise 2007. “Pathway to Knowledge: Embodiment, Dreaming and Experience as a Basis for Understanding the Other,” in Extraordinary Anthropology: Transformations in the Field, edited by Jean-Guy A. Goulet and Bruce G. Miller. Preface by Johannes Fabian. Lincoln & London: University of Nebraska Press: 323-351. 18. Nuttall, Denise 1998. Embodying Culture: Gurus Disciples and Tabla Players. Ph.D. Dissertation (Anthropology). The University of British Columbia. 19. Stokes, Martin 2003.“Globalization and the Politics of World Music,” in The Cultural Study of Music, edited by Martin Clayton, Herbert Trevor & Richard Middleton. London & New York: Routledge: 297-308.

30 Western Influence on Indian Music – Nottuswara Sahithya of Muthuswami Dikshitar: An Intercultural Musical Form S.A.K. Durga

The Nottuswara Sahithya of Muthuswami Dikshitar is a fine example of intercultural musical form in the realm of . Muthuswami Dikshitar, one of the greatest composers of Carnatic music, composed forty compositions known as Nottuswara Sahithya in Sanskrit and Telugu, which are prescribed for abhyasagana or technical compositions in the place of gitam for beginners to practise. Intercultural compositions were sometimes created by South Indian composers during the late 18th and 19th centuries as that was a time of mutual fascination on the part of Europe and the Orient. These Nottuswara Sahithya pieces are set to English tunes and the text is the form of a poem in Sanskrit or in Telugu. Among the forty compositions, eleven have an exact replica of the English songs’ melodies. Muthuswami Dikshitar (1775-1835) lived during the British period in Indian history and had the opportunity to listen to the Western tunes played by a military band of the British East India Company. Ramaswami Dikshitar, the father of Muthuswami Dikshitar, was also a great musician and Sanskrit scholar. He brought his three sons to a place called Manali near Madras, to a music patron’s house. The latter was the zamindar of Manali and he requested Ramaswami Dikshitar to be his court musician. Therefore he and his three sons settled in Manali for some years. The zamindar was closely connected to the East India Company and he used to take Muthuswami Dikshitar and his brothers to Fort St. George, which was the British Government Secretariat. It was there that they listened to Western music played by the British band. Muthuswami Dikshitar’s brother Baluswami Dikshitar was very much fascinated by the fiddle, played by Irishmen in the British band. When he expressed his desire to learn the fiddle, the music patron arranged for an Irish fiddler to teach him the instrument. Baluswami Dikshitar mastered the technique of playing fiddle and adapted it perfectly to play Carnatic music on the European instrument. He was the first to play Carnatic Music on the violin, which has now become an indispensable accompaniment for a Carnatic music concert.

31 S.A.K. Durga It is said that Muthuswami Dikshitar was requested by the Collector of Madras, Mr Brown, to compose text for famous European airs. Dikshitar accepted his request and composed eleven compositions with Sanskrit text for the European melodies. They are the following compositions: 1. Santatam Pahimam – to the British National Anthem “God save the King/ Queen” 2. Vande Meenakshi – to the famous Irish melody “Limerick” 3. Varasikhivahanam – to the tune of “Castilian Maid” by Thomas Moore 4. Peetavarnam Bhaje – to the tune of “Taa-za-Taza” 5. Jagadeesa Guruguha – to the tune of “Lord McDonald’s Reel” 6. Subramanyam Surasevyam – to the tune of “British Grenadier”. The tune is the regimental march of the Grenadier Guards [and other regiments], a senior foot guard regiment of the British Army 7. Kancheesam Ekambaram – to the tune of “Country dance” 8. Ramachandram Rajeevaksham – to the tune of the English song “Let us lead a life of Pleasure” 9. Sakalasuravinutha – to the tune of “Quick March” 10. Sakthi Sahitha Ganapathim – to the tune of the song “Voulez-vous danser” 11. Sowri Vidhinute – to the tune of the famous English song “Oh Whistle, and I will come to you, my lad” The titles of the European airs for the lyrics are mentioned in the first Telugu manuscript (1833). Thus these eleven compositions have a Sanskrit text for the European popular tunes. Muthuswami Dikshitar’s other Nottuswara Sahithya which are twenty nine songs, were composed in the Western scale of C Major and sometimes accidentals are introduced in the C Major scale. The tala-s Tisra Ekam (three units) and Chaturasra Ekam (four units), which are the 3/4 and 4/4 timings of Western music, are set for these forty compositions. Though Muthuswami Dikshitar composed forty compositions of Nottuswara Sahitya, the notation is only available for thirty-six of them. The texts or sahithya for these compositions are in Sanskrit and Telugu and they are in the

32 Western Influence on Indian Music form of verses. They do not have the sections of , and as one finds in the other musical forms of South Indian classical music. They are set in one section as a verse. These poems or verses are in praise of the different gods and goddesses of holy places such as Srirangam, Tirupathi, Kanchi, Madurai and others. It is also interesting to know that the mudra or signature of the composer Muthuswami Dikshitar is given as “Guruguha” in these pieces before we find his mudra in his -s. It can be said that these are the earliest compositions of Muthuswami Dikshitar before he turned into a great composer of kriti forms. From these early creations, forerunners of his later kriti-s which are monumental works, the attitude and the style of Muthuswami Dikshitar can be assessed. Later, when he began to compose kriti-s to many different gods and goddesses at the different shrines, he adopted many Hindustani raga-s such as Brindavani, Jai Jaivanti and so on, into the realm of Carnatic music. As he always wanted to synthesize the music cultures, he has composed kriti-s in the format of Hindustani dhrupad-s and used the Sanskrit language. As these compositions are included in the Prahamabhyasa Pusthakamu of Subbarama Dikshitar (grandson of the brother of Mutuswami Dikshitar), which was published in 1905 as technical compositions for beginners (abhyasagana), it is more probable that these compositions were prescribed and practised by beginners at that period (late 19th and early 20th centuries) as simple melodies with text, in the place of gitam-s. In the performing tradition, many Sanskrit verses are converted as gitam with raga and tala and are taught to beginners who learn Carnatic music in a systematic manner. One of the famous and popular Sanskrit verses converted into a gitam which is in practice to this time is Vara Mrudu Pani in the raga . The range of the Nottuswara Sahithya composition is mostly in the middle octave though low and high notes also figure sparingly, as in gitam compositions. The tempo of these compositions is medium. The Telugu manuscript was presented to Charles Philip Brown in Madras in 1820 by Kuppayya and Seshayya under the name of Jathiswaramulu. Though the primary source calls them Jathiswaramulu, the title Nottuswara Sahithya is a more appropriate term for these compositions (see below). From 1905, after the publication of Subbarama Dikshitar’s Prathamabhyasa PusthaRamu, these compositions have been known only as Nottuswara Sahithya. The Telugu paper manuscript no. D.2536 is preserved in the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Chennai (Madras). It contains those Sanskrit

33 S.A.K. Durga compositions in Telugu script with English titles for the songs which have the identical melody of European airs and consist of only twenty songs. The first twelve are in Sanskrit and have the mudra/signature of the composer as Guruguha like in his later Sanskrit kriti compositions, as mentioned above. A few of the Nottuswara Sahithya pieces are published in A.M. Chinnaswami Mudaliar’s work Oriental Music in Staff Notation (1893) but without any title for the songs. An article by Professor P. Sambamoorthy was published in the Journal of the Music Academy, 1951 and Dr V. Raghavan contributed another article on Nottuswara Sahithyam of Muthuswami Dikshitar in the Journal of the Music Academy, 1977. Subbarama Dikshitar published Prathamabhyasa Pusthakamu in 1905 where he has published thirty-two compositions with swara notation under the title Nottuswara Sahithyam but with no attribution of the European titles for the compositions, which are composed with identical European tunes. Although written by Muthuswami Dikshshitar in the late 18th century when he visited Madras along with his father in his teens, before he started to compare kriti compositions, the first publication of Nottuswara Sahithya with notation came only sixty years after his passing in the publication of A.M. Chinnaswami Mudaliar in 1893. After this, Subbarama Dikshitar, the adopted son of Baluswami Diksihtar, published it in his Prathamabhyasa Pusthakamu in 1905. Later there were a few more publications with notation. Studying these two early main sources and other secondary sources, one finds that it is only published in swara notation and the singing style taught to students is not in Western style but only in the style of Carnatic music, as composed with the scale of without any microtonal ornamentation. It stands as a simple song for beginners to acquaint them with melodic movements or phrases in the scale. These compositions are not sung in performances at any time as they lack aesthetic appeal. A study of the melodic content of the European airs in those composition shows that a few melodies are reels and jigs from Irish folk tunes, since in the Western band at the Collector’s Office there were Irish musicians at that time. As already mentioned briefly, the titles of the European airs for the lyrics were first mentioned in the manuscript presented by one Ruppaiah to Mr Brown in 1833, who was then the Collector of Madras and who had requested Muthuswami Dikshitar to compose for a few Western airs. The manuscript which is in Telugu, names these compositions as Jathiswaramulu. The reason to refer to them thus may be that the music consisted of swara

34 Western Influence on Indian Music passages and set to tala, as used for Bharatanatyam dance accompaniment. Since the Nottuswara Sahithya compositions mainly adopted the tunes of folk dances, the author might have given this name, Jathiswaramulu. The title Jatiswaramulu raises the question as to whether the composer composed only the notes and later the Sanskrit text was added by the composer himself or by his father who was also a composer. Subbarama Dikshtar who is the grandson of the composer’s brother first termed the compositions as Nottuswara Sahithya in his work in 1905. The text of the compositions is mostly syllabic and more like rhyme. They are simple, for children to learn easily. As with any other music composition, this form also consists of devotional pieces on different Hindu deities. There are some changes from the original European melodies and the melodies of Nottuswara Sahithyam compositions in European airs, for example the one in Castilian mode, a folk tune that was transcribed by Benjamin Carr (1768-1831). In his book, the composition appears notated in 3/8 meter (Carr’s musical miscellany in occasional numbers, 1812). The song in Lord McDonald’s reel, Jagadeesa Guruguha, has two sections. The original A and B lines are switched with an additional word to pick up to the first beat of the song. One finds that these compositions are not a homogenous collection of British airs but there is diversity in their melodic content from the original tunes. These earlier compositions of Muthuswami Dikshitar also throws light on his mastery in synthesizing two different music cultures. In his later excellent kriti compositions too, he has synthesized the use of Hindustani raga-s, and he used the Hindustani dhrupad format in Carnatic music compositions. His compositional attitude in worshipping the different deities at different shrines are also revealed in his Nottuswara Sahithya-s. The choice of the Sanskrit language for these compositions reveals his spirit of national integration. One can say that Muthuswami Dikshitar’s contribution of the intercultural musical form, the Nottuswara Sahithya, to the world of music in the early 19th Century, is unsurpassed. The concept of interculturalism is found in all musics of the world and Indian music is no exception.

35 Music and Change Shawm Playing in Bhaktapur Nepal Simonne Bailey

Introduction

Bhaktapur, known as the city of devotees in the language of the indigenous people the Newars, sits in the east of Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, 20 kilometres from the capital. It was once the seat of one of the Malla kingdoms which were conquered by Ghurkha invasion as part of the creation of the modern Nepali state in the late eighteenth century. The people of this city were until recently almost all of Newar decent and it was during the 500 years of Malla rule that their elaborate culture of the arts was established and blossomed. Shawms, the subject of this paper, were added possibly only a hundred years before the demise of the Malla dynasty but nevertheless they became an intrinsic ingredient, enriching the musical kaleidoscope of Newar culture and religious devotion. Shawms in Newar musical practise are generally viewed as accompanying instruments for drums. They are played by professional Newar caste musicians for several different genres of music and with musical groups throughout the city of Bhaktapur. The musical groups which hire them are not regarded as professional musicians and come from other strata of society. Kathmandu no longer has active shawm players from this Newar caste, true they can be seen at the Indra Jatra festival for instance but these men come from Bhaktapur, just as the players at the major Hindu shrine of Pashupatinath come from the town of Thimi, part of Bhaktapur district. In addition, a fragile population of surviving players exists, scattered thinly across the settlements of the Valley. The diasporas of Newars pocketed throughout Nepal do not have shawm players from their own musician caste. Players in the Bhaktapur district are disappearing as the elderly retire and few new faces take their place, giving very real meaning to the prospect of change in this discipline. My notion on change is that traditional music in Bhaktapur and elsewhere goes through a process of, at times, imperceptible modification and keeps on changing as part of a process of cultural evolution, with certain periods seeing a more rapid expression of the process. Since Nepal embraced the outside world in the second half of the 20th century, change has accelerated in most aspects of life, as society tries to emulate outside cultures often

36 Music and Change perceived as better, more progressive or affluent. Ethnomusicologists may see this change as the end of tradition but new music and cultural norms replace old practise, regardless of whether scholars admire the new society. For those of us who have been privileged to enjoy some of the rich traditions of the “old” music in Bhaktapur, it is heartbreaking to see the demise of complex and beautiful playing and singing practices, not least the death of shawm playing in its customary form. Music is only a part of the cultural change and cannot be kept in isolation and preserved as it was; the people involved are reinventing themselves. Traditional forms can to some extent be preserved and frozen in time as “performance events” but the very nature of performance brings about change in the music, the players and the playing occasions. The subject of change in this article is from the perspective of a shawm player in Bhaktapur where I have participated in this music since 2004. People who play shawms in this society, myself included, often play band instruments ( and ) in addition, so that some of the changes of the shawm world Photo 1: Three Gujarati Mvali during a playing overlap to include these band occasion (Photo: Simonne Bailey). groups. In examining change in terms of shawm music in Bhaktapur I look at playing practises and how they have developed or deteriorated over time. First a look at the music, the tunes that we play, the unnoticed melodies where change is manifest in every rendition. Change that can be continuous, permanent, cyclic or merely lasting for the moment of sound.

Changes in Tunes

Shawms in Newar traditional music as played in Bhaktapur are used as the melody producing element of an ensemble. As the doyen of drumming

37 Simonne Bailey traditions in Bhaktapur, Gert-Matthias Wegner has documented the musical groups in the city and way that compositions and skills are passed on through an apprenticeship model of training (Wegner 1986: 20). During the instruction period drumming patterns and compositions are transmitted via three separate mechanisms: firstly through memorisation and repetition of mnemonics which mimic the sound of the drum and the strokes required for a particular composition; demonstration by the master where both sound and sight are utilised to convey the actions necessary to produce a particular stroke or drumming pattern; thirdly, physical manipulation of the apprentices’ arms and hands in the correct movements may take place. Students are coached through oral, aural, visual and physical methods. Shawm players instruction is primarily aural, that is, relying on the imitation of a tune first played by the master. There is limited use of vision but it is not easy to rely on this method when learning because it is often difficult to discern clearly which fingers are being demonstrated, particularly with elderly arthritic players. Traditional instruction takes place principally by first learning to sound the instrument and gaining familiarity with its tones and then memorising the tune, in an aural tradition. It is interesting to note here that the tunes were customarily demonstrated as a whole item, not built up in short phrases. Would it be reasonable to imagine that over hundreds of years this aural tradition, where tunes are never written down and do not use any learning aids such as mnemonics, remain exactly the same melodies as the ones they started out as? One of the most skilled drummers in the city, a man in his seventies with a clear mind and good memory, relates how he was taught the repertory of the nine drum ensemble like most boys as a teenager but unlike most he learnt in a different part of the city, not his own neighbourhood. After his apprenticeship he took this knowledge and honed his skills to play for the next sixty years for a group in his home location. Each New Year festival he comes to listen to the group which has descended from the teacher he learnt with sixty years ago. Every year he tells me how different the compositions are in this place even though the master drummer there is a man of similar age and learnt at a similar time and from the same teacher as he did. The differences he tells me are even more marked in a third area of the city where this genre of nine drums is played. So called “fixed compositions” have changed over the period of time even in the minds of three masters of drumming. As shawm players with all of these groups we too detect real contrasts between them. Tunes played on shawms change in

38 Music and Change the same way with a number of additional elements particular to this playing genre. Apart from basic structure, number of sections and shape or phrasing which enables a melody to fit within a particular drumming composition, there are almost no fixed features to a tune and a melody can manifest itself on a different occasion to be barely recognisable. Several times I have imagined we played a new tune whilst we were accompanying a ritual and on asking the name, realise it is one already known to me but in a changed form. These changes can take place in particular when the shawm group is led by a musician who has learnt from a different line of teachers or played all his life mostly for different employing client groups. Further evidence of this comes when we listen to the tunes played by musicians from the neighbouring towns of Thimi or Dhulikel. These are the same melodies with similar names but with marked differences to those played in Bhaktapur city. Most importantly almost all tunes played by shawms are not exclusive to their use but are used by any melodic instruments, nowadays this includes guitars, vocalists and electronic instruments. Completely new versions occur when a tune is taken up and popularised through the media or rewritten for recording and then returns as a reincarnation to be played by shawm. Frequently traditional tunes are adapted by the popular film industry and the new versions become part of the shawm repertoire alongside the old, often passed on through work with “silver” wedding bands and back to shawm. The notation in the example (on the next page) shows a case where a traditional tune was revamped by the popular media and made its way back into the shawm playing repertoire in a new form. Example 1 is the traditional version of a tune which had fallen out of use but was still retained in memory, meanwhile other melodies had been selected to fit with this drumming composition. Example 2 shows the contemporary version of the same tune re-introduced into the shawm repertoire. Change took place when a group giving staged performances wanted this melody for their

39 Simonne Bailey

Example of a traditional tune, revamped by popular media into a contemporary version and returned once again into the shawm playing repertoire.

proposed tour and chose to use an updated popular version. The shawm players in the group were unfamiliar with the revamped version and so the drummers passed it on to them having learnt the tune from a popular recording. Later in a traditional neighbourhood playing situation one of the drummers from the performance group demanded that this melody accompany his processional playing and it was played in its traditional form for several days. One of the performance group shawm players joined the ensemble briefly for a procession and interpolated the contemporary version of the melody which was picked up by the others and adopted on subsequent occasions with this drummer. Later in a different work situation the traditional tune which had not been used for several years was reclaimed as part of the repertoire again. This demonstrates not only how an old tune

40 Music and Change can be revived and a new version introduced but how the media or other instruments can take a tune and change it in some cases, almost unrecognizably. The example introduces a further new phenomenon in playing practise to which I will return in the next section, the proscribing of a tune by the client drummer(s) to the extent of introducing a new non- traditional version. Shawm melodies played as accompaniment in this tradition form a more or less continuous background to the featured percussion sound and are usually short and relatively simple. Drumming compositions typically last from between 5 to 15 minutes whilst the main or most repeated section of most tunes takes only between 10 to 20 seconds to play. Taking a median of these figures, the tune is repeated approximately 40 times over the duration of one composition. Add to this the fact that tempo tends to increase as the composition progresses, even more repetition occurs. There is normally a second or even a third part of a melody which is repeated only occasionally but these secondary sections tend to be even shorter than the main one. During procession or on occasions where two drums alternate in the playing of a composition, its duration can be as much as 35 minutes, meaning the melody is repeated roughly a gruelling 140 times. In a tongue twister where the same phrase is repeated again and again, faster and faster, it is almost impossible to retain the words clearly with identical speech patterns. I would suggest we do a lot better than most players of word games but cannot deny some change does occur. All the same, just as the tongue twister enunciation reverts to the original when the game restarts, so tunes change back to their original the next time they are played; the original which is embedded in the memory of the musician. Change occurs but is not necessarily permanent.

Elements That Can Cause Temporary Change Each Time a Tune Is Used

• Tempo • Ornamentation • Introduction, start • Finishing place, end of composition • Joining sections • Part of the tune inserted between repeats • Playing of secondary or additional sections of a tune and repeats • Pitch • Duration of notes in relation to each other and pauses 41 Simonne Bailey

• Duration of playing time, number of repeats • Selection of tunes in linked compositions • “Tails” shortened and dropped • Introduction of half time • Volume of sound Each time a tune is performed with a drum it is different, with a variety of temporary changes possible. There is no fixed tempo for any tune, it depends on the drummer who customarily makes the first few beats alone unless the composition begins with a rag on shawm. Roughly speaking a tune increases in speed during a drumming composition. Within the period of the composition tempo varies for slower drumming patterns and when the second or subsequent sections of the melody are played. Ornamentation can be added or dropped during the playing of a piece, as a technique to synchronise to the drum as well as being particular to playing style, making idiosyncratic playing typical. Tunes can start in changeable places or have an introductory starting phrase that is not played on subsequent repeats, changing the initial sound of the tune. The end of the composition is dependent on the drummer and shawms customarily stop mid tune as the drum ceases with no control over the ending or resolution of their tune. Some tunes include joining sections only used by particular masters. Similarly, especially during procession, the lead shawm player may insert half or a few phrases of the tune between repeats to adjust to the drummers. The second section of a tune may be played through twice or only once, introduced once during the whole composition or even left out completely, depending on the whim of drummer and the drumming patterns selected within a composition. Other tunes may have two or three or even four secondary sections which may or may not be included in every rendition, making each drumming performance distinct with regard to melody. The pitch of some tunes can be varied with different players or even on the request of the employing master, who may for instance feel a higher pitch during procession is more audible. The duration of individual notes in relation to each other and to breathing places are not fixed and change on different occasions although the tune and phrasing as a whole must fit into the drumming structure. The length of the playing time is dependant on the drummer, how many patterns he includes and how many repeats he makes in his composition, making the event as a whole different each time. Occasionally during a very long processional composition a master may switch to a fresh tune to take physical strain from the players, making a change in the sound as

42 Music and Change a whole. Some drumming compositions are made up of linked pieces switching to a new time structure completely where the shawm players have a choice of new tunes. This element of choice means that the linked composition as a whole does not necessarily sound the same every time it is played. Some changes which occur during the repeated playing cycles of a tune are built into the structure of the melody. In practise these elements obey no hard and fast rules, so that the melody cannot be said to be composed to change in an identical manner each time a composition progresses. Each performance is unique so that it can be said to temporarily change the tune. Examples of built in elements of change occur in tunes which end in a repeated tail section. As the tempo of the tune increases first the repeat will be dropped and eventually the whole tail, thus shortening the tune to fit with the drummer. When drumming becomes frenetic the accompanying tune can slow down to half time to save the tune from becoming completely lost. This last example can typically take place during a procession with drums and band instruments: clarinet and trumpet. The master on clarinet will switch the time and as the repeat the phrase they will follow suit with the new temporarily changed tune keeping half pace with the drums. When the drummers change their pace or a different drum takes over the accompaniment reverts to synchronise with the percussion. Dynamics are not part of the discipline of playing shawm in Nepal. Loud equals proficiency, so that the volume varies according to the skill of the individual player, his health, the condition and size of his reed, his instrument and how many hours he has been playing. Local myth has it that the more players imbibe alcoholic beverages the better, and therefore louder, they will play and to this end they are frequently plied with drinks at all times of day. Within a melody there is no conscious variation of decibels. Volume is as well dependent on the number of shawms playing at any one time and on the regime of breathing between the players. In the golden years of shawm playing I am told that there were usually at least eight instruments playing together, enabling each player to take proper breathing spaces and rest during playing but leaving the sound as a seamless melody. Nowadays we rarely play with more than three or four shawms together and often only two or even just one. I have experienced the heady thrill of playing in a company of eight shawms leaving all the energy in the world to make each

43 Simonne Bailey note perfect. This change of personnel clearly affects volume making playing occasions different. The selection of a tune is traditionally left to the lead shawm player. His choice is codified by several factors: first the composition selected by the drummer, the season of the year, the type of occasion, the time of day or the demands of a dance. Still, given a virtually endless number of melodies known to a master, there are choices within these boundaries that can cover several tunes and the player brings his experience to make an appropriate choice. All this makes each rendition of a drumming composition unique. On occasion the same composition is selected on the same drum by a second drummer but sounds quite different with a new accompanying tune. This traditional choice and variation of tune is now in a state of change where young drummers today are often only conversant with a limited number of traditional melodies so that the same tunes must be played for them on every occasion to assure their confidence. As these same drummers may only know one composition in the range for a particular drum this means that the group of tunes played for the whole occasion becomes stale and repetitive. Traditionally many of the regular duties of shawm players were commissioned acts of devotion to the gods and early morning or late night rituals might have had few humans witnesses, certainly the case when they occur today. Even in everyday events where non participants are present, little attention is usually paid to the shawms and few non musicians listen, or even know, which tune has been played on any occasion. There are exceptions to this when a request for a favourite tunes is played, especially on the occasion of a feast or when accompanying dancers require particular tunes. Non traditional groups who perform for audiences or go outside traditional playing occasions are now demanding certain tunes be played rather than leaving choice to shawm players, such as in Example 2. This changes the profile of the portfolio of tunes used, as these performance drummers tend to demand newer more lively versions of tunes, selected without regard to season or other customary deciding factors and choose what they feel will appeal to their audience. In addition, with a modicum of exposure to other musics they sometimes add in features such as dynamics, changes in pitch, or a plan of the tempo and duration of performance. This can mean the shawm players are required to learn a new version of a tune on the demand of the performance group or use a new style to suit these

44 Music and Change clients wishes. It also means the resulting more polished performance lacks original spontaneity.

Shawm Playing Practice and Change

Players of shawms are said to have appeared in the Kathmandu valley from Western India during the reign of the Malla kings, scholars date their arrival to the late seventeenth century (Wegner 2011: 91). David Gellner says that their family name Kapali, has a historical link with Kapalika ascetics who wandered through India in the first millennium (Gellner 1999: 278). Neils Gutschow and Alex Michaels (Gutschow & Michaels 2005: 50) in writing on death rituals in Bhaktapur, mention dedicatory inscriptions on religious buildings in the city dating from the early seventeenth century detailing shawm players duties and remuneration. Richard Widdess has further postulated that perhaps earlier these musicians played conch and animal horns before their evolution into shawm players (verbal communication).

Photo 2: Accompanying Pachima on Gujarati Mvali during a political rally (Photo: Simonne Bailey). According to players in Bhaktapur it is supposed that the instruments they use come from more than one source. In the twenty-first century change has meant that the straight shawm, Gujarati Mvali is the one that is played almost exclusively and as its name indicates it is thought to have come with the players from the Indian state of Gujarat. Its body and bell are remarkably

45 Simonne Bailey similar to the north Indian Sahanai although the reed is rather larger, there is no ventral thumb hole, circular breathing is not employed and playing practise is less sophisticated. Christian Schneider in his article on shawms in the Kathmandu valley says that circular breathing was once employed as evidenced by the lip disc used by most musicians but present day players have no knowledge of this history and attribute the disc to optional protection for the teeth and mouth (Schneider 1999: 79). The curved shawm Puja Mvali, once in regular use but now only occasionally played in Bhaktapur, is thought by players to be Nepali in origin, like the Sahanai of the Nepali Damai musicians. There are five or more straight shawms of varying sizes and at least two of the older curved variety, some of these instruments were used for melody and others to provide a drone, (Schneider mentions and photographs four straight shawms but my colleagues identify the ones here as only three distinct instruments). Ambiguity arises from the fact that there are non standard examples of instruments that I am assured by players do not constitute a new category of instrument or a new application but are merely different sizes or materials. This demonstrates how instruments are individual and how they have been adapted and have evolved for the particular use they are put to or even to suit the finances or resources of the player. Even standard Gujarati can be made of different woods and decorated in idiosyncratic style. Nowadays it would be difficult for an aspiring shawm player to obtain an instrument other than a Gujarati unless it was inherited. Even with Gujarati, original instruments are not easy to locate and although new instruments can be made they tend to be of unplayable quality and made from inferior wood. Most of the old instruments have disappeared from the city, either broken, rotted away, sold to tourists and others laying mute in various organology collections around the world. In 2010 I completed a measurement survey of all existing known Gujarati Mvali in Bhaktapur and could only reach a dismal total of 30 including those in a broken condition. Of these 32, 5 are in a show case at Kathmandu University, and several lie stored in households. Instruments that are played can be traced back several generations and two of those documented bear inscriptions dating to the early nineteenth century. Players claim that their shawms belonged to their grandfather’s grandfather or as far as can be remembered. My survey of Gujarati Mvali showed no significant variations in the dimensions or construction of the instruments.

46 Music and Change Curved shawms are rarely used nowadays in Bhaktapur changing the nature of playing in the city. Players are reluctant to play the Puja Mvali, formerly used as the melody instrument at many important religious and life cycle rituals. During August 2010 after repeated request we did use them on three or four occasions but stopped as soon as the clients ceased their insistence. It seems inevitable that the playing of this instrument will die out in Bhaktapur except for tourist or performance programmes. Certain tunes written to be played on Puja Mvali change in nature when played on straight shawm because of the absence of a dorsal thumb hole on the latter. These tunes used in rituals are quite unique compared with other tunes used in that they are not played by other melodic genres of instrument. The second curved shawm has disappeared from use as it function was as a drone instrument used with the Puja Mvali. Scholars appear to couple the low caste status of the players with their reluctance to play curved shawms and thus be identified with this symbol of their caste profession. Although there is validity in this I feel it is over simplistic as the sole contributory factor to the demise of a traditional culture. Research seems all too ready to attribute any changes within shawm playing tradition simply to the low caste stigma perceived to be felt by players, rather than looking at change as part of a new social and cultural environment. Societal evolution as a whole has changed caste professions in every way; education, choice, mobility both economic and physical as well as exposure to wider possibilities, to list but a few examples. Several straight shawms have disappeared from the musical scene in the city but here I think the reasons might be easier to pin down. One, a drone, is almost extinct with to my knowledge possibly only three remaining examples in Bhaktapur, two behind glass in Kathmandu University. These instruments were played in shawm ensembles that no longer exist in their original form and with the reduction in the number of musicians and in appropriate work, they have been dropped from the ensembles along with several metal natural trumpets once used by shawm players in their temple ensemble. The second small straight shawm was used at weddings and for some ceremonial occasions. As the tunes played by this instrument are no longer required and shawms are no longer engaged for weddings, this example too has dropped out of use. I have only found one example of a forth, a very small straight shawm which was played I am told with two softer sounding drums which require a less noisy accompaniment. Hitherto I had been told these drums

47 Simonne Bailey were accompanied by small bamboo or wooden fipple flutes but another small instrument with six holes, has been named as a shawm alternative to these which for some reason was unpopular or fell out of use. Could it have been an innovation that never took off? I have come into contact with other small straight shawms from the other side of the Kathmandu Valley, both bearing dorsal thumb holes and whose function seems to have been forgotten by current players. It is likely that further research could reveal other variations which are no longer used. Evolution or change has taken the shawm playing families from India to Nepal, from possibly playing conch and natural trumpets to curved and straight shawms. It has seen the demise of groups of players going out every morning and evening to play in temples in groups of eight to twelve players to play on shawms with tunes that today are rarely if ever heard by outsiders but which are not yet quite forgotten by players. It has seen decline in the employment of shawm players by the major temples of the city and by groups of drummers whose numbers are also in decline. This has been attributed to the disappearance of traditional forms of funding through income producing land legacies, donated by wealthy citizens for the continuance of musical and ritual activities, which were appropriated by the state in 1963 with the creation of government offices to take care of town rituals (Wegner 2011: 90). Payment to shawm players has evolved from ancient agreements providing annual amounts of grain, to unrealistically low cash payments. The demise of shawm playing goes hand in hand with the disappearance of drumming groups. Market forces such as a money economy, greater expectations and materialism, turn players to seek other employment with only a few mostly older men playing within the community. Paid employment with regular hours does not combine happily with taking a day off to play for a ritual. Old shawm players have however told me that professional musicianship was never enough to support families and other employment supplemented income. Often this was tailoring and the traditional tasks of cleaning the temple but other work was taken as well. In the few years that I have been a shawm player I have witnessed a reduction in requests to play for life cycle and religious events. Remaining requests tend to come from groups of older individuals who cling to a traditional past and have the time to indulge in it. We are kept busy only because of the dwindling number of players. Families often request

48 Music and Change drumming or flute groups from their own neighbourhood to accompany rituals Most young people even if they have the time to spend all day attending a ritual event do not relish the sound of shawms and several of these events now use drums not requiring shawm accompaniment, “brass” bands or in other cases no musical accompaniment at all. In such cases the music that might have once been played by percussion and shawm or different drums may be supplied by electronic means when required for the party. Members of the public, particularly young people, stuff fingers in their ears, snigger and look away as we play in the streets instead of being proud of their cultural heritage. Young people and children increasingly ask me what instrument I am playing when we bring out our shawms, they have no idea of its name or its tradition. The evolution of shawm playing is not only the paring away of instruments and playing groups that I have described above but along the way there have been developments into other genres of playing. Early in the twentieth century the high caste Buddhist groups of the Kathmandu Valley choose to dispense with shawms to accompany their drumming groups during the Buddhist processional month. Like the army and police they modernised, copying their Indian neighbour and began using western valve trumpets and clarinet. These instruments were played by the same professional musicians who had played shawm for them. The men brought with them the same tunes that they had used on shawm and used their experience to fit the new instruments to the drums. Naturally pitch had to be adapted to the b flat instruments and modifications which demonstrated the versatility of the new fashion crept into the tunes. Today these Buddhist groups still use trumpets and clarinet but sometimes now with additional change. The Newar shawm players they once employed to play for them are now scarce or too old to perform in the rigours of long daily processions around the city, often getting soaked to the skin in this monsoon month. The drummers perforce turn to other Nepali band players for assistance with the result that these men bring with them new changes to the tunes, often new tunes because they are unfamiliar with the traditional local religious melodies. These men can be Newar caste musicians from the villages around the city or other Nepali musicians such as Damai. They are players in wedding bands, used to playing popular Nepali or Hindi tunes with altogether different rhythms which they seem unable to relinquish and which bring in more changes.

49 Simonne Bailey Within living memory shawm music was heard at weddings in the valley. There were special tunes to be played in the early morning on the way to fetch the bride from her home and a groups of eight or more players with shawms of different types playing. During the 1960s this began to change and today only band music is heard at a wedding if indeed there is live music. The bands that superseded shawms consisted of clarinet, , and with drums, shakers and cymbals. Later cornets were replaced by trumpets and sometimes saxophone was introduced as different instruments from India became available on the market. The original players in these bands in Bhaktapur were the same men as those who played shawm, Newar musician caste professionals. As other citizens noticed the money to be made from band playing, groups of farmers employed the shawm players to teach them instruments. For a while during the seventies and eighties there were five or six bands made up entirely of farmers as well as those staffed by caste musicians. Today there are no farmers bands in the city and none where professional Newar musician families play; the Bhaktapur owned wedding bands are now entirely made up from other professional caste Nepali musicians the Damai. Frequently today the music that can be heard during evening wedding parties is international and Nepali pop music from compact discs broadcast over an electronic system, although bands can still be heard in the wedding procession. These silver bands have seen marked increase on the occasion of the festival for the dead, Gai Jatra, which takes place in August. Traditionally Newar drums of a particular genre or other traditional groups were employed by families for procession on this day but this has now diversified into several different types of drumming groups and in the case of more middle class families, silver bands. Further evolution or refinement has taken place in the silver bands on this occasion with the advent of an accompanying pick-up truck complete with vocalist and public address system. Of the four ensembles within the city that play a group of nine drums originally accompanied by professional shawm players, one now uses a traditional transverse flute ensemble drawn from their own community to play melody. This group felt self reliance and thrift preferable to paying outsiders on shawm. Other groups talk of making this same change but whether they will manage to do this before the drumming groups themselves disappear remains to be seen.

50 Music and Change The Future of Shawm Playing in Bhaktapur

I do not believe shawm playing will disappear entirely from the Kathmandu Valley. There is too much to loose in economic terms to allow “quaint” or traditional forms to become erased and Nepal is aware of the rewards of tourism. Tourism and performance by groups of international repute, will I believe take the place of temple and private employment. One important function of the shawm player within Newar society is the accompaniment of dance groups. These dance groups are in demand for international festivals, to play at tourist events, to promote tourism and to play for performance during festivals in different parts of the valley. Kathmandu University whose Department of music is situated in Bhaktapur, sponsors a performance group of drummers and uses shawm accompaniment for some of its productions. There are new patrons, political parties, protestors and civic events, all demanding processional accompaniment. There is new fusion music rearing its head and a reinvention of traditional drumming forms such as batteries of drums to be played by one drummer and accompanied by shawm, or drums which do not traditionally use a melodic accompaniment adding one in. These new forms of employment for the shawm will bring with them a change in playing practise and in repertoire. Performance playing is not the same as traditional playing as is demonstrated by its more organised and fixed nature. Playing duration, particularly in outside events is often timed, music is frequently amplified, performance is for an audience, for human rather than divine ears, participants may sit on a stage often wearing sanitised “traditional” dress, using pre-rehearsed movements and proscribed seating arrangements. Rehearsal means a more polished non traditional presentation where the tunes are decided in advance as well as the forms of these tunes and the patterns used by the drummers. No sudden change of personnel, age band restrictions and defiantly no surprise pitch. The drummers of these groups may order the tunes to be played as was demonstrated in the example with frequently no regard to customary selection methods. During recording sessions there is frequently a rough discussion of tempo in advance and Western influenced style of dynamics introduced. The tunes selected often show the influence of modern media or traditional tunes that have been adopted or adapted in popular arrangements. The result is a different sound, polished and modulated, acceptable to modern ears and international consumption; one that can be recorded, packaged, exported, duplicated, taught and even written down. This

51 Simonne Bailey new taught, written and recorded form of traditional music can be passed on to any group as the new future in the name of music education. The new metamorphosis of traditional playing has no connection with the long companionable hours spent in religious ritual, the endless discussion and reminiscence, the request for a tune accompanied by a joyful impromptu dance and a sense of community through music which has been played in this manner for centuries. It constitutes a form of evolution of music in the city with hopefully a place still remaining for the shawm.

References 1. Gellner, David 1999. Contested Hierarchies: A Collaborative Ethnography of Caste among the Newars of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, edited by David Gellner and Declan Quigley. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999. 2. Gutschow, Niels and Axel Michaels 2005. Handling Death: The Dynamics of Death and Ancestor Rituals Among the Newars of Bhaktapur, Nepal. Wies- baden: Harrassowitz Verlag. 3. Schneider, Christian 1999. “Shawms played by Tailor-Musicians of the Kathmandu Valley,” in The Double Reed 22/1. 4. Wegner, Gert-Matthias 1986. The Dhimaybaja of Bhaktapur - Studies in Newar Drumming I. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner. 5. Wegner, Gert-Matthias 1987. “Navadapha of Bhaktapur - Repertoire and Performance of the Ten Drums,” in N. Gutschow and A. Michaels (eds.), Nepalica 4/22. St. Augustin. 6. Wegner, Gert-Matthias 2011. “The town as a musical score,” in Himal 24/ 1.

52 Cultural Evolution A Case Study of Indian Music1 Wim van der Meer

This paper studies the relations between music, culture and the society which surrounds it, focussing on change as an evolutionary process. The classical music of North India serves as an example, but a similar approach may be applied to other branches of human culture, e.g. science.

Evolution and change

The complications involved in a study of social or cultural change can be realised if we see the vast amount of different and often contradictory theories about the phenomenon. Percy S. Cohen, after summarising a number of these theories, comes to the conclusion that there is no single theory which can explain social change: “Social systems can provide many sources of change” (1968: 204). This confusion is mainly due to the conceptual difficulties involved in the idea of change. Change is related to continuity, it describes a divergence from what we would normally consider non-change. Frederick Barth makes this clear when he says: “For every analysis [of change] it is therefore necessary for us to make explicit our assertions about the nature of continuity” (1967: 665). Change is irreversibly connected to the progression of time. Hence we can only distinguish between degrees of change, which we have to relate to a fictive projection of what continuity is. This appears also from Cohen's suggestion that we should distinguish between minor changes (which he considers part of persistence)

1 This article was originally published in Sangeet Natak, Journal of the , New Delhi, Vol. 35, Jan-Mar. 1975, p. 49-65. Apart from the fact that this issue is not easily found, it must also be added that the editor had not sent the text for proofreading nor had she done any checking herself. As a result (and also because of the then prevalent system of typesetting), the article was virtually unintelligible because of its typographical errors. I have maintained the same page division and numbering but also included a few observations in footnotes. The research on which this article is based has been made possible by the Netherlands Ministry of Eduction (1970-1972) and the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (1973-1975). During my fieldwork I has much guidance from Dr. André Béteille of the Delhi School of Economics. Prof. Dr. Jeremy Boissevain helped me in writing the article. A. Ipenburg and J. Bor gave many valuable suggestions. If I know anything about Indian music it is thanks to Pt. Dilip Chandra Vedi, my teacher of Hindustani classical vocal music. 53 Wim van der Meer and fundamental changes (which are genuine changes of the system) (1968: 175-8).2 A classical and powerful idea concerning change is that of evolution. It is a comprehensive way of understanding change, which has been neatly summed up by Robert A. Nisbet. In social evolutionism change is seen as natural, directional, immanent, continuous, necessary and proceeding from uniform causes (Nisbet 1969: 166-188). That change is natural and necessary we may accept as a premiss. The other points are subject of much controversy in scientific enquiry. The immanence of change, i.e. the idea that it is contained within an entity (e.g. a society), has been disputed by the “diffusionists”, who consider it the greatest weakness in social evolutionism. Continuity and discontinuity in change have recently been integrated into an evolutionary perspective by W.P. Wertheim, who considers revolution a specific variety of evolution (1971) [see english ed]. Direction was the main interest of the 19th century evolutionists, whereas the causes, or mechanism have received some attention from the “neo-evolutionists”, like White and Steward (Nisbet 1969: 226). In biology evolutionary thinking has concentrated strongly on mechanisms, and I suggest that in social science a model can be built on simple parallels to the biological view. Some biologists have hinted in this direction (see e.g. Waddington 1960; Huxley 1947), but in social science the model has been strongly neglected, due to various faulty applications that have led to great misunderstanding. The first problem is that we must make clear on which level we study evolution. The idea is, I think for social science as much as for biology, that evolution is found at all levels. Life evolves, a species evolves, organs evolve. Similarly, society evolves, sub-cultures evolve, aspects of culture evolve. The second problem is the application of the selection hypothesis in social studies. The concept of survival of the fittest has been applied to human beings - resulting in the idea of “to hell with the hindmost” (see e.g. Hofstadter on Spencer 1955: 40-41).

2 Comment from the author in 2010: John Blacking followed exactly the same distinction in his 1977 article on musical change: Blacking, John, Some Problems of Theory and Method in the Study of Musical Change.Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council, 1977, Vol. 9, 1- 26. 54 Cultural Evolution In the third place, the selection hypothesis or, in its more refined form, the ideas of ecological pressure and adaptation, has not been linked up with a model of “cultural genetics”, and variation and mutation therein. Julian Steward's work (1955) for instance concentrates on adaptation to the environment. However no-where is the actual process of adaptation shown by him, only the adapted state. Fourth, we must be fully aware that evolution as a long-term process, in which we mainly concentrate on direction, cannot be really proved or disproved, since our knowledge of the past is often far too scanty. On the other hand the study of mechanisms is micro-sociological, and derives from detailed observations of processes on short term. To link up the mechanistic approach with a directional view is very difficult, in sociology as much as in biology. The search for uniform causes in cultural change can however give insight into the meaning of direction in evolution, which otherwise, is little more than an outline of history. Fifth, it is thought that not all processes are evolution. Particularly the idea of direction in evolution means that some scientists have equated evolution with those processes that go into the direction they see in evolution. Other processes are then seen as degeneration or regression. However I suggest that all processes in culture can be studied from an evolutionary point of view. That which is called degeneration is a specific variety of evolution. The question is: How do we see processes as evolution, not: Which processes do we call evolution. In the subsequent parts of this paper I shall give a brief outline of an evolutionary model for the explanation of cultural change, as derived from biology. This will be illustrated by the case-study of Indian music. Next I shall try to indicate in how far this approach may be applied to aspects of culture in general. The final part is an essay to integrate the mechanistic approach and a directional view.

55 Wim van der Meer Mechanisms of Change: An Evolutionary Model 3

1. The hereditary system: Culture is transmitted through teaching, socialization, indoctrination and many more. Most views on culture describe it as social heredity. 2. Variations and mutations: Within a certain population (a cultural niche) aspects of culture are not identical in each sub-population or each person. E.g. each person has his own vocabulary and each sub-culture has its own vocabulary, which is the totality of words used by persons belonging to this sub-culture. The totality of the vocabulary of the whole language is again the sum of words used in each sub-culture. Mutations are a specific type of variation. In culture we can compare this to creation and innovation. Many innovations are purely variations, they are new combinations of existing elements. Although the nature and emergency of creations are unpredictable their role in cultural change has been stressed by several authors. Sorokin considers creativity the main factor in sociocultural change (1965: 89-90). Devaraja is of the same opinion (1963: 124-140). He sees the creative genius as the agent of progress, but compares him to an onlooker to a chess-game. The players mayor may not accept his suggestions (1963: 133). In this sense he realises the importance of the selective environment, which seems unnoticed by Sorokin. Apart from the creative element, mutations can also involve reduction, either as a conscious simplification, or through flaws in the hereditary system. 3. Selection, ecological pressure: The composition of the totality of culture or an aspect thereof is influenced by the environment, i.e. the persons using this culture. Certain creations or new combinations (variations) will suit the needs of the persons living in the cultural niche and hence bloom, other creations will disappear. The nature of ecological pressure will change when the environment itself changes. So far the model runs parallel to that of biology, however there are some major differences.

3 I have been strongly inspired by Waddington(1960). With regards to the biological model it must be noted that I donot concentrate on the statistics of populations, as is the case in mod- ern biology, which studies evolution on the level of the species (Mayr 1963:4-5).

56 Cultural Evolution A. Diffusion: A new creation can be immediately communicated. Cultural inheritance is effective at all times, not only at the moment of procreation. Lamarckism is more appropriate to culture than to biology. However it does not go against the evolutionary model. An “imported“ change can be treated as a mutation - on which again the environment will exert its pressure. B. Intent: Variation, mutation and selection in culture do not work purely by statistics. The desire to change, to solve problems and to innovate can induce variations and mutations, and can influence the nature of ecological pressure. Danielou, in an article on Indian music, rightly distinguishes between “haphazard” (statistic) and “conscious” evolution (1966: 11-15). The issue we study may be at any level. We can study the evolution of a word, of a group of words, of a structural characteristic of a language, of a dialect, of a language or even of language. Whatever issue we choose for study, we see the issue as the evolving subject and everything else as environment. For practical purposes it will be necessary to select from this total environment. In aspects of culture obviously man is the basic environment, including the other aspects of culture he represents. We must be aware that the environmental pressure on the aspect of culture we study applies to the variations and mutations within this aspect of culture i.e. it does not apply to human beings. Indeed, a human being may be the “carrier” of a variation in this aspect of culture. This variation may be more or less “fit for survival”, but it absolutely does not imply that that human being must be less “fit for survival”. In fact the discriminating mind of the human being in question must be seen as a primary environment in which the variation of culture “lives” or is discarded

The Case of Indian Music

Many authors use the word evolution, although in the rather loose sense of each stage in the history of music being conditioned by the foregoing stage (e.g. Deodhar, Sambamoorthy, Shukla (in Music East and West, 1966: 16-21; 24-38), Prajñanananda 1973: 33-130, 279-293. Very little in Indian music is really fixed, and we constantly see variation and mutation in front of our eyes. The long history of Indian music, in which it gradually unfolds from its earliest concepts into its present form makes an evolutionary view rather inevitable. A complicated and interesting theory of the evolution of rgas has been propounded by N.A. Jairazbhoy. He considers musical factors as the sole

57 Wim van der Meer cause in this evolution (1971: 179). Somehow he seems to overlook that music does not make itself. Musical modes have to be created, invented or borrowed from outside. Then they have to become accepted by their environment: the musicians and the audiences. Of course this reality can only be studied in the present which is not taken into account by Jairazbhoy (1971: 179). 3 In this paper I shall illustrate the model of evolution by the following questions: 1. What is the hereditary system for music, 2. Assuming the cultural whole to be static, a. How do variations and mutations manifest themselves in music, b. Which pressures come from the cultural whole and how do they effect variations and mutations, 3. When the cultural whole is seen in motion how does environmental change effect variations and mutations, 4. Do variations and mutations influence the environment? In my description I have restricted myself mainly to the period from about 1900 to the present. Only for this period can information be cross-checked with musicians who lived through this period. Some gramophone recordings are available for the major part of this period, which enable us to say something about developments in musical style. In much of the descriptions the above questions will be found interwoven.

3 Briefly summarised his theory is as follows: The scales or modes in Indian music are bi- centric in character due to a drone which resounds the tonic and the fourth or fifth. If the scale is e.g. our major scale (known as ) with C as the tonic, the drone, produces the C and the G. Jairazbhoy suggests that the G may also function as secondary tonic. This is the source of the asymmetry. In the major scale the ascending line (aroha) shows a symmetrical pair of tetrachords: c d e f - g a b c . C is the tonic of the first tetrachord, G of the second. In the descending line (avaroha) the tonics remain the same, resulting in: c' b a g - g f e d. Hence whereas the ascending is a symmetrical progression of intervals (1 1 ½, 1 1 ½) the descending is asymmetrical: ½ 1 1 : 1 ½ 1. To resolve this the descending tetrachords must be changed. This can be done either by lowering b flat, or by raising the f to f sharp. In the first case the descending tetrachords get an interval division of 1 ½ 1 (), in the second case ½ 1 1 (YAMAN). In the newly obtained scales the ascending tetrachords are asymmetrical. In similar vein we can go on to derive a vast number of scales through various ingenious manipulations. Comment from the author in 2010: In the light of contemporary theories of memetics (from Dawkins to Van Driem), music may be considered a living organism. This would put Jairazbhoy’s theory in a very different and interesting light, accepting the possibility of autonomous change. 58 Cultural Evolution The Hereditary System and its Lapses: Mutations I

Indian music is rich in subtleties and intricacies which cannot be written down. Even in teaching from person to person some differences between teacher and pupil remains inevitable. However, in the traditional system of teaching, where a pupil was learning for 10 to 20 years with a teacher much of the knowledge and style of the teacher was transmitted. Over the past decades the relation between teacher and pupil has changed. This has resulted in a different command the younger generation has over music. In the following I describe this change and the reaction of the musical environment to it. First of all values have changed relating to the teacher-pupil relation. Traditionally the pupil is totally subjected to the teacher. The teacher is supposed to know everything and the pupil nothing. The pupil has the desire to learn music and hence is completely dependent on the teacher. The subjection to and reverence for the teacher is expressed in the touching of the teacher's feet by the pupil upon meeting and parting. The position of supreme power of the teacher is however mitigated in some cases, when the pupil has social, economic or political resources to exercise power over the teacher. This happens where the pupil comes from a family which can be considered a family of patrons of music. At present a good number of students come from the new city bourgeoisie, children from families of higher administrative personnel, doctors etc. They take the attitude of patrons of music and pay their teacher in such a way that he is dependent on them rather than the other way around. Such students usually know English and consider themselves superior to the teacher in many ways. The musical effects of this change are several. The basic teaching is not as solid. The teacher cannot easily force the pupils to practise scales for a year or two. The voice therefore becomes less powerful and tuneful. Harsh criticisms, often linked with physical punishment, is rather our of the question. This formerly ensured not only that the pupils learned music but they also learned to learn fast. At present the pupils are more relaxed, and take hours, sometimes days to learn a small piece. It is easily understood that such pupils can never acquire a fraction of the knowledge some traditional artists have. Further the pupil does not wholly accept the teachings of the teacher. He finds it more than sufficient to learn only practical items for the mass concerts, which are not as demanding as the concerts for small circles of experts in music. This last point needs some elaboration as it also explains

59 Wim van der Meer how lesser knowledge of present-day artists is accepted. Before 1900 the audience of classical music was mainly restricted to a very small group of persons from the elite. It was performed in the Royal Courts and in the houses of rich persons of.the nobility. The music performed in these circles was based on the assumption that the audience was conversant with its specific idiom. The established artists had great influence on their patrons, in the sense that they were, consulted for the judgement of promising young artists. Due to various reasons the courts could not maintain their patronage of music. Gradually over the period from about 1900 to 1950 musicians had to leave the courts and seek employment in the big cities; Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi. During this same period new opportunities emerged, the public concert, schools of music, radio and cinema. The public concert and the radio allowed a different kind of music. In the courts, the audience was small, and relatively expert. The audience of public concerts (and of course the radio) is far more indifferent, anonymous and less expert. In the courts high demands were made on the extent of knowledge of the musician - he could be asked to perform specific pieces. The modern audience does not go for intricacies but rather for such generally appreciated aspects as speed in technique, (Mukherji 1948: 150-115). Apart from the above mentioned effects these lapses in the hereditary system bring about many reductions in music; some rgas are disappearing, certain embellishments become highly rare, many compositions will not be known to the next generation, tlas disappear, a whole style, the dhrupad, seems to fade away and even the future of instruments like the pakhvaj (drum) and the bn (long-necked ) is uncertain.

Innovations: Mutations II

Indian music is dynamic in nature. It allows innovations on a number of levels. A performance means the manifestation of a rga. Different artists have a different conception of rga. Improvisation and innovation in tna, or lp are part and parcel of Indian music. An artist who only sings known items is considered boring. However, as long as he sticks to known rgas, and stays closely in line with the traditional conception of the rgas, within a known style, improvisations and re-combinations can barely be considered full-fledged creations. In fact much of these changes are, variations in the sense that known musical material is employed in a new way. On the other hand the invention of a new rga or a new style can more truly be called a mutation. In the following I 60 Cultural Evolution shall describe the process of invention of a new rga and the reaction of the environment to it. The rgas have a number of characteristics, which could logically vary to re- sult in thousands of rgas. Yet only about 60 to 90 appear to have enough innate qualities to be performed regularly. There are (and have been) constantly artists who introduce a new rga based on a change of characteristics of already existing rgas. Usually these rgas disappear into the grave with the inventor. This has led musicologists to wonder which phenomenon is at the basis of the fact that characteristics cannot be varied at free will. One of these questions concerns the notes which are used in a rga. The fact that there are twelve semitones in the octave, and that a rga may use four to seven of them in ascent and four to seven in descent already leads to thousands of possibilities. Dilip Chandra Vedi (b. 1901) follows an interpretation of the rga system based on the internal harmony of notes used in the scale. It explains why a vast number of possible permutations of notes cannot be seen as practicable rgas, since it is necessary that the notes are harmonically interrelated. Vedi has invented a rga himself.4 This rga of course follow the rules which dominate the rga system as he sees it. After the introduction of the rga in 1926 there has been a lively discussion in music circles whether it should be accepted as a new rga. Some people rejected it saying that it was only a modulation of an existing rga. This however is irrelevant as many rgas are modulations of other rgas. Others claimed it had already existed before. Again others said it was incorrect (unspecified). It took more than ten years before the discussion stopped and the rga was more or less accepted in music circles. The introduction of a new rga not only attempts to establish a new scale and some characteristics. The artist must give flesh to it in the sense that he must define a way to sing the alap, he must create a bandish and he must provide layakaris and tnas. Dilip Chandra Vedi fulfilled these requirements thoroughly. Moreover he taught all these aspects of his rga to a number of pupils who may keep the rga alive, that is, keep it from disappearing into the grave with the creator. Another reason why this rga has some chance of

4 This raga is called Vedi ki Lalit. It uses the following note patterns (c is tonic): c, d; e♭, g, e; e, g, a, b♭, a, g, e, e♭, d, d, e♭, e, g, a, c'; c', b♭, a, g, e, g, e, d, c, d, e♭, e, c. Lalit, a rga with f and f#, is a modulation of . So is Vedi ki lalit a modulation of Purya and has two e's.Vedi calls it the “answer” to Lalit. 61 Wim van der Meer survival is that it has been recorded on gramophone and tape. New rgas have a certain appeal to the public. This is due to a general fascination with novelties. If an artist in a concert announces that he is going to playa new rga, and explains the characteristics of it, the audience gets quite excited. However, the critics the day after the concert are usually harsh. More important is the fact that other musicians, the competitors and rivals of the artist who introduces the new rga will avoid singing or playing it. This would be the same as to acknowledge their own inferiority. Moreover they will induce their pupils not to sing this new rga. Hence only the pupils of the artist himself may learn the rga. But even in that case the composition and other aspects belonging to that rga will have to be very impressive or else the pupils will refrain from singing the rga in public. Thus we see that a newly invented rga may only get some wider acclaim several generations after the inventor. But it will take more than a century for a rga to become known to every musician. Undoubtedly the invention of a rga involves a matter of prestige. It shows the creative and independent ability of an artist. Moreover some artists sign their name in the rga or the composition they have created which adds to their fame, and in a sense places them among the immortals. If we look at the amount of new rgas which have appeared during the last fifty years it would seem that creating a new rga is n more or less natural thing to do for an accomplished artist. During the 1970s I witnessed at least fifteen new rgas being introduced at concerts in Delhi. Prom the 19th century we have ample proof showing that in that time also several great artists composed new rgas. But even before that time the composing of new rgas must have occurred regularly. The above however has shown clearly how difficult it is for a rga to survive over a long time.

Variation in Schools and its Disappearance: Environmental Pressure

In North-Indian classical music there are two styles which are considered the most important vocal styles: Khayl and dhrupad. The khayl can probably be traced as a development from a particular variety of dhrupad, known as dhamr (cf. Desai 1970: 149-50, 169). Within each style there are a number of schools which follow different interpretations of the style. In khayl these schools are called gharn. Some gharns, which are usually thought of as the oldest ones (Gwalior gharn for instance), sing the khayl in a way quite similar to the dhrupad. The word gharn comes from ghar, meaning house,

62 Cultural Evolution both in the literal and figurative sense. In the musical context gharn means a number of people who are musical descendants from one person and have a common style of which the principles have been laid down by the originator of the gharn. Prom the times of Tansen, the famous musician in the court of emperor Akbar (ca. 1600 A.D.) onward the concept of vani becomes important. In one of his famous compositions Tansen stressed shuddh vni, meaning purity of style. But it is only much later that the importance of gharn emerges, mainly in instrumental and khayl styles of vocal music. Each of the gharns traces its descent to a legendary musician, often Tansen himself. The gharns dispute each other's purity of descent. Deshpande has tried to show that the gharns in khayl have evolved out of the vanis which were similar musical descents in dhrupad. His explanation is mainly musical (1963: 1-11). The exact content of the word gharn is very different for many people. Some stress the musical essence of style, others stress kinship. Although these are theoretically unrelated variables we may see them as a cluster, which centres around discipleship in complex form. Musical style of course is very much related to discipleship, and kinship may be related to it. Especially among Muslims this was strong until very recently: music was taught only to kinsmen in a consistent way. In a gharn a number of teacher-pupil relations are grouped into a social set. There is great variability in size of the gharn, as well as in various other characteristics, such as cohesion, age, relation to other gharns and many more. In each gharn we can discern a core of great musicians, who claim to belong to this gharn, and who are thought by others to belong to it. Around them we can find a number of pupils (often descendants) and pupil's pupils. Sometimes artists claim to belong to a gharn without having had any lessons from an artist considered to belong to that gharn. The claimant simply imitates the musical style of the gharn. Then there are musicians who have learned most of their music in one gharn but do not consider themselves to belong to this gharn. Sometimes they branch off and found their own gharn, after having introduced a few innovations. Some artists have learned from several gharns and have mixed the musical styles. They often appear as individual artists who refuse to be counted among a gharn. Famous artists who come from the family of a gharn-founder usually replenish the core of the gharn. Famous artists who are outsiders, but have learned from a great artist of a gharn, often strike off on their own. The core of the gharn then tries to maintain that this artist also belongs to their

63 Wim van der Meer gharn. Unimportant artists who have learned from an artist of one of the gharns may seek shelter in the fame of this gharn. An example may illus- trate the above. The Agra gharn is a very important and big gharn. At the end of the 18th century it was founded by Shamrang and Sarasrang, who were in fact dhrupad singers of the Nauhar vani. As a gharn of khayl it gradually took shape in the course of the 19th century, with the disciples, descendants, grand-disciples and grand-descendants of Shamrang; Ghagghe Khuda Baksh, Sher Khan, Ghulam Abbas Khan and Kallan Khan. Natthan Khan was Sher Khan’s only son. Natthan Khan was a very important artist of Agra gharn at the end of the 19th century. was a grandson of Gulam Abbas Khan, who had learned most of his music from Sher Khan, his cousin. Faiyaz Khan learned from Ghulam Abbas Khan and also from Natthan Khan. Natthan Khan’s son Vilayat Hussain Khan had many pupils, among whom his son Yunus Hussain Khan. Vilayat Hussain Khan learned most of his music from his elder brother Mohammed Khan, who was Natthan’s Khan’s pupil. Natthan Khan also taught another outstanding figure in Indian music: Bhaskar Rao Bakhle. Bhaskar Rao Bakhle had learned from several other artists before he became a pupil of Natthan Khan. After having learned from Natthan Khan he entered into a peculiar relation with Alladiya Khan. The latter was a great exponent of Jaipur gharn, They are said to have had many discussions on the intricacies of dhrupad, alap, and so on, although we may safely assume that the major in-bring was from Alladiya Khan. Bhaskar Rao Bakhle balanced the styles of Agra and Jaipur gharns. He also introduced several aspects of music which he had acquired from his study of the been. He rejected the: concept of gharn, and said that every musician should learn from several gharns. Yet, many musicians from Agra gharn claim that Bhaskar Rao Bakhle really belongs to Agra gharn. Some of the weaker followers of Bhaskar Rao Bakhle say that they belong to Bakhle gharn (this is a clear case of seeking shelter - since Bhaskar Rao Bakhle rejected the concept). Dilip Chandra Vedi learned dhrupad from Uttam Singh, a musician and musicologist of the beginning of this century. Then he learned from Bhaskar Rao Bakhle, Faiyaz Khan, and Alladiya Khan in that order. He considers Bhaskar Rao Bakhle as his true teacher whose style he prefers and like Bakhle himself, rejects the concept of gharn. Another pupil of Bhaskar Rao was Kesar Bai Kerkar. Later on however she became a pupil of Alladiya Khan, and completely followed the latter’s style.

64 Cultural Evolution She learned for 26 years from him (Moghubai Khurdikar learned from Vilayat Hussain Khan, but more from Alladiya Khan, whose style she adopted. Apart from this, Vilayat Hussain Khan also learned a few things from Alladiya Khan (cf. Khan 1959). In the above example it becomes evident how complicated and fluctuating the structural relations between gharns are. It is sometimes thought that Indian music, being a traditional art, is very constant and even stagnant, at least until the present. Here we have seen that not only have gharns evolved over the last few centuries, but also it becomes clear how much fluctuation and variability are part of the system. Musical aspects from other gharns may be adopted, but also musicians in the core of it gharn may change their music. Musicians who combine music of several gharns may establish their own conception of music, and add something. Yet, on a general level, the concept of gharn is disappearing. Formerly gharns could be identified, and they left an imprint on the artists that emerged from them. Thus the musical resemblence between Kesar Bai Kerkar and Mogubai Kurdikar is striking. Younger artists of the same gharn still maintain the strong characteristics of this gharn - of which , the daughter of Mogubai Kurdikar, is a good example. Contemporary artists from Agra gharn, or Yunus Hussain Khan show resemblance in style with great artists from this gharn. However, adoption of musical aspects from other gharns is more frequent nowadays. In the past an artist often had several teachers, but due to the strong power the teacher could exercise over the pupils there was usually one teacher who left the strongest imprint on the pupil. Today the relation is somewhat more open, and various teachers have about the same impact on a pupil. Moreover, due to the radio, public concerts, books, records, and a greater geographical mobility it has become much easier to assimilate musical aspects from other gharns. Finally the emergence of an urban middle class, with the related emergence of an economically defined teacher-pupil relation has diminished the emotive quality of the relation. Emotionally it is easier now to leave one teacher and go to another. On another level it would appear that among many young artists a new concept of music is emerging, on an all-India level (i.e. North India). First of all astounding technique (especially high speed) predominates as a value and to a large extent causes a diminished tunefulness. Rhythmic gimmicks and simplistic melodic progressions have gained importance. For all this little

65 Wim van der Meer musical training is demanded, only a technical training, and the audience is more susceptible to this approach, since it is not conversant with the depth of the traditional idiom.

Evolutionary Mechanisms

Any change will always have to begin with the artist. If he is confident about this change (consciously or unconsciously) he may introduce it to the wider environment, where it is either accepted or rejected. This process may be rather slow, as I suggested for the invention of new rgas. The audience at a concert may accept a new rga, but many competing artists will usually not accept it. However if the disciples accept it, in the long run it may become part of Indian music in general. This is the point where we can say, that it has been accepted by society at large. Jairazbhoy suggests that Indian music evolves due to factors which are entirely musical, the inconsistency of scales (1971: 179). In the same way T.S. Kuhn implies an evolution in science which is the result of theoretical crises. The evolutionary vision that Kuhn handles can be summarised with the following quotations: The process described as the resolution of (scientific) revolutions is the selection by conflict within the scientific community of the fittest way to practice future science. The entire process may have occurred, as we now suppose biological evolution did, without benefit of a set goal, a permanently fixed truth, of which each stage in the development is a better exemplar... The net result ... is a wonderfully adapted set of instruments we call modern scientific knowledge. (1962: 171-172, my italics) Kuhn sees an important difference between science and art in the sense “that science has unambiguous methods of selection which decide what is progress and what is not” (1962: 159-163). This however is rather doubtful. In fact it would be true if we had “supreme knowledge”. Because of the restricted nature of human knowledge time and again theories emerge which later on prove to be incorrect. The theories of Kuhn and Jairazbhoy are in a sense evolutionary, but they do not really explain the mechanisms at work. They suggest that the process comes entirely from within. Jairazbhoy seems to believe that musical scales can develop out of other musical scales all by themselves. Kuhn is more

66 Cultural Evolution careful - he profusely brings in the enactors of the evolution. But they act only when they should on behalf of scientific progress. In other words mutations occur only when they should with the “intention” to solve a crisis. Devaraja’s view, which includes artists, philosophers, and saints as well as scientists, is similar to Kuhn’s when he says: The genius, thus, is seen to be the spokesman of ignored or overlooked reality. (1963: 127) However, he rejects the historical inevitability of the emergence of such genii to solve crises (1963: 133). I would go further than Devaraja and suggest there are mutations and variations at all times. Every human being has a different perception of reality and therefore has the potential to become a spokesman of an overlooked or ignored reality. Which of these perceptions come to be considered that of a genius depends on many circumstances. On the one hand there is the inherent quality of the perception, but on the other hand rivalries and the ethics of society play their role. In art I indicated the importance of rivalry and in science, in spite of certain ideals, we see often that vying thinkers criticise each other for the sake of it. And much of this rivalry is more based on personal antipathy than on scholarly disagreement. It is rather obvious that variation exists in science both on the level of individuals and “schools”. I wonder if any two scientists have an identical conception of such phenomena as culture, life or gravity .... Variation on this level can certainly be a source of new interpretations. The emergence of completely new theories of course is not easily understood. It depends on creativity which is quite unpredictable in nature. How, why and with what effect new ideas emerge in science or art is hard to say. But they are not coincidental. Artists most definitely, but in my opinion scientists as well, constantly try to improve and renew. Except perhaps the dull scientist or artist, who has given up the idea of bringing something new and prefers to stay under the umbrella of his “superior”. The hosts of new rgas which appear constantly in Indian music are an expression of the search for creation and invention. If both Jairazbhoy’s and my theories are correct most of these creations will be discarded in the long run, through a process of selection. But even in the distant past the process of variation, mutation and selection may have played an important role. Rgas have been invented at all periods, but not all of them have persisted. In this a

67 Wim van der Meer sudden change in the environment may have played an important role. Before Tansen there must have existed hundreds of rgas. This was probably possible due to the political separation of various states in India. When at the time of emperor Akbar many musicians were brought together at the royal court it became evident that many rgas were practically identical, but existed under different names in different provinces. Tansen realised this and discarded a great number of the rgas. Of the past century we know that many rgas have disappeared. They are so-called obsolete rgas which may also be lost when the old musicians who know them die. (e.g. ancient varieties of Basant, Lalit and with shuddh dhaivat).

Direction in Evolution

I have shown that the process of evolution in music must be understood in terms of certain evolutionary mechanisms. This (mechanistic) view in no way excludes a view which identifies the broad lines or direction in the evolution. These two views become particularly compatible if we make a distinction between general and specific evolution. Specific evolution is adaptive. General evolution means greater adaptability (Sahlins and Service 1960: 12- 44). The concept of specific evolution is not too difficult to understand: it involves all types of adaptation to the environment. General evolution is a more complicated concept. I think Wertheim has given the clearest interpretation of this over-all development of mankind when he says that general evolution is a tendency towards emancipation. First of all there is an emancipation from the forces of nature, the development of the capacity not to adapt to different environments but to adapt the environment to oneself. Then there is the tendency to free man from the bonds of others, to diminish social inequality on all levels. (1971: 50-66). Music, science and other aspects of culture are valuable to man. In this I strongly support Devaraja’s view of culture as a value, i.e. a definition of the valuable or significant. (1963: 104-110). Ethnomusicologists have stressed the functional values of music, to mention a few: emotional expression, social safety valve, aesthetic enjoyment, communication, enforcement of norms, continuity of culture, integration of society (Merriam 1964: 209-229). Music can also play a role in catalysing a movement of emancipation. It can be symbolic for groups which strive towards emancipation or give general

68 Cultural Evolution expression of a protest against oppression5 (Wertheim 1971: 147-152). On the other hand music may go contrary to emancipation. It may serve as an opium for the masses (Wertheim 1971: 409). I think that Indian film-music in its present state plays this role, although not intentionally. However, I think that the greatest value in music is in its innate qualities. Music can enrich and liberate the human mind. Science provides us with similar values, in addition to a concrete contribution which science has made to our conditions of living. This provides us also with a clue for the interpretation of progress in science and the arts. Both can provide man with means to enrich his life, and general evolution in science or the arts should be seen as an evolution which does contribute in such a way. All forms of adaptation of science or the arts to a social environment which do not contribute in such a way should be viewed as a specific evolution which can ultimately be disastrous. The degrees to which Indian classical music has succeeded in providing a possibility for the liberation of the mind is astounding. I can do no better than quote some masterly passages from Ananda K. Coomaraswamy; This Indian music […] reflects an emotion and an experience which are deeper and wider and older than the emotion or wisdom of any single individual. It is in the deepest sense of the words all-human. For it is, the inner reality of things, rather than any transient or partial experience that the singer voices. We have here the sound of the tanbura which is heard before the song, and continues after it: that is the timeless Absolute, which as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. On the other hand there is the song itself which is the variety of Nature, emerging from its source and returning at the close of its cycle. The harmony of that undivided Ground with its intricate pattern is the unity of Spirit and Matter. We are assured by the experience of aesthetic contemplation that Paradise is a reality. (1971: 96-99)

5 Jazz, blues, spirituals are partly symbolic of a negro-cult with obvious emancipatory implications. Similarly “beat-music” has an important function in youth-cult. Wertheim considers emancipation of young people and important aspect of general emancipation (1971: 57-58). 69 Wim van der Meer That music has left the small compartments of the elite, is at large a form of emancipation since a greater part of mankind can benefit from it. But the reaction to this change in environment in the form of simplifications is not a step forward at all, either for music or society. It must retain its powers of a profound impact on the mind and convince the audience, rather than please the audience. This we see as one of the main characteristics of general evolution: It implies greater adaptability by adapting the environment to itself.

Conclusion

The above shows how much Indian music is alive and evolving and although some may lament the changes at least one must be happy that this art has not become inflexible, almost frozen as is the case with western classical music. In the course of the process something may be lost, but then it has been through gains and losses that Indian music has become what it is over the ages. Overspecialisation can lead to extremes, such as the dhrupad, which at present often tends to monotony in repetitious rhythmical patterns. Confronted with a new audience, that is not conversant with the the specialised idioms of the dhrupad, it has very little impact. Yet this style has immense possibilities and it will depend on the capacity of the musicians to bring it back into the mainstream of attractive melodious musk. It is an illusion that the audiences can be educated by any other way than attractive music.

References 1. Barth, Frederik, “On the Study of Social Change”, American Anthropologist 69: 661-669, 1967. 2. Coomaraswamy, Ananda K.,The Dance of Shiva, Rev. ed., New Delhi, Sagar Publications, 1971. 3. Danielou, Alain, “Conscious and Haphazard Evolution in Music”, in: Music East and West, New Delhi, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, 1966. 4. Desai, Chaitanya, “The Origin and Development of Khayal”. Journal of the Music Academy, Madras, Vol. XL: 147-1&2, 1970. 5. Deshpande, V.H., “Carl Seashore, Banis and Gharanas”, Nada Rupa, Vol. I, Part II; 1-11. Banaras Hindu University, 1963. 6. Devaraja, N.K., The Philosophy of Culture, Allahabad, Kitab Mahal Pvt. Ltd., 1963.

70 Cultural Evolution 7. Hofstadter, Richard, Social Darwinism in American Thought. Boston, Beacon Press, Rev. ed., 1955. 8. Huxley, Julien S., Evolution and Ethics, Pilot Press. 1947. 9. Jairazbhoy, Nazir A., The Rags of North Indian Music, Their Structure and Evolution, London, Faber & Paber, 1971. 10. Khan, Vilayat Hussain, Sangeetagyon ke sansmaran, Delhi, Sangeet Natak Akademi, 1959. 11. Kuhn, Thomas S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press. 1962. 12. Mayr, Ernest, Animal Species and Evolution, Cambridge, Balknap Press. 1963. 13. Merriam, Alan P., The Anthropology of Music, University Press. 1964. 14. Mukherjee, O.P., Modern Indian Culture, Bombay, Hind Kitabs. 1948. 15. Music East & West, I.C.C.R., Publication, New Delhi. 1966. 16. Nisbet, Robert A., Social Change and History. New York, Oxford University Press, 1969. 17. Prajñanananda, Swami, Historical Development of Indian Music, 2nd ed. Calcutta, Mukhopadhyay, 1973. 18. Sahlins, Marshal D. and Elman R. Service (eds.), Evolution and Culture, University of Michigan Press, 1960. 19. Sorokin, Pitrim A., “The Factor of Creativity in Human History” in; T.R.N. Unhithan, Indra Deva, Yogendra Singh: Towards A Sociology of Culture in lndia, New Delhi, Prentice Hall. 1965. 20. Steward, Julian H., Theory of Culture Change, Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1955. 21. Waddington, C.H., The Ethical Animal, London, Allen & Unwin, 1960. 22. Wertheim, W.P., Evolutie en Revolutie, Amsterdam, Van Gennep, 1971. Abridged English edition: Evolution and Revolution: Rising Waves of Emancipation, Penguin Books Ltd; (January 31, 1974).

71 Cyclic Time in Indian Art Music & Creativity Subroto Roy

Abstract

Key Words: varan, creativity, Creation, cyclic, meter, sam, Sm, time, torque, Vea, iva, memory, phenomenon As opposed to the reductionist views of time which include a linear approach, the Indian is a cyclic conception of time which events follow. According to this view the super-structure of time is cyclic; tangible and intangible events keep repeating in smaller cycles. The essence of Creation at a macro level and creativity at the micro or individual level is the fact that they appear differently to us. In north Indian art music (NIAM), I propose that varan is its “cyclicity” which is responsible for creativity. The heavy demand for extempore improvisation in NIAM, forces a performer to continually view immediate past musical act and improvise based on this. In this manner, the spiral of creativity is generated. Then, at a point of time one wants to break away from this cycle just as an aeroplane leaves its runway after gaining momentum. At a very secular level, this process replicates an urge for freedom from routines in life, but one cannot value freedom without being shackled and finding a tool to gain a threshold frequency for final release. varan as a tool provides a process of observation, retention, and recall; itself is a cyclical process. At an esoteric level, in India, the timeless iva is the chief deity of time and hence He devours it. He is the Yogi (without categories/unity itself) blissful between two moments and full of potential creative energy. This situation is replicated in the sam of varan or the first beat (unity) in the cyclic meter. Sam is the pivotal aspect which is continually sought after by the artiste in an attempt to meet the Yogi sitting between moments. From this unity multiplicity is born giving birth to cyclic meter representing the infinitely diverse phenomenal world.

Hypothesis

varan is both the physical and phenomenal property of north Indian art music. Therefore, we can say that it considerably contributes to creativity in hayl.

Introduction

The present work is an abstracted and freshly edited version of my unpublished PhD dissertation (Roy 2008) that I did under the University of . There have been new additions, where felt necessary after its 72 Cyclic Time in Indian Art Music & Creativity presentation at the international conference held at the National Center for Performing Arts, organised by the Indian Musicological Society on January 21, 2011. The work deals only with hayl (and hrupa) singing. We first make the following assumptions so that the discussion does not become unwieldy: • Time exists • Cyclical motion is possible • “Cause” is traditional, translation of a word meaning “factor responsible”, or perhaps “explanatory factor” • “Cyclic” is not necessarily circular & rote • Creativity’ in north Indian art music (NIAM) is limited to: 1. improvisation of composition, 2. invention of creative phrases, 3. novel ways of looking at a rg 4. attempting novel rhythmic patterns, 5. finding various ways of arriving at the sam, etc. • Repetition is an varan, but varan may not be a complete repetition; repetition is a subset of varan This is important since the simplest of acts like walking down a crowded road in the city may be seen as a creative act, if seen through a film-maker’s lens. Musically varan is: 1. the metrical aspect (Tl varan) 2. the formal aspect of (vibration= varan) 3. terms “mind” and “matter” are used for representational purposes, 4. also seen as the ordering principle of svara as a material of music, 5. but is also a musical phenomenon, 6. the rg roha-avaroha which apprehends, if not comprehends rg 7. Compositional varan (Especially cycles within its metrical structure) (e.g. Piy kara hara ekho harakaa hai mori haiy…) 8. Kamp – in svara and in gyaki (as part of gyaki) Unlike in western music where beat is inviolable, in NIAM varan is inviolable and beats can be altered for artistic reasons (Courtney 1998). Avartan is the cycle composed of measures (vibhg) which are in turn composed of beats (mr). He describes it as a rhythmic cycle in North Indian (Hindustani) music. It can have any whole number of beats (mr) up 73 Subroto Roy to 28 (and perhaps 108), and even sometimes in multiples of half, such as ten and a half (l sardas), or seven and a half (l arha panamswari). Psychologically varan is: 1. the mental order in which we recall svar, tl, lay, composition and many more (observation, absorption, & recall) 2. the cyclical process of perfecting svar, tl, lay, composition etc. 3. the continual cyclical process of internalising and externalising which is part of gyaki 4. functions as a legal framework or ordering for actualisation Semeiotically: 1. a legisign above all (Martinez 1997: 92-93).

Background

The definition of varan will essentially involve describing it and understanding its function in hayl in particular and rg music in general. However, since varan comes from tradition it cannot avoid cultural factors affecting its imagination, production, and experience and numerous resultant beliefs of Indians. Indians are not only known for their experience-related beliefs, but also for their objective analysis of nature and sciences. In addition, a high level of inter-disciplinarity in Indian thought leads to terms and concepts in one stream of knowledge rather naturally finding parallels in others. For instance, the belief of life after-life and the idea of samsra which are essentially cyclic in the Indian milieu, have their bearing on the idea of varan-like cyclic conceptions of everything. This is because of the deep entrenchment of the cyclic culture in the Indian mind although according to Thapar R (2011) India had both cyclical and linear time concepts. The oldest imprints of this world view is seen in the process of memorisation of s which involves a cyclic method devised to make sure that words and syllables are not altered or forgotten. According to this, the words of a matra are strung together in different cyclical patterns like “vkya”, “pada”, “krama”, “ja”, “ml”, “ikh”, “rekh”, “dhvaj”, “daa”, “raha”, “ghana” which represent different permutations of reciting words of a Veic Mara. Bhvsr (1998: 64) states that symmetry and cyclicity are “the mathematical generalizations of identity, similarity, repeatability, recurrence, continuity, and reproducibility” which are seen in Sanskrit terms like bhoomandal,

74 Cyclic Time in Indian Art Music & Creativity vayumandal, nabhimandal and kaalchakra to name a few. These correspond to various spheres and we will later see how mandala appears in music. But before we go into the terminological aspects of varan let’s see its etymology. varan is cyclic by its very semantic. The definition of a concept being the definition of the meaning of a word, as determined by common human usage (Munro 1996: 21) and since common usage of the word varan has not changed in its primary meaning from Veic times till today, we assume that it refers to the cyclic aspect. However, there are other words used in Veic and later literature which reflects the same meaning in varying shades. varan which is formed as varanam in Sanskrit in this context, is repetition, revision, recitation, and birth rebirth cycle, among others (Thakar 2001). As per Apte (2009: 16) varanam means cyclical/circular movement. The idea of a circle or circling is expressed in several shades of words in Sanskrit in music from Sma Veic times; maala, vtti, mrhan, and many more as we will discuss next. But the knowledge of geometry appears to have complemented the knowledge of music as far as varan, mrs, maalas, etc concerned. The useful knowledge of geometry and not just an imagined idea of circle and circling existed during the k Veic period as seen in the Baudhyana Shulbasutras (BS) (Kulkari 1983: 10). Quoting BS’s (RV I,155.6) description of the wheels of the chariot of Avinikumr, Kul- kari (1983: 9) points to word “vttam” which is the root idea and word of varan (Thakar V.S. 2001). But motion to vttam appears in the term Sav- vyavtlekh which is a geometrical term meaning a line turning anticlock- wise, is used in BS number 2.31 (Kulkari: 125). Apa-savvyavtlekh may be a line turning clockwise. The same savvya and apasavvya (anti-clockwise and clockwise) is encountered commonly by Brahmins who do the tarpaa in Brahma yajña and have to orient their sacred thread called yajnapavita for tarpana to Devatas and Pit (forefathers), respectively. Note that the yajna- pavita is essentially circular group of threads knotted with ends tied begin- ning to end. The musical varan presupposes a musical movement, therefore we can say that the idea of moving in cyclical fashion is rooted in Veic Ge- ometry, but this is not to say yet that Sma Veic music may have borrowed the idea of varan from geometry. The concept of l and varan are inseparable and since the term and concept of l is found in the Brahmana literature according to Banerji (1990: 9). For instance, l related to dance, in Aitereya 5/22/10, it is

75 Subroto Roy impossible that the idea of varan was not recognized. The author refers to the simultaneous performance of song and dance in Shatapatha 3/2/46. Therefore it is very likely that varan was the unifying factor in such performances. In Narada ika’s recommendations of the defects of song, a song devoid of l is defective (Banerji: 12). Naturally, a song without varan was not seen as good. was not seen as good. As even in Sma Veic times the mr was fixed for a l, the resultant scenario of which can be graphically expressed in figure 1, as time passes an isosceles triangle is generated.

Figure 1: This shows a section of the circle in which the progression of mrs, each cover- ing equal time and hence distance. The two ends of the circle meet when varan is completed, indicated by a cross.

As even in SAMA vedic times the mr was fixed for a tal, the resultant scenario can be graphically expressed in fig. 1. As time passes an isosceles triangle is generated. The entire varan is then a series of such triangles. Although the mr in today’s hayl (and hrupa) gyaki (Courtney 1998) is “violable” in practice of l as an art, mathematically, the length of the mr is fixed. Therefore, varan of l will have six mrs cul- minating in the sam and may be depicted by figure 1. Note that the end of mr 6 is the same as the beginning of mr 1 or at the zeroth mr. The base of each triangle is the time that has passed from the beginning of a mr to the beginning of the next. This is akin to dividing a circle into equal parts which was known during the g Veic period (Kulkari: 14) as Veic chariot makers divided wheels of chariots into five equal sections to fit the spokes. Wayne (1988: 63) gives vtti as style or tempo and quotes Rowell’s (1977: 89) translation from Narada (not Naradiya) ik 1.6.21 as below: “One should perform in the fast tempo when studying, but in a moderate tempo while reciting, and in the slow tempo for instruction to pupils.” That the Indian la varan is inviolable for a period and purpose chosen is, perhaps, rooted in this kind of norm that is seen in Nraa ik. Now let’s see the projection of an varan in two dimensions as shown in figure 1.

76 Cyclic Time in Indian Art Music & Creativity Maala is circle as given in BS number 1.23 (Kulkari: 125). The maalas mentioned in the g Vea are circles generated from a point and are cyclic “performance engaged in eternal steps” (Bonshek 2001: 12) of evolution. This description is akin to the steps in varan formed by mr progression. One varan evolves from of the earlier, but there are repeated elements in each causing a spiral of creativity. Vatsayan (1991: 57) in translaton of Bhaei gives the mrhan maala which I think forms the basis of tonal improvisation. Kallinha in his commentary on Sagt Ratnkara I, 8.18. of arag Deva indirectly confirms the existence of avaratan in Sma Vea singing (Vatsayan 1992: 192). He confirms the observation of Maag that during the repetition of half pada (as in ardhamgadhi) the verbal meaning is not cared for as Sma Vea is predominantly musical. By repetition Maag refers to pravtti and nivtti which observation Kallinha finds correct. The etymology of mrhan as given by Maag (ibid: 53) is murha or moha (loss of consciousness, stupefaction, infatuation) added to samuhariya (increase, growth). Maag also defines mrhan as that through which rg (colour, delightfulness) increases. In Upaniaic literature it becomes clear that “varan” is a way of revering. sarvihyevara sarvamarevara bhva pjy varana railokyasvmihany kury (Make your life fruitful and meaningful by going round the master of the three worlds and many more.) Peeta Upanishad P-422 “varanakramea” has appeared as follows Tavivare souvara tahkaprve rajaan avme Tmra anmukhe mukhaapuhe puha adanarvarankramea (Take rounds of the place (could be your house or deity) by placing gold in a hole, silver on the left (of the hole), copper in the front…) Akshamalikopanishat.II. The above seem to show proper way of carrying out certain acts of worship for fulfillment of human meta-needs. The same is reflected in the auitya concept of Indian aesthetics which refers to propriety or keeping decorum (Sethuraman Ed. 2005: 435). Roychowdhuri (2000) says vara is the popular 77 Subroto Roy form of the word vara and is the “entire cycle of a rhythmic or melodic composition”. But Martinez (92-93) terms “every level of metrical and temporal organisation” as legisigns in his Piercian analysis of NIAM which also refers to a certain cyclical order. One of the levels he refers is to “vart” and goes on to say quoting Saxena (1979: 67) that “sam not only ini- tiates, but consummates” the var. This is nothing but the concept of i-aa-i which is the cyclic conception of time in India, where the beginning and end are enjoined. This concept is exemplified in the hrupa set to aul in Rg Bhairava: iva i Mahya Aa… (D. Sayeedduddin, personal communication, n.d.) Shiva (Yogi) is between two moments (beginning and end) or the Yogi is timeless since he is the beginning, middle, and the end. Note that the word Aadi is located at the sam of chowl, followed by madhya anta. Looking at aspects of NIAM (here varan and creativity) objectively leads to problems since traditions, beliefs, subject-in-object kind of situations, etc are common in rg singing. It is Aristotlean view because the cause present in art is present in nature. This along with the Indian pida- Brahmda concept forms a strong premise. We show here with examples, that no musical creativity is possible without the cyclic in north Indian art music (NIAM). varan is seen as a dynamic superstructure of mind and matter within which there may be other cycles and is not only as a temporal material of music (as in sounded l), but also as the basic property of the phenomenal world of NIAM, bringing in Cartesian subjectivity. It is indispensible to NIAM and is fundamental to Indian culture and hence to the Indian world view. Linking varan with creativity is an approach which sits on the borders of systematic musicology, philosophy, culture, and psychology. I show that it is the property of mind and matter both. In musical terms varan has been operationalised as its metrical aspect. It is also seen as the ordering principle of svara as a material of music and musical phenomenon. varan is also the rg’s objective form as manifest in the roha and avaroha.

78 Cyclic Time in Indian Art Music & Creativity Psychologically, varan is seen as the order of memory on the one hand, and placed in the mind and matter story. We will see if this ordering causes creativity. “Creativity” in NIAM is limited to improvisation of composition, invention of creative phrases, novel ways of looking at a rg, attempting novel rhythmic patterns, or finding various ways of arriving at the sam and many more. This is important since the simplest of acts may be seen as creative in some sense or the other. For instance, walking down a crowded road in the city may be seen as a creative act, if seen through a film-maker’s lens. John (1990) informs that the root of the word “cycle” is given to be in Indo- European qwol, qwl, which signifies going round. Note that qwol comes close to qoul in Sufi music quavvali. The French avoir du retentissment (-vwär-d- tän-ts-mn) which means to be “repeated and echoed” (Hughes 1912: 77) comes rather close to the meaning, pronunciation, and formation of varan.

Methods

Present is an interpretative method and hence a rational approach is advised by Western and Indian philosophies. It examines the role of varan in creativity in general and creativity in music in particular. In doing so, not only does it try to see why it aids creativity but how it does so. It is seen here as one of the causes of creativity in the Aristotlean sense of cause; material, formal, efficient, and final. The following issues bring to the fore the necessity for a hermeneutic and humanistic psychological [a science of human experience; of loving, sharing, coping, and knowing (Weiner 1977)] methodology for studying Indian music which is highly contextual, subjective, and experiential: 1. Human experiences of growth and fulfillment appear outside of behav- iorism, structuralism, if not fully gestaltism. 2. The present paper rejects Freudian assumption that psychological faculties are in service of the body. 3. Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers stress the unique meta-needs of humans, like self-actualisation and aesthetics. 4. Creativity is possible and it is a meta-need of humans. 5. Not existentialist because it stresses individual fulfillment, but rg is an attempt at universal fulfillment through individual fulfillment.

79 Subroto Roy It is this experiential aspect which creates problems when applying positive methods at telling a complete story about Indian art music. • Cartesian mechanistic model where matter is understood positively but mind as its extension, is problematic. First, the terms varan and creativity are defined from various angles. Then the links between the two are established which is actually trying to establish the dependence of one another. The definitions of the terms are informed by semantics, etymology, aesthetics, Piercian semeiotics, the Indian Daranas, musicological references, among other things.

COMPARISON ITEM BEHAVIOURISM PSYCHOANALYSIS HUMANISTIC

MODEL OF PERSON MECHANISTIC BIOLOGICAL-MECHANISTIC SOCIAL-ANTHROPOLOGICAL

PERSONALITY CONCEPT MATERIALISTIC BIOLOGICAL-MATERIALISTIC NONMATERIALISTIC

ORIENTATION EMPIRICAL INTUITIVE-ANALYTICAL BEING (Attempts To Be)

PRIMARY RELATIONSHIP SCIENTIST-OBJECT PHYSICIAN-PATIENT ENCOUNTER (Person To Person/s)

Table 1: Comparative table of three psychological methods. Justification of humanistic psychology is given in a nutshell in Table 1. The table clearly shows why behaviourism and psychoanalysis cannot be considered while we try to understand Indian art music. In addition, both these methods do not take into consideration the change in the performer or the listener’s phenomenal and situational aspects. Apart from what is mentioned above, we see that the primary relationship of the researcher with his / her subject in both these is not suitable for analysis of an art like rg music which is not written and involves extempore improvisation to a great extent. Only humanistic psychology addresses a person-to-person and/ persons relational circumstance. Note that Rogerian phenomenology particularly suits the varan problem because it admits both the deterministic and the humanistic approaches when it comes to human behaviour (Nye 1975: 84). Based on his formula we see that varan is supportive of knowledge of music both objectively and experientially. Avaran helps the artiste and the listener for “objective scientific inquiry (based on deterministic assumptions)” into musical possibilities and subjective evaluation of oneself and the other. Here the artiste may be him / herself while the listener/s may be the other and vice

80 Cyclic Time in Indian Art Music & Creativity versa. Drawing upon Roger’s model of “emphatic understanding (phenomenological knowledge)”, “subjective understanding”, and objective understanding are possible. The model especially helps the present work, as in Indian art music it is the cyclical aspect which helps achieve all this, as will be shown in the relevant section. Here is a method that promises to fill the explanatory gap between physical and phenomenal experiences (Burwood, Gilbert, Lennon 2003: 120) that exists especially in a music which is highly contextual (Rao 2000).,

Justification of Hermeneutic Approach

The Hermeneutic approach helps this analysis, but the problem lies in its objectifying knowledge and seeing it comprehensively. This needs to be separately addressed and is out of the scope of this paper. That the subject has to be in the object’s shoes to know it better, is a sound method which Hermeneutics provides. varan is, by itself, a hermeneutic circle but it is a process and a method of exploring aesthetic possibilities of rg and composition which involves experience. Elsewhere, I have pointed out the weakness of the hermeneutic approach.

Occurrences of varan Musical

It is the temporal cycle of a fixed number of beats in the compositional section. In the rg, the completion of ascent and descent of the scale. Within the composition, when one sthyi-antar cycle have been completed and the artiste comes back to shyi the compositional varan is said to have been completed. Mere repetition of a single svar is also varan, but can it be seen as creativity? I like to posit here that the mere utterance of a svar is creativity, as it gives a musical and aesthetic satisfaction which is a human meta-need on the basis of humanistic psychology. From the Aristotlean senses of cause, in NIAM, varan fits in all the definitions of cause; formal, efficient, material, and final. Social: 1. Daily routines: This involves both; mind and matter or body and mind. 2. Trends: Trends keep coming back. This is clearly physical but its recognition is phenomenal. 81 Subroto Roy 3. The hour-minute-second hands of a watch/clock: A time-piece is clearly objective and its indicators of time are also physical. However, time itself is both phenomenal and physical so is cyclical time. Geographical and astronomical: 1. The day and night: These are physical facts. 2. The seven days of a week, 12 months in a year: These are physical facts but the nomenclatural, conventional, and cultural aspects are phenomenal. For instance, the names of days in different cultures is different. The significance of certain parts of the year or the day and night is different in different cultures. Daylight may be seen as hopeful, but in India if the amvasya starts during the day (and stays for the next 12 hours) even that part of the day is considered inauspicious to do any important work or travel. But when the amvasya is over, the inauspi- ciousness is cancelled and one can start a good project etc even if it is the night. Such are beliefs which have been reinforced by experience and are certainly phenomenal. 3. Return of Hailey’s Comet: It is a physical celestial event.

Relationship of varan With Creativity Psychological: In Rogerian psychology (1975: 92) a technical term is used in place of “human being”, organism which is the “locus of experience”. The basic under- lying motive of this organism is “actualising tendency” to “maintain and en- hance the organism’s experiences and potentialities”. It is this organism that encourages “actualisation”. However, I say that it is due to the legal aspects in hayl which help this process of encouragement in the case of the singing organism. The singer of hayl (or hrupa) takes the audience along in his exploration of composition or rg as may be the case. This is possible due to musical facts that bind the attention of the audience. Legal aspects like rg rules, l, composition, and varan, apart from adherence to tonal and rhythmic proprieties, are of prime importance in this simulated aesthetic travel. These elements bring in the desired coherence in audience experience at the performance level. At the analysis level too without the legal aspects chances of becoming infinitely subjective become very high; the possibility of

82 Cyclic Time in Indian Art Music & Creativity universalisation may reduce considerably. In fact, these legal aspects are the facts which make it aesthetic. In fact, these legal aspects makes varan in its various manifestations in khayal (and hrupa) the scientific basis upon which one understands and knows this music. At the same time, the avartans that exist in the mind in the form of memory, recall of experience, associative imagination and many more forms the basis for subjective and phenomenological understanding of experience. However, this is not to deny the fact that there are experiences which may be unique depending upon perception. Rogers informs us (ibid: 85) based on his psychotherapy experience that his “clients develop toward more and more freedom as they become less defensive and less distorted in their reactions to their total inner experiencing and their social and physical environment”. He terms such people socially maladjusted. Having said that varan helps in universalisation of hayl in a performance situation, it is worth conducting an experiment to comparatively test the effect of sustained exposure to hayl (or dhrupad) and that to more rigid western classical music, on socially “maladjusted people”. Such people according to Rogers (ibid) have a more patterned and rigid behavior, are incapable of exercising their free choice, and deny and distort their inner experiencing as well as their environmental circumstances. The logical premise is that hayl (or dhrupad) with its varan-like features allow more freedom to the artiste and hence to the listener to imagine as compared to that afforded in western classical music. Roger’s belief that humans are innately good and are growth oriented (Nye 1975: 91) is applicable to a hayl (and dhrupad) performance situation, because both their innate goodness and growth orientation is proved by the very act of attending the performance aimed at an attempt to be something better than what they are. While separating mechanistic models from his humanistic phenomenology Roger (ibid) thinks it essential to consider that humans have freedom. It is this high degree of freedom that makes Indian rg music that much more analyzable through the method of humanistic psychology and phenomenology. Growth and freedom are two important pillars of creativity and hence the above argument justifies creativity due to cyclicity. No successful artiste can do without understanding audience behaviour. Roger (ibid) points out that it becomes important to understand the perceptions of reality of people before we understood their behaviour.

83 Subroto Roy Goswami (1995: 8) writes that emotions are belief dependent and are “inextricably anchored to beliefs”. Now, aesthetic being is difficult, if not impossible, without belief that with the inputs the listener or the performer will definitely become something. Now, in a performance situation the singer attempts to be with the help of the elements mentioned above. Now all the elements mentioned and memory being cyclical there is complete dependence of this being on the cyclic; both materially and phenomenally. Now there are two reasons why the listener will appreciate being where she is 1) singing is on expected lines recalling experiences and resultant beliefs and 2) singing is on unexpected lines. There could be another third possibility that the listener has not significantly changed. While the first two possibilities fit with (Goswami: 7-8) categories of emotions a) belief dependent thereby object dependent emotions b) belief-independent but object-dependent, and c) i) object-dependent but not thought-dependent and ii) be “feelable”. Both the first two possibilities are because of two things respectively 1) the singer’s coherent being thanks to legal aspects she follows 2) she improvises or breaks away from legal aspects. In either case, as far as hayl (and hrupa) is concerned the singer cannot break away substantially from legal aspects to a considerable degree. Therefore, even her breaking away is heavily dependent upon the legal aspects. Aesthetic being here, is a creative output of singing. In conclusion therefore, varan is in some way responsible for creativity. Finally, recall is preceded by retention and absorption in this order making each recall a cyclic. As we have shown that no creativity in NIAM is possible without recall, no creativity is possible without the cyclic.

Problem with Hermeneutics

Goswami writes that expression and emotion are “hermeneutically placed” from the object. In our hayl (or hrupa) performance situation we are taking sounded music as an object which is ordered by the legal aspects. But the weakness here is that the hermeneutic approach objectifies music, because it considers only the sounded music and hence material not phenomenal. What, I ask, happens to the laws which make music what it is and which are in the minds of the singer and the expectant listener? Although the laws may be in the form of thought and not feeling, they are inextricable from the music they expect. Before music is sounded by the singer expression cannot be “hermeneutically placed” from its response. Yet

84 Cyclic Time in Indian Art Music & Creativity its existence in her mind is continually causing a creative feeling leading to emotions. Although it may be argued that this could be a memory of sounded music that is causing the emotion and is object-dependence, still since there is no expression and a listener the issue of hermeneutic placement of expression and emotion to the object is redundant. It may also be said in reply that the music in her mind could well be an original strain which further makes the object outside redundant. This problem needs to be separately addressed as it lies outside the scope of this paper.

Others

Similar is the case with other things in nature, daily life, and others. For instance, the cyclical movement of the Sun. Unless the sun moves cyclically in relation to the earth, vegetation is not possible, because water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles are dependent on this cycle. Again take the case of a churning butter which is a cyclic movement. It causes the clarified butter (ghee) to separate out. This is achieved by a centrifugal force that acts on the butter. This is caused by the cyclic motion of the churner. The energy for this cyclic is provided by the person who churns. So one might say that more is the energy provided by the person, more is the butter (as long as there is enough raw material) that is generated and hence the person who churns is the creator of ghee. But this leads to the problem of infinite regress. I say that the cause of the ghee is the ghee itself and the cyclic mode of recall of ghee’s odour; only if one has come across the smell or taste of ghee will she be inspired to churn it again to reach that end. Only then does the cycle completes. Inspiration is itself a mental energy. Therefore, creativity is an attempt to re-produce a known desired result or a variant as per the meta-need of the creator/beneficiary of the creation. This goes to show that a creative decision is possible only when the need for a repetition arises. Hence dependence on past is essential to creativity. Reference to the past is a mental cyclicity.

85 Subroto Roy Aristotlean Cause

The Aristotlean definition of causes helps analysis of varan as follows (See figure 2):

Figure 2: Aristotlean Causes Material: It is defined as “That from which something is made.” As we know that sound being a wave is cyclic, sounded varan, as in l, is made from sound which is cyclic. This is a situation where there are cycles within cycles. Therefore, varan is made up of cycles. In fact sounded music is itself made up of cycles and therefore creativity is caused by varan. Efficient: That by which something is made. Like the father who “causes” his son. In this sense the singer of hayl uses her ability to absorb, retain, and ability to recall svara, rg, l, lay etc and manipulates them to create newness. The process of retention, retain, and recall is cyclic and hence it is this cyclic which contributes to creativity here. It is this essential feature of the artiste which is responsible for creativity as without memory there cannot be creativity in hayl. Formal: That into which something is made (Mould). The verse number 112 of Sma Vea points at varan in Sma Vea. (ibid: 127). Note that Vtti is an etymological root of varan and points at tempo/ pace/lay (Thakar,V.S. 2001). This is also true because Maag rafers to laya as pravtti (Vatsayan,K.1992:127). Translator of BD refers to pravtti as “lay in operation”.

86 Cyclic Time in Indian Art Music & Creativity Now, since Pada according to Maaga (ibid) is the textual aspect and is the mould of svara it leads to an interesting observation. Varna is the “primary melodic unit” of melodic movement and pada is the “primary textual unit” (ibid: 183). Varna is seen in Indian traditional thought is in association with the “more concrete” pada. Therefore repeated padas of Sma Vea do not matter as far as the varna changes and variety is brought about. In addition, varan is repetition as far as both aspects are repeated, but the creativity lies in repeating one and changing the other. There is clear continuity between ancient singing in Sma Vea and today’s singing. Today’s l varan is like a mould into which the composer fits bandish using imagination, musical and linguistic memory, and skills of various kinds. But the words become the receptacle of music just as it was in Sma Vea. This is one of the reasons why the composition is called “bandish”; it is integrated into the l varan. Now, improvisational creativity in hayl or hrupaias possible only when this moulded bandish is referred to, and improvised musically and not verbally just as in case of Sma Vea. Without this reference, there cannot be any improvisation. Even if baha is done without heed to composition, the artiste has to respect the l varan to make meaningful rg music. These arguments leads us to conclude that varan is the cause of creativity in hayl in the formal sense. Final: That for the sake of which something is made. varan is made for the fulfilment of an aesthetic need of the artiste and her listeners; the aesthetic need is more often than not the sam. In addition, sam plays a pivotal role in the dynamics of hayl (and dhrupad) and is almost like a goal the singer and listener looks forward to. To me Sam is Shiva who sits between two moments as the Yogi as we will see next. xxiii Indian Darshana The method of understanding matter as described by Kaaa according to Nrya (2007: 2) is knowing the unknown based on comparison with what is known through their respective similarities and differences. In the case of NIAM it is impossible to create a new musical varan without reference to the already existing one. When a hayl rendition opens the artiste refers to the varan of the composition again and again. In hrupa type lp the artiste may basically repeatedly refer to the rg roha-avaroha

87 Subroto Roy and other rules. Even if we assume that the roha-avaroha is not a reference point for some artistes, they need to refer back again and again on the rg svarp or to what they just did with and how to improvise on that. These mental activities are cyclical. Even the opening svara is a vibration and hence falls in the category of varan; as a subset of varan. Given Kaaa’s theoretical base (if varan means repetition), the following scenarios (but not limited to these) can be imagined: 1. In music the repetition of the same sound (Note that a singer cannot practically repeat the same svara because each it changes each time). Although physics may tell us that the frequency is the same instrumentation mediated graphic representation tells us the exact story (Meer & Rao: 1) as far as alp is concerned. It often happens that the same note repeated does not sound and feel the same. 2. Ordering the same sound with different accentuations 3. Keeping the order same, changing the musical sound 4. Order and sound different in same intervals 5. Alter temporal aspects but repeat verbal material and tonal aspects same (as in dugun, tigun, chougun, and many more often seen in Darbhanga style of hrupa) 6. Alter temporal aspects but repeat verbal material and tonal aspects same (as in andtmak laykri and upaj in Dgarvni hrupa) 7. Alter temporal and tonal aspects aspects but based on fixed/repeated verbal material (as in some hrupastyles and especially in hayl) 8. Repeating the temporal and verbal aspects, but altering the tonal aspects In any case, if a different scenario has to emerge it has to be with respect to the past otherwise no issue of “difference” arises. The functions of mrhan may be seen as fulfilling the aesthetic meta-needs of the music performer/listener which is the creative end of mrhan. Note that mrhan is cyclic movement and mrhan maala is a large cycle (ibid: 57) of cycles. It can be estimated that all the mrhans came into existence one by one and not at once. Therefore, it is plausible that one cyclic mrhan led to the other. This means the cyclicity of mrhan has contributed to the formation of newer mrhans. Moreover, the earlier 88 Cyclic Time in Indian Art Music & Creativity argument regarding cyclicity of the process of memory, shows that one mrhan is a product of the earlier mrhan which is essentially an improvisation of the first which musicologists have done using their memory. Esoteric The esoteric aspect of music is clear in Sag Rankara of aageva (in Banerji: 145-147). SR recognises nine chakras (nerve plexuses or mystical circles) within the human body. When the vayu or air we breathe out strikes the 22 nais which are united with the upward artery, ha n results. Now, breathing out is not possible without inhaling and it is this cyclical breathing that enables us to create ha n. Hence svara is created because of the cyclicity of breath. Take the following Rga hrupa: “iva di Madhya Ana…” The timeless iva or the Yogi (Dyczkowski 1997) is the chief deity of time and hence He devours it; Klagrsarasika; past and future are not different from the present. He is the Yogi (without categories/unity itself) blissful between two moments and full of potential creative energy. This situation is replicated in the sam of varan or the first beat (unity) in the cyclic meter. Sam is the pivol aspect which is continually sought after by the artiste in an attempt to meet the Yogi sitting between moments. From this unity multiplicity is born giving birth to cyclic meter representing the infinitely diverse phenomenal world. According to Zimmer (1992: 152) iva’s dance is an act of creation and terms it as “ever-enduring gyration” which is varan. We see that varan to an Indian is not only in matter, but also in the mind nothing escapes the cyclic order. In NIAM we see varan and creativity appearing together. Therefore, creativity is not possible without varan. Serious work on human energy fields (HEF) is being carried out at the Esalen Center for Theory & Research well known for its blend of East/West philosophies. Research on Hara line (Brennen 2000) from where creativity upwells is a “center within”. The Hara line is the foundation of the HEF and correlates to our intentionality. Now, intentionality is strong when inspirational level is high and physical energy of the creator is enough to bring this intentionality to reality. The root of energy in human body and mind are due to various involuntary cyclic activities which we will soon see.

89 Subroto Roy Roy (2010, December 13) explains inter-alia the concept of varan in north Indian art music, and draws parallels with the cyclical nature of cosmic time as quoted below: Time, according to western thinkers, is what passes between two events. This is a linear view of time, the reductionist approach, as some call it. Indic tradition, however, presents a cyclic concept of time. Time is not restricted to something that occurs between two events, as proposed in the reductionist view. Secondly, whether we acknowledge it or not, time exists beyond our capacity to comprehend it. That we think time exists is not its only manifestation. In the cyclic concept of time, since the super-structure of time is cyclic, tangible and intangible events keep getting repeated in smaller cycles and are subjunctive to time… The heavy demand for extempore improvisation (in NIAM) forces a performer to continually view her immediate musical act and improvise based on each of these, creating a different present and promising a new future. With every attempt at improvement, a spiral of creativity is generated. Then, at a point of time the artiste realises that she needs to break away from this cycle just as an aircraft takes off from the runway after gaining enough momentum. At a very secular level, this process replicates an urge for freedom from routines in life despite their relative variability. The artiste begins to hanker for a routine with a different pace and set of rules, a process that fuels her creativity. In rag rendition, we can see how first the pace of avartan is altered. Then altogether new talas or meters are negotiated, representing the same cosmic order. When we perform, we start at a slow pace and gradually increase the pace. Indian classical music is based on a meter; we start with ektal and move on to trital much like the cosmic order in the universe. There is unity in multiplicity; we begin with one, go up to 12 and then again come back to one. Since one cannot value freedom without being shackled and finding a tool to gain a threshold frequency for the final release, a tight meter with stringent pace and aesthetic dictums is recommended in NIAM. Avartan also provides a dynamic process of observation, retention, and recall which forms the structure of memory itself, cyclical. At an esoteric level, Siva is the chief deity of kal or Time, hence He relishes devouring it as kalagrasarasika. He is the Yogi, without categories, a personification of unity, blissful between two moments and full of potential creative energy.

90 Cyclic Time in Indian Art Music & Creativity This yogic situation is replicated in the sam, integral to avartan. Sam is the first beat (unity) in the cyclic meter. Sam is the pivotal aspect which is continually sought after by the artiste in an attempt to meet the yogi sitting between moments. From this unity, multiplicity is born giving birth to cyclic meter, itself representing the infinitely diverse phenomenal world. The process is yagya; the path for liberation and the musician is the yagnic, who brings about liberation. This birth of multiplicity from unity is generation from avartan or gyration.

Positive Justifications

Svara is sound and hence is a waveform which needs energy, and has frequency and wavelength. Let’s see the relationship between energy, creativity, frequency. Now, at high speeds E=hnu (Frequency & Energy, 2000) where E is the energy of photon, h is Plank’s constant, and nu is frequency of wave associated with photon. This is true for any cyclic motion, albeit in different terms. It is true Greater is the energy, larger is the frequency and the shorter (smaller) the wavelength. Given the relationship between wavelength and frequency — the higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength — it follows that short wavelengths are more energetic than long wavelengths. Here we see that the properties like frequency, wavelength, and energy of a waveform are inter-dependent. Creativity too depends largely on energy of the person who creates, but the energy needs to be channelised to achieve this end which is possible due to varan. This energy comes from cyclical behaviour and involuntary biological, and biochemical activity within human body which are tuned to the biological clock (Underwood, Swain, 1973). The suprachiasmatic nuclei are responsible for the daily rhythm. Therefore, the cyclic is inescapable.

Is varan Wherever Creativity Is? Yes. Since, memory is essential for human creativity it follows that varan is indeed encountered whenever there is creativity. If we reduce sound of music to the physics of sound, it is a sound wave which is cyclic, whether it comes out of the human vocal chords, or of a table, or any string or wind instrument. In addition, above examples of the co-incidence of varan and creativity show this is true. In hayl and in hrupa we have to refer to the last varan to improvise or create a new musical passage in the current one. This back and forth movement is itself varan. 91 Subroto Roy Take the case of a cricket ball that rotates even when thrown without a spin. The ball will spin due to resistance provided by air. But why revolution/ rotation/gyration is so common in the universe where there is no air resistance? This, points at an initial torque that may have been provided and rotational motion due to a complete lack of air resistance. Moreover, it might be due to mutual gravitation that there is relative revolutionary or rotator motion. It needs to be seen in a separate project whether human creativity is a microcosmic replication of the universal creative process.

Conclusions

1. Since varan is the property of physical materials of Indian music and of the phenomenal world therefore varan is necessary for creativity in hayl (and hrupa). 2. varan being cyclic and in keeping with the Indian concept of time, the problem of infinite regress in creativity is automatically addressed.

Weakness

It can be argued that everything in hayl (and hrupa) is cyclic. If this is true, then there is no need to prove its contribution to creative outputs.

Possible reply

Even if we can argue that everything in hayl (hrupa) is cyclic, the hypothesis still holds because we are showing the cyclic to be the cause of creativity. We are first showing that human menl and physical efforts in hayl (and hrupa) singing and the materials are cyclic. Then depending on this truth we are showing that it is this cyclic which causes creativity. This is an argument. Refernces 1. Agniveer. October 24, 2010 Why Vedas cannot be changed? [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://agniveer.com/2697/why-vedas-cannot-be-changed/October 24, 2010. (2010, November 21) 2. Andre. F. Hocutt, M., 1974. “Aristotle's Four Becauses,” Philosophy, 49: 385–399. [As cited in] Aristotle on Causality. Retrieved on 18 February, 2011, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-causality/ 3. Apte, V.S., Sanskrit-Hindi Shabdakosh. New Delhi: Ashok Prakashan, 2009.

92 Cyclic Time in Indian Art Music & Creativity 4. Ayto, J., Cycle. Bloomsbury Dictionary of Word Origins (2nd Edition). London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 1991. 5. Banerji, S.C. 1990. A Companion to Indian Music and Dance. Delhi: Sri Sat- guru Publications 6. Bhavsar, S.N., Proof of Original Manuscript. Vedic Mathematics Prospects and Retrospects. New Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass, 1988. 7. Bonshek, A., Mirror of Consciusness. Art Creativity and Veda. New Delhi: Mo- tilal Banarasidas, 2000. 8. Brennen, B. 2000. Possible Physics of the Human Energy Field as Indicated From High Sense Perception Observations. [Electronic Version]. Paper pre- sented at the Esalen Invitational Conference on Subtle Energies and Un- charted Realms of the Mind July 2-7, 2000. [Accessed on Nov 10, 2010]. Available at website of Esalen Institute http://www.esalenctr.org/display/conference.cfm?ID=2. 9. Burwood,S., Gilbert, P., Lennon, K., Philosophy of Mind. London: UCL Press, 2003. 10. Courtney, D. February 16, 2011. Fundmentals of Tal. Chandra and David’s Home Page. Retrieved on February 19, 2011, from http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/varan.html. 11. Dyczkowski, S. G. M., The Doctrine of Vibrations. USA: State University of New York Press, 1997. 12. Goswami, R., Meaning in Music. Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1995. 13. Howard, W., Matralakshanam. New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts & Motilal Banarasidass Publishers, 1988. 14. Hughes, R., Avoir du Retentissment. Music Lovers’ Cyclopaedia. New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1912. 15. Jha, V.N., Avartan. Concordance of Conceptual Upanishadic Terms (Volume-1). Pune: Centre for Advanced Studies in Sankrit, University of Pune, 2004. 16. Kulkarni, R.P., Geometry According to ulba Stra. Pune:Vaidic Saodhana Maala, 1983. 17. Martinez, J.M., Semiosis In Hindustani Music. Imatra: International Semioisis Institute, 1997. 18. Munro, T., The Arts and Their Interrelations. Cleveland & London: The Press of Western Reserve University, 1996. 19. N.a. 2000. Physics 2000. In University of Colorado at Boulder site. Re- trieved accessed on 10, November 2010, from http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/quantumzone/frequency_algebra. html.

93 Subroto Roy 20. N.a. 2010, January 7. Ancient India had both cyclic and linear time concepts, says Romila Thapar. Retrieved from http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article679846.ece 21. N.a. (n.d). Aristotle’s Four Causes. The Professor Network. In Philosophies and Philosophers. Retrieved on 18.02, 2011, from http://www.philosophyprofessor.com/philosophies/aristotles-four-cause s.php. 22. Narayan, R. H. February 1, 2007. The Theory of Matter in Indian Physics. In Cornell University Library. Retrieved December 27, 2010, from http://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0702/0702012.pdf. 23. Nye, R.D., Three Views of Man; Perspectives from Sigmund Freud, B. F. Skinner, and Carl Rogers.. California: Wordsworth Publishing House, 1975. 24. Rao, S., Acoustical Perspective on Raga-Rasa Theory. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 2000. 25. Roy, S., Examining Avartan in Khayal. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Pune, 2008. 26. Roy, S. December 13, 2010. Speaking Tree. In Articles. Retrieved February 19, 2011, from http://www.speakingtree.in/public/view-article/Unity-In-Multiplicity. 27. Roychadhury, B., Avarda. The Dictionary of Hindistani Classical Music. New Delhi: Imdadkhani School of and Narendra Prakash Jain for Motilal Banarasidass Publishers, 2000. 28. Seturaman, V.S. (Ed)., Indian Aesthetics; An Introduction. New Delhi: MacMil- lan, 2005. 29. Thakar, V.S., Avartan.Modern Marathi-Marathi-English Thesaurus. Pune: Mehta Publishing, 2001. 30. Underwood, G. Swain, R.A. 1973. "Selectivity of attention and the perception of duration". Perception 2 (1): 101. [As cited in] rhythm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense_of_time. 31. Vatsayan, K. (Gen Ed)., Bhaddei of ri Maag Muni (Vol I). New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts & Motilal Banarasidass Pub- lishers, 1992. 32. In Weiner, B., Runquist, W., Runquist, P. et.al., Discovering Psychology. USA:Science Research Associates, 1977. 33. Zimmer, H., Myths and Symbols of Indian Art and Civilization.New Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass,1990.

94 Towards an Ecology of Hindustani Music Huib Schippers

When we hear of ecosystems, images of rain forests or coral reefs usually come to mind first. The delicate interplay between internal and external forces that dictate the diversity and very survival of life forms has become an increasing concern globally. Although it may seem a stretch of the imagination at first, I would argue that many of the principles of ecology can be translated to music, and increase our insight into the strength and weaknesses of specific musical cultures and traditions (cf Titon, ed, 2009). In fact, the program of this very conference refers to many elements of a musical ecosystem. There are sessions dedicated to audiences, to organizations, to the media, to the balance between vocal and instrumental music, to aesthetics, and to fusion. Going back in the history of the SRA seminars, issues like tradition and change, Indian music and the West, instrument makers and musicians’ rights have been addressed. Each of these and their interplay constitute the wonderful and wondrous ecosystem that is Hindustani music. As we all know, North Indian classical music has a long and illustrious history of survival across a number of very divergent settings, including temples, courts, houses of affluent people and courtesans, radio stations, Indian concert halls, Western stages, and a variety of recorded formats. In addition, it has interacted extensively with folk music, religious music, and popular music, including the omnipresent songs from the Bollywood film industry. Moreover, in spite of a long period of colonization, and considerable challenges in terms of education, poverty and infrastructure, Hindustani music in the North (and Carnatic music in the South) has remained the principal form of art music in the country, unlike the situation in many other countries in Asia and beyond, where western classical music has become the frame of reference for music performance and education. While there is a long tradition of bemoaning the state of Hindustani music from generation to generation, the tradition seems to be very much alive and readjusting to new realities in a country with cities of up to twenty million people engaging with the new choices that come with greater affluence and emerging technologies. This state of affairs has been one of the sources of inspiration for a major international project to identify some of

95 Huib Schippers the key factors that are conducive –and others that are challenging– to the sustainability of Hindustani music in the 21st century. Sustainable futures for music cultures – Toward an ecology of musical diversity is a five-year, USD 4 million dollar collaboration between six universities and three NGOs, funded by the Australia Research Council to develop an instrument to empower communities to forge musical futures on their own terms. Primarily directed at traditions in acute danger, it also looks at successful traditions (like Hindustani music) to find mechanisms that support a vibrant music culture. At the core of the project are five domains: Systems of learning music; Musicians and communities; Contexts and constructs; Infrastructure and regulations; and Media and the music industry. The scope of each of these can be summarized in the table below:

Systems of Systems of learning are central to the sustainability of most learning music music cultures. This domain assesses balances between informal and formal training, notation-based and aural learning, holistic and analytical approaches, and emphasis on tangible and less tangible aspects of ‘musicking’. It explores contemporary developments in learning and teaching (from master-disciple relationships to systems based on technology/the world wide web), and how non-musical activities, philosophies and approaches intersect with learning and teaching. These issues play a key role from the level of community initiatives to the highest level of institutionalized professional training.

Musicians & This domain assesses the social and cultural contexts of communities musical traditions. It examines the realities of and the attitudes to recontextualisation, cross-cultural influences, authenticity and context, and explicit and implicit approaches to cultural diversity resulting from travel, migration or media, as well as obstacles such as poverty, prejudice, racism, stigma, restrictive religious attitudes, and issues of appropriation. It also looks at the underlying values and attitudes (constructs) steering musical directions. These include musical tastes, aesthetics, cosmologies, socially and individually constructed identities, gender issues, as well as (perceived) prestige, which is often underestimated as a factor in musical survival.

96 Towards an Ecology of Hindustani Music

Contexts & This domain assesses the social and cultural contexts of constructs musical traditions. It examines the realities of and the attitudes to recontextualisation, cross-cultural influences, authenticity and context, and explicit and implicit approaches to cultural diversity resulting from travel, migration or media, as well as obstacles such as poverty, prejudice, racism, stigma, restrictive religious attitudes, and issues of appropriation. It also looks at the underlying values and attitudes (constructs) steering musical directions. These include musical tastes, aesthetics, cosmologies, socially and individually constructed identities, gender issues, as well as (perceived) prestige, which is often underestimated as a factor in musical survival.

Regulations & This domain primarily relates to the ‘hardware’ of music: Infrastructure places to perform, compose, practise and learn, all of which are essential for music to survive, as well virtual spaces for creation, collaboration, learning, and dissemination. Other aspects included in this domain are the availability and/or manufacturing of instruments and other tangible resources. It also examines the extent to which regulations are conducive or obstructive to a blossoming musical heritage, including grants, artistes’ rights, copyright laws, sound restrictions, laws limiting artistic expression, and averse circumstances such as obstacles that can arise from totalitarian regimes, persecu- tion, civil unrest, war or the displacement of music or people.

Media & the This domain addresses large-scale dissemination and music industry commercial aspects of music. Most musicians and musical styles depend in one way or another on the music industry for their survival. Over the past 100 years, the distribution of music has increasingly involved recordings, radio, television and internet (e.g. Podcasts, YouTube, MySpace). At the same time, many acoustic and live forms of delivery have changed under the influence of internal and external factors, leading to a wealth of new performance formats. This domain examines the ever-changing modes of distributing, publicizing, and supporting music, including the role of audiences (including consumers of recorded product), patrons, sponsors, funding bodies and governments who ‘buy’ or ‘buy into’ artistic product.

It is easy to see how each of these domains relate to Hindustani music. Let me highlight some of the most striking features that relate to the descriptions above.

97 Huib Schippers In this forum –and across India– Guru-shishya-parampara is a frequent topic of discussion, both in extolling its virtues and bemoaning its decline (cf Schippers, 2010). For an aural tradition, a refined system of transmission is a key requirement. Without it, the music disappears within a generation, at least as a living tradition with a great deal of tacit knowledge underlying its performance practice. Similarly, the way musicians interact with each other and an inner circle of seasoned lovers of this musique savante is of paramount importance (cf Neuman 1990). In India, the community of senior musicians have served as an informal but quite effective ‘quality control agency,’ safeguarding the tradition from unconsidered rapid change, while allowing organic change over time. In the area of contexts and constructs (values and attitudes), perhaps the most striking feature of Hindustani music is a persistent conviction of the inherent quality of this music amongst its practitioners and supporters. I would argue that this –perhaps more than any other feature of the music– has enabled the tradition to survive major shifts in contexts as well as colonialism, which has brought in Western art music as the ‘superior’ music in the vast majority of other countries with similar histories. Hindustani and Carnatic music dominate the quality music sector across the Indian subcontinent because the music has managed to maintain a high and respected profile, in spite of trials and tribulations. In terms of infrastructure, the shift from courts to concert halls is worthy of notice, but perhaps even more strikingly the role of All India Radio in the decades after Independence, effectively taking over the role of the courts as patron of many musicians. What is noticeably absent is a generous and fine- grained system of arts grants and subsidies, demonstrating again the resolve of the community to keep this tradition alive and vibrant, even in an era of almost endless choices for entertainment. I have already mentioned the role of All India Radio as a key player in media and the music industry. His Master’s Voice and a number of other record companies have also contributed substantially to sustaining Hindustani music and artistes since recording began at some scale over a hundred years ago. As that industry is dying, online formats are taking over (cf Draper 2007). While it is early to say what the long-term effect will be of these major changes in dissemination, one might expect a pattern similar to what is occurring in much western music, where the Web and other forms of 98 Towards an Ecology of Hindustani Music mediated music serves as a bridge to being attracted to live performances rather than as a major source of income. Each of these can be expanded considerably. That is exactly the purpose of the Sustainable future project. From 2010-2012, a small team consisting of Joep Bor, Suvaranalata Rao, Dhruba Ghosh and myself (in collaboration with organisations like SRA, NCPA and ARCE) will try to coordinate and effort digging deeply into the dreams and realities of each of the domains above, and how they relate to the impressive resilience of Hindustani music. We will do so by consulting senior figures in each of these areas, as well as looking carefully at the literature, policies, and statistical data. This should lead to a fairly sizable account of the ecosystem of Indian music, which can serve as an inspiring intellectual exercise in itself, but hopefully also as a source of inspiration for focused efforts to keep this tradition strong and vibrant for centuries to come. This paper is a paraphrase of an oral presentation during the seminar. More information about Sustainable futures for music cultures – Toward an ecology of musical diversity can be found on http://musecology.griffith.edu.au/.

References 1. Draper, Paul. Music 2.0. QCRC Twilight lecture, 27 October 2007. Podcast, http://www29.griffith.edu.au/radioimersd/content/blogcategory/16/28. 2. Neuman, Daniel 1990. The Life of Music in North India. 2 nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 3. Schippers, Huib 2010. Facing the music: Shaping music education from a global perspective. New York: Oxford University Press. 4. Titon, Jeff (ed.) 2009. Music and sustainability. The world of music, 51(1).

99 Some Aspects of Musical Interrelations Between India and Central Asia Dilorom Karomat

The cross-cultural study of the music-theoretical norms of the Great Traditions and of their ascribed and actual relations with musical practice is a study of high intrinsic interest. Interrelations between the Indian and Central Asian cultural traditions had started even before Islam came to India. Its composite character is linked to the Indo-Aryan civilisation with pre-Aryan characteristics. Veda and Avesta sources (in Samaveda and Gata-s) reflect not only the musical culture of that time but also some of the points of interrelations between both civilisations. Music, of course, had the first role in these cultural exchanges, because it does not have the limitations that other forms of communication (like language) have. Later, an important role was played by the Turk, Afghan and Mughal rulers, the caravans and the embassies of diplomatic and commercial representatives, which frequently included musicians or who often brought gifts of musical instruments, as attested in contemporary representations and chronicles.

For the study of the history of Indo-Central Asian interrelations, we use archaeology as a basis. We also use manuscripts and miniature paintings. A most important place for the interrelations between India and Central Asia was the Kushan empire (I BC to IV AD), which brought together both regions for several hundred years [1]. Musicians from India were always welcomed and Indian music was very much liked in the Court and houses of the noblemen. One of the famous art images of Central Asia during Kushan’s time is the image of Ayrtam (pic.1) [2].

This image shows five musicians with string and membranophone musical instruments. Both types of musical instruments are related to Central Asian and Indian culture. Researchers connected this image to the Pancha Maha

100 Musical Interrelations Between India and Central Asia Shabda of Indian mythology. Russian researchers G.A. Pugachenkova and L.I. Rempel write: “The group of musicians who played the flute, harp, lute, cymbals and drum are the Pancha-Maha-shabda. They are the personifications of the Five Great Sounds of Indian mythology. They are charms to Buddha’s ears by rendering the harmony of the heavens…” [3].This is one of the images that portray the interrelations of the two civilisations during ancient times.

The cultural traditions of Kushan’s empire did not end with the break-up of the Kushans. Similar traditions can be found later in the images of other settlements. One of them is an image about the investigations from the ancient Panjekent [4]. Numerous wall pictures of the Sogdianian art depicted scenes about old epic motifs [5], traces of religious beliefs and cults, scenes of feasts, combats, battles, games and many more. The inhabitants of old Panjekent worshipped different religious symbols. In wall pictures, one could see the elements of Zoroastrism, where people worshipped the Sun, Moon and the planets. Buddhism and the performances of religious ceremonies of the Hindus could also be seen. Researchers connected several pictures to the God Shiva, among them that of Trimurti (pic.2) and the image of the Dancing Shiva (Nataraja) [6]. Both images pictured Indian musical instruments, such as horns and bells, of old time [7].

During the medieval centuries, the Indo-Muslim culture was the result of the mixing of two races and civilisations. This culture remained integrated into the character imbued with Islamic features until the advent of the British. Dr. 101 Dilorom Karomat Satish Chandra, in his book “Medieval India” correctly notes: “The Turks who came into India not only considered themselves to be champions of Islam but were proud of being inheritors of its rich tradition, whether it was in the field of architecture, forms of government or science and technology. They had also adopted Persian, which had emerged as the language of government and culture in Central Asia, Khurasan and by the 10th century. The Hindus as well were the inheritors of religious and cultural traditions that had evolved during the last thousands of years”[8].

The Turks, the Afghans and the Mughals were patrons of music and musical gatherings spread from the abodes of the Sufis to the palaces of the nobles. Now, musicians from Central Asia and Iran are always welcomed in the Court and in the houses of Indian noblemen [9].

When the Turks came to India, they inherited the rich tradition of Central Asian music and brought with them not only a number of new musical instruments but also new musical modes and regulations [10]. The practical achievements of the musicians stimulated scholarly interest and treatises on music were written in Persian and, later, in Urdu as well. These treatises were written mainly by the newcomers from Mawara-un-Nahar (or Transoxiana), Khurasan and Iran or by their descendants. These treatises are of a great value for the study of the musical heritage of both Central Asia/Iran and India. Moreover, several classical works, such as the Ragadarpan, were translated into Persian. The Perso-Arabic theoretical tradition and the Sanskrit theoretical tradition are related roughly in similar ways to the traditional art music of the Middle East, Central Asia and India, respectively. One of the most significant points that need to be mentioned concerning the manuscripts of the time is the process of synthesis of the Arab-Ajam and Indian aesthetics and philosophy. Thus, comes, for instance, an interesting explanation of the origin of the 12 maqam-s in their association with the voice of animals (such as 'Ushshaq from cocks, Rast from elephants, and so on).

During the reign of the Delhi Sultanates, Court music was basically Perso- Arab oriented. Amir Khusrau’s [11] works (poems and ‘Ijaz-i-Khusrau) give a significant amount of information on musical instruments. Khusrau mentioned Persian instruments like (one of the most prominent instruments of the time), (two-stringed instrument) and (also referred to as , tambur, and daff). He also mentioned Indian vinas, the four stringed alavan and the kingra (Sanskrit: kinnari), duhl (Sanskrit: dhaula, Hindi: ).

102 Musical Interrelations Between India and Central Asia The specific peculiarities of the Indian linguistic situation as well as the presence of the social and professional groups that had their own linguistic, lexical and phrase logical distinctiveness all found their reflection in the farhang-s. Based on the analysis of the dictionaries, one may note the particular importance of their entry texts in the history of culture. There are many terms pertaining to the arts, primarily on music. This fact demonstrates the farhang to be a unique and very valuable source—it is sometimes even more significant than other written evidence from the epoch. Moreover, when such descriptions are accompanied by the depiction of these musical terms, as can be seen in a copy of Mifta:h –ul Fuzala: [12], the value of the source increases even more. A good example is the miniature found below [pic.3- MF6866_2]: This miniature is a pictured ensemble, which included two musical instruments: the Chang and Barbat and the Qarsaknavaz (one who gives a bit). As seen on the picture, the Chang player and the young man beside him are both newcomers from Khorasan as depicted by their costumes. They are Turks by origin as can be noticed by their eyes and faces. The Barbat player probably is an Indian Muslim, as can be noticed by the colour of his skin and costume. He could also be a newcomer from North Africa (Arabian). This miniature gives us information not only about the medieval musical instruments, but also about the multi-racial situation of 15th century India. Likewise, in a way, it gives us information about the place of origin of the pictured . The lexicographers of the 14th to the 16th centuries of Persian dictionaries [13] gave several names to the musical tunes that were very popular in Persia during the 6th and the 7th centuries. According to tradition, these musical tunes were composed by the musician Ba:rbad: : : : ] [ ] 7678 [ Sha:drava:n: flatweave blanket which is hung over a doorway; wardrobe; name of a melody. [Dastu:r al-afa:zil]; Sha:drava:n-I :ri:d : that is a name of the melody and tune [Sharafna:ma, Add.7678]. The lexicographers provide descriptions about particular musical instruments. The descriptions could sometimes be very detailed, containing comprehensive information about the instruments’ functions, appearance and structures. They also often described the material from which a musical

103 Dilorom Karomat instrument was made as well as how it was played or parts of it. For example: : // : . ] 377 [ .... Khar-i-raba:b and Kharrak-i ruba:b: that is a wooden tool which is [placed] on the belly of raba:b and [musical instruments] like it. The strings are draw [pull on] in it. Sipa:ha:ni : (bayt) [Sharafna:ma, v.1, p.377]. : 139 : [ ] Arghanu:n: that is the instrument of Romans [Greeks], [also] named the collection of musical instruments such as Raba:b, Barbat, Chang, Tanbu:r and also pronounced as Arghun [ Zufa:n-i- Gu:ya:, 6th Bakhsh: and Yunani, v.2, p.139; Muayid]. However in Early Persian dictionaries most of definition entries for musical terms (the total more then 300 words) are very simple and short. For example: [ : ] : 39 Ga:vdum : is a Karna:i that is Bu:q and also named Small Bu:q, that is like a tail of caw [Zufa:n-i-Gu:ya:, 2nd Bakhsh, v.2, p.39; in Muayid ul-Fuzala:(925 h) is given in this meaning with indication to Zufa:n-i-Gu:ya:]; 7678 [ : ] Sita:r: with vowel sound “i”, that is a name of musical instrument, which also named as Sita:rah and Sehta:r [Sharafna:ma, Add.7678]; Setor (lit.,”three-stringed”) – instrument bigger than the , but out- wardly it looks like Tanbur popular in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan or like bowed Sato. The Central Asian Setor has three playing and from eight to twelve sympathetic strings. The sound is produced by means of plucking the strings with a plectrum (Nakhun), or (more than ten) by bowing. First is popular in

104 Musical Interrelations Between India and Central Asia Badakhshan area of Tajikistan and Afghanistan. It is tuned in fourth. Setor is a solo and ensemble instrument mainly of professional musicians. The age and origin (Indian or Central Asian) of Sitar and have been discussed and the iconographical records are partly studied by modern researchers [14] In the 7th Bakhsh of Zufa:n-i-Gu:ya: had given several musical terms related with Turkic language. Some of them very special for song, melody and voice: ] 146 : [ : I:r : a song [Zufa:n-i-Gu:ya:, 7nd Bakhsh: Turkic, v.2,p.146; In Di:wa:n Lugha:t at-Turk (11th c.) [15] is given as yir, ir, ji:r, yi:r in the meaning of “song, tune”; I:r and yir – “song” in Ta:li:f-i al-Ami:r of Khwaja: Ami:r (18th c.)[16]; ji:r, yi:r in the meaning of “melody” in Risa:la-i-Lughat-i Turki (19th c.)[17]; In modern Turkic languages: Modern Turkish- Ir, yir (song, folk-song; yirlamak vi. sing), , Turkman – not in use; Tatar – ji:r ( – song, = ji:rchi: - singer), Bashkir – yi:r ( and =yi:rsi: , verb =yi:rlau), some dialects of Uzbek – jir ( = jir –song, very rare used a verb = jirlamaq, regional = jirav – narrator (of folk & epic tales)), Uyghur – not in use; Kazakh – ji:r ( – song,story/legend; = ji:rlau – sing, , = ji:rau, ji:rshi: - singer, narrator ), Kirgiz – i:r ( – song; =bati:r i:ri: - heroic epic tells/songs, =i:rdoo – sing, = ji:r - epic poem), Karakalpak - ji:r ( – epic song/epic poem, , = ji:rau, ji:rlaumi: - singer, narrator of epic poems by accompaniment on musical instrument Komuz; = ji:rla – sing, sang an epic poems), Nog(h)ay - yi:r (, verb =yi:rlav, – yi:rlavshi:), Kumik - yi:r (, =yi:rla, - – yi:rav-yi:rchi), Khakas - – i:r ( – song; =i:rlargha, = i:rchi:), Tuva – i:r (, = i:rllaar, = i:raaji:)[18]. ] : 151 : [ : I:ra:n : he/her is singing a song [Zufa:n-i-Gu:ya:, 7nd Bakhsh: Turkic, v.2,p.151; In the basic of word is “I:r” , function of suffices – “A:n” is unknown; also written in Mss as yi:ra:n] ] : 153 : [ : I:rla:di: : he/her had sang a song [Zufa:n-i-Gu:ya:, 7nd Bakhsh: Turkic, v.2,p.153;

105 Dilorom Karomat In Tashkent’s manuscript there is word “ I:rda:di:“; the basis of word is I:r; in DLT yirladi:(ji:rladi:- 2): (er yirladi: = adam bir ir irladi ( man is sing one song) / – yirla:r(ji:rlar) –yirla:ma:k (ji:rlamaq) / [ DLT – 1, v.3, p.308; DLT-2, v.3, p.322]; in Moderm Turkish – Irladi, for other Turkic languages see above). : ;] 151 : [ : ]103 [ U:n : a voice [Zufa:n-i-Gu:ya:, 7nd Bakhsh: Turkic, v.2,p.151; U:n : first is Zamma and second is Fatha, is a voice [Sharafna:ma, v.1, p.103]; Same in Muayid; in DLT : u:n , un - a voice , use with long and short vowels [DLT-3, p.78, p.87]]. Several terms related with musical instruments are very rare. Those names were used in Turkic dictionaries written in India in 18th-19th centuries and in particular in Turkic dictionary Ta:li:f-i al-Ami:r by Khwaja Amir. Investigations of those Turkic musical terms in sources other than Indian or modern Turkic language were not successful [19]. Even in Turkic poetry of Khorasan of that time (for example, ‘Alisher Nava:i’s [20]) poets had used popular Persian equivalents for those instruments rather than those given below: ] 148 : [ : ][ Aylaq/Ablaq: Kama:ncha [violin-like instrument] [Zufa:n-i-Gu:ya:, 7th Bakhsh; Turkic, v.2, p.148; Same in Muayid; Amlaq [Ta:li:f-i al-Ami:r], Amlaq [Risa:la-i lughat-i turki] in the meaning of Kama:ncha]]. : [ : ] [ ] : 151 Ou:parim [Oubarim] : Chang [stringed instrument], which is a musical instrument [ Zufa:n-i- Gu:ya:, 7th Bakhsh; Turkic, v.2, p.151; Same in Muayid; Sharafna:ma – O:barim; Ta:li:f-i al-Ami:r and Risa:la-i lughat-i turki: O:ba’rim – Chang (=harp); in “ Journal of Soviet Turcology” of 1982, no.3 on p.74 a close word is given with the same meaning “Üjrim – harp, lyre” , with remark that this word is not founded in historical sources, dictionaries, or modern languages]. : [ : ]161 106 Musical Interrelations Between India and Central Asia Chughrah: is a musical instrument, which is called Cha:rta:rah [Zufa:n-i-Gu:ya:, 7th Bakhsh; Turkic, v.2, p.161]. Some of Turkic musical instruments given in Zufa:n-i-Gu:ya: were very popular in old time as in modern: : 164 : [ : : 164 : [ : : ] 7678 '[ : ;] : ] [ Si:rghu: : a windpipe [Zufa:n-i-Gu:ya:, 7th Bakhsh;Turkic, v.2, p.164; Muayid : Sitrghu; Sharafna:ma: Sirghu:; Sirghu: is a reed-pipe [Ta:li:f-i al-Ami:r]; Sibizghu: a windpipe [Sharafna:ma, add 7678]; Sabazghav: that is a Turkic windpipe which are made from reed [Mifta:h-ul Fuzala:]; sibizgu: [sibizghu] : Düdük, bory ( reed-pipe -3) [ DLT-1, v.1, p.489; DLT-3, p.452]; sibizghu is a shephered’s reed, which, with several differences in construction, is popular [occur] among many Turkic nationalities under different names: Bashkir - kuray, chi:bi:zga, si:bi:zga (, , ); Karachaevo-Cherkessiya – sibizga (); Kumiks and – zi:bi:zgi: (); Uzbekistan – sibizik (); Kazakhstan – si:bi:zgi: (); Kalmics (was exist) –tci:bi:zga (); Khakassiya – si:mi:sha ()]. : : : ]7678 [ // ] [ : Sarghi:n / Sirghi:n : with vowel sound “a” and with vowel sound “i”, a Turkic flute (windpipe) which is also named Surna:y and Surni:: ( bayt) [Sharafna:ma, Add.7678]; Surghi:n: a Turkic flute, also pronounced with Fatha and Kasra on S [Mifta:h –ul Fuzala:]. : [ : ] 7678 [ ] Surna:y: name of Turkic flute [Mifta:h ul-Fuzala:]; Surna:y , surni: : [both] words with vowel sound “u”, Turkic windpipe and it is also named Surghi:n, in case [when, if] it is being remiss that this is a Shehna:y

107 Dilorom Karomat [Shrafna:ma, Add.7678; P. shahna:, shahna:i (shah = sha:h,”large”+ na:’i), s.f. A musical pipe; a flute; a flageolet; a clarion… [DUCHE[21], v.2, p.738]]. We have different kinds of Musical instrument Chagha:na, according to dictionaries. Even in some modern dictionaries, under this name many different musical instruments occur–bowed and drummed. Often Chagha:na in ensemble with can be found in Turkic poetry of ‘Alisher Nava:’i. Most of dictionaries show two kinds, one of them stringed instrument played with bow (this one is pictured in copy of Miftah-ul Fuzala:) and the other is an instrument like cymbal: : : ... ]265 - [ : ] 1262 [ . : [ // ] [ : ]358 [ Chagha:nah: with Persian Jim, are musical instruments which are played with bow [and singing a song – Or.265]… [Ada:t ul-Fuzala:, Or.1262]; Chagha:nah: is a musical instrument like small Rabab, which is played with a bow [Mifta:h-ul Fuzala:]; Chagha:nah: with vowel sound “a” (Fatha), is the name of a musical instrument that in Hindavi is called surmandal. Sipahani : (bait) [Sharafna:ma, v.1, p.358; H surmandal, s.m.A kind of musical instrument [DUCHE, v.2, p.655]; surmandal / is a traditional small Indian harp]; It is interesting to note that already in that time some authors attempted to make comparisons between Persian musical instruments and their nearest Indian equivalent, often one for several. For example: : ]38 [ : ]38 [ Karna:y – is a bu:q, in Hindavi is called bher [Zufa:n-i-Gu:ya:, 2nd Bakhsh, v.2, p.38 ] : ' [ : ] 102

108 Musical Interrelations Between India and Central Asia Bu:q: karnay, that is, bher [Zufa:n-i- Gu:ya:, 5th Bakhsh:Miscelleneous words of Arabic, Nabatean(i.e.Aramic) and ‘Ajami; v.2, p.102; Muayid gave a meaning of word with mark ‘from Zufa:n‘]. : [ : ] 143 Na:qu:r : is the big flute which in Hindawi is called bher [Zufa:n-i-Gu:ya:, th 6 Bakhsh: Roman and Greek; v.2, p.143; Burhan; S. bheri, and H. bher, s.f.A kind of musical instrument of copper, a kind of pipe or bugle; a kettle-drum [DUCHE, v.1, p.199]].

Bonnie Wade mentioned in her work that the miniature paintings patronised by generations of Mughal rulers are evidence of cultural synthesis and that they show the Mughals patronising the process of musical changes. Under them, the process of the gradual Indianisation of Persian musical culture and the concomitant evolution of musical instruments as well as their practice were completed. However, the process of synthesis of the West Asian and South Asian cultures was not a new activity as it had already been promoted before by Akbar, one of the first Mughals. Akbar was well aware of the persistence of that process and tried to build upon it [22].

Several hundred years before Akbar, Amir Khusrau Dehlavi became an expert of Perso-Indian music. According to medieval manuscripts, he was the inventor of several raga-s with Perso-Arabic names. While studying the works of Amir Khusrau, one should remember that the general tendency of the age was towards the synthesis of the musical culture of both regions. Undoubtedly, for the coming generations, Amir Khusrau became a symbol of Perso-Indian (Turani-Irani-Hindustani) synthesis in art, particularly in music. Some sources connected Amir Khusrau to several works of music, such as the presence of Maqam Hijaz as a Rag Hejaz in That Bhairava and Maqam Husaini as a Rag Husaini Kanhra in Kafee That. Several manuscripts [23] described the raga-s invented by Amir Khusrau as the basis of Persian music. However, some modern researchers have criticised the distinctions given to Khusrau. They argue that there is no sufficient evidence to back the claims that Khusrau invented the raga-s and musical instruments. After careful examination of his poem Qir’an-us-Sadain and his chapter on music in Ijaz-i- Khusravi, though, one could find supporting evidence for his claim as inventor of some of the raga-s. In his Qir’an-us-Sadain, Khusrau refers to the raga-s and maqam-s [24]. Amir Khusrau looks upon the 12 parda ( maqam-s) as the

109 Dilorom Karomat most perfect form of invention during the pre-Islamic period based on mythological and cosmic beliefs. An aspect of his position in the raga-maqam system is that he did not only combine the two systems but discovered commonalities in their basic aesthetic organisation and theoretical principles as well. Khusrau had successfully discovered the similarities between the musical traditions of Indian and Persian musical cultures. A chapter entitled “About main and secondary principles in music” in his work called ‘Ija:z-i-Khusrau can be treated as a treatise on music. ’Ija:z-i- Khusrau has been described by the author as a “Harf” (letter) and not a treatise. The topics discussed in this work are wide. These include the mode organisation of Persian and Indian music, particularity mode forming; differentiation between modes; principles of their compilation; synthesis at rhythmic level; criterion of professional music-making; forms and genres of Indian and Persian music; popular musical instruments; methods of their development; famous musicians of his time and so on. It must be pointed out that Amir Khusrau has not used Arabic terms in his work. He has fully based himself on Persian musical terms like Parda for maqam mode, Abreshim for Avaza, Bong for melodies (pakar of maqam-s) and so on. Evidence of synthesis can be seen in the work of Amir Khusrau. For example, in some forms of music, such as in “From where Indian Kungur [ kingra]”, players could know that their singing will be perfect with the same ajabrud” [25].

Amir Khusrau mentioned musicians from Mavera-un-Nahr and Khorasan. He gave names, such as “Kamalot-us-zaman”, Amir Shodi, Amir Changi, Amir Borbati, Amir Nai, Amir Dafi, Khwajah Latif –i-Qawwal, and many more. He had written more about instrumental music than about vocal music. This may have been due to the fact that at that time, instrumental music was more popular or more developed than vocal music. The popularity of instrumental music over vocal music was partly because of the language problem between the newcomers and the local population. Compared to vocal music, instrumental music was free from the constraints of language. From this, we can conclude that the process of musical synthesis between Indian and Central Asian music had occurred first in instrumental music.

In her research entitled “Shashmaqom and Raga”, Dr. Faroghat Azizova, a Tajik researcher, concluded that the contribution of Amir Khusrau to Indian and Central Asian music was really important. According to her, the raga-s

110 Musical Interrelations Between India and Central Asia invented by Khusrau promoted and furthered the process of assimilation and synthesis between Indian and Central Asian music.

One of the most important places of interrelation between Central Asia and India was Kashmir Valley. The Islamisation of Kashmir was accomplished

Name Saut-i-al-Naqus Mutalai al-Hind Raag Darpan Majmu'a-I Risalah-i Musiqi

Mukhayar Consist of Todi & Iraq Khara & Pers. in Todi & Panjgah & of Ghara [Khara] & Maqam; some say Mukhayar Pers. Maqam; some consist of Todi & Iraq of Todi & Iraq

Sazgiri Purbi & Gaura Purbi & Gora & Purbi, Bibhas, Gora, Purbi & Gora & Ganakali & Maqam; Gunakali & Pers. Gunkali & Pers. Gunakali & Pers. some say Vibhas maqam; some say Maqam Iraq Maqam; some say inplace of Purbi Bibhas in place of Bibhas in place of Purbi Purbi

Yaman Yaman Hindol & Pers. Aiman (Yaman), Hindol & Pers. Maqam; some say in Nairiz Maqam; some say place of Hindol is consist of Yaman & Yaman; Pers. Maqam

Ushshaq Sarang & Devgiri Sarang & Basant & Sarang & Nawa & of Sarang & Basant Pers. Maqam Basant & Pers. Maqam

Muwafiq Todi& Malsri & Todi & Malsri & Berari & Malsri & Todi & Malsri & Dugah & Huseyni Dugah & Huseyni, Dugah & Huseyni & Dugah & Huseyni named Diwali also Diwali sayd also and also called Diwali

Ghanim Purbi & Gora Purbi Purbi & From Pers. Purbi Maqamat Shahnaz

Zilaf Khatarag & ...... Khatarag Khatarag Khatarag

Farghanah Gora & Gunakali of Gunakali & Gora Gora & Farghana is of Gunakali & Gora Pers. Maqam

Sarpardah Bilawal & Purba of Gora & Sarang & Gond Bilawal & Gor Gaur Sarang & Pers. Pers. Maqam; some Sarang & of Maqam Maqam and some say consist of Gond Rast say cons. of Gond & & Bilawal & Puriya & Bilawal & Purbi & Pers. Maqam Pers. Maqam

Bakhriz

[Bokharz] Deskar & Bibhas Deskar & Pers. Deskar & Bakhriz Deskar & Pers. Maqam from Pers. Maqamat Maqam

Farudast

[Firdust] Kanhra (=Shahanah) Kanhra & Gori & Kanhkah & several Kanhra & Gori & Purbi & Syam & Per. Rags & melody of Purbi & Syam & Maqam Farudast Pers. Maqam

Sanam Gori Kalyan & Pers. Kalyan & Nairiz Kalyan & Pers. maqam; some say it Maqam; some say Tabzid & cons. of Nairiz and const. of Pat. Manjri & Pers. Nat Manjri & Pers. Maqam Maqam.

111 Dilorom Karomat peacefully through the activity of Sufi missionaries from Central Asia. Islamisation was accompanied by the massive Persianisation of the Kashmiri culture, which included religion (particularly Sufism), language, literature and the arts. In music, the musical instruments, musical terminology and theory were strongly influenced by Persia. This evolution had been recorded in Abu’l Fazl’s A’ini Akbari. Indeed, the schools in Kashmir had been founded by the Irani and Turani musicians and patronised by the king of Kashmir. Musicians toured the areas around the Persian cultural sphere. Patronising these wandering musicians was recognised as a natural activity among the elites of Central Asia and India. It was a part of their cultural heritage. Historical source (Srivara) indicates that during the golden period of the Kashmiri history, particularly during the reign of Zainu-l’Abidin (1420-1470), there were musicians from Khurasan in the king’s court. Several families of the present day masters claim that they originated from Persia (Saznavaz family). There is, therefore, a likelihood that the present day tradition is in many ways related to the earlier Persian tradition. It seems that the most active interchange or the transfer of attributes of the Kashmiri suite (Sufiyana Kalam) took place between the 14th and the 18th centuries [26]. In these interrelations, musicians from Xinjiang could have played active roles, particularly those who were masters of the Uyghurian maqam-s.

We have found references related to the Central Asian musicians during the reigns of the Great Mughals in various sources. In Abu’l Fazl’s A’in-I Akbari, for example, we found references to musicians from the Herat (Khurasan) performing for Akbar. There were not only numerous singers, but instrumentalists, such as Usta Usuf (a tanbur player from Herat) and Pirzada (singer/chanter from Khurasan) as well. Joining those musicians from various cultural centres in Persia and elsewhere were many singers from the Indian cities. Researcher R. Foltz, in his work entitled “Two seventeenth century Central Asian travellers to Mughal India” stated that it exhibits what may be described as a form of cultural nostalgia. For example, according to Hatirat-i Mutribi Samarqandi, the terms in which Jahangir discussed music with him during the latter’s visit to India in 1626 revealed familiarity with all the major vocal genres that had been characteristic of the Timurid period. He also claimed to have heard the works of the ancient composers at his father’s majlis. Furthermore, Mutribi gave descriptions about the various pieces he sang to his imperial host, including one by a composer specifically requested by Jahangir. That composer was Ustad ‘Ali Dost Nai from Mashhad. Jahangir did not, however, relate this to the court of Akbar, describing Mutribi rather as a contemporary of Shaybanid ‘Abdullah Khan Uzbek (A.D. 1583- A.D.1598). In Mutribi’s Hatirat, we could find musical terminologies that we

112 Musical Interrelations Between India and Central Asia had already encountered in earlier song-text collections. Particularly interesting is the complex structure of the first piece by Ustad’Ali Dost Nayi, which is described as an ‘amal in the mode (ahang) ‘Iraq and the rhythmic cycle is named nim Saqil, with rhythmic variations in the Bazguy section. The modal variations are in the miyan khanah, which is in Husaini, and the Bazguy is in ‘Uzzal with an introductory section of nonsense syllables [27].

The maqam and raga-s represent a unique form of the traditional classical music of the East. The system of maqam and raga were developed during the medieval centuries. The authors of the Persian and Urdu language encyclopaedias, literary works and manuscripts on music written in India during the 13th to the 20th centuries tried to demonstrate the common traits between the raga-s and the maqam-s, although they did not have any theoretical explanation based on the analysis of their musical structure. The attempt to compare the Indian raga-s with the maqam-s in the manuscripts was obviously done at a later period and it must have begun from the end of the 16th century. This kind of approach had been used in many musical manuscripts. Although the raga-s and maqam-s have differences in their construction, F. Azizova, in her research, has put forward the thesis about the existence of Pakar in Shashmaqom [28]. She has also stated that the latter was equivalent to the sarhat. The Qawwals of India have used many forms of Persian music like the Kar, Qalbana and many more and they have preserved the knowledge of some modes like the Hijaz, Sazagiri. One of the genres adopted by Indian music was the . The Tarana of Indian raga is an example of the organic synthesis of the musical heritage of India and Central Asia. As a whole, the Tarana has kept its original form in the raga, but only in some parts, particularly where there is an improvisation of elements. Musicians could show the complicated technical possibilities of singing (based on meaningless combinations of words) as shown. Here we have the Indian originality of music-making.

Several Indian rhythm formulae have Persian-Arabic origin, but it is very difficult to speak about their similarities because of the enrichment and assimilation of the Indian rhythmical thought. Moreover, in North India, the entire basis of rhythmic and metric progression has been changing within the last 150 to 200 years.

It is reasonable to conclude that at least until the 20th century, visiting exponents of the Timurid inheritance could expect to be welcomed in India. It is possibly in the light of such contacts that one may explain, for example,

113 Dilorom Karomat the appearance of a song-text collection in Delhi as late as 1669. This-text collection was a copy of an earlier anthology and it was the last extant record of the general Eastern repertoire. In its own rights, Indian court music was undoubtedly patronised by the Central Asians in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was more popular in Afghanistan before it headed its way to Central Asia and Persia. We have a list of Indian musicians brought to Kabul by Amir Shaer Ali Khan in the 1860s. These musicians and their descendants made Kabul a centre for Hindustani music. They also created new genres that became identifiable as Afghan art music [29].

Until the beginning of the 20th century, notes and photographs served as evidence of the interrelations of Indian musicians (players on sarod and tabla) with other races, such as their interaction with the Shikarpuri merchants in Bukhara. In modern days, these interrelations mostly continued in the musical compositions of Central Asian musicians [30]. Notes. 1. Kushan empire was spread on wide territory (Modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and North India) and leading religion was Buddhism. 2. Ayrtam is situated not far from Termiz (Uzbekistan) on the bank of the river Amu. It was Buddhist city of Kushan’s time. Frieze (dated I-II AD) of five musicians was unexpectedly discovered in the bank of river in 1932. The stile and composition of frieze very like to the tradition of Gandharva at the same time. Musicians (women) played on cylindrical drum (like Indian), lute, harp, flute (double-flute) and cymbals. This frieze was described in books: G.A.Pugachenkova and L.I.Rempel , ( in Russian, The distinguished relics of imitative(fine) arts of Uzbekistan), Tashkent , 1961, pp.24-26; F.M.Karomatov, V.A.Meskeris, T.S.Vizgo, Mittelasian, Musikgeschichte in Bildern, Band II: Music des Altertums/ Lieferung 9, Leipzig, 1987, pp.76-85( Picture in this article are given from last one). 3. G.A.Pugachenkova , L.I.Rempel , ( in Russian, The distinguished relics of imitative(fine) arts of Uzbekistan), Tashkent , 1961, p.26.( translation is main). 4. Panjekent is situated in the valley of Zerafshan river (modern Tadjikistan), about 68 km to the south-east from Samarqand ( Uzbekistan). In the second half of 20th century here were investigated wall pictures, statues, bronze and carved wooden articles, and many more. From 1946 the

114 Musical Interrelations Between India and Central Asia members of Panjekent Expedition edited a number of monographs and articles dedicated to the formation of the early medieval town Panjekent, between them are : Ancient Panjekent, compiler A.Isakov, Dushanbe , “Iron”, Publishing house, 1982, pp.93 ; ( in Russia, Sculpture and painting of old Panjekent ), Moskov 1959, pp.191+tables; 5. Later described in Firdausi’s “Shahname”, some pictures related with “Panchatantra”, sto ries about Buddha etc. 6. About these two pictures see F.M.Karomatov, V.A.Meskeris, T.S.Vizgo, Mittelasian, Musikgeschichte in Bildern, Band II: Music des Altertums/ Lieferung 9, Leipzig, 1987, pp. 124-125. Picture of Trimurti are given from this book, p.124. 7. Researchers G.A.Pugachenkova and L.I.Rempel in book “ ” (in Russian, Essays on Fine arts of Central Asia, Moscow, 1982, 288 pp.) in page 136 mentioned that some coins of Kushan time had images of Shiva and Buddha. For Kushans Buddha was a symbol of bright (lucid) morals and Shiva was a God of a dark side, associated with violence. Later in the Sogdian art of 6th-8th centuries the artists often use the image of Shiva as a necked God with blue body and with cord of golden bells on him. 8. Satish Chandra, Medieval India: from Sultanat to the Mughals, Part I, p.228. 9. In medieval manuscripts all music coming to India during the Muslim rule has been described as Persian music. It is necessary to extend the meaning of the word “Persian”. It should be understood to comprise the vast area where the Persian –speaking culture had spread in ancient times and in early middle-ages, in the pre-Islamic period. 10. For 12 maqam-s system and their relations with Raga-s see my articles: “The twelve maqam system and its similarity with Indian Ragas (according to Indian manuscripts)”, Journal of the Indian Musicological Society: A special Issue on: Indo-Iranian Music: Confluence of Cultures; Guest ed. Richard Widdess, Eds. Wim van der Meer, Suvarnalata Rao; vol.36-37. 2006, Mumbai(India), pp.62-88 (in English);’ Zur Erforschung des Systems der Zwölf maqamat nach indischen Handschriften’, Intercultural Comparison of Maqam and Related Phenomena (proceeding of the Fifth Meeting of the ICTM Study Group “maqam” Samarqand , 26-30 August 2001), Ed. by Jürgen Elsner and Gisa Jähnichen, 2008, Germany, pp.123 – 144 ( in German).

115 Dilorom Karomat 11. Amir Khusrau Dehlavi ( 1253-1325), a descendant of Lochin Turk from Central Asian town of Kesh ( modern Shahrisabz in Uzbekistan). 12. Miftah ul-fuzala (873/1468) by Maulana Muhammad Ibn Daud Ibn Muhammad Ibn Mahmud Shadiabadi, poet, author of commentaries to poetry of Anvari and Khaqani. The only copy of this dictionary preserved in British Library (UK). 13. Mentioned here dictionaries are: [ Dastu:r al-afa:zil] - Dastu:r –ul Afa:zil fi-l Lugha:t ul-Faza:yil (743/ 1342) by Ha:jib-i Khayra:t Rafi Dihlawi: (patron- Shams ad-Din Muhammad Jajni:ri). Was used by the authors of Ada:t ul- fuzala:, Farhang-i Zufa:n-i-Gu:ya:, Bahr al-faza:il, Sharafna:ma-i-Maneri, Tuhfat us-Sa’adat (916 h), Muayid ul-Fuzala: (925 h), Mada:r al-Afa:zil (1001 h), Farhang-i-Jaha:ngi:ri (1017h.). Preserved in Asiatic Society, . Described by V.I.Ivanov in Descriptive Catalogue no.517, S.I.Bayevskii (BEPL), pp.55-60; was printed in Iran in 1973, under edition of Nazir Ahmad; [ Zufa:n-i Gu:ya] - Farhang-i-Zafangoyah va Jahanpoyah ( d.till 837/ 1433-34 AD) by Badr ad-Din Ibrahim. Consists of 7 bakhshs, insluding pehlavi, dari, Arabic, rumi, turki words. The dictionary was printed in India ( Patna, Khuda Bakhsh O.P.Library) under edition of Nazir Ahmad; and in Russia (Moscow) under edition of S.I.Bayevski; [Sharafna:ma]- Sharaf Namah-I Ahmad Munayri , Farhang-i-Ibrahimi ( 878/1473-74) by Ibrahim Qivam Faruqi [ Farhangi Ibrahimi] , a native of Bihar; entitled in honour of Shaykh Sharaf-ud-Din Yahya Munayri, the celebrated Indian saint (d.782/1380); the work was composed in the reign of Abul Muzaffar Barbak Shah, who reigned in Bengal from AH 862 to 879= AD 1457 to 1474. 14. See Allyn Miner, Sitar and Sarod in the 18th and 19th centuries, Wilhelmshaven: Noetzel, 1993; Bonnie C.Wide. Imaging sound: An Ethnomusicological Study of Music, Art, and Culture in Mughal India. The University of Chicago press, Chicago and London 1998. 15. Di:wa:n Lugha:t at-Turk by Mahmu:d al-Kashghary, dated 469/ 1071-72 AD is an encyclopedic work. This dictionary dedicated to early medieval Turkic tribes populated in a vast territory of Asia; differences and similarities of Turkic languages and dialects (of Turks, turkmans, oghuz, jikil, yaghma, qirghiz and many more.) with literary examples. The only copy was investigated in 1914 in city Diyorbakr (Turkey), which is preserved in Istanbul (Turkey) and written in Arabic by Muhammad ibn Abubakr Damashqiy. The Katib had mentioned that this one was copied from manuscript written by author. The first copies of Di:wa:n were written in Runic script, then in Arabic. This dictionary was well-known from Medieval Turkic Lexicography. In “Uzbek Soviet Encyclopaedia” (v.3, p.589) is given conclusion by Russian Academic V.V.Bartold: “This work is 116 Musical Interrelations Between India and Central Asia differing from other works written in Arabic. Author is not created completed work but original one. He wrote about things, which knowledge he had and what was seen by him” (translation from Uzbek). Research work on this dictionary started after investigation of the only copy. Already published more then ten publications in different languages (among them Turkish, Uzbek, Qazaq, Russian &c). 16. Khwaja Amir’s Ta:li:f-i al-Ami:r, manuscript written by author’s hand is preserved in Rampur Raza library under no.2501, 31ff. 17. Risa:la-i Lughat-i Turki by Mirza Qati:l, preserved in Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Patna (India), under No. ACC 1934, 18 fol. 18. In commentary is used material from E.N.Nadjip’s book ‘ - 15 ., « » . / The Historical comparative Dictionary of Turkic languages of 15 century, (based on Kutba’s “Khusrou and Shirin”) /, v.I, Moscow, 1979, pp.417-418. 19. One of my articles ‘ XI-XIX ’ /About Turkic musical terms in manuscripts of 11th-19th centuries (in Russian)/ was published in “O’zbekistonda Ijtimoiy Fanlar”, 1-2000, pp.66-70. 20. ’Alisher Nava’i (b.1441, Herat-d.1501, Herat) is a great Turkic poet and vazier of Sultan Husain Baiqara in Khorasan (with whom he grows from 4-5 years old). Mir ‘Ali Sher has done more than any other to rise Turki to the rank of a literary language, and is universally considered as the most elegant, as he certainly is the most profilic, of Chaghatai writers. He was a Patron of Historians (one of them was Khandamir), scientists, poets, musicians, artist (Kalligraf Sultan ‘Ali and great Behzod) &c. He was very close friend (Nava’i respected him as a teacher; both related with orden Naqshbandiya) of Abdur-Rahman Jami and translated his work Nafaha:t ul-Uns into Chagatay language under name Nasa:yim-ul-Muhabbat. Zahiriddin Babur in Baburnama had wrote about him in passage about Herat and mentioned discussion between him and Persian poet Bina’i. ‘Alisher Nava’i is an author of Hamsa (written by advise of Jami in Chagatay language), based on Sha:hna:ma and historical sources he wrotes work Ta:rikhi Muluk-i-‘Ajam, Mahbub-ul-qulub, Lisan-at- Tayr, Muhakamat-ul-Lughatayn, Mezon-ul-avzon,Majalis-un-Nafa’is, Divan-s in Turkic language &c. Several of his works, which were copied in his time and later, preserved in Indian Libraries (The Asiatic Society (Kolkata), Rampur Raza Library, Khuda Bakhsh O.P.Libraray, Osmanian University library (Hyderabad)).

117 Dilorom Karomat 21. DUCHE – John T.Platts, A dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi, and English, London,Reprinted in Moscow (in two volumes), 1959. 22. Manuscripts like Tuti-namah “make the point repeatedly that the process of synthesis of Persian and Hindustani music was already underway at a deep level”, Bonnie Wide, p. 32. 23. Based on manuscripts: Muh. 'Othman Qais, Saut-al-naqus, Rampur Raza Library (India), N 211; Hakim Salamat 'Ali Khan, Mutala-i al-Hind, Khuda Bakhsh Library(India), Acc 2935/2; Faqirullah Saif Khan, Raag darpan., Nadvat ul-Ulama Library( India), radif 5; Anonimous (=? Mirza Khan ibn Fakhr-ud Din Muhammad). Majmua'i Risalah-i Musiqi ( extract from Tuhfat- ul Hind), Buhar Collection N 237 (India); 24. See: F.Azizova, (in Russian; “Shashmaqom and Raga”) , Dushanbe, 1999, pp.39-40. 25. Amir Khusrau, “Ijazi Khusrau”, lithography, Lucknow 1875; F.Azizova, p.80; 26. For Sufiyana Kalam see works of Jozef M.Pacholczyk. monography: Sufiyana Musiqi The classical music of Kashmir, Berlin; Articles: Sufiyana Kalam, the Classical Music of Kashmir”, in: Asian music, vol.X, no.1, pp.1-16; Towards a comparative study of a suite tradition in the Islamic Near East and Central Asia: Kashmir and Morocco, In: Regionale, maqam- Traditionen in Geschichte und Gegenwart,teil 2, pp.429-463; Musical determinants of maqam in Sufiyana Kalam of Kashmir, In: Maqam*Ra- ga*Zeilenmelodik, Berlin 1989, pp.248-258. 27. Foltz, R., Two seventeenth-century Central Asian travellers to Mughal India, in: JRAS, third series, VI, 3 (November 1996); also see Foltz, Richard C., Mughal India and Central Asia, [Karachi]; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, xxx, 190 p.; Mutribi Samarqandi, Khatirat-I mutribi, ed.by ‘Abd al-Ghani Mirzaev, Karachi, 1977. 28. F.Azizova, (in Russian;“ Shashmaqom and Raga”) , p.140. 29. Baily J., Maqams, Dastgahs and Rags in Western Afghanistan, in: Regionale maqam-Traditionen in Geschichte und Gegenwart, teil 1, pp.51-74. 30. For example by composers of Uzbekistan were composed : Ballets - by M.Ashrafi “Amulet of love” (1969, based on B.Gargi’s drama “Sohni Mohival”; music to this ballet got J. Nehru’s award), G.Mushel “ The legend of Kashmir”, U.Musaev “Indian poem”; For symphonic orchestra - suite on R.Tagor’s drama “Post” (1960th) by I.Akbarov ; “Indian poem “ by A.Kozlovskiy ; Music to dramatic play “Daughter of Gang” by S. Yudakov (based on R.Tagor’s “Naw dubi”) ; song on the words of S.Surkov “ Hindi- Rusi bhai-bhai” by S.Yudakov etc.

118 Musical Interrelations Between India and Central Asia

Abbreviations: DLT - Di:wa:n Lugha:t at-Turk by Mahmu:d al-Kashghary. DLT-1 – Turkish edition: Divanü Lüat-it-türk terçemesi. Türk Dil kurumu yayinlary. No.521-524 (in four volumes). DLT-2 –Uzbek edition: in three volumes, translated into Uzbek and edited by S.Mutalibov, Tashkent, 1960-63. DLT-3 – Qazaq edition: in one volume, Translated into Russian with Introduction by Z.A. Auezova, (Index by R.Ermers), Almati, ”Daik- Press”, 2005. DUCHE – John T.Platts, A dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi, and English, London, Reprinted in Moscow (in two volumes), 1959.

References cited Manuscripts:

1.Ada:t-ul Fuzala: (822/ 1419) by Qa:zi Khan Badr Muhammad Dihlawi called ‘D’ha:rwa:l’ Riew: Or,1262 (copy dated 1102/1691), Or.265 fol.2-60; p.491-492; BEPL, pp.63-67 2. Dastu:r –ul Afa:zil fi-l Lugha:t ul-Faza:yil (743/ 1342) by Ha:jib-i Khayra:t Rafi Dihlawi. Preserved in Asiatic Society, .Kolkata 3. Descriptive Catalogue no.517. Printed in Iran in 1973, under edition of Nazir Ahmad. 4. :Farhang-i-Zufa:n-i- Gu:ya: va Jaha:n-i Pu:ya (comp.837/1433) by Badr ad-Din Ibra:hi:m. Preserved in Khuda Bakhsh O.P.Library, Patna; and Tashkent State University.Was printed by Khuda Bakhsh O.P.Library under edition of Nazir Ahmad; and in Moscow under edition of S.I.Bayevskii (based on Tashkent copy). 5. Mifta:h–ul Fuzala Mifta:h ul-fuzala: (873/1468) by Maulana Muhammad ibn Daud ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud Shadiabadi. The only .copy preserved in British Library,UK. Rieu, 1895, p.116; BEPL, pp.80-81 6. Risa:la-i Lughat-i Turki by Mirza Qati:l, preserved in Khuda .Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Patna (India), under No. Acc 1934, 18 fol 7. Sharafna:ma-i-Maneri, Sarafn:ama-yi Munyari; [Farhang-i Ibra:hi:mi:, Farhang-i Ibra:hi:m Sha:hi, Sharafna:ma ( 878/1473-74) by Ibrahim Qiwam ud-Din Faruqi. Rieu, II, Add.7678 ( ms. Appr. In the 17th .c). Printed in Iran, prepared and edited by Dr.Hakima Dabiran, 1385H 119 Dilorom Karomat 8.Ta:li:f-i al-Ami:r by Khwaja: Ami:r (18th c.), preserved in Rampur Raza library under no.2501, 31ff. 9. Saut-al-naqus by Muh. 'Othman Qais,Rampur Raza Library .(India), N 211 ; Print.Delhi, 1981 10. Mutala-i al-Hind by Hakim Salamat 'Ali Khan, Khuda Bakhsh Library (India), Acc 2935/2; 11. Raag darpan by Faqirullah Saif Khan, Nadvat ul-Ulama Library (India), radif 5; Anonimous (=? Mirza Khan ibn Fakhr-ud Din Muhammad); Prnt. Delhi, 1981. Majmua'i Risalah-i Musiqi ( extract from Tuhfat-ul Hind Buhar Collection N 237 (India)

Printed: 1. Abu’l-Fazl, A’in-i Akbari, tr. Blochmann, 2nd ed., Calcutta, Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1927. 2. Amir Khusrau, ‘Ijazi Khusrau, lithography, Lucknow 1875. 3. Ancient Panjekent, compiler A.Isakov, Dushanbe , “Irfon”, Publishing house, 1982, pp.93. 4. Azizova F., (in Russian; “Shashmaqom and Raga”), Dushanbe, 1999. 5. Baily J., Maqams, Dastgahs and Rags in Western Afghanistan, in: Regionale maqam- 6. Traditionen in Geschichte und Gegenwart, teil 1, pp.51-74, Berlin. 7. Bayevskii,S.I. 1989. , XI-XV . [Early Persian lexicography, 11th- 15th c.], Moscow: Nauka.------2007. ‘Early Persian Lexicography: Farhangs of the Eleventh to the Fifteenth Centuri- es(revised and updated by John R. Perry), Kent: Global Orient.. 8. Bonnie C.Wide. Imaging sound: An Ethnomusicological Study of Music, Art, and Culture in Mughal India. The University of Chicago press, Chicago and London 1998, 276 pp. 9. Dastu:r al-afazi:l [ fi lugha:t al-faza:’il] 1973. Hajib-i Khayrat Dihlawi :[ Rafi’]. Ed.Nazir Ahmad. Tehran, 1352. 10. Di:wa:n Lugha:t at-Turk by Mahmu:d al-Kashghary, edit. by S.Mutalibov,on three vol.s, Tashkent, 1960-63.------, Translated into Russian.Introduction by Z.A. Auezova (Index by R.Ermers), Almati ”Daik- Press”, 2005. 11. (Divanü Lüat-it-türk terçemesi. Türk Dil kurumu yayinlary. No.521-524 (in four volumes). 12. Farhang-i-Zufa:n-i-Gu:ya: by Badr ad-Din Ibra:hi:m. Ed.S.I.Bayevskii, Moscow, 1974.

120 Musical Interrelations Between India and Central Asia 13. ------Ed. Nazir Ahmad, 2 vols (1990,1997), Khuda Bakhsh O.P.Library, Patna. 14. Foltz, R., Two seventeenth-century Central Asian travellers to Mughal India, in: JRAS, third series, VI, 3 (November 1996). 15. ------, Mughal India and Central Asia, [Karachi]; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, xxx, 190 p. 16. John T.Platts, A dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi, and English, London, Reprinted in Moscow (in two volumes), 1959. 17. Journal of Soviet Turcology,1982, no.3. 18. Karomatov F.M., Meskeris V.A., Vizgo T.S., Mittelasian, Musikgeschichte in Bildern, Band II: Music des Altertums/Lieferung 9, Leipzig, 1987. 19. Karomat D.,The twelve maqam system and its similarity with Indian Ragas (according to Indian manuscripts), Journal of the Indian Musicologi- cal Society: A special Issue on: Indo-Iranian Music: Confluence of Cultures; Guest ed. Richard Widdess, Eds. Wim van der Meer, Suvarnalata Rao; vol.36-37. 2006, Mumbai(India), pp.62-88 (in English). 20. ------, Zur Erforschung des Systems der Zwölf maqamat nach indischen Handschriften, Intercultural Comparison of Maqam and Related Phe- nomena (proceeding of the Fifth Meeting of the ICTM Study Group “maqam”. 21. Samarqand, 26-30 August 2001), Ed. by Jürgen Elsner and Gisa Jähnichen, 2008, Germany, pp.123 – 144 ( in German). 22. Mutribi Samarqandi, Khatirat-I mutribi, ed.by ‘Abd al-Ghani Mirzaev, Kara- chi, 1977. 23. Nadzhip E.N. - 15 ., « » . / The Historical comparative Dictionary of Turkic languages of 15 century, (based on Kutba’s “Khusrou and Shirin”) /, v.I, Moscow, 1979. 24. Pacholczyk Jozef, Sufiyana Kalam, the Classical Music of Kashmir, in: Asian music, vol.X, no.1, pp.1-16; 25. Pugachenkova G.A.and Rempel L.I., (in Russian, The distinguished relics of imitative(fine) arts of Uzbekistan), Tashkent , 1961. 26. Pugachenkova G.A.and Rempel L.I. (in Russian, Essays on Fine arts of Central Asia), Moscow, 1982, 288 pp. 27. Rieu, Charles. 1879-1883. Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum. 3 vols. London. 28. Satish Chandra, Medieval India: from Sultanat to the Mughals, New Delhi: Har Anand Publications, 1997. 29. ( in Russia, Sculpture and painting of old Panjekent), Moskov 1959, pp.191+tables. 30. Sharafna:ma-i- Maneri, by Ibrahim Qiwam ud-Din Faruqi.Ed.by Dr.Hakima Dabiran, Tehran, 1385H. O’zbek Sovet Encyclopaediyasi, v.3, Tashkent, 1981.

121 Melody, Rhythm and Text Ashok Ranade

For some years now Music forum is taking second looks at all musical fundamentals. Melody, rhythm and text are considered fundamental elements and therefore the concerned concepts in every event describable as musical. This is the reason for taking up them for a discussion. Such attempts can look back, look deep and look around and many more. From among these possibilities we are precisely trying to concentrate on looking deeper. In brief, looking back is to adopt a historical approach. Look- ing around is a broad suggestion of looking at the issue comparatively or an- thropologically. Looking at the issue as a cultural manifestation in a particular or specific culture is perhaps aptly identified as ethnomusicological. All these and other such approaches have their own validity and relevant places in musical thought or thinking processes. However what we are attempting is different and it can be described as philosophical. Philosophical approach is relevant to all humans irrespective of their caste, creed, nationality etc. In fact some may argue with some force now that the philosophical approach can hardly be confined to humans. Non-humans need to be included in the proposed deeper thought. Even if we leave alone the aurora lights, dune- songs and many more, - there are aquatic and aviary music-producers to be considered. This is the background on which it is necessary to proceed to live up to our ambition to be philosophical in our discussion.

Melody

Obviously this kind of approach is unlikely to accept Melody as an accepted or acceptable arrangement of pitches- different or otherwise. In the philosophical contexts it is essential to remember that the discussed pitches or pitch –levels may not be attributable to deliberate, purposeful human creators or their groups. At the most we may conclude that in perception of Sound as an expressive aspect of human existence in its totality and an initial judgment made as to the high, low or stationary state of the sensory expression - is identified as “melodic”. What a majority of music-making cultures today understand, practice, and receive as notes, scales, chords and many more. are all highly processed entities far removed from the basic, fundamental or philosophical phenomenon expressed as low-stationary, high acoustical manifestation of the life-force – which may or may not be

122 Melody, Rhythm and Text functional .It is only in their case that classifications such as noise, musical sound and many more can be conceived.

Rhythm

Every acoustical occurrence is also perceived as an event that enjoys another fundamental quality: namely that of Duration. It is advisable if not inevitable to mention at the outset two other subtly distinguished concepts as relevant to the discussion of Time- Music interrelationship. These can be usefully verbalized as “permanent” and “eternal”.( It may not be necessary to men- tion that concepts, their validity and operations are not dependant on the users’ knowledge or awareness of those covered by their working). Perma- nence refers to the state of inherent unchangeable or constant qualities while Eternity focuses attention on the absence of beginning as well as end. As a fundamental and philosophical phenomenon of musical consequence and relevance is the fact that Time identified as Musical Time is contrasted with what is understood as Chronological Time. Our immediate concern is of course the Musical Time. Time is one theme about which everybody can say (-like St. Augustine-) that” I know what it is if not asked to define it – but the moment somebody asks me to explain it I am speechless! Rhythm being one of the important products of Time it is time to understand it a little better! Beings are never out of Time during their life-time. This variety of Time is measured by outer clocks etc that can be described as objective time- keepers. The other variety is measured by inner clocks that can be identifiable as subjective time-keepers. The former variety – which I have often described as the chronological time is logically public time and it is a result of convention accepted by the cultural group concerned. Biological indicators such as digestion, sleep, heart-beats, pulse-rate and finally the brain-impulses are also beyond the realm of private time. It is pertinent to note that Yogic exercises and many more. are advocated to change original or usual category of time-impulses and Contemplation is invariably recom- mended. What is identified as Musical time is a manifestation of Contemplative Time. It has certain characteristics making its successful exploration inevitable for artistic fruitfulness.

123 Ashok Ranade As indicated earlier the primary characteristic of Musical Time is that it is a product of Contemplation of those who are usually described as Creators, Artists etc. Now Contemplation enables a major achievement: in this successful exploration of the Musical Time what is experienced is Time itself and not something measured by it. Waiting for a friend and for a local fast train differ because they produce qualitatively different experiences even when on the physical plane they are equal. Expectably these experiential possibilities allow emergence of features such as lengthening, shortening repeating and variation and the consequent evaluation of the temporal expression involved. Once again the physical, absolute aspects are blurred out of recognition, perception and effectiveness of action. What becomes possible due to all this and similar processes is the effective emergence of patterns or structures to convert the entire activity leading towards a “form” and it constitutes the first step towards becoming a “genre”. Coming back to structure it is hardly essential to stress the analysis, interpretations, and hierarchical insights leading to the evaluations will be unthinkable unless a work can bring to notice components as contributing to the emergence of a structure. Perception that something has become more than a mere activity to reach the level of an individual work is undoubtedly basic to all quality-related decisions. The perception of structure and the possibility of listening, practicing and repeatedly - may also allow more insight into the work and appreciation of the complexity level and many more, may improve the ability to experience the minutiae of the creative act – obviously with enriching effect. Musical time enables ordering of musical information and this ordered information undergoes a qualitative transformation because issues such as individual-styles or style-based groupings are clearly stated and addressed to with logical rigor. This is not to suggest that problems are solved. It means that more interconnections are experienced, the nature of the problems as “aesthetic” becomes apparent and to that extent the exciting, inherent and a fulfilling ambiguity (which is not to be confused with self-contradiction) of import is sensed.

124 Melody, Rhythm and Text In sum, music can conveniently be classified as a Temporal Art because it is mainly shaped by Musical Time – which is a product of Contemplative Time. Artists etc. are able to explore Contemplative Time and hence the Time-flow can be stopped, continued, made to move slower or faster and many more. It is necessary to remember that these and other explorations result in manipulation of tempi and not Rhythm. Rhythm is an aesthetic principle not necessarily confined to temporal manifestations. Rhythm essentially bestows a flowing quality on the concerned entire creative and presentational activity while Tempo-manipulation obviously segments, sectionalizes it. Rhythm actually refers to the totality of art-experience and the motive to maintain its aesthetic quality. On the other hand Tempo-manipulation and the strategy of segmenting refer to a craftsman’s ingenious interest in developing one effective device helpful to realize the quality of Rhythm. The Tempo- manipulation makes use of what is known as “pauses”. Pause is not silence but what can be described as “soundfulness”. It is instructive that there is no single word as “chiaroscuro” (light and shade) in music. It is difficult to say that music is sound-silence. All sound is potentially music though a specific sound etc. may be more or less perceivable. A perceived sound may be intended, designed and produced to actualize the melodic manifestation or tempo-manipulation. Depending on the producer’s intention and, the concerned sound-occurrence may make its contribution to the entire effort.

Incidentally, in the term Principle of Rhythm i.e. Layatatava the reference is to the quality of getting merged on account of its uninterrupted operation. In Indian terminology there has been a clear hint as to the distinctions made here .In brief, it is to be noted that there are two basic roots connected with the phases discussed here. The first is ( ) to move. This directly refers to the movement, flowing quality which is the fundamental quality leading to the aesthetic concept of Rhythm as indicated above. .The second root is ( ) ( rare meaning is to adhere, to obtain ), and to melt, dissolve- again leading to the final, merging flow as distinct from segmentation or manipulation of tempo and many more. between sections, units segments describable as slow, medium and fast etc. is traceable to this root-formation.

Text / Language

This brings us to the third and final fundamental concept referred to as Text.

125 Ashok Ranade As will become clear that to use the term language instead of text is to avoid a conceptual problem and this overlooking needs to be corrected. Normally the term text takes one to the body of “linguistic” expression that provides a dimension to a musical work – vocal or instrumental work to cumulatively bring forth the important phenomenon identified as Composition. With Samhita as the equivalent of the term Text a little thinking provokes “What about instrumental music –in which language in the accepted sense hardly plays an active role. Quite a few traditional tabla- players and many more. have been heard to explain in praise of a composi- tion,”But see the poetry of it !”Obviously the reference to a qualitatively su- perior genre in a metaphorical manner is a strategy to attract attention to the aspect of the composition. Otherwise it is difficult to describe compositions made of say , or etc. as examples of use of language .Hence Melody, Rhythm and Text is a more valid listing of the fundamental principles of music. And yet there is an original, genetic conceptual reason of the text-language pairing. The reason is that both of them are immediately, inevitably and unexceptionally connected in the human cultural march due to the nature and functioning of the act of breathing. Breathing has been the primary act to help perceptible (which is not entirely related to audibility) emergence of the proposed manifestation of Sound . Further, the concept and term for the desired act of making breathing culminate into the musically fruitful operation is Bhash () language- which stops at bringing forth the aspect as “speech act”. Obviously , the reference is to a purposeful, mostly conscious application of the working of specific parts of human vocal mechanism .It is to be noted that there is no direct of indirect attempt to establish linkage with the aspect of “meaningfulness”. This is the reason why use of the term Text instead of “language” is advocated. It is the production and projection of the textual matter through breaching and speech-making which effectively supplies the units that inherently include the melody as well as the tempo-manipulation .It is also helpful to remember that a use of text instead of language makes the emerging musical effort more accommodative as well as “acceptable”. Finally, it is to be noted that fundamental concepts and their functions are irrespective of the category a particular musical manifestation belongs to. Perception of the fundamental concepts may vary but a complete absence cannot even be a theoretical possibility. Emergence of genres, codification of their formation, usage and employment are further flowerings of musical efforts. The richness, complexity and performing potential and many more. will depend on the individual user or the cultural group involved.

126 Chance Generated Ragas in Solo for Voice 58: A Dhrupad Singer Performs John Cage Amelia Cuni I think that if I’m good for anything, that’s what I’m good for: finding some way of doing things other than the traditional way. —(Cage 1988: 20 )1

Indian thought has influenced John Cage's music mostly on a conceptual, theoretical level. Thus, his eighteen microtonal ragas represent an exceptional, unique example of practical elaboration. They are found in Solo for Voice 58 from Song Books (1970). I first performed the eighteen microtonal ragas during the rendition of the Complete Song Books at the Bielefeld Theatre (Germany, May 2001), in collaboration with Christian Kesten and the new music vocal ensemble “Die Maulwerker”. This experience led to a decade of intense involvement. I wanted to apply experimental procedures to dhrupad vocalism and to elaborate my Indian music background in a New Music context. I was also keen to explore an influential contemporary composer's take on raga to be able to step back from my personal involvement with the tradition and observe it from another perspective. After dedicating twenty years of my life to the study and performance of Indian singing, I felt the need to reconnect to my Western origins by having a closer look at the very substance of my musicianship, questioning habits and broadening my vocabulary. In collaboration with the Berliner Festspiele and several other contemporary music venues, my own interpretation of Solo for Voice 58 has been premiered in Berlin (2006) and performed in several European and American festivals. In this paper, I will discuss the salient aspects of my engagement with the Cagean ragas and describe the practical realisation with its intricate modalities and remarkable challenges.

1 quoted in Patterson 2002. 127 Amelia Cuni The Composer: An Introduction

John Cage (1912-1992) is one of the most charismatic and controversial fig- ures of American New Music. Undoubtedly, his work and thought has had a profound influence on contemporary artistic sensibility and ideals. His contribution has redefined our understanding of music, role of the composer and the responsibilities of musicianship. Cage’s sharp and witty mind, expressed in numerous writings and lectures, has provoked strong reactions from many quarters. His chance-determined compositions, in particular, have aroused indignation and stirred controversy. Cage remains to this day a major source of inspiration for many artists and his work is widely studied, researched and performed.

John Cage has been a powerful reference for me as well. I had been attracted to his personality already as a teenage student of Indian music. I intuitively felt that Cage’s departure from the conventional understanding of music and composition pointed to a direction that shared some common ideals with the Indian musical thought and practice. My more recent involvement with his microtonal ragas offered me the opportunity to extensively explore these issues, reconsidering my commitment to Indian music from a new perspective. In the process, I have realised that the concepts of raga and tala are in themselves extremely flexible and can be manifested in an endless variety of ways. Even “experimental” ones may take on a meaningful shape and be effectively performed and evoked. I believe John Cage’s genius was wonderfully at work in Solo for Voice 58 and I wish to credit him with the most successful attempt, at least to my knowledge, to experiment with Indian music principles with great care and respect for the tradition, but without any quoting or borrowing from it. By ignoring customary and formal precepts, he has emancipated ragas and talas from accumulated cultural and historical bindings, projected them into a truly inter-cultural dimension and evidenced their vast potential as concepts of musical organisation. From this perspective, they can be seen as not exclusively bound to the culture that has conceived them. Ragas, as suggested by Richard Widdess, can more broadly be defined as “cognitive schemes”. “In South Asia, a combination of orally-transmitted performance practice, with emphasis on memory and rigorous shastric analysis, has brought to consciousness and refined in unique ways aspects of musical communication that perhaps underlie all musics” (Widdess 2006).

In my opinion, John Cage has connected his 18 microtonal ragas to their original meaning (“that which colours the mind”) without relying on

128 CHANCE-GENERATED RAGAS in SOLO for VOICE 58: a dhrupad singer performs John Cage traditional canons only, but providing strategies to free their innate generative power. Strategies that would prove effective even in a de- contextualised framework are those that are an eclectic compendium of compositional techniques relating to music and theatre as well, such as the one provided by the Song Books.

Various scholars have analysed John Cage’s interaction with South Asian arts and his borrowings from Indian philosophy. Here, I will just report a few instances and include some of my own considerations. According to evidence, John Cage first came into contact with Indian philosophy and aesthetics during the 1940’s, mainly through Ramakrishna’s and A. Coomaraswami’s writings. He learned about Indian music and its philosophy from Gita Sarabhai, who had travelled to the United States in order to understand more about Western music culture. They exchanged practical and theoretical information for several months in 1946. Cage’s mention of these encounters is recorded in his “Autobiographical Statement” (Cage 1990):

I could not accept the academic idea that the purpose of music was communica- tion…I determined to give up composition unless I could find a better reason for doing it other than communication. I found this answer from Gita Sarabhai, an Indian singer and tabla player: The purpose of music is to sober and quiet the mind, thus making it susceptible to divine influences. I also found in the writings of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy that the responsibility of the artist is to imitate nature in her manner of operation. I became less disturbed and went back to work.

Cage could have come into contact with traditional Indian music on several other occasions—between the 30’s and the 60’s, there would have been many opportunities in California and in New York—such as through his interaction with other composers interested in non-European traditions (i.e. Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison). Moreover, his close friendship with the mythologist Joseph Campbell, who actually introduced him to the writings of Coomaraswamy, must have given him ample scope to discuss Indian culture. From Campbell’s autobiography, we learn that Cage had wanted to visit India but was never able to realise this trip. However, his music was performed there as accompaniment for Joan Erdmann’s dance (Campbell 2004). I believe his strongest link with India has been the Sarabhai family in Ahmedabad.

During this early stage of his artistic development, Cage integrated at least two important principles of Indian music into his own work and openly referred to them in his writings. These were a musical one—tala (rhythmic

129 Amelia Cuni cycle) with its related structures—and an eminently aesthetic one—rasa (aesthetic experience). According to scholars, the elaboration of rhythmic structures had been a major theme in Cage’s music for at least two decades while he employed the concept of rasa in a few instances during the late 40’s and early 50’s as part of the composition process. Several mentions of this important principle of Indian aesthetics can be found in Cage’s rhetoric.

Coomaraswami’s writings had a profound influence on Cage. They contributed to some of the main recurring themes in his thought. A good example to support this claim is the emphasis on “impersonality” in an artist’s production. The wish to eradicate intentionality and personal taste from music-making will eventually result in Cage’s adoption of chance operations as compositional tools. We have already come across Coomaraswami’s views about the role of the artist, whose ideal should be “to imitate nature in her manner of operation”, a statement often quoted by Cage. We could find another important theme in the art historian’s affirmation that “the artist is not a special kind of man, but every man is a special kind of artist” (Patterson 2002). Cage had adopted and expressed this idea again and again in statements, such as “art is a way of life” (Cage 1952a: 97).2 One more evident influence was the adoption of the concept of micro-macrocosmic correspondences, which was codified by Cage in the rhythmic structures of his early pieces and often advocated in his writings.

Following these lines of thought, we arrive at Cage’s main preoccupations in composing: by using chance operations, he aimed at “freeing” sounds in music and “divorcing them from the burden of psychological intentions” (Cage 1958). By laying emphasis on process rather than end result, the composer is able to allow music to “happen of its own accord as if thrown up by natural forces”. (Nyman 1999). This approach comes close to that state of “surrender” (Van der Meer 2007) that Indian musicians look for in a traditional performance. Here, the aim is allowing the raga to manifest itself through the skills and knowledge of the performer. In the Indian concept of rasa, the listener's participation in the process of aesthetic rapture is indispensible. Simultaneously, John Cage's strategies to avoid control over sounds make the listener (and not just the composer) responsible for the final outcome. In contemporary music, so-called “open” or “indetermined” scores, such as the one included in Solo for Voice 58, represent a device for facilitating processes rather than arranging material (Pritchett 1993: 146). Therefore, the resulting music is not pre-defined and its outcome could not be foreseen. Similarly,

2 (Patterson 2002: 47) 130 CHANCE-GENERATED RAGAS in SOLO for VOICE 58: a dhrupad singer performs John Cage ragas' own workings as “cognitive schemes” generate a performance that is very time different, cannot be fixed beforehand and may include novel interpretations. I think that the most appropriate score for a traditional raga rendition would indeed be a graphic one, as in the case of “indetermin- ed”music in contemporary Western practice.

In spite of these affinities, we should keep in mind, as Patterson has pointed out, that John Cage has always been borrowing from other thinkers only the very ideas that could fit into his “modernist agenda”, thus turning them into “appropriative subversions” (Patterson 2002). On the whole, it seems obvi- ous that one cannot speak of straightforward Indian music influences in Cage’s artistic production. Thus, his 18 microtonal ragas represent a unique example of his practical involvement with the South Asian tradition. We find John Cage using the term “raga” in his directions only in one more work, which is titled Postcard from Heaven (1982), for one to 20 harps and op- tional vocals.

The Score and the Interpreter

As we have already known, Solo for Voice 58 is one of John Cage’s compositions included in the Song Books (1970), a collection of more than 80 soli for voice and theatre with and without electronics, commissioned by Kathy Barbarian and Simone Riest. Solo for Voice 58 is an indeterminate work and it consists of 18 separate and independent parts. In his directions, Cage refers explicitly to traditional Indian music forms: Eighteen full range microtonal “ragas” They are double; that is, either part may be used for ascending or descending and one can move freely from one side to the other of a single “raga” and one can use as little or as much of it as desired. The associated numbers are “talas” on the basis of which singing and/or drumming may be improvised. Think either of the morning, the afternoon or the evening, giving a description or account of recent pleasures or beauties noticed. Free vocalise also. For numbers greater than 2 make any desired divisions, freely varying them.

131 Amelia Cuni The scores consist of rows of graphically notated microtones.

While Cage's instructions encourage the performer to evoke the spirit of Indian music through various devices, I have taken his directions literally and have set for myself the task of developing ragas and talas in a non-traditional context. As far as we know, mine has been the first instance of a trained raga singer taking up this challenge. I believe the overall outcome of the interpretation is recognisable as raga music, although it cannot be appreciated exclusively by Indian music standards. In fact, a listener trained solely in Indian music might well find the experience unsettling since it mercilessly challenges established listening habits. Two basic concepts, an improbable pair, have been brought together in this realisation: the meaning of the musical term raga, which is to colour the mind, and the use of chance operations, a crucial tool in Cage’s methodology. The directions in this composition allow endless possibilities of realisation while at the same time imposing restrictions that stimulate analysis, reflection and deliberate decisions. For me, this process has resulted in an enriching interplay of unconventional, subversive elements with the disciplined and “symbolic thinking” (Rowell 1992) inherited from the tradition. It has involved letting loose established patterns and assumptions by taking nothing for granted. It has allowed chance-determined tunings to open up new landscapes as well as traditional axioms and rules to acquire new meaning and purpose.

Although I was born in Italy, my musical education has mostly taken place in India where I have been studying dhrupad singing and kathak dance with well-

132 CHANCE-GENERATED RAGAS in SOLO for VOICE 58: a dhrupad singer performs John Cage known masters3 between 1979 and 1996. I returned to Europe with the aim of sharing and passing on this knowledge through teaching, performing and artistic collaborations. I saw myself as a kind of translator, a messenger between cultures. At the same time, my personal inclinations have brought me to interact with other non-Indian music forms and ideals while retaining my identity as a singer of raga music. I have been elaborating raga-based compositions by integrating diverse influences and aiming at a contemporary and cosmopolitan expression of the dhrupad tradition. For the past 15 years, I have been collaborating with renowned composers and performers in various fields, spanning from early music to contemporary chamber, electroacoustic and experimental music. These inclinations and diverse experiences are at the core of my enthusiastic commitment to John Cage’s ragas.

Confronting the Indian tradition from an experimental standpoint has required a radical approach. I have taken into consideration all sorts of musical ideas and have accepted decisions made by chance procedures, even when they seemed foreign to the raga milieu. While exploring this unfamiliar and somehow forbidden territory, I have been keeping in mind the important role played by the “refused materials”4 in Cage’s musical thought and learned that what seems unnatural at first may acquire a meaning that gradually emerges through practice and increased familiarity later on.

The Process of Interpretation

During the first several months of my engagement with the 18 microtonal ragas, I have worked systematically on a process of interpretation that included the following procedures:

• Studying the main themes in John Cage's artistic development • Maintaining a correspondence with scholars and musicians who have been analysing or performing the Song Books; searching for relevant articles, recordings and many more

3 My main teachers have been: R.Fahimuddin Dagar, Bidur Mallik and Dilip Chandra Vedi for singing, Manjushri Chatterje for dance and Raja Chattrapati Singh for drumming. 4 During an interview, Cage remarked: ' I've always been on the side of the things one shouldn't do, searching for ways of bringing the refused elements back into play' (Kirby and Schechner 1965) quoted in Brooks 1982. 133 Amelia Cuni • Structuring the working method and discussing specific problems with Ulrich Krieger, the music consultant • Compiling lists of as many as possible traditional and non-traditional parameters/elements (techniques, musical components or behaviours and any other possible variable including “refused materials”) to be used in making decisions through chance operations • Selecting raga pitches and basic notes (by chance procedure or by ear) • Delineating each raga’s own grammar and developing its main features through the practice of improvisation • Choosing texts to be sung (my own, by other authors, by chance selection) • Arranging percussions, drones and other components of the performance • Developing each raga through rehearsals and discussing with other performers • Selecting and elaborating some soli for theatre from the Song Books to be included or superimposed in the performance

From a listener's perspective, the most prominent divergence between my performance of a John Cage's raga and a traditional one lays probably in the atypical selection of the pitches and their microtonal treatment. Intervals, slurs and combinations of pitches that are not usually tuned in Indian ragas can be immediately perceived. These anomalies are implied in the score and in Cage's directions. However, in my rendition, one should still be able to recognise the main features of raga music. The consistence in the melodic treatment and the ensuing emotional impact should be detectable even in this non-traditional sound environment.

In his score for Solo for Voice 58, John Cage uses a modified version of the staff to be able to visually fit in the microtones (see image 1). At a closer study, we will notice that these microtones are not precisely defined as pitches, their unsystematic appearance within the stave producing occasional ambiguities. Thus, before selecting them, I had to set rules to clarify any existing doubt and come up with an unequivocal interpretation. Before elaborating the behaviour of the chosen microtones as raga components, I prepared long lists of various attributes, techniques and other variable elements for every aspect of the performance and used them all along to take decisions by means of chance procedures. This activity alone has provided me with innumerable opportunities to analyse traditional raga

134 CHANCE-GENERATED RAGAS in SOLO for VOICE 58: a dhrupad singer performs John Cage music in great detail and to become more conscious of my own style of interpretation.

Cage’s use of chance operations5, a well-known feature of his methodology, is sometimes misjudged as some kind of playful approximation that renders everything interchangeable, justifying and allowing practically any interpretation. The more absurd this turns out to be, the better. John Cage’s displeased remarks about interpreters taking all sorts of liberties with his music have been recorded in several instances. After engaging myself with this work, I have come to the conclusion that “open” scores are in fact quite demanding. The indeterminate nature of these compositions requires a remarkable amount of discipline and appropriate modalities of realisation: the process of interpretation may well turn out to be very time-consuming. It involves pondering on several aspects of making music and cultivating the ability to constantly respond to novel situations. I believe that while committed “to let the sounds be themselves”, Cage encourages performers to broaden their horizons and take responsibility for their choices. Creativity and anti-conformism per do not seem to be sufficient to turn a set of instructions (often intentionally vague) into a convincing work of art nor is the constant use of chance operations enough to give justice to Cage's music. As I have personally experienced, the performer's approach and the method of conducting these operations are in fact more crucial.

Raga Grammar

Understood and experienced as musical “personalities”, ragas are traditionally subjected to a kind of “grammar”, a set of commonly accepted rules and patterns of behaviour that help to shape their individual character. Without this “grammar”, it is deemed impossible to achieve the desired ef- fect, the emotional impact of ragas. Cage acknowledges this feature by pro- viding in his score ascending and descending parts, a direct translation of the arohi-avarohi terminology used in Hindustani music. This is probably the most relevant principle that guides today’s melodic development in the traditional raga format. However, Cage introduces a more unorthodox, anarchic approach by allowing the interpreter to “move freely from one side to the other of a single “raga” and one can use as little or as much of it as desired”.

5 Brooks suggests that the composer had used star charts as in Atlas Eclipticalis (1961) to arrive at the selection of microtones for SOLO 58. Cfr. Brooks, W. 2007.The genesis of SOLO 58, San Francisco: OM 1010-2 (CD booklet). 135 Amelia Cuni Because of my traditional training, I found it helpful to establish features for the behaviour of each one of Cage’s ragas, working out a challan (melodic outline) and defining one or more pakad (key-phrases). These patterns and restrictions in my interpretation may not replicate those of traditional Indian raga grammar but they have been established through an analogous process, involving both analytical and empirical procedures. My aim was to achieve an emotional impact (colouring of the mind) by developing a defined, independent “personality” for each Cagean raga, despite the “random”char- acter of the tone material. To my surprise, even the most daring combinations became gradually acceptable while my ears learnt how to deal with them. After some months of practice and adjustments, raga-bhavas (expressions, affects) started to emerge from Cage’s microtonal assemblages. This is probably the most exciting and engaging aspect of my work on Solo 58 to this day; a continuous search for an emancipated perception of sound, melody and rhythm that can be expanded and perfected with each performance.

Intervals and Microtones

In traditional Indian ragas, pitches are organised modally and ordered in an ascending and descending progression. The raga pitches, called svaras (that which shines of itself), are always perceived as intervals in relation to the chosen basic tone. The set of intervals in a raga recurs in each octave and very often contains an inner symmetry that links higher and lower parts of the octave by means of consonant relationships. Cage's ragas are instead made of intervals that may be chosen freely from his given sets of pitches covering a broad range; therefore, the resulting scales are wider than an octave. In my experience, intervals are more meaningful than pitches to the trained Indian ear. In Cage’s ragas, I had to reverse this order and let the pitches of the score, which do not fit any traditional intonation patterns, find their way to become meaningful intervals in a raga context.

I chose a basic pitch for each of the 18 parts. In some cases, its selection was determined through chance operations, but I opted for the usual basic tone fitting my own vocal range (A-flat / G-sharp) whenever it appeared in the score. The additional raga pitches were selected by means of chance operations or simply by ear.

136 CHANCE-GENERATED RAGAS in SOLO for VOICE 58: a dhrupad singer performs John Cage

Cage’s notation does not precisely define microtones but rather allows flexibility in their intonation (i.e. higher, lower, very high, very low, in relation to their neighbouring pitches). Their exact tuning has therefore been developed by ear while working on a single raga as a whole. Their actual pitch and function within each raga personality has been gradually consolidated through practice and improvisation, consciously freeing them from habitual intonation patterns.

Since Indian music does not use equal temperament, any traditional raga may be considered microtonal. The intonation is dictated by a cultivated pitch perception, which can be extremely precise, inherited from the oral tradition and supported by an ancient theoretical background. However, praxis and theory of intonation have undergone numerous transformations along the centuries, producing debates and controversies to this day. I believe that the tuning of microtones in Indian ragas can be fully appreciated only in performance, since intonation is indissolubly connected to the melodic phrasing and its ornamentation. The profuse usage of slurs, shakes, and oscillations should be considered an integral part of the music. In fact, the cultivated ability to tune all these inflections to the mode of the raga is one

137 Amelia Cuni of the greatest achievements of the Indian tradition. In this modal organisation, the constant drone of the and the leading role of the melodic line confer an intense emotional impact to the single intervals, which can be skilfully exploited by experienced artists. Thus, tunings and pitch inflections can be discussed and evaluated also from a psychological and aesthetic point of view. Keeping all this into account, I would say that the present concept of intonation in Indian music is an organic, comprehensive one and therefore, quite complex. It relates eminently to the praxis (even when ancient and modern treatises propound elaborate tuning theories), where pitches are perceived in a richer and broader sense and can be hardly reduced to precisely measurable values fitting snugly into intonation systems. Moreover, hearing and tuning habits (together with the perception of tempo and rhythm) continuously change, adjusting to new social, environmental and cultural stimuli. I would like to suggest that the unpredictable, unclassifiable intonation of these 18 microtonal ragas might be considered part of this process of change.

Improvisation

Interestingly, Solo for Voice 58 represents one of the rare instances of John Cage prescribing improvisation. In the classical tradition of North India, this is a vital ingredient. It is considered to be the only way possible to bring ragas to life. Such improvisations are disciplined by a customary development fitting the modal structure of the music and including brief so-called “compositions” (bandish) followed by lengthy improvised/flexibly-memorised variations. In the teaching of Hindustani music, special emphasis is laid on the training of improvisational abilities by means of specific techniques and exercises. This is because the music, belonging to an aural tradition, depends upon each performer to re-construct the personality of the raga each time anew, relying only on memory, creativity and inspiration. Thus, improvising in the raga context could be considered a kind of composing on-the-spot since it requires a cultivated ability to arrange larger forms impromptu as well as to elaborate on finer details while remaining aware of the overall impact of the performance (Van der Meer 2007). This approach is the result of a vision, which perceives music and life as intimately connected, flowing and resounding together, celebrating sound as the agent of creation (nadabrahma).

The exceptional, atypical emphasis of Cage on improvisation in Solo for Voice 58 provided me with yet another stimulus for re-assessing my musicianship as a performer of raga music, making me more conscious of the unique role

138 CHANCE-GENERATED RAGAS in SOLO for VOICE 58: a dhrupad singer performs John Cage that improvisation plays in it. John Cage did not approve of this procedure because of the stress on personal taste and the idiosyncratic habits that it tends to reinforce. However, in the case of the 18 microtonal ragas, he acknowledged the importance of improvisation in the elaboration of raga music. Here, too, I have tried to apply his own ideals of discipline and restraint, searching for a radical Cagean approach that would allow for unpredictability and unplanned outcomes. Thus, I worked with various kinds of superimpositions, time brackets (chance-determined durations, a procedure often used by Cage) and other devices. Selected examples will be described in due course.

Drones

Considering that Cage points to fine-tunings by using the expression “microtonal raga” in his instructions, I opted to use audible drones to allow maximum possible accuracy of intonation during the performance. I mostly realised them (in collaboration with Werner Durand) using pre-recorded sounds from various sources belonging either to the traditional raga milieu or to the larger sound environment of the Song Books. At times, I would get my basic pitch from some tuned percussion accompaniment or pre-recorded vocal patterns (superimpositions of the same raga). The samples had been electronically treated using digital delays and other effects and some were non-continuous as opposed to the uninterrupted drone of the Indian tanpura. In any case, these drones did not have an autonomous musical function. In Indian music, they are always considered an integral part of the raga. The rich sound of the tanpura is used for the practical purpose of tuning intervals accurately as well as to help the musician to “get into the right mood”. Similarly, our drones lent an atmosphere to the pieces and became a conscious source of inspiration, contributing to the emergence of a raga- bhava.

Here are some practical examples: in one instance, we turned a recording of an electric drill into a drone by pitching it through a pipe. This drone was inspired by Cage’s use of other pre-recorded machine sounds in the Song Books. More orthodox ones were created using two shruti-boxes or recordings of tanpura strings, which were processed electronically or played with unconventional techniques. The sound of a waterfall was pitched with the support of a saxophone. I challenged my ability to identify a basic note by creating drones using clusters that appeared in the score and were reproduced using sine waves. In a specific case, Werner created a drone,

139 Amelia Cuni which was atypically fragmented, from tanpura sounds. Here, I let the drone influence the character of my vocal rendition by avoiding any slur (mind). One more drone used the resonance of a pakhawaj (drum) stroke made continuous by digital delays. In another example, the vocal drone shifted at some point, while the raga intervals remained unaltered. All the pitches used to compose the drones were taken from John Cage’s score. However, for the sake of clarity, I selected only the ones that do not present microtonal alterations.

Tala

In contemporary Indian music practice, singers restrict the use of talas to a specific section of the raga performance called bandish or “composition.” This consists of a few verses set to music according to a customary structure depending on the kind of singing genre being performed. It is followed by numerous improvisations of increasing complexity and speed. Whenever a tala is introduced, the singer will use the accompaniment of percussion. The given tala pattern will be strictly adhered to, often with the support of clapping (cheironomy). The singer will be interacting with the percussion by improvising within the given tala. The singer is always considered a soloist, even when accompanied by one or more percussionists. In addition, the complexity of ragas and talas in Indian classical music does not actually allow the soloist to sing and drum at the same time. All these considerations induced me to collaborate with percussionists for accomplishing a detailed and elaborated rendition of talas in Solo for Voice 58. I experimented together with two experienced percussionists: Federico Sanesi from Italy, mainly trained in the classical Indian tradition, and Raymond Kaczynski, an American living in Germany with a Western music background and a good knowledge of South Indian drumming.

Cage's talas mostly employ atypical divisions. Indian music theoretically recognises a boundless variety of tala and their subdivisions, although nowadays only comparatively few are commonly performed. In Solo for Voice 58, we explored a variety of options besides the ones consolidated by the tradition. For instance, singing within a tala framework without percussion accompaniment; singing without following a tala but with the percussion playing one; using tala in singing and percussion both without conforming to the customary bandish requirements and form but setting new rules and developing atypical structures and arrangements.

140 CHANCE-GENERATED RAGAS in SOLO for VOICE 58: a dhrupad singer performs John Cage

Some examples: raga 8 was set to an eleven-beats tala (divided 4.2.1.4.), which, in our interpretation, lasted only a couple of minutes. Here, Sanesi played a single slow cycle while Kaczynski stressed the tala subdivisions of this one-only cycle. In raga 12, the singer and the percussionist performed within a six-beat tala structure while we heared two independent tala clappings following different layas (tempi). In raga 16, I focused my interpretation on the link among percussion, recitation and singing, stressing a very important aspect of the Indian use of metric rhythm and showing its connection to speech. The percussionist played the tabla patterns often over- layered with recitation. He rendered verses written by his father, the poet Roberto Sanesi, and tabla bols (imitative, onomatopoeic words) mixing them freely, alternating and interchanging percussion and recitation in a seamless flow of metric rhythms. My vocal improvisations interacted in a similar vein, exploiting the interplay between words, rhythm and melody typical of dhrupad music, where improvisation included the percussive uttering of the syllables in fast melodic sequences. I sang fragments of a traditional text describing springtime. The theme was mirrored in the sound of the drone, which mixed tanpura with the buzzing of a beehive.

In the treatment of laya (tempo), which is an important aspect of tala, we departed from the tradition by playing with fragmentation, gradual speed variations and layering of various tempi. Here, we looked for support and inspiration in the instructions of the Song Books and in some of its graphic scores as well as in John Cage’s own working methods, such as the use of time brackets and other chance procedures. As a result, our treatment of tala in Solo for Voice 58 did not conform to the standard laya structures of intensification and acceleration typical of Indian music. Our interpretation did not induce any sense of progression and it often created the impression that ragas and talas were executed in parallel but independently, so that several perceptions of time may coexist in a given piece. In this respect, the tala improvisations on the percussion instruments should be considered an integral part of the Solo for Voice 58 performance, providing at times a rhythmic canvas for the singer and elsewhere an independent, parallel interpretation of the given tala. As a result, our improvisations often overlapped fully or in part (for instance, through the use of time brackets), creating unplanned synchronic interpretations and superimpositions.

141 Amelia Cuni Texts

The texts on which I improvised the ragas in Solo for Voice 58 came from a variety of sources. Following Cage’s instructions, some had been written by me in different languages. They included vocalising, a widely used technique in Indian singing. In other instances, I used some of Cage’s own procedures, such as creating texts by selecting words, syllable and phonemes from my own repertoire (or from other Song Books’ soli) by means of chance procedures. In some ragas, I chose the self-referential approach and quoted from Alain Daniélou’s works about Indian music in various languages. Complying with the improvised nature of the work, I chose to sing one of the ragas (raga 2) using a new text in every performance, which had been written by me in the language that could best be understood by the audience.

Superimpositions

During the early stages of my work on Solo for Voice 58, I discussed with our music consultant, Ulrich Krieger, the various difficulties encountered in leaving the comfortable, self-contained environment of traditional raga music and in experimenting in a consistent Cagean mode. Ulrich, a composer and saxophonist who had worked on Cage's music extensively, suggested that some of the Song Books’ graphic scores might be used as a tool to expand my musical thinking beyond the habitual patterns and well-established strategies. His advice proved very useful. It brought forth unexpected developments in my interpretation. In practice, I selected some graphic scores from the Song Books and interpreted them using the pitches of some of the ragas in Solo for Voice 58, allowing the visual experience to inspire and guide the musical outcome. In this way, we realised the superimpositions of two or more soli, a procedure allowed by John Cage in his general directions to the Song Books. I have used this procedure for some of the vocal pieces and theatrical soli as well (see further). In one instance (raga 10), I opted for a superimposition of the very same raga, using time brackets for the singing, for the percussion parts and for the pre-recorded segments of the same vocal rendition. Likewise, in the last section of my ragamala (a combination of four different ragas from Solo for Voice 58), I used pre-recorded vocal fragments, which were played according to random order and timings, resulting in ever-new superimpositions with my live improvisations. This procedure calls for a different kind of attention from the performer and the listener alike and introduces pauses and silences, which are unusual features in contemporary raga/tala renditions. In my own view, the resulting breaks in

142 CHANCE-GENERATED RAGAS in SOLO for VOICE 58: a dhrupad singer performs John Cage the flow as well as the moments of overlap and superimposition actually concern only the surface of the musical event. At another level, the individual ragas and talas flow uninterrupted, maintaining their own peculiarities and distinct character.

I will describe here in detail one of the superimpositions with a graphic score: Solo for Voice 21 (song with electronics) superimposed on raga 18.

Cage’s directions for Solo for Voice 21 are:

Let the upper and lower extremes of the symmetrical shape relate to the upper and lower extremes of the voice register. Let horisontal space relate to time. Total duration: 40 sec- onds. Take either the upper or lower line, changing to the other if desired at any structural point (these are given by vertical lines). Make one very gradual electronic change (a dial “glis- sando”) from the beginning to the end. Make any use of the text given (by Erik Satie), repeating words and phrases freely.

In my interpretation of this super- imposition, I first made a chance- determined selection of pitches for raga 18. In the performance, I had to negotiate the various restrictions imposed by the score of Solo for Voice 21 itself. Although free to change from upper to lower ranges and vice versa, I had to follow a melodic line (in its literal meaning!) that was pre-defined. In this case, the raga pitches could not be perfectly tuned, mainly because of the short duration (fixed at 40 seconds in total) and the continuous glissando, which included abrupt changes of range at some structural points. Here, I had to sacrifice the precise definition of the microtones for the sake of coordination. Working with this very short and set duration would be unthinkable in a traditional context. Indian music performances tend to be lengthy and to unfold at a leisurely pace. The musician needs time to establish the atmosphere of the chosen raga as his/her ability to achieve its unique

143 Amelia Cuni emotional impact will determine the success of the performance. One may argue that this process of evoking and manifesting a pre-existing musical entity cannot be bound to precise timings nor can it be realised within extremely brief durations. Thus, in the experimental context of Cage’s Song Books, I juxtaposed the consolidated practise of “being absorbed in an on- going state of raga-ness, one that tends towards timelessness” (Clayton 2000: 26) with atypically short and pre-defined durations, another deviation from tradition, conferring an episodic and fragmented character to parts of the performance. Solo for Voice 21’s graphic score gave me an unprecedented experience of music turning into “gesture” in the sense of a compact and coherent expression within a very concise time span. At the same time, it made evident the visual aspect of glissandi, the intimate link between the graphic and the vocal line. After having performed this superimposition for some time, I decided to add another dimension to it by setting against the condensed 40-second version a brief prelude that introduced the individual raga pitches. In this first section, I was able to dwell longer on the intervals and establish them in a more consistent manner. Exceptionally, the sequence of the pitches and the way they were joined were not improvised but had been determined through chance operations and through the selection of vowels and phonemes, which were derived from Satie's text. Just for once, I wanted to have the experience of singing a brief alap (kind of prelude) that had been worked out exclusively through chance operations and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found the unexpected combinations and melodic twists beautiful and inspiring. However, I did not fix the correspondence between the vocal lines and the tala (9.2, played with a bell tuned to my basic tone), thus allowing the flow to be different every time.

Other superimpositions with graphic scores led me to search for suitable vocal expressions and techniques outside of the raga milieu, such as the “pointillist” use of the voice required in Solo for Voice 72. Superimpositions with the soli for theatre require a separate treatment and will be dealt with further on.

Rasa

In his directions to Solo for Voice 58, Cage states: “think either of the morning, the afternoon or the evening, giving a description or account of the recent pleasures or beauties noticed”. This is an obvious reference to well- known Indian aesthetic principles that are typically taken into account while rendering ragas: the aesthetic theory of rasa and the so-called time-theory, associating ragas with a specific time of the daily cycle or with a season.

144 CHANCE-GENERATED RAGAS in SOLO for VOICE 58: a dhrupad singer performs John Cage

However, these are both controversial theories in modern India and Cage gives his contribution to the discussion by characteristically abandoning any traditional model and leaving the interpreter free to find his own associations. Moreover, he clearly diverges from the classical Indian approach to “static emotions” (rasas) by directing the singer to focus on the memory of personal experiences. The resulting friction between the individualistic western attitude to “describe pleasures and beauties noticed” and the more impersonal treatment of rasa embedded in the raga tradition encourages further speculations. By narrowing the “description or account” to the more rewarding kind of experiences, such as “pleasures or beauties noticed”, Cage echoes the prescribed avoidance in Indian music of unpleasant and destructive emotions. For example, the rasas of disgust, fury and fear are only used in theatre and dance, never in a purely musical performance. On the other hand, the experimental and anarchistic treatment of ragas in the Song Books leads to a loosening up of the connections between rasas and specific intervals or modes. As intervals that are deeply dissonant to the Indian ear, such as a flat octave or a very high fourth, come into play, rasas become much less classifiable and standardised, allowing Cage’s ragas to acquire new colourings and hues. In essence, Cage’s approach allows the performer to draw on his own experiences, and combine them with the discipline of performance to foster the growth of new and unpredictable rasas.

Theatrical Elements

The theory of rasa originated in the realm of drama. Ancient Sanskrit theatre has nurtured it and its underlying principles are still interwoven in Indian music praxis, as we have seen earlier. In fact, all classical performing arts in India have these common roots and the interdisciplinary aspects are evident and supposedly cultivated. However, the fast pace of contemporary life, social adjustments affecting music in innumerable ways and the consequent leaning towards specialisation all gradually changed the attitude and the taste of musicians and audiences alike. Consequently, most of the genres and techniques requiring an interdisciplinary approach seem to be falling out of fashion while dance and music become more and more distinct, self- contained art forms. In my interpretation of Solo for Voice 58, I have taken the opportunity to work with the interdisciplinary aspects of the classical tradition, which I especially value and have been integrating in my own training from the very beginning.

145 Amelia Cuni Cage's Song Books are conceived as a multidisciplinary work, connecting various art forms and allowing simultaneity. Accordingly, I decided to introduce in my performance of Solo for Voice 58 some soli for theatre included in the Song Books, with the aim to explore this particular aspect of the Indian tradition from an experimental standpoint. In addition, in this case, I found the process extremely rewarding and revealing. I learnt to use my attention and concentration in various ways and have developed the ability to make synchronicity happen within myself to a degree that I did not believe would be possible. According to my experience, the superimposing of a song with unrelated actions produces bewildering combinations and unpredictable synergies that contribute in their own way to the intensification of the aesthetic rapture. They magnify the here-and-now and point to a kind of awareness that is encompassing and detached. Whenever I have to perform an action while singing, I must negotiate with its speed, intensity, duration, expression and many more, considering it an autonomous and independent event, overlapping with the melodic movement of the voice by a fortuitous

coincidence. By practicing, one can actually learn to experience these activities separately, as if completed by different parts of oneself. This is not perceived as a sterile exercise. Rather, it seems a useful technique to focus while keeping the influence of one's ego in check. I have observed that having my attention fully occupied with this artful split of personality causes a shift of perspective that leads to a psychological re-arrangement, a change in the perception, a re-alignment of the various faculties involved in the creative process. Paradoxically, one also learns to flow more within the performance and give up some of the self-conscious and controlling attitude to let things happen according their own accord.

146 CHANCE-GENERATED RAGAS in SOLO for VOICE 58: a dhrupad singer performs John Cage

During the selection of the soli for theatre, I gave priority to the ones that prescribe everyday actions (such as preparing food, eating, drinking, sleeping, taking off /putting on shoes, writing a card, fulfilling an obligation, and so on) and the ones prescribing lists of unspecified actions, where I introduced movements, steps and mudras (symbolic gestures) belonging to the choreographic vocabulary of the kathak dance. In the case of the first group of soli, I aimed at making the borders between art and life less obvious and more blurred. I searched for a wider, comprehensive experience that might integrate common actions, usually those taken for granted, with an artistic process of creation. In my own understanding, this could result in a new awareness of our daily life, informed by the direct experience of art as an imitation of Nature in her manners of operation. I especially enjoyed exercising the rendition of the soli for theatre everyday actions (rather than theatrical ones), which I happened to perform on stage. I believe this subtle shift of purpose makes a great difference in my handling of the performance and in its overall impact.

For the second kind of soli for theatre—the ones using lists of actions—I took into consideration the elements that belong to the milieu of the kathak dance, a discipline that I have been practising simultaneously with dhrupad singing for many years. First of all, I had to select the steps/movements to make up the lists, numbering each action. Subsequently, I had to interpret them according to the typeface, size and other visual aspects of the numbers appearing in the score.

As for the 18 microtonal ragas, I had to make my own scores and find adequate graphic representations. Luckily, Indian dance uses mnemonic

147 Amelia Cuni syllables (related to the bols of the tabla language) and being able to write them down made the task easier. The work on these soli gave me the opportunity to explore in depth some aspects of the traditional vocabulary by taking into consideration singularities and by setting new rules for their realisation. Thus, the single events became fragmented and de-contextualised, producing new semantic interpretations and often unlikely combinations that were unrelated to the traditional “dance grammar”. This whole process of de-construction and re- assemblage afforded many valuable insights into the workings of the ancient vocabulary. At the same time, superimposing actions and singing have challenged my coordination to the highest degree. Remembering the sequences that have no logic development requires long periods of rehearsals for every performance. During the years, I have interpreted these soli in a variety of ways. The performance turns out different every time not only because the music is improvised, but also because the selection of the soli for theatre varies. In fact, I have been careful not to define and fix the interpretation of the 18 microtonal ragas in detail, so that I may keep on experimenting with them. Simultaneously, I elaborated a new combination of the soli for every performance in order to bring forth unknown situations and to avoid stagnation. Sometimes, I did not include any actions at all. Cage's Song Books gives the interpreter the freedom to arrange the performance differently every time. Whenever the opportunity

148 CHANCE-GENERATED RAGAS in SOLO for VOICE 58: a dhrupad singer performs John Cage arises, I would also like to make completely new realisations in collaboration with other singers, musicians or actors.

Lighting

Colours and other visual elements are connected with music in India in various ways. The most well-known examples are the series of ragamala paintings, miniatures that depict ragas. Associations with different kinds of light may also be derived from ancient practice, which originated from the Hindu temples, relating ragas to the different times of the day and night cycle. In my interpretation of Solo for Voice 58, when the situation allowed, we used a light design especially developed by Andreas Harder. In this case, we tried out different options. More recently, we agreed upon defining the light changes and their cues according to a solo for theatre (with numbers) as suggested by Christina Tappe, the theatrical consultant. This resulted in a contradiction since the lighting of the performers on stage did not relate to the atmospheres and changes in the music. The light technician programmed his mixer according to a cue-sheet derived from the interpretation of the score of the solo for theatre, which had been worked out beforehand by the light designer and myself. Since the lighting equipment varied from venue to venue, the character and effect of the design would be different every time as well. Moreover, the music and actions did not reoccur with exact timings during each performance and my positions on stage were not fixed. Therefore, the relationship between the performer and the light was never a conventional one, but resulted in yet another kind of superimposition. The light design became emancipated from its designer and it participated in the show as if of its own accord. In order to explore this Cagean, anarchistic approach, I had to give up the wish to make the performance more beautiful and suggestive by means of an “appropriate” use of lighting, relying mainly on coordination and emphasising hierarchies. It felt definitely strange for a soloist to be singing standing in a pool of darkness while her empty seat was in full light! It did take some audacity on my part to lay down to take a nap (Solo for Theatre 57) while the performance seemed to come to a halt or to come back in haste from backstage (Solo for Theatre 32) as if I had missed my cue. On the other hand, it took even more audacity to sing a purposely flat octave or different kinds of sharp fourth in a row. Those unconventional activities obviously provided me with gratifying rewards. They made up for the doubts and low confidence that have generated within myself and in the audience by offering the exhilarating experience of exploring a yet unknown territory, stepping over logic and personal taste.

149 Amelia Cuni Conclusions

John Cage was not interested in crafting systems to structure sounds according to European tonality. He had strong opinions about the Western tradition, which he considered dysfunctional and deteriorating. He saw counterpoint and harmony as “out of step not only with its own but with all other traditions”. He affirmed this belief in his “Lecture on Something” from 1951 to 1952 (Patterson 2002: 48). Cage was truly inventive and single- minded in his dedication to music. Although he admired and respected non- European traditions, he went on his own in a radical way. In my case, the experience of working intensively in a rather uncomfortable spot, where I could not rely upon familiar and recognisable forms, has been at times unset- tling. All the carefully learned structures, aural and emotional correspondences as well as the effective tools and strategies for improvisation that are an integral part of the Indian oral tradition could only be partly exploited in support of Cage’s ragas. In the tradition, the practical function of these conventions is to let the music maker and listener dive deeper and deeper into that non-verbal state of communion and achieve a rich and fulfilling aesthetic experience. By performing ragas only according to its customary development, there is no emphasis laid on musical forms (as in the Western classical “compositions”). Thus, the conventional structures are not understood as a contribution of individual genius. They are rather used as devices, refined by generations of artists for the sake of allowing ragas to be effectively manifested.

After several years of engagement with John Cage's 18 microtonal ragas, I have been able to assess their efficacy in innumerable ways. Every time I pick them up, I find new inspiration and endless potential for their development. The decision to retain a definite selection of intervals and a basic raga grammar for each one of them has proved advantageous because only time and practice will allow their personality to unfold. Solo for Voice 58 has indeed generated a transformative process, which can be shared with the audience. Cage's methodology has been working wonders, propelling an endless chain of reactions that have transformed and enriched my understanding of music. I am aware that many people's mental flexibility and aural tolerance may be challenged by Cage's provocative approach. This work “has to do with perception and the arousing of it” (Cage, quoted in Nyman 1999: 23) and forces us to leave behind preconceptions and listening habits by pointing at what is here now rather than at a new interpretation of al- ready formed musical structures. John Cage’s experimental take on raga music is possibly the most radical of its kind. His truly anarchist perspective

150 CHANCE-GENERATED RAGAS in SOLO for VOICE 58: a dhrupad singer performs John Cage has shaken the very foundations of the theory of harmony in the West6 while the “single goal throughout his career has been the disciplined acceptance, in musical contexts, of that which has been previously rejected out-of-hand” (Brooks 1982: 161).

If we proceed to apply Cage’s radical ideals to the tradition of Hindustani music, as I have attempted in my interpretation of his 18 microtonal ragas, we may find that his transgressive approach is likely to cause disbelief or even rejection in the Indian music circles as well. I have not been able to perform Solo for Voice 58 in India so far; therefore, I cannot elaborate on this topic. On the other hand, I am not sure that Cage would have been fully aware of this “other” perspective nor would he have even realised how far this work could be taken by a trained raga singer, since he probably never came across one who was interested and willing to put everything at stake. I regret he is no more with us to share his opinion on this. In any case, I believe that whoever wishes to open up to this music has to leave something behind and proceed with a lighter burden. Only the willingness to be surprised and prodded at every turn of this unpredictable path can be of use. Finally, I wish Cage’s ragas might be appreciated as musical beings in their own right.

6 see James Tenny’s essay: John Cage and the Theory of harmony, in SOUNDINGS 13. The Music of James Tenny, soundings press, Santa Fè 1984 151 Amelia Cuni Eccentric perhaps, but nevertheless grown out of seeds of discipline, joy and bewilderment.7

I would like to conclude with my sincerest thanks to Charles Amirkhanian (Other Minds), Matthias Osterwold (Berliner Festspiele) and to all the participants in the project. Without their support, encouragement and active involvement, I would not have been able to develop the performance through the years.

In this paper, I have integrated some parts of my sleeve-notes for the CD publication: Creating 18 microtonal ragas, edited by Adam Fong and included in the booklet of the CD, JOHN CAGE, Solo for Voice 58: 18 microtonal ragas by Amelia Cuni, dhrupad vocals. Other Minds, San Francisco, 2007 (OM 1010-2 CD). Detailed information about the performance history are available on my homepage: www.ameliacuni.de

GLOSSARY 1. Alap: lit. “discourse”, introduction and elaboration of the raga's melodic character 2. Arohi-Avarohi: ascending / decending progression of a raga 3. Bhava : in Sanskrit means expression, affect. 4. Dhrupad : the oldest genre in North India, on which Hindustani music is based 5. Mudra: lit. “seal”: symbolic gesture or posture of the hands, used in Indian dance and Hindu rituals 6. Kathak: a dance genre, which has developed in North India in close con- tact with dhrupad music 7. Pakhawaj: double-headed barrel drum, played in dhrupad music and kathak dance

7 Pritchett reports (ibidem, p. 175): The situation he (Cage) foresees - and in which he obviously takes great pleasure - is one in which the various arts and styles “intermingle in a climate very rich with joy and - I am purposely using an expression frequent in Japanese texts - bewilderment” (Cage, For the Birds, 1981) 152 CHANCE-GENERATED RAGAS in SOLO for VOICE 58: a dhrupad singer performs John Cage

8. Raga: from Sanskrit, “ranj” : “to colour, tinge”. Ragas are melodic modules used in traditional Indian music 9. Ragamala: a garland of various ragas, a traditional form 10. Rasa: from Sanskrit “sap, taste, essence”: sentiment, aesthetic experience/ enjoyment 11. Shruti-box: small drone instrument, made of wood, with reeds and bel- lows. Used as drone mainly in South Indian music 12. Svara: from Sanskrit, “that which shines of itself”, the raga pitches/ intervals 13. Tanpura: plucked lute with long neck, used as drone in Indian music

References 1. Brooks, W. 1982. Choice and change in recent Cage's music. TriQuarterly 54, A John Cage Reader. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University. 2. Cage, J. 1970. Song Books. New York: Edition Peters. 3. Cage, J. An Autobiographical Statement. delivered at: Southern Methodist University, Dallas. TX. 17 April 1990. 4. 2 July 2007 . 5. Campbell, J. 2004. Mythic Worlds, Modern Words. Novato, CA: New World Library. 6. Clayton, M. 2000.Time In Indian Music. New York: Oxford University Press. 7. Kirby M. and Schechner R. 1965. An interview with John Cage. Tulane Drama Review X:2. pp.60-61 8. Nyman, M. 1999. Experimental Music.Cage and Beyond. New York: Cambridge Univesrity Press. 9. Patterson, D. 2002. Cage and Asia: history and sources. In D. Nicholls (ed.)The Cambridge Companion to John Cage. New York: Cambridge University Press.

153 Amelia Cuni 10. Pritchett, J. 1993. The Music of John Cage. New York: Cambridge University Press. 11. Van der Meer, W. 2007. The margins of musical creation. Journal of the Indian Musicological Society 38.

Photos: 1. 4, 5, 7 and 9: Giovanni Pancino, Venice Biennale 2007 2. 8: Kai Bienert

154 Selected Panels from the SRA Conference January 2010, Mumbai Changing Aesthetic Norms Vocal Music – Role of Voice Moderator: Dr. Ashok Ranade Panelists: • Mrs. Shubha Mudgal • Mrs. Aruna Sairam • Mr. Uday Bhawalkar Questions

3. Do you think that primacy of vocal music is a major feature of Indian music? If so, in what way this has influenced the content of Indian music? 4. What are the striking features of voices of the Indian artists practicing Indian music? 5. In what way the Indian voices can be usefully classified? 6. Over the last few decades do you perceive any changes in the voice-use of Indian musicians? 7. Which Indian or non-Indian vocalists’ voices have impressed you? Why? Mrs. Aruna Sairam - I must at the outset state that my opinions would be coming from the point of view of being a practitioner of Carnatic music. Yes, I certainly think vocal music is a major feature of Indian music and in fact, in Carnatic music we do say that every instrument, be it the violin, vina, or any other instrument tries to emulate the voice, the gamakas, the microtones and the movements, and even the aesthetic ideals of the voice. So certainly it has primacy of position. In what way has this influenced the content of Indian music? For example, if we take the most creative part of exposition which is raga alapana, every instrument player tries to play the same phraseology and subtle microtones as a vocalist would do. For example in raga Todi, we would start by building up the raga phrase by phrase from the adhar shadj upwards and follow a certain architectural map so to say while developing the raga. On the aside, it’s my observation that in the Carnatic idiom a raga develops not so much note by note but in blocks of phrases. These blocks serve as building units of alapana. Just to give you an example, we could take raga Kalyani and start the raga with something like….. (demo.) with a very slow progression dwelling on each note like a Hindustani musician would probably do. However in

155 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Carnatic music it would be something like ….. (demo.), where phrases become the most primary block and in each phrase there is an amalgam or coming together of slow movement, a middle tempo movement, a fast movement, all coming in quick succession and then going back to the next phrase. So the violinist or the vina player who does raga alapana, follows the same structure. It’s not that it is a different way of developing raga. The same thing applies to kriti. So if there is a kriti with say 12 / 15 sangatis in the pallavi, the instrumentalist will follow the same pattern and develop the kriti as such. I certainly think there is a lot to talk about the influence of voice on the instrument. Mr. Uday Bhawalkar - I will speak on the basis of whatever I have learnt from my Gurus because this is a vast subject and people have different ideas about their own presentation in dhrupad. Well, definitely, primacy of vocal music is a major feature of Indian music. I had talim with two elderly Gurus, Zia Mohiuddin Dagar who was a vina player and his younger brother Zia Fariduddin Dagar who is a vocalist. My elder Guruji used to say that vocal is primary because it is most natural, we don’t need to depend on any instrument. Speaking about the way it has influenced the content of Indian music; to me content of Indian music is sur. I was shown on vina how the svarbhed and the shrutis are played and can be sung. For a dhrupad practitioner, it is very important to sustain a note to realize it. We do believe that each note contains all the rasas. Normally people think that the lyrics lead to rasa in music, but we don’t believe in that. We believe that each note has all the rasas and we have to develop the power to find all the rasas in one note. This is because one note can say so much and that’s the path for dhrupad in my tradition. For this kharaj practice which we sustain on Sa, Pa, or whatever note for an hour is essential. It is my experience that staying on one note can tell so many stories inside us. It brings you different flavours, different timbres, different qualities and different moods. When I was learning my Ustad would say, “Son you are singing the note correctly, but it does not belong to this particular raga.” Now I experience this when I teach my students. They might sing correctly, it still doesn’t give the appropriate flavour of the raga. So what is it? It is not the rules or regulations but it is the tradition that we believe in. I think it takes time to understand this. In our study of alap, the way one lets go off a note in a raga is very important. The human vocal apparatus is known as gatra vina, and the vocal

156 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Vocal Music music is closest to human body. I would like to mention that there are limitations whether one is singing or playing an instrument. One person cannot produce all kinds of voices. May be some are good with sargam tans, others with alapchari or akar tans, gamakas and so on. The difference of voices and training depends on how one has learnt. We use syllables like aa ra na ri na noom derived from Sanskrit mantra, Om Ananta Hari Narayan. These syllables - these vowels help us to see a note in different dimension. It lends different timbre to a note and creates different mood in the same note. This is how the vocal practice is done in dhrupad tradition. Another important thing is vina. My music, what I have learnt goes very close to vina – as close as possible. The vina and vocal music support each other, which is what we have been hearing, not only for musical presentation but also in terms of complementing each other. They lend completeness to each other, especially in the matter of svarbhed. Mrs. Shubha Mudgal - I would like to base my observations not only as a student of Hindustani music; khayal, thumri and dadra, but most importantly as an avid listener of music. Yes, there is certainly a primacy of vocal music, but I wouldn’t say that it’s a primacy that supersedes everything else. It is one of the main features. As an intuitive response, I feel rhythm attracts as much, and is equally important as perhaps vocal music is in Indian music. But I think the influence of vocal music and the importance of song in Indian music is something that perhaps needs to be mentioned strongly in any kind of situation, whether it is to inform people about a certain happening or a certain ritual, or whether it is in a more organized structured way in art music, the idea of song has been used often and beautifully to really convey information of various kinds or to begin to use it as a base for musical exposition. Let’s say we have a situation of a wedding and you want to tell your neighbours how many of your relatives have come to attend the wedding. This information could be conveyed in a song and therefore the voice is being used to convey something which would not form the ideal textual context for let’s say a khayal composition but it is an important way of using the voice and of communicating with people. This is why I think it is a very important feature of Indian music. Similarly, we say that sahitya is not important, let’s say in forms of art music like khayal, and yet one of the important aspects of a bandish is the sahitya, which is the text that forms part of a composition. In fact a lot of ideas, a lot of sounds that you actually

157 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 choose to elaborate on, are selected from the text that forms part of a composition. There I feel that it is a very important aspect of Indian music and a lot of melodic inspiration comes from the voice and particularly because ours is an oral tradition as well. Even if you want to convey the idea of syllables for rhythm, you would actually recite them and therefore voice becomes very important. Yet there have been instances as Udayji just said, that been is played to convey certain ideas of how to use the voice. This is what makes the transmission of ideas so wonderful in any system of music, particularly in Indian music. We take so many ideas from different places, put them together and adapt them for voice and that I think is the most important part of being a student of music. Dr. Ashok Ranade - I would request the panel to respond to a query arising out of responses so far. The human breathing pattern has certain limitations which can be transcended in instrumental music. In that sense do you feel that influence of vocal music has unnecessarily tried to condition instrumental music in India? Mrs. Aruna Sairam - Yes, I do think breathing is the most crucial part – to begin with the voice – as I understood from the masters that I’ve had the opportunity to know, which also includes Ranadeji. Yes, at times one learns that whatever you do, whether you are singing, whether you are tight-rope walking, or you are playing the vina or the flute or the violin – for example, the violin is a stringed instrument and it appears that breath is not directly influencing the playing of the violin but I learnt from masters that it does. For any activity, the way you breathe is significant. The way you are, is the way your body and your mind is, or in fact together in a synchronized way, that’s how that particular activity happens. In vocal music of course, there is a direct implication. In fact, I must recall here that as I was searching during the years that I would say I found my voice, I met Mr. Rabin who heard me perform in Germany. What he did for me in 3 or 4 days of my interaction with him is to tell me that when one sings it is not with the voice alone. The voice box is there but one is actually singing with the whole body. This sounds very intellectual but a singer actually feels this in all of his or her body as everything sort of coming alive in one’s being. Be it the torso, the limbs, when it is coming together – coming alive – by using the proper technique of breathing which guides you along the way, and then when you sing, your own experience of how you sing, how you enjoy your own music is completely different. It’s like life before and life

158 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Vocal Music after, that is the way it changes you. I saw many ballerinas for example coming to this person to learn breathing techniques because those techniques were helping them to be able to dance better. I saw some acrobats and some instrument players too. What I learnt about breathing was not only for the voice but for any other physical activity. Mr. Uday Bhawalkar - I mentioned earlier about practice of kharaj in the morning. There are two main reasons for doing this. One is to make you breathe longer. Long breathing definitely helps in singing, especially the alap. Another aspect is control of voice, which is an important aspect because using the same voice and the same syllables like aa, na ri nom etc., you can control the intonation (demo.). Mrs. Shubha Mudgal - The issue of breathing and how much it impacts instrumentalists, which I think is what you had asked? Dr. Ashok Ranade - My question is; do you feel that influence of singing on instrumental music in India has been a conditioning factor for instrumentalists rather than a liberating factor, because there is no limitation of breathing as such while you are playing instruments. Mrs. Shubha Mudgal - Those instruments that accompany the voice have developed certain techniques for accompaniment but they are able to transcend and have created certain devices which perhaps would not be replicable by the voice. Therefore the development of repertoire for solo performance is quite different, and is not necessarily pressured or conditioned by the use of voice. It may have started by modeling things on the voice but has gone on further and therefore it is perhaps more in the way of accompaniment that the conditioning can be heard far more evidently than it can be heard in solo repertoire. Dr. Ashok Ranade - For your information, I asked this question specifically because I feel that instrumentalists in India all the time declare with a kind of reverent tone that they play gayaki ang and I feel that they have actually extended the vocabulary available for music making through their instruments, and that should be emphasized because that’s the real contribution to Indian music. What they are doing is apart from, or in addition to what vocalists have been doing and that is the point. Mrs. Aruna Sairam - I would certainly agree with this view.

159 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Mrs. Shubha Mudgal - The next question is; what are the striking features of voices of the Indian artistes practicing Indian music? You will have to give me a lot of time for this because there are so many kinds of wonderful voices and there are so many different genres of music where you hear interesting voices. Perhaps one of the things I could think of right away is the space in which different kinds of music is being made. That very often impacts the way people use their voices. In art music we are all performing in a proscenium kind of an atmosphere with a lot of amplification. It is rare that we don’t use microphones and therefore the way in which we are using our voices is very often actually cultured for amplification. However, in folk music the use of space – if you are performing – not necessarily performing as it may be part of a ritual – the space itself actually guides the method of using the voice. If you have to call out to somebody, there will be a different use of voice. Sometimes the content of the music will also decide. For example, for songs of valour it’s a bold use of voice. When I say bold, there are bold voices in all kinds of music but the method of using the voice is one that would inspire excitement or a sense of awe – let’s say the valor of a particular warrior. So I think depending upon the kind of space or content from which the music emerged, we are able to hear different kinds of voices. And of course there is one very popular form of music, which is film music, which has become studio music, for a lot of it is recorded in studios and processed by technology. Therefore in that sense we are not ever able to hear the real voice of the singer. To a large extent it is so processed and so largely modified – not necessarily refined – that very often it is difficult to tell what the actual voice of the singer could be. In fact I know for a fact when you listen to a concert of popular music, you find that the singer is using a laptop and a processor to actually modify the voice and this modification is not insignificant. It is not for example the use of let’s say a little bit of reverb or a little bit of delay to create an effect. It’s actually doing various things – they are called vocoders or vocalizers that actually make you sound as though you were drowning in a bathtub and bubbles were rising! That’s the kind of effect you can get from these machines. So really the space and the kind of music very often guide the method of voice production. Mr. Uday Bhawalkar - The striking feature of voice in my tradition is holding a note, which is the main feature of dhrupad. Another specific way of using the

160 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Vocal Music syllables are ra ni na nom, because you cannot say it in any way you wish, like ri na noom te taran, for example. It has got its own sequence, timing and way of presenting. It is not singing without any space or timing. The next aspect is the use of minds and gamakas. This is another very characteristic feature for dhrupad. There are several types of gamakas as we know. And of course according to some accounts whatever you do (in singing) is with gamakas only. There are variations of gamakas. Any small thing, small kriya can also denote a gamaka. Another aspect is the use of syllables to help uplift the note. When, instead of sargam (solfaggio) a syllable is used to intone a note, the creativity goes more towards sound than the note. It takes us beyond note and that is how voice is used in dhrupad. Mrs. Aruna Sairam - I was in a place that probably had not heard much of Indian music, least of all Carnatic music and I had the opportunity to do a small concert there. The following reaction was eye-opening for me. There was a lady who walked up to me after the concert and said, “In India, do you speak and sing in the same voice? We sing with the head voice but we speak in a different voice.” I then started to understand what she was saying and realized that in India, just as Shubhaji was saying, through a song you want to tell a story and convey something, and anytime we could just break into a song. Whereas our colleagues overseas would require a shift from speaking to singing voice. It would take them a while to prepare themselves because the whole voice production is a different entity. It is the use of the head voice if you listen to singers like of Maria Callas. They are fantastic singers but the whole voice is projected out of the head. Whereas most of the time in India, particularly more in the South, we use lower pitches and sing in the speaking voice. In Hindustani music, I think the pitch is higher. If we were to classify Indian voices I would use this quote and say Indian voices speak and sing in the same voice. This could be a way of identifying an Indian voice. Dr. Ashok Ranade - We get a feeling that voice is more intimately connected with a culture. If you are coming from a different culture then your voice differs. Therefore now the idea is to take a voice print instead of a finger print. Secondly, I feel that voices as such are not expressed just as that, they are expressed through vowels and consonance. Each language has a different way of compiling these two elements, and whether you feel this particular voice is high or low depends a lot on what language you are using. Those languages which have vowels sound different from those which have more consonants. Therefore I posed this question and I am happy that we are

161 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 getting some very concrete examples of how voice is received and how it can be interpreted. Ms. Purvi Parikh - I am really sorry to interrupt but as we are talking about voice and the new trends, it would be really enlightening to know how as an Indian traditional vocalist you learnt something else which you may not have learnt before independence. We have globalised enormously, and we are getting inputs from all over the world through internet and many more. So how have you adapted to a certain technique which belongs to another culture into your own repertoire of singing? Now since we have finished the topic of vocal technique, you could perhaps elaborate on your own self dis- covery. Dr. Ashok Ranade - We will keep the question on hold and come back to it later. Mrs. Aruna Sairam - In what way the Indian voices can be usefully classified? I must confess that I haven’t understood the question well enough. Usefully means recognizably classified? Dr. Ashok Ranade - Recognizably as well as that which helps the singer to study. Mrs. Aruna Sairam - Very unusual question indeed! When I was looking to find my real voice, in the sense that it was okay as in I could sing decently but it’s also to do with what you feel inside. When you feel you haven’t found what you need to find, that is a valid search and you have to answer that search no matter what. So I was looking out and ask questions. I went to masters like Pandit Wamanrao Sadolikar and others. Little by little I started putting pieces together about how I could improve the delivery, the ease, the sheen, the range, the evocative quality of the voice. Mine is a low pitch female voice – known as contralto or alto voice in the Western tradition. I came to know only when I met my musician colleagues abroad. I used to think that I could sing low notes very well – kharaj and all is fine. When one has a mental block it influences the delivery and it’s a whole series of negative thought processes that simply gets you down. I was going through that phase. Then I learnt that breathing is the most crucial thing and that’s really the fuel that fires the whole activity. When you learn to breathe from the lower part of your torso, your whole body relaxes. Of course, the great masters are definitely aware of these things.

162 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Vocal Music But then, you also learn to project your voice or to be aware of where that sound is thrown out. The classic example my teacher gave me was that the vocal production area is like the source of sound. The different parts of your body are working like speakers. So when you start understanding and really feeling these things in your gut, slowly even with a low voice like mine one can sing in the chest as demanded by the Indian aesthetics. You don’t have to sing in a head voice but at the same time you let your voice flow, let it just do what it does, and you stop being a hindrance to it. The whole point is to learn not to be a hindrance by tightening your body, mind. Then slowly all the three octaves; kharaj, madhya, – everything you can sing. In fact it is funny that now people listen to me and say that I have such a high voice. Although mine is a low voice, it gives the impression of a high voice because of the shining quality it acquires by letting it be what it is. So I still don’t know how to categorize Indian voices! Mr. Uday Bhawalkar - It is commonly believed that dhrupad needs a base voice which is heavy. People who have a high voice cannot sing dhrupad. These are all misconceptions about dhrupad. As all of us know, we have to sing in our natural voice. Of course, we can develop our range, whether high or low, by practice. There is no specific way of using voice in dhrupad, at least I don’t think so. The temperament and the criteria or ideas are different when you sing a note in dhrupad. Any voice can be used for dhrupad. Mrs. Shubha Mudgal - Given today’s context where a lot of musicians like to call themselves as self-taught, the very basic classification that I would like to mention is the “self taught”. Those who have gone through a disciplined study of one’s system, for example if you listen to a Langa or Manganiyar singer, even before the first words are uttered just by the use of voice you know that this person is probably singing from “that” tradition. I think that classification is an important one and that of being self taught or having gone through a rigorous talim of some sort, naturally an element of teaching yourself exists even there but then you base your teaching of yourself on the talim that you have received previously. But today, particularly in the world of popular music, and let’s say the music of bands – a lot of young people like to say that they have not gone through any formal learning, they are self taught or would like to learn a little bit of classical music because (a) it gives you a certain credibility – supposedly- and (b) because they feel, they are becoming successful now, and therefore they should do something to prime up their understanding of the subject. But I

163 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 think for me the one basic classification is – and that leads to further classification – when you listen to a voice, immediately you start saying, “Okay, I think this person is from this tradition or from this particular style of singing” and that’s because of the talim they have received or in certain cases I would say even the exposure. You listen to a jhoda being sung in Kumaon and you may not understand the language at all but you immediately have a feeling that it sounds like Pahadi. Why do you have such feeling? This is because there are certain associations that we have formed but I think it’s that constant exposure and further disciplined study of a particular system or tradition that would be the basis of one classification of this self-taught artistes and those who have gone through some system of training. Dr. Ashok Ranade - My additional intention to probe this question further is that I feel we have been classifying voices on the dimension of pitch range. Now it is possible to have timber as the main dimension of voice. It is due to timber that instruments and voices become more effective and evocative. In earlier days, in the absence of any amplification system it was not possible to communicate the timbre. Therefore we used to have a thumb rule that higher pitch is better, so that even the last man can hear. But now perhaps we have to change. We have not only enclosed spaces but we have also very sensitive equipments, which can carry the nuances of your voice to others, and in that case we need some voice classification which does not entirely depend on the pitch range that one can traverse. We have been told all the time about tristhana - we are all aware of the tradition - but I think this needs now looking deeper into and world over people are grappling with the problem of how to give entire quality of voice to the listener. It was not possible to analyze timber in greater details before but now it is possible and that’s why I feel that this dimension needs to be looked into. Mr. Uday Bhawalkar - I also feel that one should avoid the microphones, especially for a small concert so that people can hear the timber of your voice. Dr. Ashok Ranade - That is what I am saying. If your voice is your medium then it has to be carried as it is, as far as possible. Now we are using pitch because we think that gives us a classification. When somebody questions you about your key (patti), does that mean your voice is being judged? No. You are judging the pitch range, that’s all. There is a further concept which is called tasir, and which perhaps is nearer to tessitura. This means that in certain pitch range your voice has a very special quality of luster and that

164 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Vocal Music should be emphasized in the voice, and music which that voice projects should be of that kind, with that vocal quality coming across very clearly. I think these are the problems which we will have to study in voice and now the conditions are favourable for further study as well as use of voice in nuances. Mrs. Shubha Mudgal - Next question - Over the last few decades, do you perceive any changes in the voice-use of Indian musicians? Of course the effect of amplification is all too evident and I don’t think we need to repeat that. I would also like to say that in the context of popular music in particular, there is a tendency to look at non-Indian influences, some times only to the effect of being imitative and actually trying to mimic. For example, a lot of songs you hear today carry the unmistakable stamp of a very basic influence of middle-eastern music. Very often you hear traces of those sounds in the voices of play back singers. Earlier composers, I feel were using more forms like – for example Madan Mohanji’s songs definitely used the idiom of very beautifully. Today that idiom does not remain as popular with composers, possibly because many of them are not familiar with either the poetics or the literature, or with the song form that emerges from the reciting of that poetry. Today a lot of music is dependent upon let’s say hip hop and other forms of music. Therefore a lot of singers in India are trying to sound like very successful singers from outside India. I remember meeting a very successful current play back singer who sings beautifully. We met informally and we sang a little to each other. She said that she would like to sing a Whitney Houston song for me. This was to show her familiarity with the techniques used there and also her ability to sing that song. I would say it was more of a mimicking, a very good mimicking and perhaps the first step towards really trying to adapt that for Indian film music. A large part of their listening consists of music from outside India, especially the popular music, which is quite evident in the songs that are emerging today in the Indian film music and popular music. Mr. Uday Bhawalkar - I think the tanpura and our raga music give us liberty to tune the voice as we wish. I am in favour of not really sticking to a particular pitch. One has to feel the voice quality at that particular time, that particular day. I have realized that human voice changes every 5 to 7 years. And as it changes, it brings different qualities to music. Of course the microphone in today’s world is definitely playing a role because some musicians, if heard without microphone, sound very different. We have to look within ourselves,

165 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 what we are doing to ourselves. Are we honest with our singing or are we really playing for people? One has to really think about it. Dr. Ashok Ranade - The question is, do you feel that over the years Indian musicians have changed their voice? Mr. Uday Bhawalkar - I am too young to reply that because I haven’t been around that long. But I definitely feel that I see changes in myself, in my voice. Dr. Ashok Ranade - What a kind way of suggesting that we are old and he is young! Mrs. Aruna Sairam - I certainly feel the use of voice has changed. Of course, there are several factors: the mike, the spaces, the audiences, the auditoria and the technical developments. In the middle of all this, I find that everything needs a certain time of gestation by which time you arrive at some kind of credible level of delivery. As Shubhaji said, the pop singers have another trajectory and they follow that – not much talim but with studio techniques they can deliver things. But I think classical and folk musicians need to spend more time working on these things because somewhere there is a drop in the efforts put into these practices. That is why the voices are changing. For example, I hear a lot of young Carnatic vocalists today and they are good singers. Every voice sings but each voice has to say something different aside from singing, and that’s not happening. One is sounding like the other. There is no individuality that is being tapped and made to flower. I think we need to address this and find out what we can do under the modern living conditions with the absence of Guru-shishya-parampara. The next question is; which Indian or non-Indian vocalists’ voices have impressed you? Why? Very difficult question! I would say very often you listen to a voice and you also get used to it. In that sense my Guru Brindamma would definitely be my first favourite. I am very touched by M. S. Subbulaxmi amma’s voice. Here I can be a little more objective. I can take a distance and tell you why I like her voice beyond it being technically an excellent voice, very powerful, very melodious – all of those things – that voice could convey something beyond music itself. It gives you an experience of being in the presence of something that is permanent and ethereal. Your sense of time and space blurs during that time and so you are also able to take those impressions along with you when you leave that music and go and do something else. For me, that would be a great voice. 166 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Vocal Music On the international scene, I am deeply moved by Maria Callas’ voice. She is, so they say, so far unsurpassed diva of opera music. Aside from all that divaness her voice has that incredible quality. I must tell you something about the character of these great artistes. I have seen a video where somebody is interviewing Maria Callas in the green room and she is very confident, wonderful looking lady, talking impeccable English and saying things that she has to. Then the camera follows her and she is in the space between the stage and the green room, and the camera looks at her and suddenly she leaves all the rest of her persona behind and just closes her eyes and becomes like a child as though she does not know anything, that she doesn’t know what she is going to sing and then she comes on the stage and sings her first note. You can follow that video and you can see that this is something really divine – that experience. My favourites are these great artistes. Mr. Uday Bhawalkar - It is difficult to answer this question because there are so many beautiful voices in this world and the different qualities cannot be compared with each other. When I hear Lata Mangeshkarji, the first thing that strikes me is tunefulness. When I hear Sahiba, I sense kashish and dard (compelling voice with pathos), and that is what touches me. I am also touched by the knowledge (vidya) of Bade Dagar brothers- Mohinuddin and Aminuddin Saheb, the tranquil (sukun) of Amir Khan Saheb’s music, freshness (tazgi) of ’s voice, Bhimsenji’s breath control and strength (dam – taqat), the aura (tej) and intellect (buddhimatta) in Kishoriji’s voice. Shubhaji, I am also very fond of your voice. Dr. Ashok Ranade - In spite of being very young, he has given a very elaborate answer! Mrs. Shubha Mudgal - The list of great names one has listened to and I continue to be inspired by them, of course is very long. For example, Siddheshwari Deviji and Kesarbai Kerkarji. Uday, you mentioned that you listen to a lot of Amir Khan Saheb and you said that there is a sense of repose. Of course there is repose but also there is a deep sense of melancholy without it becoming over sentimental. I think that really strikes me. There is a sense of – it’s not grief – it is just a grand majestic sense of melancholy that often strikes me when I listen to Amir Khan Saheb. If there is one voice that I feel – that one singer who knew his voice so thoroughly – that he could do anything with it, was Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Saheb. Here was one voice that could create long sweeping majestic stroke and also do

167 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 butterflies with the voice. That in itself is so amazing and could do so in mid momentum. Here would be the zipping lightening speed tan and suddenly it would turn into a grand majestic river like – it was amazing what could be done with that voice. There is nothing in my singing that I could say belongs to Patiala and yet, I listen constantly to Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Saheb. There is nothing that I can mimic because I can’t do it. At the same time, as a kind of impetus to try more things with the voice, to try and learn more about my voice, I listen to him constantly. Speaking of good voices, I think the voice of Ulhas Kashalkarji is wonderful. It is not a self-conscious voice. He has understood his voice very well and uses it, bringing to it all the good points of a great talim and yet also the comfort and fluency that comes from years of training and years of , which is quite brilliant. I know when I first heard Veena Sahasrabuddheji I was just bowled over by the sheer luster of the voice. I thought that the radiance in the voice was amazing. Today when I hear younger voices, let’s say Manjusha Kulkarni Patil, I think that’s a brilliant voice and also there is a sense of fun and enjoying the music. Very often a lot of us get tied down to the grammar, the rules and regulations. With Manjusha’s voice you can see the enjoyment and hear the enjoyment. Even if I was blind and was listening to her I would still be able to hear the sense of enjoyment. I think those are some of the voices that I have really enjoyed. Shankar Mahadevanji is again one whose voice I have enjoyed in popular music. I would really like to listen to people like Ela Fitszerald for the kind of expressive quality and virtuosity that they are able to bring. I mean that’s a completely different tradition and I know if I try to imitate, I would be making a drastic mistake. But then again it’s a form of music and it’s the voice that really excites and interests me. Even ; here’s this grainy textured voice that everyone perhaps in India would have said is a non-musical voice and yet there’s so much gorgeous music coming out of it. I think there is too much to choose from Dr. Ranade, and this is one of the most difficult questions put to us. Mrs. Aruna Sairam - Putting us in a spot! Dr. Ashok Ranade - We have 15 minutes of questions from the audience and please direct your question to a particular speaker and let us have brief questions and longer answers. Mr. Sanjiv Chimmalgi - My question is to both Shubha didi and Arunaji. It is pertaining to amplification – the changes that amplification has brought about in presentation of voice and ambience. Are you able to create the 168 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Vocal Music same ambience that you are able to create with a tanpura at home and on stage? Mrs. Shubha Mudgal - I don’t really go for creating ambiences of any sort. I feel that ambience is something in which I have to create music. It could be something that helps me create the music and sometime it could be something that doesn’t help me create the music, and yes, when I tune the and sit down to sing, for me there are variables. I may have a bad cold on one day and therefore I may not be able to do things with my voice which I would perhaps otherwise have liked to do. But other than that I’m able to settle down in the same way in any situation, and that’s what I try to do with as much sincerity as possible. At times it is possible and at times it hasn’t been possible. Mr. Sanjiv Chimmalgi - Does amplification affect creating what you want. Mrs. Shubha Mudgal - If it is bad amplification it can become an irritant. Let’s say if you have something feeding back constantly then it can be a problem. But over the years I think I have become a little more tolerant. Mrs. Aruna Sairam - I agree with Shubhaji. The only thing I would do is, wherever possible spend time doing a thorough sound check. Once you do a sound check and you know the tanpura is heard well enough, the PA system and the monitor is reasonably balanced – 9 out of 10 times, you are able to create that space where you would sing, as you would sing normally. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - I want to ask all the panelists whether you feel singers are some times forced to type cast their voices. In a sense, if it is a sad song then you have to deliver it through a particular manner and you have to project your voice in a particular manner because that becomes the accepted formula, not only in popular music but even otherwise. Of course Uday said that dhrupad doesn’t need to have a typical voice. But I know for instance that musicians often say that for thumri one needs a particular kind of voice, for khayal another kind of voice and so on. Or even gharana wise – so and so gharana should have this kind of voice etc. Mr. Uday Bhawalkar - I feel that when you sing a composition, of course there is the text and its meaning, and one has to deal with that. The lyrics will have to be rendered with appropriate meaning and bhav. This will surely bring in the aspect in voice that you are referring to.

169 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Dr. Wim van der Meer - This is a question to all the panelists. In Europe the sound engineers of the auditoria constantly complain that Indian musicians in general but certainly the singers want a lot of echo in their music. As the engineers generally don’t like it, there is a fight to find some in-between solution. I would like to hear your reaction to this. Mrs. Shubha Mudgal - At least for me, it’s a given fact that I would like to convey some preferences to the audio engineer. But I think the work of the audio engineer is best understood by him or her and I would leave that to them. In addition, for me a lot of the spaces are new so I would not even dream of telling them to add reverb because I think each space has its own natural reverb. The ideal situation would be where I could comfortably rely on the audio engineer to guide me as to how the best sound could be cre- ated. Having said that, I also feel that unfortunately very often people believe that because we are coming from India we will make those demands as you have stated, we may be seen as not knowing enough about the technology to be able to say what we want. One very big problem in singing or performing outside India is that people – and it is also a problem in India with audio engineers – a lot of audio engineers - the role of the tanpura is completely misunderstood. So when we say I need to hear the tanpura myself and the audience too must hear the tanpura because that is the basic canvas on which I am going to do a lot of work, they feel it’s an irritating buzz and I know that they feel it is okay to give it in the monitor but not keep it outside. Or even in the monitor it will be a metallic hiss rather than the beautiful mellow enveloping sound that we want it to be. I think it is more a question of being unable to communicate and yes certain types of preconceived notions having been formed. Personally I would never tell an expert in that field that this is what I demand. I would rather say that this is what I would request and since you know the space and the equipment better, help me create what I want. Mr. Uday Bhawalkar - There are varied situations in which we perform concerts in India and abroad. I am happier to perform without amplification. If you can hear, I would not really like to use amplification. I feel that it is our responsibility, our duty to train people to listen without the amplification. When I perform for a large audience where amplification is provided, I make sure that I can hear the tanpura and sometimes may request for a little reverb to give body to the atmosphere.

170 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Vocal Music Mrs. Aruna Sairam - I would say it is the question of spending enough time. Firstly, when I get to a place – let’s say abroad – if you are having enough time you go there well in advance and take time to do things gently and slowly – the sound engineer tries to listen first – in fact very often I have had teams of sound engineers – they tell you to play for about 15 minutes, so that they can just listen. I love when they do that because they try to know the relative roles of the different performers- who is interacting with whom and many more. When they do that, there is really very little necessity to say much and one understands the other just by the look or by a glance and things really work well. As persons you need to have respect for each other and try to make that connection but you need time and the right kind of attitude. Mr. Prakash Burde - With the onslaught of TV and other media, when the music has become more visual than what one would like to, and with severe competition, even the youngsters try to copy, duplicate their voices – sort of play back singers of the day – where do the changing aesthetic norms and vocal music stand? Mrs. Shubha Mudgal - On television we are seeing only a certain kind of music. Television is not representing any other kind of music but film music and popular music. I think that’s only one kind of music we are talking about. Yes, the element of showbiz has come in. I have said this earlier also that even the terms that we use for music as being part of the music industry – we don’t really call it art, it comes under the categorization of entertainment and music industry. I think we all know – everybody who is here - that art need not be always entertaining. The aesthetics are changing not only among the performers but in society itself and so also the perception of what the arts mean to us as a society. It’s a highly complex situation. If at all, the performing arts are being taught merely as a leisure activity for children, that too up to a certain age. Our schools have decided to do away - despite the recommendations in 2005 by NCRT, which was accepted later by the Central Advisory Board for Education - that arts education must become an integral part of mainstream school education. The recommendation has been made but it is a reflection on our society that it has not been implemented as yet and nobody has made the demand as yet. Mr. Uday Bhawalkar - I feel the percentage of people watching music on television is still very low. Most people prefer to hear music while they also work, whether they are driving or reading a book. I think the percentage of

171 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 people who would like to sit for two hours in front of the television is very low. Mrs. Aruna Sairam - I notice that children are expected to achieve so much and I feel that’s not right because children should be children! Of course they have to work but the pushing and pressure to excel in every competition on the TV etc. is not a very good trend. It can distort the way the growth happens. That’s how singers start emulating somebody, because someone else is very successful. So you sing like them, sing that piece in the same style, so you win those several lakhs in prizes. I think the whole trend may not be very conducive for developing and being a breeding ground for artistes or even for happy individuals for that matter, even if we were to forget about art – but even to have same contented individuals there is hardly any atmosphere. Dr. Ashok Ranade - I thank the panelists and the audience for patient listening and patient explanations. The panelists were all the time declaring to the world that the questions are difficult and then going lyrical about answers. That shows that I asked the right questions! Thank you very much.

172 Changing Aesthetic Norms Instrumental Music – Role of Instruments

Moderator: Mr. Arvind Parikh Panelists: • Pt. Shivkumar Sharma • Chitravina N. Ravikiran • Dr. Aneesh Pradhan • Prof. Joep Bor Questions Physical

Over the years the art of instrument making seems to have remained traditionally static. Do you agree? If so, what do you think can be done to improve the techniques of instrument making? It is believed that innovations/improvements affected in musical instruments have enabled musicians to express themselves more effectively. Do you think further research would be beneficial? If so, indicate areas and what steps need to be taken. Just as harmonium has replaced tanpura for accompaniment to Hindustani system musicians, electronic instruments like tanpura and many more, have replaced regular tanpuras especially in relation to instrumental music. There is a school of thought, which strongly objects to use of electronic instruments. What are your views?

Stylistic

Content and expression are two dimensions of any music recital. It appears that musicians seem to be focusing increasingly on expression at the cost of content with a view to cater to popular taste which is hungry for entertainment, thrill and excitement – the result is loud music, fast music and sensational bouts. Do you think it is the responsibility of senior musicians to give to the public what they should want rather than giving whatever they want? Both the Hindustani and Carnatic systems of music have developed excellent performing techniques relating to instrumental music. Do you think each system has something to learn from each other? If so, what can be done?

173 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Do instrumentalists need todeviate more and more from vocal/gayaki style to establish their individuality or do they need to get closer to vocal style to cater to audiences who prefer vocal music? Whatsignificance does spur of the momentjamming fusion sessions have as opposed to serious, well planned and rehearsedcollaborations with top class artistes? Why are instrumentalists of thenext generation veering more and more towards the former?

Rhythms

What are the changes that have taken place in the field of tabla playing with respect to the following? • Vocabulary and tonal quality • Accompaniment • Solo • Performance strategies vis-à-vis changes in technology (recording, amplification, digital samples) • Percussion ensembles Mr. Arvind Parikh - We have already had a brilliant session on the role of voice. Now we come to the role of instruments. I don’t have to say more about the panelists, they are all very well-known people and I am indeed grateful to all of them for agreeing to join us on this panel. The questions have been distributed earlier. What we have tried to do is to divide the questions for instruments in a slightly different manner. We have started with the physical aspects of instruments and then the stylistic aspect. In physical aspects we have three questions and I would take the liberty of combining question numbers 1 and 2 to save time. Question: Over the years the art of instrument making seems to have remained traditionally static. Do you agree? If so, what do you think can be done to improve the techniques of instrument making? The next question which is related - It is believed that innovations/improvements affected in musical instruments have enabled musicians to express themselves more effectively. Do you think further research would be beneficial? If so, indicate areas and what steps need to be taken? Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - I feel that these two questions are contradictory. Because in the second question we are saying that improvements have been

174 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Instrumental Music made to instruments and in the first question we are making a statement that they have remained static. I think that instrument making does not take place in a vacuum. I believe that instrument making is a collaborative process between the instrument maker and the musician and there is a lot of give and take. Unfortunately, in our society among musicians, we often don’t acknowledge the instrument maker. But it is a collaborative process and instruments have been changing. The best example is Pandit Shivkumar Sharmaji’s santoor - what he has been able to do with that instrument over all these decades. In the case of tabla, I can say that definitely there have been changes. Of course, the vertical placement of the tabla more or less is the same. Earlier you had bigger faced , you had different kinds of wood. Today, there is a problem of government permissions for khair wood, so you can’t fell khair trees, and have to go for the next best which is shisam. Some people prefer shisam because they like that quality of sound. A master craftsman told me that when tablas are mass produced every part of the goat skin is used but the master craftsman will only choose probably 4 to 6 parts of the goat skin from particular parts of the body, because that is the best quality of the skin. This kind of research has taken place but instrument makers don’t necessarily articulate them and we don’t document those either. Definitely there have been changes. Mr. Chitravina Ravikiran - I would actually say that things have changed partially and there is definitely scope for lot more scientific approach. Now there are certain changes that we keep seeing – some of them just could be cosmetic and as Aneeshji said for instance, if ivory is not available they replace it with plastic. These kinds of changes are happening. But if you are talking about design, there are certain areas which I still feel have a lot of scope to improve. If we were to look at it from a scientific sense of size versus output, if we were to measure the efficiency of an instrument in terms of just volume as the size versus output ratio, I would definitely say there are several instruments which are not optimized for efficiency. A small sized violin, as I felt in my own concert before I really resorted to contact mike, could outdo the sound just by volume. A violin could be much louder than a huge chitravina which I used to play, which was almost twice the size, and I personally used to keep wondering what the scientific basis was. In those days when it was all chamber instruments, the vina was absolutely fine. People could hear the nuances but when I started playing for larger audiences they would only hear the highlights of what I was playing and not

175 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 all the details. They would of course see that somebody is trying sincerely and applaud out of sympathy and empathy for what the artiste was trying rather than for the quality of entire musical output. This was definitely a problem with the design and I personally used to think that even the fretted vina which was huge, did not have the kind of a matching output in terms of volume. I think this is definitely something that people from IITs and other places really have to start looking at more seriously at a designing level and at a material level. Recently we started using contact mikes and other kinds of amplifying gadgets, and people have been modifying instruments. I think the great Vina Balachander was a fantastic artiste who really studied the instrument design. He made a lot of internal changes in the design inside vina, which he would not share of course, but those were known to people who were very closely associated with him. He really brought a lot of changes that enabled him to pull the strings without bending the wood too much. He actually reinforced the stem with steel inside so that even when he would pull the strings they could withstand a pitch range of one octave. We even saw people like violin maestro Chowdaiyya who tried to have a violin with seven strings instead of four, especially for accompaniment. There was a time when he even tried using twelve resonance strings and as a result he had a nineteen stringed violin at a point. Of course, he gave it up later on. I think that even today we do keep changing. Sir C. V. Raman, the great physicist studied the mrdangam for various acoustic properties and qualities. Today we see a lot of fiberglass mrdangams or instruments where tuning has improved, for instance with a lot of nut and bolt kind of systems. Whether all these changes are desirable or not, only time can tell. Changes are happening but there is still a lot of scope for improvement in several areas. Prof. Joep Bor - Let’s go a little back in the history. I think if we go back in the previous century, I mean the 19th century – 20th century, a lot of experimentation was done with instruments. I am talking about Hindustani music – all the instruments like sitar became much larger with much wider neck. At the beginning of the 19th century it was really a small instrument as we know. Sarod was the same. Sarangi too became much bigger. It was a small instrument in size and in that period you could see that they tried to put as many sympathetic strings as possible on these instruments. All kinds of new instruments were developed. Many of them were popular, may be for a few decades like , and so many others that we don’t see any more. Therefore

176 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Instrumental Music I think, in Indian music a lot of experimentation and modification has been done and I agree that many great masters have been modifying their instruments to suit their own taste, their own sound or timber. I think a lot of experiments are going on in this field. I think the musicians themselves are the researchers. May be we don’t have in India specialized instrument builders like specialized violin makers or guitar makers you have in the West – I don’t know about that. But I think yes, research is always good. Mr. Shivkumar Sharma - Instrument making, as Aneesh said, is not an activity of one person, either instrument maker or the musician. It’s a collaboration of both. Sometimes it could be the instrument maker who comes up with an idea for something different or the musician who has got some idea in mind. They need to have some equation with each other so that they can discuss things and incorporate new things. This has been happening in India with all the different instruments. What we are actually discussing is the tonal quality, the range and the expression. Musicians with different kinds of instruments have been trying to find out answers. To get a proper sound from any instrument, whether it is tabla, mrdangam or any stringed instrument, bansuri or whatever, one has to remember that only instrument doesn’t create the sound, no matter how good the instrument is. If somebody gives me Ustad Saheb’s , I will not be able to create the melody which he used to create. When we say that a particular instrument maker makes very good instruments, it is not only the instrument but also the performer, because ultimately he/she creates the sound. Even the tuning of the instrument differs with musicians. One musician might tune a tanpura but another may need to alter it a bit according to his perception. These are very sensitive matters. I think what we are looking is the tonal quality. When we see sitar, sarangi or sarod, we realize how the great masters of the previous centuries and afterwards their shishyas or sons have improved the tonal quality and the expression of these instruments. They have added something different to that instrument which was never tried earlier. So it’s a combination of the instrument and the instrument maker. I would like to raise here the problem of temperature variation with respect to Indian instruments. Most of the Indian made instruments are affected by the temperature difference and go out of tune. Unfortunately in India we don’t have proper auditoria with central air-conditioning so that you have the same temperature in the green room and on the stage. This is not the

177 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 case with instruments made in the foreign countries. This is one area where we need better research. Now I will talk about my instrument. I have seen that santoor is a very sensitive instrument with very many strings to be tuned, and again it depends on what kind of wood and strings are used, what gauge of strings are used and many more. I have seen from Iran and Kazakhstan don’t go so much out of tune with the variation in temperature. They are made better. This is one area where musicians, instrument makers and engineers from IIT should get together and find some solution. Mr. Chitravina Ravikiran - I agree that many of our instruments are sensitive to not only temperature but also humidity. Many times the dryness or moisture can really affect. One thing which I did recently was to try to design my chitravina in a slightly different manner and we tried different materials from maple to teak. Now we have made some instruments with teak wood, which to me seems more stable than many others that I used to make before with other kinds of woods. The other problem is the approach of the instrument makers in India. Since many of them come from traditional backgrounds, they tend to have a mind set that remains unchanged over centuries. There is no exact science. If they make even 20 instruments, one of them could be outstanding and the rest could be mediocre, some could be even useless. It’s more like a lottery that you make about 20 to get one right! It is all like a hit and trial method. I think if they get more literate about certain physical areas of science, acoustic science and material properties for not only choosing the wood but also treating the wood, it would yield better results. At this stage it is being done much more at the instinctive level. A little more intellectual approach needs to be blended into that. In addition, we need more research and literature on this subject. Mr. Arvind Parikh - I am reminded of a seminar that we had held in 1993 on Instrument makers, and in which one gentleman asked as to why in Miraj very good tanpuras are made while good are made in Kolkata. There was an old gentleman from Miraj who gave a very practical reply, which supports what our friends have said here. He informed that in Miraj area there are many vocalists and therefore the instrument makers are able to interact with these vocalists and understand what they look for in a tanpura. On Kolkata side there have been lot of sitar players and therefore naturally the instrument makers catered to what their requirements were. So the 178 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Instrumental Music interaction between the player and the maker is very relevant. In that seminar one very interesting suggestion was made – that some part of instrument could be machine made. If that is possible then there would be more standardization and not a trial and error kind of a situation. I was just telling Shivji that the instrument makers of the artistes and the instrument makers from the South and the North should get together to resolve such issues. Mr. Chitravina Ravikiran - They can even interact with people from IIT and such other places. Mr. Shivkumar Sharma - Scientific inputs should be brought into this. Mr. Chitravina Ravikiran - Material science input would be valuable. Mr. Arvind Parikh - We can go ahead with the next question. Just as harmonium has replaced sarangi for accompaniment in Hindustani system, electronic instruments like tanpura etc., have replaced regular tanpuras, especially in relation to instrumental music. There is a school of thought which strongly objects to the use of electronic instruments. What are your views? Mr. Shivkumar Sharma - I think with the changing of times things also change to adopt that which is convenient. There was a time when musicians were not traveling from Punjab to Bengal and if they did, they stayed at a place for months. Now times have changed. Today, musicians are one day in Mumbai and other day may be in Mombasa. It’s impractical to carry along big tanpuras. This was the necessity which created the substitute of tanpura- the . As far as my personal opinion is concerned, electronic instruments cannot replace acoustic instruments. That cannot be done – we cannot get that sound. But then we have to compromise at certain stages. This question should be answered by vocalists who need tanpuras very prominently as compared to the instrument players. Vocalists use bigger tanpuras and the instrumentalists use smaller tanpuras made of wood, often called tanpuri. This is used for sitar, sarod and other instruments. This was another innovation in the tanpura, which was lighter to carry, easier to maintain – no fear of breaking the gourd while traveling and many more. This was an innovation for perhaps those musicians who were traveling all over the globe. These things keep changing according to the needs of the society, of the times and the places where we perform.

179 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 I was hearing in the earlier session one vocalist say that he prefers not to have any amplification. There was a time when there was no amplification and vocalists had different kind of voice quality. At places like Jalandhar Harvallabh Mela with 3000 people in the audience, the artistes had to reach out to the person sitting at the end. Things changed with amplification and microphone, and vocalists had to adjust their style of singing according to the requirement of the microphones. Had there been no microphones, I don’t think we could have played to such a big audience as it is happening today. So according to the changing times, things change. In place of acoustic tanpuras we have electronic tanpuras. Now it has become an inseparable part. There is another thing called electronic tabla and God Bless us the time never comes when we keep the electronic tabla on the stage to accompany us! But it is useful to some extent for students to practice at home. As far as electronic tanpura is concerned, it is sad that it is replacing our original acoustic tanpura. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - I think some musicians now are also using the real tanpura sample and put it on I-pods and then feed it on to the monitors and outside speakers. I think this is a better way when you are traveling. Am I right Ravikiranji? Mr. Chitravina Ravikiran - Yes I do know that a lot of musicians are having it on I-pods, CDs, etc. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - Some people even have laptops. Mr. Chitravina Ravikiran - Some of them also use ear phones straight into their ears. But I think as Shivji said, it is more a function of the time and space that we are in today. I think it has a lot to do with organizers themselves, because many of them prefer traditional type of concerts of the 1930’s, 1940’s and they are so traditional that they would like the original tanpura. By the way, they are also traditional where budget is concerned and in the same budget they would like the whole package! It is becoming a big luxury as far as taking physically a person or two people to actually play tanpura and carry that extra baggage in the aircraft. All these kinds of things come into play in the practical sense. I personally have certain views on this but as Shivji said; it is very good for practice because we are not dependent on physically having somebody come all the time when we practice. Nowadays our students are busier than us - by a few hundred folds - so for us to expect them to actually be there when we practice is impractical. Secondly, the artiste may like to control the tanpura sound, like if I am playing 180 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Instrumental Music alapana I would like the tanpura sound to be at a specific volume and if I am actually beginning a composition with percussion then I would like the volume to be different. If I am singing something in a lower octave I would not like it to be as loud as I would like it to be if it is in the higher octave. If it is a vocal concert, I would actually be fiddling with the knob of the tanpura when I am singing. So these things no one else can do as well as the artistes themselves. For instrumentalists, volume control is one thing; second thing is the tuning itself. Many of these instruments are so sensitive to temperature and humidity changes that most of the time the tanpura artiste keeps playing abacus with the fine tuning of the instrument. If they cannot do it – there is no point in having 2 / 3 tanpuras on the stage, each one at war with the other. It is very nice to look at it but actually if you hear the sound – I’ve actually gone to concerts where I look at 3 beautiful gorgeous tanpuras played by even more gorgeous people but the sound is something that we cannot cope with. The mrdangam and the tabla artistes do not know which tanpura to tune to. All these practical issues come into play and I think in this context the electronic instruments are more suitable, provided they are well designed with as close approximation to the natural sound. Some of them are really very artificial sounding but a few are actually getting closer to the original sound. I-pod doesn’t give us the flexibility to fine tune in case our instruments get slightly higher or lower. The same goes for vocalists - if they want it to be a notch this or that way, it’s inflexible. I think in this regard the electronic tanpura is a better option. Prof. Joep Bor - Let me take an approach from another angle. I have been hearing concerts – changes are happening and this is just a fact of life. But may be the great Indian musicians should also do a little research, in the sense that they ask the audiences what do they like. It has been said that electronic tanpura cannot play or replace an acoustic tanpura. For obvious reasons, tanpura is one of the great inventions in Indian music. The musicians should also consider what the audiences want. I know that many audiences dislike the electronic gadgets on the stage, as they cannot replace the sound of the acoustic tanpura. Of course, traveling with huge instruments is an incredible headache. It is also possible for the organizers to provide good tanpuras. For example, if you perform in London, Paris or Amsterdam, there is no doubt that there are some very professional tanpuras around in good conditions. This is my suggestion.

181 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Mr. Chitravina Ravikiran - It is not only the tanpura, the players has to be really musically sensitive. They should really be in tune with music and with the basic tuning. Many of them are not. If you give a well tuned tanpura they will actually spoil it in no time with the way they actually pluck the strings. You know that it is an art. Unless you keep your fingers parallel to the string and pluck you won’t even get the right sound. Many of them keep it perpendicular. They actually pluck it like plucking an apple! Prof. Joep Bor - People should bring their own tanpura player. Mr. Chitravina Ravikiran - I am all for it if the budget allows it. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - Even in India very often we don’t get good tanpuras. In some towns if you ask for let’s say kali ek tanpura, you don’t get them. Then they get what they think is the best in town and then you have to make do with that. Therefore many musicians are forced to carry their own tanpura. Like Mr. Girish Patel had made flat tanpuras. Rikhi Ram and several other instrument makers have done that as well. But that is a compromise that we have to make. Mr. Shivkumar Sharma - These days there is a problem of security as well. Sometimes they think you are carrying a gun and you are asked to put it in the x-ray machine. Mr. Arvind Parikh - Now we will take questions based on stylistic aspects. Content and expression are two dimensions of any music recital. It appears that musicians seem to increasingly focus on the expression at the cost of content with a view to cater to popular taste, which is hungry for entertainment, thrill and excitement. The result is loud, fast and sensational bouts. Do you think it is the responsibility of senior musicians to give to the public what they should want rather than giving whatever they want? Mr. Shivkumar Sharma - For so long I have been hearing the debate on content versus expression. What is music after all? Music or any art form is an expression of human emotions and ragadari system is one aspect of that. I don’t think our musicians should get stuck in the content and flog at the expression or vice versa. They are both equally important. There is a tendency these days to always criticize faster paced music or sometimes what we call sawal-jawab. I don’t understand this. What was happening in the 19th century? There was a term used – ladhant and we have heard the recordings of great musicians of that time indulging in ladhant for half an hour or even more. I have discussed this matter with great musicians and

182 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Instrumental Music once I was talking to Pandit Kishan Maharajji about this. He told me about the conversation with his father Baba Kanthe Maharajji. Apparently, Kishan Maharajji asked his father, “When you do the ladhant what happens to the sound?” The senior maestro responded, “When we are in the war zone, first we fight with guns then the hand to hand fight, and finally slaps, and some times you forget the sound!” What I mean to say here is that there is nothing new that the young musicians are doing. It has been happening all the time. In fact, may be it is less now. So what are we talking about – speed and showmanship – it was all happening in the 19th century. Of course, at that time music was not available so much; on the stage, on the radio, on the television, in the festivals and so on. It was happening in small baithaks where only musicians were sitting and this was the core point. Some musicians would start a khayal or a composition and tabla player may be just sitting there and quietly guessing what tala it is. This kind of music was performed. In Punjab it was not called music concert it was called dangal. The Ustads would talk about the number of dangals they had won. All this has been happening. On the contrary I think, now it is more in a proper polished way and all kinds of expressions are coming back. What I mean to say is that the content should not be at the cost of expression and music cannot be only expression without any content. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - I agree entirely with Panditji and in fact I would go a step further. I don’t see difference between the two. There is no dichotomy. Your content determines what your expression is going to be. If I want to communicate a particular emotion, then I am going to express it in a particular manner. If I want to say something very softly, I am going to whisper and not shout. So my content is going to determine the expression. Sometimes we make a mistake of equating expression with technique, with speed, volume and gimmick. They are all different things. As I said, content and expression are not two different things. Mr. Chitravina Ravikiran - I agree with Shiv ji as well as Aneeshji to a large extent except for a couple of small riders here and there. It was quite true that there was a lot of ladhant and battles happening. Even in the South we have historical instances of great composers like being involved in a musical contest. It’s like a boxing ground. There used to be contests which are documented, with the results they are for all to see. It used to be quite popular. I think, even given that music had still a lot of

183 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 content when they were doing this kind of battles, they had quite a lot of vidwat (knowledge) and substance in their music. There are two things here. If the content is substance then the expression is style. If content is science, expression is the art. So I think there is a huge need for a good artiste to master the content in a very sound manner. I still remember a fantastic quote by Arvindji himself in one of the earlier conferences. Learn the technique, master the technique and then forget the technique. The content has to be really well internalized and there is lot of rigour and practice that goes into doing that. This has to be done and expression should not be an escape route for lack of content. That’s what we are trying to address in this particular question. When that happens, it needs to be critiqued and then we need to take a fresh look at things. Some times we are not talking of great masters but it is very easy for aspirants and younger artistes to shun the discipline and rigour of acquiring the content, internalizing it and then polishing it endlessly for getting expression. As long as expression is a product of serious content there is nothing to really worry about. Then comes the question of not only the content but also intent! What is the intent with which you are going to the stage? If you are going to the stage with the basic honesty and integrity to give the best content possible, then as Shivji said, there is everything already there in the content to entertain, educate and alleviate. So if you are just able to provide that honest music with good content and with good expression, I think, there is nothing to quibble about. But if that expression should be like a sort of an easy way out for lack of solid content then I think we are focusing more on the packaging rather than the actual product. That is what definitely would not be desirable in the artistic sense. Prof. Joep Bor - I totally agree with all the people here that the content is very much there in Indian music and looking at it more from a historical point of view, in Hindustani music enormous attention is given to the expression of the ragas in alap and all the different parts of alap, vistar and many more. That shows how much content there is. Mr. Arvind Parikh - I would go to the next question now - Both Hindustani and Carnatic systems of music have developed excellent performing techniques relating to instrumental music. Do you think each system has something to learn from each other? If so, what can be done?

184 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Instrumental Music Mr. Shivkumar Sharma - Of late, there has been a lot of collaboration happening between Hindustani and Carnatic systems. I think we should have another session here to define why North Indian music is called Hindustani music and South Indian music is called Carnatic music. Both are Hindustani! Collaboration always results in give and take – exchange of ideas – and we have seen ragas from the Carnatic system being adopted by Hindustani musicians and I think Ravi will tell us better if vice versa is happening. Many ragas have become integral part of Hindustani style of music. Perhaps this has happened more with the instrumentalists but also with the vocalists, especially with ragas such as Charukeshi and Hansadhwani etc. This exchange is already going on. As far as the technique is concerned, although basics of both the systems are based on raga, the expression is different. For example, a sitar player has a distinct expression as compared to that of a vina player from the South. This exchange could be tried out and experimented with. I think some musicians are already engaged in this kind of work. Mr. Chitravina Ravikiran - There has been a lot of interchange of ideas and cultural interactions for several centuries. The main reason has been that Maratha rulers had come to the South around 1500-1600 AD. Before them the Nayak Kings and so many others had come to Tanjore, which is well in the interior of Tamil Nadu. In fact a raga like Jaijaivanti was used by a composer of 1700 to1765 and he actually called it as Dwijavanti instead of Jaijaivanti. He also composed in ragas like Sindhu . We also know that Mutthuswami Dikshitar went to Varanasi and picked up lot of ragas and melodies from the North and composed traditional Carnatic in those ragas as well. These kinds of interactions have always been happening and of late as Shivji said, ragas like Charukeshi, , Simhendramadhyam and so many others from the South have also percolated to the North. I think at this level of interaction we only seem to take some ragas but not go beyond. For example, when raga Kirvani is played by Hindustani artiste, he brings his own concept of the idiom of the gamakas. Kirvani has now a highly Hindustani version which is very colourful and refreshing to listen to. That is what really keeps the two systems separate. Now for example raga Hamir kalyani or Kedar, when it is played by a Carnatic artiste the gamakas are very Carnaticised, so to speak. That makes it very colourful because it brings two distinct flavours to the same raga when you hear it even in a jugalbandi. That’s what really makes it good. So in that context if we keep the interactions and

185 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 learning processes to the level of just concepts and then keep the expression still highly distinct, that would be very healthy rather than trying to imitate each other. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - I think all of us have become so super specialized in our own instruments or vocal styles that we have lost the actual definition of sangit. The collaboration we used to have earlier between let’s say dancers, musicians, instrumentalists and vocalists, that is not happening today even within a single system of music. We have ceased to listen to each other. That is the problem I think. Second is, we have this notion that tabla player can only exchange ideas with mrdangam player. I have spent several hours with Aruna Sairamji, not because I wanted to know how to mathematically fit something but because we wanted to exchange ideas, because it was a concept about total musicality. I don’t think a tabla player needs to only think about tala, he has to think about raga also. Within Hindustani classical music if I am accompanying Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, I must be aware and open enough to take from that as well, not only the chhand aspect of what he is playing but even from his alap. I am trying to say that exchange works at many levels, if the musician is sensitive and open enough for doing that. Mr. Chitravina Ravikiran - I fully agree. It’s not merely spending time but also knowing when to have the exchange and to which point it could be carried to. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - Unfortunately today the exchange is mainly event based. The event manager decides to get currants from here and grapes from there and then put them together. Mr. Arvind Parikh - Before we take up the rhythmic aspect I would like to throw the floor open for questions, if there are any. Mr. Dharambir Singh - My question pertains to jugalbandi. Many times I have seen that there are some fundamental things about knowledge of the system that might take ten minutes to try and tell someone, but many musicians are not interested. There is something like a little switch that is required to understand each other’s systems opening up to exciting possibilities. I do not know what you think of it. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - For instance, in a tala kacheri with a tabla and pakhawaj, we are conditioned to use a naghma, whereas in the South they

186 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Instrumental Music use the clapping. Both are a little difficult to go together. I think, when two people from two different systems come together they need not necessarily play a piece from each other’s system. They can compose something different so that for them it becomes a challenge and even for the audience it becomes a challenge. Otherwise you are always falling back on traditional repertoire and you come with that baggage which becomes like two different things happening. Mr. Virani - I have a quick question for Aneeshji about his ideas of interaction between the Hindustani and Carnatic styles, particularly within the realm of tabla. I have seen recently a movement by tabla players to incorporate some of the more complicated rhythmic structures from Carnatic music and map them to the tabla language. But I have also seen a lot of resistance coming from the mind set that any innovation made in this manner will necessarily be a diversion from the traditional repertoire that we have inherited. There are of course arguments in both directions and I would be very happy to hear your input and experience. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan – Actually the tradition I have been trained in, has taught me that the poetry and the vocabulary of the instrument is of prime importance because that is what allows you to communicate an emotion and create a mood. So if there is a lack of that rich sophisticated vocabulary and everything boils down to just accents, then it doesn’t somehow interest me personally. It might interest some others. It is also not true that in traditional tabla repertoire there has been no layakari. It has been interwoven with the poetry of the instrument and that’s why people didn’t see. Like what most people believe, if tabla has indeed borrowed a lot from pakhawaj, it is interesting to note that the latter incorporated a lot of mathematics. So how is it that the tabla player took the bol part and not the mathematics? It is not possible. The tabla player; because he was accompanying a particular sort of music, say khayal or certain kind of instrumental music, thought of innovating in a different manner, and the tradition and the repertoire has evolved ac- cordingly. I mean just see the mathematics that is involved between the two hands. Today we see it as a composite – two drums. But if I was just to play a composition with left hand only, you would think there is some intricate mathematics going on and when I play with the right hand it will be something quite different. But when I play them together, it becomes poetry. For me the poetry is very important.

187 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Mrs. Prafulla Dahanukar - I refer to jugalbandi. I asked this question about 30 years ago to Ravishankarji when jugalbandi was the new thing happening. This was in Rang Bhavan, I still remember the place, and he was playing with Alla Rakhaji. In the end, for about five minutes they played a solid bout that was full of gimmicks and excitement. When I met him I asked him, “Panditji why do you do this?” You know what his answer was? He said, “Prafulla, for one hour and forty five minutes I played for you but the last five minutes, I played for the audience who loves this. Do you have any objection for this? Why should you have objection for this? This was his answer. Mr. Shivkumar Sharma - May I just correct one thing? When tabla is played with some instrument or vocalist, we don’t call it jugalbandi, it is an accompaniment. Mrs. Prafulla Dahanukar - You mean even the concluding part that I referred to? Mr. Shivkumar Sharma - Let me put it on record that jugalbandi is between two instruments having the same character. Jugalbandi is when two melodic instruments or two vocalists play together. There could also be a jugalbandi between tabla, mrdangam, pakhawaj or any . When a tabla player plays with an instrumentalist or vocalist, it is not a jugalbandi, he is merely accompanying. It is a different matter that he starts playing too much and that becomes a jugalbandi. I will come to it afterwards. Mr. Arvind Parikh - We will now go on to the questions on rhythms. What are the changes that have taken place in the field of tabla performance with respect to vocabulary and tonal quality? Have there been any new discernible trends in the recent past? Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - There are quite a few reasons for those changes. One is amplification and the other is change in the physical structure of the instrument. We have a smaller size tabla that has a smaller face and higher pitch. The tabla players today are not incorporating so much material influenced by the pakhawaj in their performance. Of course a sensitive tabla player will accompany according to the character of the main instrument. So, while accompanying santoor one will obviously not play like accompanying a sarod. But that is the individuality of the tabla player. I feel that a tabla player – and therefore when we are trained – it is preferred that we are trained in more than one gharana because there is a band baj and a khula baj. You have gharanas like Delhi, Ajrada, Lucknow, Farukabad, Punjab and Benaras. If you

188 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Instrumental Music have inherited compositions and styles from all these gharanas, then you are capable of playing with more than one musician or more than one instrument. The vocabulary today has changed to a certain extent. We have become more arranged in our performance. Tabla players very often have fixed chapters for accompanying the instrumentalists. Whatever may be the mood that has been created by the main performer, the tabla player seems to wait for his chance to launch into solo. Then of course, he/she ends with a superb climactic tihai. This is one area where there has been a change. But on the other hand, today the tabla accompaniment very often has become more spontaneous also. It depends on the tabla player. Earlier many tabla players would borrow material from traditional repertoire and rearrange it in a manner to suit the preceding melodic movement. Today it is not necessarily done like that. A good tabla player will maintain a balance of using traditional material as well as reacting spontaneously. Mr. Arvind Parikh - Aneesh, you have partially replied to the accompaniment part of the question. Ravikiranji, could you say something about the mrdangam with respect to its vocabulary and tonal quality? Mr. Chitravina Ravikiran - Mrdangam traditionally was much simpler until 1900 or so. But then they borrowed a lot of things from and from the South Indian . In more recent times, after interaction with tabla, the mrdangam players have picked up certain features of that as well. In that context the vocabulary is definitely different and I think there is no doubt that it has expanded considerably. As far as the tonal quality is concerned, it is predominantly the same over the years except that stylistically different artistes have different kinds of fingering, and therefore their tones could have distinct signatures, so to speak. As far as accompanying techniques are concerned, many of the traditional mrdangam players probably 100 years back were content in playing just to the beat, more like what the tabla is doing probably in the context of keeping the time. But of late, probably even since 70/80 years, people like Palghat Mani Iyer and others started playing more dynamically. They would either follow the song itself if they knew certain sections of the actual composition and would play exactly, or in certain places they would actually blend in with the melody artiste to highlight and accent certain part of the composition. At other times they would actually play cross beats or cross rhythms or even change their gait. Suppose the main artiste is in chatasra jati, sometimes the 189 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 mrdangam players would play mishram or sankirnam in the same tala, just to give it a different kind of colour or flavour to it. Of late, those kinds of things have definitely expanded. Mr. Arvind Parikh - In the field of accompaniment, may be Shivji has some views. Mr. Shivkumar Sharma - Tabla has got two different roles – when we talk about tabla solo it is a complete subject in itself. To perform a solo tabla is like performing a vilambit & drut khayal in a raga. It has got its own language, poetry, system, which is very elaborate and that requires proper talim, riyaz and sadhana. Whereas tabla accompaniment is a totally different ball game. It’s not necessary that a great solo player could be an equally great tabla accompanist. I think it is more difficult to be a good accompanist. Of late, tabla has got more prominence. Those tabla players who know both are in demand because the whole concept of accompaniment, what we call sangat, has changed and very much evolved now. As Aneesh pointed out, a tabla player has not only to know tabla but should know all music. He should know the different gharanas and instrumental styles as well as individual styles of different instrumentalists. This is a very sensitive art form and requires a different kind of thinking and concept. The tabla player normally waits to launch himself when the instrumental gat starts. I have also seen this thing happening with me. I have explained the aesthetics to the tabla players who play with me, and they have changed their style of launching when the gat starts. A tabla player has to be one with the performer, whosoever he/she is. The tabla player has to be with a musician right from the first note, only then he/she can give proper accompaniment. Because it is not only playing theka, it is absorbing the whole music and being one with that instrumentalist and then performing together. One cannot just use elements like peshkar, kayda and paran that one has learnt without giving a thought to the style of the main artiste. Once somebody asked me, “What is the importance of tabla accompaniment in music?” I think it is like this. Suppose you are making a dish and you have got all the ingredients, all the masala but there is no salt in it, that dish becomes tasteless. That is the role of tabla. Tabla is so important. Somebody once asked me when I was in Holland, “Why do you give so much scope to your tabla players when you perform?” I said, “I enjoy both, when I am playing alap the tabla player is not playing with me. When I am playing gat I want to see what my tabla player has to offer and in which way he can inspire me.

190 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Instrumental Music Secondly, I am not jealous if the tabla player gets some applause!” What I mean to say, this salt is very important but in proper proportion. If you are making a dish which requires two kilos of ingredients, and if the tabla player says that his role is to put salt and puts two kilos of salt in this vegetable, the dish will become like a poison! So this is a very important thing to understand. Mr. Chitravina Ravikiran - I think what Shivji said is very true for mrdangam player or any accompanying percussionist. In the South, they say good Gurus tell their students that they have to pass through three stages of accompaniment; one is playing to the beat, to the tala – next is to play for the song and then be able to play for each individual musician. So, knowing each artiste’s style, instrument, acoustic properties and many more. and ac- companying accordingly is very important. As Aneeshji was saying, they wait to launch themselves. I want to narrate a funny incidence. For the maiden performance of a mrdangam player his parents managed to get a star artiste to sing. Right from the first song they asked the main artiste to give solo opportunity to him. Until about 4/5 songs this artiste was keeping quiet because of his friendship. However, after the sixth song he just burst out say- ing that the mrdangam player has been playing solo right from the first song while actually he is supposed to accompany the singer! I feel that they shouldn’t be waiting like coil springs to launch as soon as composition starts! Mr. Arvind Parikh - We have one item left about solo performance and may be Aneesh and Ravikiranji would like to give some quick comments on what changes have taken place in the solo performance. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - I mentioned earlier that the poetic content of tabla repertoire has taken a beating with some tabla players and that is rather unfortunate because we have this whole repository of traditional compositions, which unfortunately loses out. Even in solo repertoire, very often tabla players have worked on ten different things and they keep on playing those things, which is wonderful. They are technically superb but there is a whole lot more that can be done. Mr. Chitravina Ravikiran - Solo is a highly individualized thing. There are fantastic artistes who play very distinctively different things all the time by spontaneously creating things and there are people who just create formulae that they have successfully packaged and keep sticking to the same formula – monotonizing the content so to speak. Once you work hard on the formula you try to stick to that formula for some time. Solo performance is a very 191 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 vast subject for us to really generalize. The same is true for performing strategies in technology and recording. Mr. Arvind Parikh - Thank you very much. Is there any quick question? Prof. Joep Bor - I was quiet but I still want to say something. Of course, about the topic I cannot talk much because the great musicians have discussed in great details. But I would like to go back to the first session when we started with the primacy of vocal music. I think we should take more time to think about the deeply rooted belief in Indian music that vocal music is superior – however you say it – to instrumental music. In my opinion, if you really look at it historically, this is a total myth. It depends upon who wrote these books. Let us begin with the Natyashastra. I am not pretending that I know Sanskrit but I can read English – the chapter on music is all about instrumental music. The whole chapter division of the seven chapter of the Natyashastra is about instrumental music. This is one argument. There are many more. The whole music theory in India is based on instrumental music. The vocalists – we had a fantastic discussion today – but they were talking about gamakas. Look at the text, gamakas are explained in the context of vina. Look at the 19th century; the principal musicians in the courts, even in the 19th century in the North, were binkars, rababias, and hardly any vocalists. The whole idea of alap in Hindustani music is a totally instrumental concept. You have to go back to the Sangit Ratnakar to see that the description of alap is in the chapter on vina or in the chapter of flute. Aneesh was talking about sangeet. I think in the North it was Pandit Bhatkhande who changed that whole concept because as I said, it depends upon who writes the book, who writes the shastras. I think it is very interesting if you come to think of it that Bhatkhandeji removed the song and he basically wrote about geet and this idea has been repeated. The primacy of vocal music is just like you keep on repeating some thing and people start believing in it. To discuss this issue we require more time than these 2 / 3 minutes I have here. As far as I am concerned it is a total myth. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - One can’t forget the evolution of instruments in the 20th century, which is mainly influenced by vocal techniques. You needed longer minds that you heard in vocal music and that’s why you made those changes in your instruments. Prof. Joep Bor - I don’t think so.

192 Changing Aesthetic Norms: Instrumental Music Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - That’s what the musicians say. Mr. A. Seshan - This is to follow Prof. Bor’s point. In the morning Mrs. Aruna Sairam made a statement that instrumentalists try to follow the vocalists’ style. That way an idea was given that vocal music is superior to instrumental music. Actually if you look at the literature in Carnatic music, people talk about the nagaswaram style of singing, the vina style of singing and so on. So I would agree with Uday Bhawalkarji about instrument and vocal music being complimentary to each other.

193 Changes in Organizational Aspects Cultural Institutions/Organizations

Moderator: Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar Panelists: • Mr. Romit Chaterji • Mr. Satish Sahney • Mr. N. Murali • Mr. Sharad Kale • Mr. Amarnath Sury • Mr. Sharad Sathe Questions

1. Do the Cultural institutions provide adequate attention to: • Interactions with artistes • Green room facilities • Amplification • Punctuality of recitals 2. How do they address issues related to audience expectations/behaviour 3. Are there any major Government regulations affecting cultural activities? 4. Usage of Archives (if any) and issues relating to dissemination of Music 5. Lack of coverage of events by print media – does it influence audience response? 6. Any new initiative to promote Classical Arts and artistes. 7. When multiple media are accessible for music-propagation, how do cultural organizations promote their events and retain audience response for live performances? 8. What changes in their structure/ attitudes would you suggest for making the cultural organizations more effective? 9. Is the support /patronage offered by Cultural organizations proving a liberating force or otherwise for the artists concerned? 10. To what extent cultural organizations are influenced in their decision- making by the non-cultural issues? Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - A warm good afternoon to all of you! To borrow a phrase from Dr. Ashok Ranade, “the moderator is nothing but a traffic cop standing in the intersection, trying to direct the traffic”, many think that cultural institutions also play a very similar role. But then we are all here to correct the impression and say “No”. We just don’t direct the traffic but we

194 Changes in Organizational Aspects add value to the traffic coming from the side of the producers. We add value to the traffic coming from the recipient’s side and over all at a macro level we add a lot of aesthetic value to music performances. With that initial brief, may I invite Mr. Romit Chaterji representing the National Centre for the Performing Arts, to join us on the stage? Many of you would have heard about or witnessed yourself the magic that is created in and around Chennai in the month of December. You have something close to 16000 performances held just in a span of 45 days spread over may be 60 different venues and may be thousands descend from all over the world into Chennai to participate in the Chennai Music season held every year in December. The high point of this music season is the participation in the Sadguru Thyagaraja Aradhana that is held in Thiruvayyaru, which witnesses a unique site every year. We have something close to thousand performing musicians, singing the same numbers, singing in the same style and all the accompaniments playing exactly the same. This scene is something unparalleled and cannot be witnessed anywhere else in the world when you discuss music. The culminates into the Thyagaraja Aradhana, which normally takes place in the first week of January. If in the last few years, may be 10/15 years the Madras music season has caught the imagination of the entire world, there is one person who is responsible for this and he is Mr. N. Murali, who is the President of the Madras Music Academy. He is also the Managing Director of “The Hindu”, which plays an extremely important role in the promotion of Indian classical music in and around Chennai. So we are indeed fortunate to have Mr. Murali here in our midst. In Mumbai, the Indian classical music is handled in several venues; one is where you are exactly seated, National Centre for the Performing Arts, but then you have the largest auditorium in Asia, which is the Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha and we have Mr. Amarnath Sury to represent the Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha. Would you please join us Mr. Sury? We would now move on to Hindustani side and we will invite Mr. Sharad Sathe who runs the Dadar Matunga Cultural Centre to join us. Let me also take a couple of seconds to introduce myself. I happen to be the President of the Fine Arts Society, the most vibrant cultural institution in Mumbai, something close to 2400 members, 900 students studying Indian classical music, more than 65 events held by the institution and what have you - the auditorium is engaged almost every day to hold one or the other classical music pro-

195 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 grammes. So, with this little introduction we will move on to the session and I would join the dais for posing the questions. I am told Mr. Satish Sahney is on his way and he will join us in a few minutes. A few ground rules. The questions have already been distributed to the panelists and may be I will request each one of them to read out the question and give a suitable response and may be, for a given question there can be more than one response. But I would humbly request all the panelists to leave enough time for the floor to pose their questions towards the end. It’s an extremely difficult task with giants like Mr. Murali adorning the dais to cut short the time but we will do our best. Mr. Murali would you like to take the first question? Mr. N. Murali - Good afternoon! At the outset, I commend this initiative by all concerned, the organizers particularly, NCPA, ITC-Sangeet Research Academy and the various organizations involved in Mumbai, and also the moderator Mr. Ganesh Kumar. We were sent these questions in advance but I must confess that I was so preoccupied with the Madras music season that I happened to go through these questions only when I was on the flight. The first question is – Do the cultural institutions provide adequate attention to the interactions with artistes? Traditionally, as the institutions evolve, I am sure, in the initial stages they may not have had such a close interaction with the artiste, because they thought we are organizing this, we are providing a platform for the artiste and therefore the artiste better perform! But over a time that equation is now more in balance, whether it is the organization here or the Music Academy in Madras. We definitely have good interactions with the artistes. We are also sensitive to their requirements, expectations and feelings. Therefore, in the last few years particularly, there have been interactions, and now artistes are treated in the way I would say - justice to the art. After all it is because of the artistes that organizations which promote music exist. Of course at the other side of the equation are the rasikas but artistes are the sine-qua-non of any organization promoting culture and fine arts. During the last few years, organizations have given a lot of attention to the infrastructure including the Green rooms and the ambience. Any good organization with a good auditorium needs to have proper green room facili- ties, and according to me it is a given.

196 Changes in Organizational Aspects As far as amplification is concerned, I know the Chennai scene. I would say that in this area there are lots of deficiencies and the organizations have not paid enough attention to acoustics, as they should have. As far as the Madras Music Academy is concerned, about three years ago we installed a totally new acoustic system, Bose acoustics system which has come up for praise by artistes who have been performing for the last three years. We are not saying we are perfect but at least we have made an attempt and I hope other organizations follow our example, because the Chennai festival is one of the largest in the world and people now come not only from the rest of India but from all over the world. The organizations in Chennai need to pay better attention to some of these facilities, particularly acoustics. If you talk in general terms, it is still inadequate. In India, to enforce punctuality of any kind is difficult but as far as recitals are concerned, by and large, we at the Music Academy stick to the timing and also ask the artistes to stick to the same, particularly in the season when we have five concerts a day over 17/18 days. Therefore the gap between concerts is not much, hardly 15 minutes. That is an additional reason why we always ask them to stick to their time limit, as it also affects the next artiste. However, having said this, some big artistes invariably exceed the time. It is very difficult for a cultural organization to abruptly cut off the artiste and stop. We always try to tell the artiste to finish in time. For instance, the concert in Chennai is for 2 and1/2 hours, they have to finish within 2 and1/2 hours. By and large the artistes are very punctual. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - I would request Mr. Sharad Sathe to respond to this question from the Hindustani perspective. Mr. Sharad Sathe - Good afternoon everybody! I am grateful to Music Forum and NCPA for inviting me here on behalf of Dadar Matunga Cultural Centre to express my views. Our circle, i.e. Dadar Matunga Cultural Centre was established in 1953 – seven years after Independence. I have been working for the Centre since 1963, which is over 35 years now in various capacities as a secretary, Chair- man, member of the committee and as a musician. We have a fairly good rapport with artistes and many have performed at the Centre. We hardly have any difficulty in negotiating a programme with them; especially younger artistes are very co-operative. But super stars are better looked after by corporate bodies and tend not to co-operate with Centres

197 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 such as ours. In addition, we can’t offer them terms including lacs of rupees, because no music circle survives on the membership strength, although we have strength of 1100 members. We have fairly good green room facilities. Recently we constructed an air- conditioned hall and it is well equipped. Many a times our auditorium is let out for reception, marriage functions etc. So requirements in the Green room vary depending upon the occasion. Our sound system is of fairly good quality and it has helped artistes. The main artistes are okay with the amplification system but many times the accompanists interfere with the sound system, which hampers the overall sound balance. These things do happen though we are very strict in providing all facilities as far as amplification is concerned. As Mr. Murali said, it is very difficult to control punctuality, though we try very hard to start recitals on time. Music Forum has been imploring all organizations to start recitals on time. So we try to maintain this whether there is an audience or not. Ten to fifteen minutes of grace period is allowed but most of the times we start on time. Once we had invited Pandit Arvind Parikh to inaugurate the Pandit Bhatkhande lecture series and the programme was supposed to be at 6 O’clock. Since people were still coming in, Panditji asked whether we should wait a little. However, when we requested him to go ahead and start on time, he readily agreed and inaugurated the function. So punctuality is very important and we try to maintain that on behalf of our Centre. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - Mr. Chaterji, would you like to respond to this question? Mr. Romit Chaterji - Good afternoon everybody! I have a beautiful advantage over my fellow panelists because this event is being held at the NCPA. So you can judge for yourself the quality of the auditorium and the quality of the sound system and many more. So I am not going to touch on many of these issues other than to say that these are very important to the NCPA and we spend a lot of time, energy and money to make sure that they are of the finest quality. As far as punctuality is concerned, I do have a few points and with Mr. Ganesh Kumar’s permission can I be a little tongue-in-cheek and say that this event itself started 10 minutes later than it should have. The point that I want to make is that this is not always an issue.

198 Changes in Organizational Aspects Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - Punctuality of recitals and not seminars! Mr. Romit Chaterji - This is not always in the hands of organizers for several reasons. The first is that if you take a city like Mumbai, the traffic problems are so humongous that to get an audience in time is sometimes a huge challenge especially when you have a show at 6 or 6.30 in the evening. Secondly, I find as a listener, that there is lot of time taken by the senior artiste to tune the instruments and getting everything in perfect order. Unfortunately, the organizers can do very little about this. The third point is that the interval itself does not stay within the designated time that has been allotted. Quite often despite bells being rung you still find that the audience has still not come back. These are some of the factors that contribute to the lack of punctuality in these functions. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - Mr. Sury, would you like to read the next question and respond also? Mr. Amarnath Sury - On this issue of punctuality I would like to add something. It is possible to commence all the programmes on time. Shanmukhananda Sangeet Sabha, which is an ISO certified company conveys to all artistes various conditions including arriving half an hour before, tune the instruments, be ready, have the sound check so that we can commence on time. Invariably in our Sabha there are no delays unless the delay is on account of the organizer himself. Despite the traffic and other factors, according to me the programme should start on time. Even here today, it was a deliberate decision to slightly postpone - not that we could not have commenced at 2 O’clock. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - Before all eyes rivet on me please continue! Mr. Amarnath Sury - I seemed to have opened a bit of a Pandora’s box. I apologize. The question is - How do they address issues related to audience expectations and behaviour. I can only speak as far as my institution is concerned. Once in at least two or three years we have an audience response through a questionnaire for three to four months, to take a feed back and try to see whether we are on the track on which the majority of members want the institution to go. Based more or less on the membership survey we schedule our programmes in different categories like music, drama, instrumental, vocal or Hindustani etc. I am constrained to say that this will depend upon the composition of your membership actually. For instance, supposing my colleague here may be having a membership that is totally

199 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Hindustani music oriented whereas Shanmukhananda Sangeet Sabha is mostly Carnatic music oriented. So more often than not, they would like to listen to music of that kind. That is how we normally like to make an assessment; whether we are catering to the general taste and requirement of the audience. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - I am tempted to take this question myself, not because I am better informed but I have the advantage of having attended various other sessions during yesterday and today. There were a couple of issues which were raised in the other sessions. One gentleman said that when Indian artistes travel to Europe there is a problem because the audio manager has decided to set the levels at a particular situation but then there is a constant request from the performer to raise the audio level. Second issue was raised during the last session whether there could be an exchange between Hindustani and Carnatic instruments. Taking these two points in relation to audience expectations and behaviour, my own response would be that the Indian music is absolutely dynamic, it is not static, minute to minute the requirement of the acoustic level changes. When the main singer is singing, may be the other accompaniments are set at a slightly lower level but say in a taniyavartanam in Carnatic music, you need to give a slightly higher level because the accompanist is trying to show his abilities during that particular time frame. May be the sound levels have to be constantly managed and monitored on a minute to minute basis which may not be the system in Europe because perhaps every performer knows exactly what he is supposed to do. Whereas in a typical Carnatic concert the violinist has no idea whatsoever what the main singer is going to do but is expected to reproduce it in a split second. So he needs to know what the main singer is singing. Even if the audience is hearing it, the accompanist also needs to know what the main singer is doing. So the requirements are distinctly different from the European situation. Whole fundamentals of playing instrumental music are distinctly different in Hindustani and Carnatic music. In Hindustani instrumental music although the main performer has a dominant role, the percussion has adequate opportunity to show its colour. However, in Carnatic music the accompanists get opportunity only once during the taniyavartanam. This is one fundamental difference. So you cannot expect mrdangam player to show his abilities during all the numbers. He is allowed to show, may be once during the concert.

200 Changes in Organizational Aspects The other aspect is that the Carnatic music is essentially kriti based. Even if the presentation is by an instrumental player, he/she is actually playing a kriti; it is neither just a melody nor a specific raga, whereas in Hindustani music it could be just a melody or a raga. So these are certain very fundamental differences between Carnatic and Hindustani music. There could be other differences. To prepare a Carnatic audience to enjoy a Hindustani concert and also vice versa, a little homework needs to be done by the institution. That is where the organizers play a pivotal role. Before they introduce an artiste to the audience they need to do a little homework and prepare the audience, and also prepare the performer about the taste of the audience. With this kind of a hand shake the institution would be in a position to enhance the pleasure of listening. Like for example, a Carnatic audience would expect by rule an item of fifteen minutes whereas in Hindustani music that’s not the case, it might go on for one hour. Now a Carnatic audience will not be satisfied with that kind of a presentation because a Carnatic audience is used to listening may be to 10 ragas during a concert. So we need to make the audience aware of these nuances. For example, we prepare our members (we have more than 2400 members) by informing about the nature and profile of the concert before the programme is held. Mr. N. Murali - Some of the issues that Mr. Ganesh Kumar referred to, we do no face in Chennai, at least during the season in December. The season comprises predominantly Carnatic music concerts and Bharata Natyam, and other forms of classical dance. Therefore preparing the audience is not necessary. However, the issue of audience expectation can be looked at in a different perspective. By and large, even people who come from abroad or other parts of India know what they are going to get. Interestingly, even the Carnatic musicians who perform during the season stick to classical framework – no question of fusion or any other music during the season. The same musicians may experiment a bit when performing outside India. The audience really expects a good ambience, particularly air-conditioning. The sound system or the acoustics has to be very good, which as I said before, in a general scene, there is a lot left to be desired. But now many organizations have realized the need and are upgrading their infrastructure including having comfortable seats. One other thing that particularly foreigners and outsiders are unable to understand, relates to concert duration. Earlier, Carnatic concerts used to be

201 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 of 3 and 1/2 hours and now because of lack of time everything is being compressed. With factors such as transport, traffic, and various other issues the concert duration is reduced to 2 and 1/2 hours. During the season we have five concerts per day. Some hard-core rasikas stay on for at least more than half of these concerts and therefore to expect strict discipline from them is rather difficult. This is what is difficult for the foreigners to understand. You cannot shut the doors of the auditorium and shut the people inside and say that no one can go out during a concert. I think it’s probably not human to do that in the Chennai season. Organizations like ours are trying to appeal to rasikas not to leave in the middle of a song. Mr. Ganesh Kumar referred to taniyavartanam. In Chennai, invariably this is the time when many rasikas leave. This is unfair to the accompanists since they get only one chance. All said and done, the life style of people have changed, the environment around us has changed. So these days the 2 and1/2 hour concert has become standard for Carnatic musicians during the season. People do not want to stay much beyond 9 O’clock in the evening and around 8.45 pm they start to leave. Musicians will have to take into account all this and plan their concerts accordingly. We have very few Hindustani concerts during the season and therefore it may really not be necessary to prepare the audience, as it is required here. However, in the music academy we have Hindustani music on 31st December and the audience for that is mostly different from our normal audience for the rest of the season. Probably the awareness and understanding of Hindustani music may not be as much as their liking and understanding of Carnatic music. Major organizations ask the artistes to give the song list in advance so that the audience will be informed about the raga, tala, composition and so on. However, we must be conscious of the creativity of the artiste and also the surprise element that is required in a concert. So many artistes, particularly the top-notch artistes do not give the song list and the others who give the song lists deviate from that! There have been suggestions that before each composition the musician should explain the same but this hardly happens. During the season, for instance, as far as the tradition is at the music academy, we have speeches only at the inaugural and concluding session. Artistes are not expected to explain unlike what might happen when the concert is presented overseas to a different type of audience. The traditional audience resents artistes talking too much. All these considerations have to be balanced and finally it is the

202 Changes in Organizational Aspects balance between tradition and modernity. How far can you go? How far can you stretch the line? How can you cross the laxman in a Carnatic music concert or in a Madras Chennai season? Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - Just taking on from what Mr. Murali said, the Carnatic audience thinks that the taniyavartanam is the time to go to the canteen! Several years ago we presented Hindustani concert at the Fine Art Society. When the tabla joined in after the first section everyone thought that it is time to go out to the canteen! They started leaving and that’s the time when we had to tell them that this will happen several times during the concert and they must not leave. A warm welcome to Mr. Satish Sahney of Nehru Centre. Mr. Sury, would you like to take the next question please? Mr. Amarnath Sury - The question is about the usage of archives and issues relating to dissemination of archival music. So far as Sri Shanmukhananda Fine Arts and Sangeetha Sabha are concerned, we have developed a very good archive. This is actually named as Sri Shanmukhananda Kanchi Mahaswamy Sangeet Sangrahalaya. Currently we have close to 25,456 hours of Carnatic and Hindustani music both in audio and video form. We expect this to go to 100,000 hours by the end of 2010, the largest of its kind according to us in the world. This size of archive which we are building up, due to its encryptic code cannot be downloaded and this is also in adherence to the intellectual property rights requirements. People can come and listen to it. There could be only two major purposes; either for listening pleasure or from the point of view of learning. These are the two possibilities and we have got this from 1939 onwards till date; with all legends of Hindustani and Carnatic traditions as well as current musicians. Of course, we take artistes’ permission. There are times when artistes do not give permission to record. Then we tell them that at least for the sake of archives we should be allowed to record so that it would be available for the purposes of listening and education. At this moment the archives are only meant only for our members. I thought at this forum I can even suggest that this should be thrown open to non-members based on certain conditions about the purpose and usage to prevent it being misused, as we are after all answerable to the artistes. There are All India Radio stations that must be having enormous amount of recorded music. There are much older institutions like Music Academy and

203 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 many more. that may be having a wealth of information with them. However, whatever music they have is of shorter duration – half an hour or one hour concerts. These are not full length three / four hour concerts unlike what we have. Of course access to these archives is another problem. Incidentally our archives also have classical music based film music in Tamil, Hindi etc. We are trying to gather support from donors, well-wishers and well meaning people who would like to promote and sustain classical music. Mr. Shashi Vyas - I think we are slightly deviating here. You are expected to comment on what organizations were required to do earlier and now what they are doing to be a sustainable organization. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - These questions are prepared in that perspective only and what Mr. Amarnath Sury is referring to, is something that was not being done in the past and is being done now for dissemination of music. Mr. Shashi Vyas - This is not true. Lots of things have been done in the past about which we do not know. There have been changes in the organizational aspects. I firmly believe we should discuss about the impediments and things we need to do to ensure that our cultural tradition is maintained. I am sorry if I am offending someone but that is what we need to discuss now. Mr. N. Murali - To say that cultural tradition is the responsibility of an organization alone and to reduce it to that narrow focus, I think is also not warranted. Therefore archives are very much part of the organization, if any. I would request the moderator to ensure that questions are asked at the end so that there is no interruption while the panelists speak. Mr. Arvind Parikh - I want to apologize to Mr. Sahney because the programme that he received had the wrong information about the time of this session. Mr. Sahney is very punctual and meticulous about the timing. I must convey my apologies to you for this mistake, Mr. Sahney. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - Mr. Sahney would you like to say something on the archival aspect? Mr. Satish Sahney - I would only endorse what has been said. At Nehru Centre too there is a very good collection of archival material but it is available only if someone wants to listen to it. The same is not being lent out to anyone because of the copyright implications. As far as recording is concerned, we are a little more rigid because it is not only the main artiste whose consent is required but everyone on the stage – all the accompanists

204 Changes in Organizational Aspects – unless they all agree, we don’t record any programme for archival purposes. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - Just responding to Shashiji’s viewpoint on organizational changes with respect to dissemination of musical information; earlier institutions served the purpose of organizing events but now they are changing colour and also play a crucial role of training students or imparting training to music loving citizens. Hence there is a need to preserve what has been held in your venue and make public use of that preserved material so that the new generation can take maximum advantage out of these archives. For the first time or may be there have been instances - at least Shanmukhananda has taken the initiative of converting 100,000 hours of Indian classical music, which is something that needs to be complimented. The amount of funding required for such work is stupendous and they have successfully done it. I am very glad that today Mr. Amarnath Sury has made a mention that this is not restricted to the members, this will be thrown open to the public, and I think all of us need to take this opportunity with both hands. Mr. Amarnath Sury - Mr. Ganesh Kumar, with your permission I would request that may be this seminar can recommend norms for dissemination of archives in the best possible manner for us to consider. Mr. N. Murali - There has been a lot of awareness only in the last few years about the role of intellectual property rights as far as artistes are concerned. For instance the Music Academy is now 80 years old, and going by the yardstick of what Mr. Sury has said, it should have enormous wealth of archives. However, initially when organizations such as our Academy or Shanmukhananda Sangeet Sabha started, as Mr. Ganesh Kumar rightly pointed out, emphasis was mainly on the concerts. Therefore even when facilities were available, recording was not given as much importance as it should have been. Not all concerts have been recorded. But having said that, recording and listening were also considered hobbies in those days, and therefore were looked at without too much commercial purpose or intent. In the earlier years the organizations took a stand that they organize the concerts and therefore they have the right on the recordings. Though we may have every right to do what we want with the recording and subsequent exploitation, it cannot be used for any commercial gains. I don’t think any organization has so far commercially exploited the recordings. But at the same time with this

205 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 awareness it is also the question of dissemination. Advances in technology has enabled in the recent years for us to have digital archives. We had our own recordings as well as collections from many members and well-wishers of the Academy. For instance, my father had one of the largest collections of Carnatic music in the form of spool tapes in those days, which we passed over to the Academy. Nothing much was done with the spool tapes but now because of the technology it is possible to digitalize them and store enormous hours of music in a compact way. As far as we are concerned, we have a collection of (including the donations) around 20,000 hours or so, which is nothing near the stupendous amount that Mr. Sury has talked about. An ardent Carnatic music connoisseur has come forward to set up at his own cost for the Academy, a digital archive listening centre and we are now in the process of converting our collection in a digital form but that is time consuming. The other thing is the access; as of now we have not put it on the Website and we do not allow internet access to it. We ask those who have enrolled as members (not members of the Academy) of this facility to come and listen. Since we have not been able to transfer a substantial number of hours yet, it’s a work in progress; we have not decided how to put it to the best use. I think, may be this conference can evolve some norms and also if there is a way for different organizations being able to share their archives, finally then I think that would be the best outcome that is possible all over the country. Mr. Romit Chaterji - Fundamentally, when you have archives it basically means that all that great music is residing at one place. Yes, it is possible that some people can come and listen to it but even if you have it in one place, not everyone can enjoy that music. At NCPA, we are actually exploring the possibility of working with some commercial partner with the permission of the artistes or their families concerned, with full copyright, royalties given to the artistes, so that we can actually share that music on a wider scale than is currently possible through just archives. Shashi, you were talking about organizational steps -this is one that we are exploring as an organizational step. Now, whether it will actually work out or not is a moot point because artistes have to agree to the commercial terms that are offered through royalty and the proposal must be acceptable to them. If that happens, some of the music that is now sitting like in a bank vault and is accessible only to a few people, will be available to a wider audience.

206 Changes in Organizational Aspects Mr. Shashi Vyas - Unless one registers the copyright, one is not entitled to it. Mr. Romit Chaterji - No, that is a legal point of view. The fact is that we would never do anything without the artistes’ concurrence and permission whatever the legal position may be. This is the way in which we are trying to disseminate the archival material on a wider basis with the artiste as a critical and major beneficiary. Mr. Sharad Sathe - As far as Dadar Matunga Cultural Centre is concerned I would like to state that we have a recording library in which all the performances held at our Centre since 1981 have been preserved. This archival recording is free for members and also to outsiders. It is unfortunate that very few people have taken advantage of that - by and large they don’t care for it. Mr. Romit Chaterji - That is the point I am making Mr. Sathe. I am saying that very few people actually access archival material. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - Now this leads me to the next question! Lack of coverage of events and of course information about music by print media – Does it influence audience response? Now let me address this question to the media baron Mr. Murali because he will be the most appropriate person to answer this question. Mr. N. Murali - I would say, yes and no, because unless the print media particularly takes up the coverage of classical fine arts in a big way the awareness is not created. The hardcore rasikas anyway would come but in order to get more people, particularly youngsters interested in Carnatic or Hindustani music as the case may be, print media needs to cover it in a big way. Without sounding immodest, I may say that as far as “The Hindu” is concerned, I do not think any other newspaper in the country gives as much coverage to classical music as we do. In the recent years, we have a tradition of doing that. For instance during the Chennai music season, apart from a weekly supplement that we have – Friday Review - which covers this extensively, we bring out special supplements just for the season, three times a week and try to review concerts. I am also sorry to see a section of media; particularly the print media, cover more about the musicians and their life style than the music itself. When you take Western newspapers; whether it is the “The New York Times” or “The Guardian”, their review of any major performance or concert is top class, high quality and well informed. This is not the case with our print media. That

207 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 is one thing I would like to point out. But I agree with Mr. Ganesh Kumar that lack of coverage also probably restricts the awareness and ultimately reflects on the size of the audience. Even in Chennai music season there is no need to advertise. Without it we get good audience in most of the auditoria. We have limited tickets available by way of daily tickets, because our members are entitled for them too. For some artistes like Arunaji here, people stand in queue from 4.45 in the morning while the counters open only at 9.30. We make arrangement for them to sit and also provide some coffee and many more. However, many go away disappointed. When tickets are all sold we also project concerts on a LCD screen in the mini hall. Of course, it is not live but it is the next best thing. People even fill up this space. I may say the non-coverage may not affect the season per se but on a long-term basis, yes, definitely it will affect. I only wish and urge the print media to devote more attention and space to classical fine arts. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - On behalf of all of you, I will take this opportunity to request Mr. Murali to also start The Hindu, Mumbai edition, so that the classical music in Mumbai would receive its pride of place. Mr. N. Murali - The viability of a newspaper or the readership of the newspaper does not depend only on one aspect. If that were so, we would gladly start, but there are many more other implications to consider. Mr. Sharad Sathe - The Music Forum has been trying very hard to establish this point with the press. There was coverage formerly but of late that has stopped. Music Forum has been pressing very hard to the press to resume that activity and even the pre-event publicity. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - We will continue to press Mr. Murali! Mr. Romit Chaterji - The panelists are supposed to answer questions, but I have a question to ask. Why is it that a city like Mumbai, which is such a major city, does not have any arts magazine? I know Shashi had started one but now it no longer exists. We do not have any arts magazine in our country. Why is that so? Does anyone have an answer to that? Why is it that none of the mainline publications can bring out weekend reviews – once in a month perhaps – on art events. Every publication in the world has this kind of a feature. We are one city which unfortunately does not believe in doing this. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - This question, I am sure would be answered in the session on the Role of Media.

208 Changes in Organizational Aspects Mr. Satish Sahney - As a result of lack of media coverage to music events the upcoming artistes stand to lose. For famous artistes there is no problem but if the print media does not on a regular basis give a review of young artistes who are just coming up, who are yet to make their mark, they are at a great disadvantage. There is a great deal of talent. They have to market and promote themselves, which is sad. If there was a systematic review or commentary in print media, which includes the upcoming artistes, that would be of great benefit. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - The next question is about the new initiative to promote classical arts and artistes. Mr. Satish Sahney - Nehru Centre has a system. We have a yearly programme with the proposed or planned activity for the whole year, which we decide, allocate budget for it and we make it known through our newsletter. There are certain items which recur almost every year, and people look forward to it. There are demands for those items and they go on. What we try to do by way of initiative is the activity of workshops, particularly during the vacation period. We hold regular workshops in performing arts and the entire months of May and June are devoted to it. These workshops are free for all those who want to attend and the preparation starts well in advance. It includes dance, classical music and instrumental music. These are very popular workshops that we conduct and we have a special budget earmarked for it. Mr. Romit Chaterji - One of the major initiatives that NCPA started a couple of years ago was the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI), which has now become a recognized force in the Western classical musical world. I am sure, all of you will be happy to know that the last season’s performance of the SOI was so spectacular that it has now been invited by a very celebrated festival in Russia to perform there. The SOI will be making its international debut in June this year, performing at this very major festival. In fact we will be doing the finale with Beethoven’s ninth symphony and it will be the finale on Russia day. Mr. N. Murali - In the December season there is so much concentration of events that it appears somewhat lop-sided in the sense, whatever happens, happens mainly in that one-month period. Therefore what organization like the Music Academy is trying to do is to sustain interest throughout the year. Besides concerts, we being an Academy, we lead the way in many academic discussions about ragas, nuances of different forms of music and so on.

209 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Therefore we have to find ways of doing something throughout the year. We have at different time of the year, spirit of youth festival - a week long festival - where youngsters both in Carnatic music and dance are given opportunity and then prizes are given. If they are good enough they are promoted to the main season. We also have with the kind sponsorship of HCL Technologies a monthly concert series of upcoming musicians. Of course, all this cannot be in the main auditorium because the audience will not be enough to fill that space. Then we have endowment programmes as tribute to some of the great composers but all this takes place in the mini auditorium and not in the main hall. Our lecture demonstrations have also become popular during the season and serve a very useful purpose. We have been seeing how to do that outside the season as well. Like Mr. Sahney we also want to hold workshops or special sessions going into depth of certain aspects of music because the Music Academy has always led the way in resolving various issues about various ragas, composers and so on. We want to take that up in a bigger way. Arising out of the suggestion of Dr. Rangarajan, who came to release our book in commemoration of our 80 years recently, we are thinking of exploring the possibility of conducting music appreciation courses with the help of some musicologists and musicians so that more people, particularly youngsters are initiated into appreciating Carnatic music. Otherwise they are just moving away from classical music. That is the trend unfortunately and organizations like all of us gathered here have a role and responsibility in safeguarding our tradition and bringing in more people, particularly the next generation. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - The Fine Arts Society has taken initiative to have an outreach programme, whereby we are trying to integrate the activities of the Fine Arts Society with the educational institutions located in and around our location. We take our faculty and students to perform in the schools, colleges, corporate houses and try to attract as many people, especially from the younger generation, into the cultural arena. In addition, under the CSR (corporate social responsibility) initiatives about which all the big corporates are talking today, we try to evolve a package whereby the corporates can invite musicians to have sessions, may be instrumental music or vocal music, and try and ensure that the corporate funding support is available for promotion of Indian classical music. Arvindbhai has always been concerned about providing additional opportunities to youngsters. We train a lot of

210 Changes in Organizational Aspects people but where are they going to perform? Some institutions need to give more opportunities to these performers. We thought, instead of restricting our activities within the institution we will try and trigger off initiatives like this in various locations so that these young performers could also step out and perform in different locations. At the same time we also try to generate new audience to address the concern expressed by Arvindbhai. Today, there is a tremendous interest in Indian classical music but what is going to happen after ten years? We have built a huge auditorium with 2000/3000 capacity, we need to constantly nurture audience and hence this outreach initiative of the Fine Arts Society would go a long way in answering both these questions. Mr. Sharad Sathe - We hold two or three youth festivals every year and also offer scholarships to the deserving candidates. We give seven scholarships for a period 2 years in vocal and instrumental music, and Bharatanatyam dance. We also organize programmes of the scholars, once year in the month of May. Mr. Amarnath Sury - As Mr. Murali was saying earlier, the main purpose of holding such a seminar is to sustain interest in classical music and promote it. So far as Sri Shanmukhananda Fine Arts and Sangeetha Sabha are concerned, we have a sangeet vidyalaya where we teach Carnatic as well as Hindustani music. We have a fair amount of good faculty but it also faces problems because usually music is given a kind of a second hand treatment in comparison to other educational subjects and qualifications. The children have to first study the normal academic course and if time permits they will do music. That is how it is happening. As far as music is concerned we have talent exposure concerts of our students. We try to encourage them by giving them this small platform. We have talent promotion programmes where young musicians are given a chance to perform, and the best talent is given an award by the end of the year. We have been doing this since 5 / 6 years. They are given main platform in our Sabha so that they can perform apart from receiving a cash award. We give a cash award of Rs. 25,000/- for the best singer. We also have National Eminence Award, which has been received by 7 or 8 top musicians of the country as well as Sangeet Shiromani Award like the Sangeet Kalanidhi award given by Madras Music Academy. These awards, in our view are a way of encouraging younger musicians. Recently we gave the National Eminence Award to Dr. R. K. Srikanthan and in his company younger musicians also 211 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 received the Sangeet Shiromani Award. At the age of 90, Dr. Srikanthan performed so beautifully and encouraged the younger musicians. We encourage the younger musicians to aspire for the senior award in course of time. This is what we are trying to promote – of course it is very difficult to wean away the younger generation from so many other attractions they have these days. We have evolved a pension scheme for the indigent artiste who have passed their best years and are unable to perform. Since September 2003, a nominal amount of monthly Rs.1000 is given to about 25 artistes. What I am trying to arrive at is, those artistes who are performing exceedingly well today should also contribute towards this fund. Even if they give a small percentage of their earnings towards this purpose like a Provident Fund, tomorrow they themselves may need it - why not? Then they can have it with great pride. This is an appeal, which I thought I should make through this platform. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - Shanmukhananda sabha also gives medical assistance to musical fraternity which is also worthy of compliments. With that I throw open the session for question / answers. Mr. Prakash Burde - All the members on this panel belong to organizations that are fortunate in having their own auditoria. Unfortunately in Hindustani music there are many organizations that do not have this facility. Some of these are either managed by artistes or by music lovers. I think we need to also have a representation from this section of organizers. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - We will ask Arvindbhai to take note of this aspect. Mr. Prakash Burde - Secondly, we have seen the rise of event management and managers. Where do they stand in today’s changed music scenario? Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - With due permission from all the members here, may I respond to this question? The institutions having own auditorium have a huge stake in the activity because they have invested crores of rupees in building a hardware structure where all these events could be held. Additionally, most such cultural institutions also run a music school where they regularly impart training to music students. They invest a lot of money in terms of providing acoustics. My own institution spent more than a couple of crores to provide proper acoustics in the auditorium just one year ago. The stakes that these institutions have are very high and these institutions are not necessarily funded by any Trust unlike in the case of Nehru Centre or for that matter NCPA.

212 Changes in Organizational Aspects Mr. Satish Sahney - Nehru Centre do not get a farthing from anyone. It is a self-sustained institution. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar – Excellent! Mr. Romit Chaterji - So also NCPA! Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - I am surprised. Let me tell you that the Fine Arts Society and Sri Shanmukhananda Sabha are run with the help of middle-class families living in Mumbai. Some people take the initiative of building up such a large structure to provide opportunities for Indian classical music. To compare an auditorium owning institution to an event manager would be fundamentally erroneous. Event managers are more concerned with a specific ad hoc event and of course most of them would also have the long- term perspective of wanting to motivate, help and all that. But the focus is more on the event rather than a ten year perspective. Whereas the auditorium or the institutions of our nature are interested in may be the next 50 years down the line. Hence I think these are two different things. The event managers and the auditorium owned institutions have roles in separate territories. There is space for everyone. Mr. Sharad Sathe - Dadar Matunga Cultural Center offers its auditorium at a concessional rate to any music programme, which is not ticketed. Mr. Shashi Vyas - You seem to imply that there is a difference between an institution and an organization. What you referred to as event management, even that is also an organization. For institutions, there are ten points that we need to consider: live concerts, workshops, archives, seminars, database, nodal agency between the creator and the user, annual awards, acoustically designed auditorium, educational activities, and recordings different genres of music. When we are talking about archives we must have different genres because Indian music is not only classical music. We have different genres of music and archives have to reflect that variety. If you go to the history of Indian music each genre is interlinked somewhere. All institutions are organizations but all organizations are not institutions. We need to look into organizational aspects such as production, choice of the event, pre-publicity, reasonable rates, ambience and infrastructural support. These are the major important points that as an institution having auditorium need to look in to. Organizations cannot stand in comparison to institutions, which play a major role. As an organizer, I think that we are not discussing these issues.

213 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - Most of these observations are suggestive and I am sure, all these institutions will take note of these suggestions and in our own way, we will all react to what you have said. I am sure, every institution has certain undercurrents and priorities and obviously they will build up around those priorities. You cannot expect them to change suddenly, may be it will take a little time. Anonymous - I recall an incident some years back when I attended a programme at the Prithvi theatre. The organizers admitted all those who wanted to attend the concert since they didn’t want any music lover to go back disappointed for want of seats. Mr. N. Murali - However, it is the question of limitation of the auditorium. For instance, the Music Academy hall has 1450 seats and we have more members than seats. Even if the outstation members do not turn up, we are obliged to accommodate all the local members. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - Institutions cannot overlook rules and regulations and we are responsible for life inside the auditorium and I think we need to discharge that with responsibility. Mr. A. Seshan - You talked about interaction between organizations and artistes, what about interaction between artistes and rasikas! In this case, NCPA have organized a forum called Chauraha, and I have myself attended in the Experimental Theatre and Godrej Dance Academy some discussions wherein the artistes interact with the audience. Secondly about art magazines; of late NCPA are bringing out a great programme guide “On stage”, which to me is like a collector’s item because I find so many interesting articles there. Referring to the problem of organizing programmes in quick succession without much break as mentioned by Mr. Murali, I have seen in Sydney Opera House a rotating stage. It may be a very costly thing but I am sure it may be possible perhaps in 10/15 years from now so that you prepare for the next concert behind the screen. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - The first experiment would be a rotating seminar. Mr. A. Seshan - Thirdly, you ought to have some way of finding out the expectations of rasikas through a survey. One important expectation and I am not joking, is the canteen facility. I found in Madras, very often rasikas

214 Changes in Organizational Aspects choose a particular programme because of the contractor running a particular canteen. Mr. K. Ganesh Kumar - This sounds to be very suggestive. Yes, we would all look at these suggestions and I think we really need to wind up the session. Thank you.

215 Audience Response

Moderator: Mr. Keshav Paranjpe Panelists: • Mr. Shashi Vyas • Mrs. Namita Devidayal-Motwane • Mr. Tushar Bhatia Questions

1. Is press coverage a true indicator of audience response? 2. Has Media educated audience? 3. How is corporate sponsorship linked with audience response? 4. Is the entry of marketing strategies etc. adversely affecting the performing reality in music? If so, what counter-measures are possible? 5. Has there been an element of craze in audience response in olden days or is this a new waive? 6. Can you trace the route how audience response influences quality of performance, Artiste’s grading, music making (concerts, recordings and many more.)? 7. What type of (classical) music is liked by Indian audience at large? What are the recent trends? 8. Has Indian audience shown, since independence, a mark preference for: (a) Short duration renditions (b) Innovative music (c) Emotive element rather than structural aspect (d) Light- like music (e) Instrumental music 9. Is audience response gullible to Brand/Media/production/extravaganza/ stage craftsmanship/gimmicks? Mr. Arvind Parikh - We have a very interesting session now concerning audience response. All of you are part of the audience and therefore your response to this session would be very valuable. May I request Mr. Keshav Paranjpe to kindly take over? He is the Secretary of Swar Mauli and heads a higher educational institution. We have Mr. Shashi Vyas of Pancham-Nishad, an event managing company, and Mr. Tushar Bhatia, music composer and sitar player. Ms. Namita Devidayal will join us shortly. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - Whatever the new trends be, ultimately the party to bear the responsibility is the audience. Apparently we may agree or disagree but in the final analysis responsibility for the new trends that have been set up, is to be shouldered by the audience. The audience might not have in a positive and deliberate way or in an organized way done anything to set in a

216 Audience Response new trend but may be passively responsible for it. When I say audience, the audience is stratified and heterogeneous entity, and you can classify audience on very many bases. When we discuss audience response, here we have to take audience as an aggregate, then only we can draw any conclusions. When I say that audience is responsible for whatever changes that have taken place, still there is much left for us to deliberate upon and discuss. The manner in which the audience responds is managed by different players – the artistes, the organizers etc. in different ways. So also the interplay of conflicting priorities and preferences of different groups sets up the final scene in the music. This is what is actually required to be discussed in this session. In the light of this, a few questions have been set up. The first question that I would like to start with: how would you like to stratify/classify audience? What basis would you identify for classifying the audience so that we are very clear that these are the different classes and they compete against each other or they compliment each other to make the final decision? Mr. Shashi Vyas - Let us understand the definition of the audience. Firstly, what does audience mean to us? An audience can be defined in a broader perspective as the one who listens to music through several media like radio, TV, CD, cassettes, live shows, films and many more. I presume that the entire discussion is going to be primarily for live concerts. There is a segment called hard-core listeners. There is also someone who likes to be seen in important concerts, simply because it is such a prestigious event in the city and if you are not seen then it is a problem! Then there is an audience which comprises of students, those who like to listen to different artistes. There is yet another kind of audience who likes to listen to the music irrespective of who performs – that means two categories – one who comes to listen to the art and one who comes to listen to the artiste. There is an audience who says that today it is a morning concert so probably I would get an opportunity to listen to raga Bhairav, or raga Todi, so I must attend. This is broadly the profile of the audience today. Now within this broadly there are categories; audience on margin, a firm audience and a free audience. The audience on margin looks into the ticket rates and thinks of the affordability in order to decide whether or not to attend. Basically they will attend if they can afford. A firm audience wants to listen to good music and goes by both art and artiste irrespective of where the show takes place. The third type of audience is of the mindset that they would love to listen to

217 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 music but only if it comes free. In Indian classical music unfortunately, a large section of audience – I am not referring to Mumbai, but per se falls into this third category. The top category more or less falls into the category of listening to the artiste and not the art. The audience which is on margin preferably wants to listen to the art more than anything else. Location is something which is very important in this. There are various sub-heads for all these audience categorization. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - This categorization we have to attempt in the light of the broad theme of audience response and the changing trends since Independence. Tushar, according to you what are the bases on which you can categorize the audience? The categorization should be relevant for our discussion. Mr. Tushar Bhatia - Shashi has already talked about the different kinds of audience that exist today. I would like to add that it changes from city to city. For example, an audience in Kolkata or Pune or Mumbai would be different than that in Patna or Nanded. I remember one of the artistes was saying that she sings everything from khayal to thumri and in Patna she must sing “jhumka gira re” or else they throw stones! So this is how the audience response depends on the city concerned. The audiences as Shashi rightly said, are very discerning in terms of what they want to hear. I will give you one or two very recent examples. I don’t know whether to say that the audiences have changed or whether the times have changed or whether the marketing forces have changed or whether the approach to media which thinks that the market has changed because we still listen to the same music and enjoy it as much as we used to. About 6 / 7 months back there was a SPICMACAY concert of sitar by Nayan Ghoshji in a college in Wadala. Just as he was about to start the power went off and this was in the month of May. Yet he played his Patdeep very coolly and they all heard him out almost for 45 minutes. For one hour there was no mike, no electricity, he was sweating and so was the tabla accompanist. Yet they heard him happily even after the electricity came for almost 2 and 1/2 hours. This is a very recent example of what the audiences would do. They were enlightened individuals. Although they were not students of music they wanted to know about music and so they were there. This is one example, which I can give for audience response. Independence was 60 years ago and since then people have changed, generations have come in. When you hear/

218 Audience Response talk about the great masters it is a different kind of music. It is a whole subject by itself. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - Even so far as time span is concerned, 60 years is too long, you may like to divide it into 2/3 segments. We will come to it a bit later but presently we are on categorization of audience. Namita, what would be your observations? Ms. Namita Devidayal - Firstly, I have a hard time categorizing either audiences or music, only because I found in my limited exposure that people respond to music in different ways at different times and depending on the setting. For instance, a lot of people who would not necessarily go to a small music circle in Vile Parle may come to a Gateway of India concert or a concert at Bandra Fort. This is also because it is also the way in which the music is presented. For instance, if makes it a brand event then suddenly it becomes a great cache. I got so many requests for passes for the Shubha Mudgal concert tonight at Bandra Fort, for example, from very unlikely kinds of people because there is a cache that is attached to it. So I think that this has become a very big part on the way in which music is appreciated. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe – Do you mean to say that social stratification is having a bearing on the classification stratification of even the audience? Ms. Namita Devidayal - Seems to me like that. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - That is very relevant. Mr. Tushar Bhatia - This is more the case in cities like Delhi and Mumbai. It may not be in Kolkata or Chennai. People go to listen to music per se for itself. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - One more basis of categorization of audience that concerns me as a music organizer is the age group – young audience and old audience. We are craving to have young audience to Indian musical concerts, which is actually posing a big problem. Mr. Shashi Vyas - As far as age group is concerned we have over-expectations from the young audience. We have to define what is young. Are we talking of the age group between let us say 7 to 17, 17 to 30, 30 and above or 45 and above? By and large, we must try to understand the kind of music that is being heard at a different stage and age. This is just an observation and may be some of you may or may not agree. It depends on what is happening in

219 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 your home - the kind of music that is being heard at your house, in your childhood, in your teens, in your company with the friends that you move with and your inherent liking for music. There are people who do not listen to any kind of music, may be the percentage is very minimal. The first time when I was asked to organize a concert, I suggested that we do classical music. Sixteen committee members asked me to leave the meeting as they didn’t know what I was talking about. But after three years they realized that it was the same classical music which helped them to build up a hostel in Vasai. This is a fact; one should have a strong conviction to do missionary work. If you do not find audience between the ages of 7 to 17, do not get disheartened because we need to understand that our body energy level plays a very important role. I feel that classical music by its very nature is quite introspective. It is not to exhibit what you find today in the speed sessions at the end where even the old people clap and express their emotions. Fundamentally, you don’t expect introspective quality and stability from these children unless they are groomed in that manner. The responsibility lies more with the parents than the audience itself. After 16 – 17 years of age the company plays a very pivotal role. Film music is easy to listen to and easy to hum. It is a listener friendly music. Even a 45 years old man wants to have stress relief but he says that he I cannot understand anything without realizing the fact that music is to be felt more and understood less. Audience profile lacking youngsters doesn’t cause much concern to me as an organizer, but yes, from 20 onwards if you don’t find that audience, there is a cause for concern, and unfortunately that segment is increasing. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - That is the main concern for all of us. Anyway, I would like to draw your attention to the given questions. How is corporate sponsorship linked with audience response? It is linked, there is no doubt about it but what is the modus operandi and how does it exactly happen? Mr. Shashi Vyas - Let us understand a few aspects of corporate sponsorship. Earlier we used to have small circles with membership, and the artistes’ fees were so moderate and reasonable that the circles could afford them. The frequency of events was also moderate and the membership consisted of people who were hard-core listeners. They would become members primarily because they wanted to listen to classical music. Today you have some Gujarati clubs having 3000 to 6000 members who listen to different 220 Audience Response orchestras every month. That is the order of the day and that is the demand which is being met. In classical music we hardly have a circle which has got 2000 or 3000 members who are religiously attending the concert irrespective of the artiste. In orchestra you do not expect to have Shreya Ghoshal and Shankar Mahadevan, you just listen to the songs that are popular. This is not so in classical music. Corporate sponsorship came into picture when they found that this is a good platform for their image building. This image building is on a different level. There is a corporate branding, product branding, corporate social responsibility and so on. There are various such factors which determine a particular corporate sector to chip in. The top man or the Managing Director, the Chairman, whether it is a public sector or a private sector, has to be a great lover of classical music. If it goes to marketing section, it is a rarely that they have agreed to associate with any classical music event. There are a number of corporate events happening through which they might invite a celebrity at whatever cost but it is meant for a particular specific audience. The art is in the back seat and the artiste is in the front. When it comes to a public concert, company’s first question is, “What do we as a company get in return? Is my product getting a proper mileage? Is my corporate branding done? Am I associating with a brand event and will it be developed over a period of time?” One must give a particular time frame for a particular event to be considered as a brand event. Let us say Gunidas Sangeet Sammelan; in 1977 it was not a brand event but by 1981-82 it became a branded event. First it was supported by ITC and later by Citibank. They were interested because that was a brand event. Take example of spiritual morning concert at Gate Way. It is an early morning concert and the first comment that a corporate made was, “None of my clients or invitees are likely to come at 6 O’clock, so we cannot support you.” However, when they found that these are indeed attended by 3000/ 4000 people they realized that they must support this event for corporate branding. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - When a proposal is made does the number matter? What are the things that matter? Or is it the name and fame that the artiste already has that matters? What are the things that matter directly or indirectly? Do they dictate with you about the choice of the artiste? Is there any room for you to use your own discretion in the light of values that we would like to propagate?

221 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Mr. Shashi Vyas - In corporate language the number is known as the footfall. Yes, to a large extent it depends on the number and artiste. You cannot dictate with a corporate sector. At the most you can try to convince them to see your viewpoint. It will be heard patiently if the man sitting on the chair is unbiased and there is at least one person there who likes classical music. It doesn’t come under commercial marketing and the classical music has the least importance in corporate sector. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - Namita, I would like to hear from you on the same lines so far as media and press is concerned. Is press coverage a true indicator of audience response? Ms. Namita Devidayal - Not at all! If we went by press coverage then all of Mumbai would look like one shiny happy city as Mumbai Times projects every morning to us. Most people have wised up to the fact that there is very little co-relation between reality and what the media projects for the most part. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - But then what are the reasons? Ms. Namita Devidayal - We will have to ask the reasons from the owners of various newspapers and magazines. I think it is some kind of a false notion that they have to compete with the electronic media. It is a very shortsighted view of what the media’s role is. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - Is it a new trend in media? Ms. Namita Devidayal - I think it is pretty much since the last 15/20 years. One should not get too distressed about it only for this reason. Most people now tend to view, at least newspapers, with a pinch of salt. The way newspapers have degraded themselves; most people now really just sort of skim through them. Even in the way they have marginalized the art, people are quite indifferent to that and I don’t think people are that impressionable any more. Mr. Tushar Bhatia - Whatever Namita has said is the result of the last 20 years - what we call fast-food culture. The generations that you are talking about have no focus, no concentration. I am also involved in a bit of teaching children. As Shashi rightly pointed out about the atmosphere at home, the music one listens to, how intensively you or your parents listen to classical music etc. This whole culture of nothing serious to read on Page 3, who is interested in what – as Purvi said yesterday – what Sharukh Khan is doing or

222 Audience Response what the film stars are doing. That is all that you read, hear and see the pictures of. Very unfortunately, when Ustad passed away there was no mention of it on the first page of Times of India. However, when Michael Jackson passed away the papers spread it all over. Vilayat Khan Saheb is a phenomenon and I don’t have to say more. The result of this is that the whole generation has grown up having no concentration, focus or understanding of the depth of this music. They distance themselves from this music; they think that this is not for them. One of the reasons that Shashi pointed out about not able to understand music - is something that I would like to express and appeal to everyone. When our great musicians or singers sing a bandish the words are not clear, nobody can understand those words. If they just took the trouble like how Veenaji does, to clearly state the bandish, the bandishkar, the raga and the tala before the concert, it would be immensely useful. The first line needs to be just told to people. When a singer sings Tum Radhe bano Shyam or Karim nam tero, people understand what is being sung and expressed. These are some suggestions. When you are bombarding teenagers with all kinds of music which is superficial or which has no retention value – I am not saying it is bad or good – because it is in today and out tomorrow. Whereas you take a record of Kesarbai or Vilayat Khan Saheb that you have heard and enjoyed for years, and you can still find new joy in that. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - Even in the olden days I don’t think many people used to understand Tum Radhe bano Shyam. This is not necessarily understanding of music. That is for sure. There were times where people were really eager to know, get educated and to some extent this need was felt and was satisfied by the Press, isn’t it Namita? Ms. Namita Devidayal - I don’t think so, because in the old days a lot of what was written about music in the Press was actually unreadable. Really honestly, it would put a person off music. One should not keep resorting to the good old days that never were as Ogden Nash said. I am not sure that it was that much better on many levels. Today in a funny way, it happens in a very arbitrary and whimsical manner but you will of course have only the 5- star artistes projected in a way where people think they are superstars. Unfortunately, it will be done in a very shortsighted way because it is only about the superstar factor. I don’t think the press was necessarily that much greater as far as music is concerned.

223 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 I agree with you that it is really the institutions that can help to promote and project music in a right way, and they are: the family and schools. I just cannot fathom why schools don’t make Indian classical music a part of the core curriculum. There is Esha Foundation, which is a Yoga oriented foundation that has started a school where they only teach the arts. It is like the opposite - maths and geography are taught as extra curricular subjects and the arts are taught as core curricula. This is a highly coveted school outside Coimbatore. That kind of thing should really start fanning out into most schools. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - Most of our primary education is still by way of a birth right of school going age children and also sponsored by the State. As Shashi has said, if you have to have sponsorship from corporate sector there has to be somebody who loves music there at the top. Similarly, may be in the Ministry you require somebody who loves classical music. Ms. Namita Devidayal - I think this should be really pressed and I know the All India Musicians’ Group is talking about it. Shivkumar Sharmaji has said something which has really stayed with me. Kids today go through so much stress. It is terrifying to see the suicides happening. Music is one of the most stress-releasing things. It is a natural form of meditation. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - That has to be introduced to the child when there is no stress so that the child can find solace in music later on. Ms. Namita Devidayal - It is like sports. Mr. Shashi Vyas - Let us not underestimate the audience irrespective of the categorization that we have made. I just would like to give two examples. Press coverage in terms of advertisements in entertainment columns is for information. Promotion is different. Pre-publicity is different. Someone appearing on 3rd page, 5th page or every alternate day does not assure him audience. Let us take the example of Ustad who is not seen in the press but commands a huge audience. The latest addition is someone I can proudly say is Jayateerth Mevundi. The first year when he was featured in Arohi, which is a festival of rising stars of young Hindustani music, we just called up everybody to listen to six artistes: Manjiri Asnare, Jayateerth Mevundi, Sanjiv Chimmalgi, Rahul Sharma, Niladri Kumar and Aman Ali. Today Jayateerth commands a good audience. On his own strength he can draw almost a full house in a place like Ravindra Natya Mandir. So press coverage is not a true indicator, I agree with Namita.

224 Audience Response Mr. Tushar Bhatia - I am involved with children education in music and this is my humble appeal to all composers, thinkers and great musicians, to kindly compose simple songs for children that are based on raga and tala. I started doing this in Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan 20 years back. I told my guru Pandit Dinkar Kaikini that itno joban par man na kariye will not work with children of seven years. They neither understand nor relate to this. Instead, I suggested that we make simple one-line songs for them. Why should they sing Jack and Jill and Baba Black Sheep? Unlike in our music, with due to respect to Western music, there are pointed notes, whereas we have minds. The concept of mind is eliminated today from compositions, even from the film compositions. People are singing straight notes, whereas the beauty of mind is important to the aesthetics of the raga. This simple inculcation of melodic feel in children from the age of 5 to 12 is very necessary because otherwise they don’t relate to this music. It becomes a foreign music for them. I have a student who is 6 years old, she says it is so easy to speak English but Hindi is so difficult. This is a very similar case. Ms. Namita Devidayal - This is exactly what I went through while growing up. I went to a very elite Western school in Mumbai and I used to hide the fact that I learnt Indian classical music. I used to be so ashamed of it! Mr. Arvind Parikh - Why? Ms. Namita Devidayal - Because everyone made fun of me. When I used to take part in the music competition in school, the only reason they would make me take part was because I would win and get the house some points. But I was mortified because I clearly remember all my friends would ask what the aa is, and have I forgotten the words and many more. When you are at that age, even boys are looking at you and it is so weird, it is not fun. The irony is that as I grew older and people read about the experiences I had been through and how fabulous it was, every single person who had made fun of me said how lucky I was. The point here is, it is just the convic- tion of presentation. This feeling shame about it, I just can’t believe it. I think this is a Mumbai phenomenon more than anywhere. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - May be a metropolitan phenomenon. Ms. Namita Devidayal - Mumbai is so busy trying to be cosmopolitan that it has just lost the plot.

225 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Mr. Tushar Bhatia - Right now I was walking from my house and I saw the marathon. People were with keyboards and guitars and I wished there was sitar and tabla instead. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - Is sitar and tabla meant for this? Mr. Tushar Bhatia - The point is that you feel more prestigious playing a guitar or a keyboard, and sitar is not considered at all. You don’t see your heroes, your role models in movie holding a sitar. That was Dilip Kumar in Madhuban mein Radhika nache re song in 1960’s and now you do not have that. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - It may not be only prestige but convenience or suitability. Anyway, let us move on to the next question; is the entry of marketing strategies etc. adversely affecting the performing reality in music? If so, what counter-measures are possible? Mr. Shashi Vyas - It is a little tricky question and I am walking a tight rope here! I need a little preamble to come to the main point. Let us understand the two points: response and performance reality. Response is in a wider sense a general emotional reaction to music – positive or negative, depending on the mode of listening. It could be short term, long term, lasting impression or whatever it is. What are the factors that are determining the audience response – by and large a broad category? We have brand event, artiste, content, stage craftsmanship, media, organizer’s goodwill, location, cost of the music and the production values. These are the major segments that determine audience response. Unless required, I don’t want to get into details but there are many issues under each head that affect the audience response. What is a marketing strategy? The marketing strategy in the sense you promote the show, which means you are talking about the media. I just don’t know how it affects the performing reality because performance is something which is with the artiste whom you have selected. It has nothing to do with the marketing strategy that the organizer adopts. He selects particular talents, decides to host a show and this I am talking about a live show. If you go to CDs and cassettes then the promotion depends on the music recording companies and all of you know about the plight today of CDs and cassettes. It is altogether a different topic that requires at least one full day to discuss. Performing reality has three parts - the performance, the audience, and whether at the end of the day it has proved to be successful in

226 Audience Response a common man’s language. The success is in terms of monetary returns and in terms of the performance. If you promote the concert well then it may be successful even if musically it is unconventional and not really traditional. I will give you one small example – there was an event to be done as a fundraiser and they said that we want to do something new. In classical music at the most you can ask someone to sing or play ragas that the artiste has not performed or weave around particular theme like Malhar ke prakar or Bhairav ke prakar and so on. That is packaging - marketing strategy and within that, it is left to the artiste. There was an artiste who preferred to have a drummer included in the classical music. Similarly the trend of having titles to the concerts, which we started, worked as a good marketing strategy. We started with something like Winter Vintage with Shivji, Zakirbhai and my father, and the show was sold out. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - For that matter we had the album titled Call of the Valley that worked well. Mr. Shashi Vyas – That album still works for the audience. Mr. Tushar Bhatia - That was a thematic album. Mr. Shashi Vyas - These are all marketing strategies that create a particular buzz. Once I had a title, Restless Peace with Hariji with a drummer and an acoustic guitar. We just advertised it as a marketing strategy, and perhaps musically it was never thought of. But a concert that was having ticket price of Rs. 3,500 to Rs. 500 was sold out within 48 hours. The person who bought the last ticket of Rs. 500 came and asked me, I am not interested what music is being played, I just want to know what this restless peace means. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - So this was an organizational gimmick. There have been quite a lot of discussions on gimmicks that are being performed by artistes supposedly on the dais and everything that is being done in this manner, which is not liked by hard-core musical lovers. Ms. Namita Devidayal - There is an analogy that I want to make. The postal department in India or even the State Transport buses – sounds crazy - there is nothing profitable about these entities but the government knows that the post has to reach a very small village in Bihar and that the ST bus, even if it is one person sitting has to go to a certain village in the middle of wherever. It is a social responsibility and I think that is something that has to be the

227 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 government mandate. Then you are not relying on the whims of companies, or a music loving CEO or a gimmick with key title or any of that. Mr. Tushar Bhatia - These fancy titles being given to concerts are actually nothing. They have only helped the organizers and big artistes who need that packaging. All artistes cannot afford to go there or they don’t have the contacts. The younger artistes or people who are up coming, have started relying on these things and they do not know how to go about this. Artistes need to market themselves, which they may not be very good at. The whole situation has become topsy-turvy. Instead of concentrating on your music and riyaz, what you are trying to do is market yourself and earn your bread. Ms. Namita Devidayal - That is why you need unconditional government support. Mr. Tushar Bhatia – Once Vilayat Khan Saheb had said something fantastic, “I do not care if my name doesn’t appear everyday in the newspapers, but my name must be in the history.” Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - Namita had suggested one counter measure and that is government sponsorship. What Tushar has observed is perfectly true that artiste today, especially up and coming artiste has a dilemma whether to spend energy in PR or riyaz. Mr. Shashi Vyas - Namita says that Government has to do something but all the time depending on government is not a nice idea. Government within its limits is doing something, whether it is being used properly or not. You have everywhere cultural zonal centres doing concerts, each State government doing festivals and many more. By and large, if any art has to sustain it is the responsibility of the artiste, the organizer and the audience. They must understand this. You come on the platform when you have some content to present. Let me just tell you that everyone wants to be on the stage without testing his/ her capabilities to perform and resorting to marketing strategies, PR and short term benefits. If you want to have a long-term benefit, you ought to concentrate on your content first. Even to become a graduate you have to first spend 15 years. Similarly, to become a good artiste you have to put in certain amount of years. Just because you are naturally gifted does not mean that you should be on the platform at an age where you should not be, because classical music certainly demands a particular level of maturity including the stage craftsmanship. Just having a good voice is not enough; you

228 Audience Response should have the understanding of ragadari. Riyaz is necessary. After reaching a certain level, use the PR. Today it is a needed. Both have to go together but at what point you should resort to that is what you should decide if you want to become a professional. We cannot totally depend on the Government. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - It occurs to me that the voice of the hard-core music listener who is to be found in music circle concerts has to be augmented and is there any mechanism for making this voice, which is very feeble in today’s music world a little bit stronger than what it is? That is my concern. Is there any mechanism that can be suggested for augmenting the voice of a hard- core listener who would always prefer an artiste who devotes more time and energy to realize the musical values rather than only indulge in PR and other gimmicks? There are such listeners and they have their preferences. In today’s democratic and capitalistic set up the voice of such listeners is very feeble. Is there any mechanism available to amplify this voice to make some impact in the musical world? Mr. Arvind Parikh - The question here is, “Is the entry of marketing strategies etc. adversely affecting the performing reality in music? If so, what counter- measures are possible?” I disagree with some of the views expressed by the panelists. I will give you a recent example of an extremely well known artiste who is very popular and without any shade of doubt even if his name is announced the house is full. The concert was sponsored by a bank. When he was tuning the instrument in the green room the sponsor came and told him that the audience consists of bankers who don’t understand music, and hence the artiste must start with fast section with tabla instead of doing alap. Now such attitude can adversely affect the performance of the artiste and I am talking of a very well known artiste. The sponsor suggested this because he wanted the audience response in a particular fashion. He wanted the concert to be popular and entertaining rather than soulful. I discussed this issue with a group of icons and one of them was sporty enough to say, “Mr. Parikh, we are also succumbing to this popularity situation. We are also gradually commercializing our performances to ensure that we become popular and there is a full house next time we perform and we get more and more sponsors.” So in my opinion, one should be very careful in assuming that the performance quality is not affected by marketing strategies. Mr. Shashi Vyas - Sir, are you talking about a corporate event or a public event? Mr. Arvind Parikh - It is a public event sponsored by a corporate. 229 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - Even Maharajahs of olden days would not have dared to say so to an artiste. Ms. Namita Devidayal - I am sure they would have actually. We need to also be a little less adulatory of the whimsical Maharajas. I think patronage has always come with its own whims and eccentricities, which has affected music. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - I will just make three quick points: (1) We are carrying a lot of baggage about the kind of music. Here we have the theme of new trends in Indian music but we are only talking about classical music. (2) We are talking about our experience with classical music primarily in the metros. (3) When we are talking about school education, particularly primary education, we forget that most of our schools are like Jhilla Parishad schools and in villages between two trees with no roof on the top, and just one teacher has to teach all the subjects. This is the real situation and this is what happened in our talks with the government when the government officials very clearly said, “Do you expect a Jhilla Parishad school teacher to teach classical music?” It is like saying, we need a uniform civil code but nobody knows what that is. We need to provide a blue print first. We need to say, “You should sensitize young ears to sound and music of any kind.” When they graduate to a higher level they can decide for themselves what kind of music they want. In fact I defer from what Tushar has said about the need to compose children’s songs in certain melodic structures. I feel that is not necessary, we already have a tradition of children’s songs and we are losing that fast. If you tell your child to speak to his grandmother and ask what she was singing when she was a child, you can get this repository of compositions that already exists but which will die out, and this is how we can dialogue with the elders in our family. You don’t need to stage a kind of dialogue. This can be happening in a very dynamic, organic fashion. We just need to look back in history. In 1948 there was an advisory committee set up for recommendations on music education and Prof. Deodhar and Master Krishnarao and many more. were there. I am particularly mentioning this because this happened here in the Mumbai Presidency (Mumbai Province). They looked at syllabi in various other areas like Karnataka, Patna etc. and even at that stage they were teaching 40-50 ragas. We really need to get a grip on the situation and address the question of what kind of music do we want to teach young children?

230 Audience Response Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - These modalities will come later, first is will, and what we are assessing here is whether there is will to promote. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - No Keshav, I feel the will be there if you determine what music you want to teach. The young as well as the older people in the family are not listening to classical music even at home. Namita Devidayal - What is wrong in our country is that we have marginalized Indian classical music to such an extent that it is not even part of the ambient. I will give you a small example. Tom and Jerry cartoons have traditionally used Western classical music as their score. What that does is in a very subconscious way is to familiarize children with beautiful melodic movements. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - I completely agree with you that we have marginalized our traditional arts but at the same time look at the senior musicians; for instance Tushar was talking about the marathon, if there was sitar and tabla we would have objected by saying that it cannot be played on the road. You would not like that although we are aware that people have played these instruments in so called good old days in all kinds of situations. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - As a representative of the audience this is the time for me to say that whenever a bad trend is being set, it is very easy for organizers and artistes to say that they are compelled to do so by the audience. When something good is done then you own it up as your innovation. Audience is always found to be a nice scapegoat. I would now like to draw attention of the panelists to the last question, which is very particular, pertinent and pointed. After this the floor will be open for questions and answers. Has Indian audience shown, since independence (when I say Indian audience it is aggregate not a particular group or category), a marked preference for: (a) short duration renditions (b) innovative music (c) emotive element rather than structural aspect (d) light-like music (e) instrumental music? Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - It is very difficult to answer this because audience tastes are very varied. By virtue of definition public performance means that you are inviting a cross section of people. Therefore you cannot really say whether all of them will like a particular kind of recital. On the whole for me as a musician, I would never like to cater to what I consider is an audience taste. I would like to play with full conviction what I have come prepared with and I don’t change that.

231 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Ms. Namita Devidayal - I am sure as an artiste it is exhausting to try and pre- empt what your audience wants. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - Absolutely! Ms. Namita Devidayal - Even as a writer if I think somebody will like if I write this or that, it is difficult. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - It is not whether you cater to the audience requirements or not, it is about your observation. What do you observe? Have Indian audiences at large come to prefer a short duration rendition? Say yes or no. Whether they have come to like more innovative music? Whether they have put more emphasis on emotive element rather than structural, scientific and the shastra element? Whether they have shown more inclination to music that resembles film and light music? These are pointed questions and you have to give your observations. We do not ask you the statistics. We want the truth. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - I can say from my limited experience that there is no need for short duration renditions. First of all what do you mean by short, is it is 10, 15 or 20 minutes? Mr. Shashi Vyas - Instead of 3 hours now we have 1 and 1/2 hours to 2 hours renditions. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - I have come across many members of the audience who say, “We should have only one single musician for the entire evening. We listen to a CD of 60 minutes. Here we come to a live concert and we would like to listen to you for two hours.” So there are members of audience like that as well. I don’t think there is any dichotomy between emotive element and structural aspects. So I cannot comment on that. Instrumental music certainly is more in vogue but once again it depends upon the area. In Maharashtra vocal music is very much sought after. Mr. Tushar Bhatia - As a producer of programmes and shows, I was involved for almost 7 / 8 years in a programme called Raga ranga roop produced by Ms. Chhaya Ganguli. In this we had a simple structure with a classical bandish in any raga and a parallel film / popular song, which is a good song, what you would call a tasteful song with proper commentary given so that the audiences that are not really discerning classical audiences would also be attracted to the beauties of ragadari music. That was the only purpose and we had successful programmes with people like Pandit .

232 Audience Response Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - Tushar, this is a fast track question round. You have to say either yes or no. We do not want to have comments. Mr. Tushar Bhatia - It cannot be yes or no because there are different audiences. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - Your perception of the audience as a whole is what we want. There is aggregation and things are led by the aggregate. Mr. Tushar Bhatia - I do not have one perception of any audience. I think they are varied. Mr. Shashi Vyas – The idea of three-hour concert with either one or two artistes is fast receding. If you have a one and half hour or two hours concert without interval people love that irrespective of the cost effect. Instead of using the term innovative music I would rather say differently packaged music. Rather than structural aspect, by and large common audience goes more for emotive element. These are my observations based on the feedback from the audience. Light music; not the Bollywood type but something like say folk, Sufi music or even different forms of devotional music are in great demand. I agree with Aneesh that in Maharashtra vocal music is more dominant whereas in Bengal it is the instrumental music that is more dominant, and in Chennai both are more or less equal. However, if you go to the interior rural parts they would love to listen to any music with a big name, and time is not a restraining factor there. They would listen to more than two hours comfortably. Ms. Namita Devidayal - I would honestly prefer listening to a 10 minutes raga presentation if it is stunningly done, the way they used to in the olden days than somebody who drags on and on and thinks he is doing a great job! Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - Yes that has been the trend since 1947 to at least 1965-70. The duration went on increasing. Ms. Namita Devidayal - So duration should not be a consideration. It should be the quality of music in short. Innovative music has to be innovative to last, but this doesn’t mean it goes out of tradition. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - Whether the audience has got a marked preference for that or whether they want to go for the proven formulae? Whether you like it or not is not the issue, what is your observation in general about the audience?

233 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Ms. Namita Devidayal - I think the audience response to good music at the end of the day is really about that. Sometimes there are aberrations because there are people who are products of marketing. In general I would say that it just has to touch a chord, otherwise they are not going to go back again. We have to give a little more benefit of doubt to the audience. The music does touch a chord or it doesn’t. Mr. Tushar Bhatia - We are also audiences in a way and we listen to music. Ms. Namita Devidayal - There are levels of audiences. You will always have the elite audience, or the slightly more emotionally oriented audience, the mass audience, and definitely there seems to be a preference for instrumental music because it is easier to handle. For a lot of people who don’t really have the stamina for vocal music, instrumental music is more accessible. The canon of musicians that have become obvious or the ones you think like the top 10 musicians today, unfortunately instrumentalists are the ones that come to mind, and that is something that needs to be thought about a little bit because according to me it is a bit too easy. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - Which of the groups of audience is dominating the total scene? Is it the new listener still as of 2010 who is dominating the scene in the music field or whether it is old informed member of audience? It seems that the music scene today in India is dominated by a new listener who is not yet fully initiated or fully into it, or who is still entering the arena of classical music. They dominate the scene directly or indirectly, that seems to be the conclusion. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - It is a little contradictory. Because on the one hand we are saying that young people are not there in the audience and then you are saying that there is a new listener. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - You want to cater to them, you want to bring them in the arena and that is why all these efforts are made, so that they dominate. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - If you are wondering whether the performance structure today is dominated or motivated by the new listener, this means there are new listeners. Keshav Paranjpe - New listeners – present and prospective. Mr. Shashi Vyas - Someone who is forty-five today was twenty years old 25 years ago when he was listening to music. Someone who is 20 today may not

234 Audience Response be attending all the concerts in large number. But when he becomes 45 and is settled in his life, may attend concerts. This is a normal observation. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe – Somehow there is a feeling that classical music is only meant for elderly persons! It is like Gita, it has to be read at a particular age! Anyway, I don’t want to make any further comment on that and now the floor is open for questions. Mr. Prakash Burde - From 1947 to the present day is a very big span. Even if you take 20 years, we can see how music has changed during this period. I have been associated with a platform that is holding recitals every Sunday mornings for past 18 years. It is open for classical music per se - for Carnatic, Hindustani, vocal, instrumental. But slowly we had to make certain changes. More people including the youngsters are interested in the listening sessions. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - That is a good sign. Mr. Ravi Mathur - Mr. Vyas, why not make a distinction between a marketing event and an organization’s interest in music. Both can co-exist and are separate. The emphasis seems to be more on the event and I feel that your comments therefore need a modification. Mr. Shashi Vyas - The objectives of institute and organization are different. You say that it is only as far as event is concerned. This is not so. Mr. Ravi Mathur - Mr. Vyas, I don’t think you have understood me. May I explain it again? ITC is one organization. A part of this is the banner of ITC. It runs a marketing event for promotion of a product and that has its own marketing compulsions. The same organization now runs a Sangeet Research Academy for 30-31 years. Yes, initially it could have been for a Chairman who liked music but not for 31 years. The sustained organizational interest is distinct from the marketing event. That’s the point I am making and perhaps you might consider this. Mr. Shashi Vyas - Marketing event is not what I am referring to. That comes under marketing strategies. As an organizer, doing events and running an institution are two different things. When you talk of marketing an event, it is an integral part of hosting the event. The only factor you should consider is whether you are compromising on your principles while marketing the event.

235 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Mr. Ravi Mathur - Mr. Vyas, I don’t think I have been understood but we can talk this over lunch. I also have another comment to make. I think this was by far the liveliest of the panels; the emotive content in terms of response in my own case was between anger and laughter. Mr. Moderator, I just want to draw your attention to the point that Tusharji was trying to make, which you cut off. If you can spare the time, Tusharji can tell us about the programme that you and Ms. Chhaya Ganguli did. This would be very interesting and educative for all of us. Mr. Tushar Bhatia - I will be happy to talk about it little later. Mr. Keshav Paranjpe - It is a good sign that there are many questions, deliberations and discussions that are emerging out of this session.

236 Fusion Music

Moderator: Dr. Aneesh Pradhan Panelists: • Mr. Zakir Hussain • Mr. Louis Banks • Mr. Ranjit Barot • Mr. Arvind Parikh • Mrs. Aruna Sairam Questions

1. Do you think by and large Indian musicians are guarded in their reactions about the artistic significance of the phenomenon under discussions? 2. Would you say that specific forms or structures have emerged over the years that could be identified under the fusion music category, just as khayal, thumri can be grouped under classical or art music? If so, could you describe the salient features of these forms? 3. Would it be correct to say that most fusion music projects involving Indian musicians are restricted primarily to instruments? Would you agree that voice is seldom used in fusion music project? 4. Would you say that improvisation forms a larger part of fusion music projects rather than the compositional aspect? If so, could you explain why? 5. Has Fusion music come to stay? Why? Mr. Arvind Parikh - We have come almost to the end of our programme and this session in a sense will conclude the various sessions. Of course, we will separately have a concluding session. Aneesh can I request you to start the session? Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - Good afternoon everybody and welcome back! I am glad I have fortified myself with enough lunch because this is a formidable panel here! I would like to start with a question to Panditji actually – Do you think by and large Indian musicians are guarded in their reactions about the artistic significance of the phenomenon under discussion, i.e. fusion music? Mr. Arvind Parikh - I would be as diplomatic and discreet as possible. To answer your question I would say yes and no, because when you say Indian musicians, it is a big umbrella. You would be covering classical and light

237 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 classical musicians, musicians who are very successful, who are not so successful and so on. Therefore the answer could be yes and no. Musicians could be old, traditional, orthodox, and narrow minded, or relatively young and open minded, and therefore their reactions could be guarded. They are wondering what fusion really means. There are different categories of fusion, and I think perhaps Indian musicians would welcome some categories of fusion but may feel challenged by some other varieties, and there may be some categories of fusion that they would hate. The kind of reactions that different musicians would have may differ immensely. I hope I have been as diplomatic as possible! Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - I will certainly come back to you. I take this question to Zakirbhai. Mr. Zakir Hussain - I will try to be not as discreet as possible, which will be impossible! I don’t know whether musicians respond by saying that they want to see if the fusion music appeals to them. I think, the first spontaneous approach of musician is to say that this music or that music sounds good or not. For me, I don’t know if I agree with the idea that there is a title which we are discussing as fusion music at the moment. It is the music which was not there 50 or 100 years ago. Probably it was there actually a thousand years ago, if I may say so but not to our knowledge. My thinking is that the musicians don’t look at anything new or different. As fusion, they just look at it as music. Their reaction to it is whether it is good to listen to or not good to listen to, whether it is in tune or not, or whether it is in rhythm or not. If that appeals to them or not and I would imagine they would say yes, this is good or this is not good. Beautiful melodies composed by the Bollywood composers in the 40s or 50s were greatly appreciated by the great Ustads. They didn’t say it was fusion music even though it was. They just regarded it as a beautiful melody based in particular raga. It didn’t matter that there were strings playing with piano and the upright base was back there along with sarangi, sitar and sarod. It didn’t matter; it was just a beautiful form of music. If we, today’s musicologists, critics, people with magnifying glasses decide to put a question to Ustads as to what they think of fusion music, may be they will be guarded because they don’t know any such term. As far as they are concerned music is music, whether it is good or bad, it doesn’t really matter. For me, I believe that when a musician is put under a magnifying glass, he /she is, to quote Arvindji, discreet. If not put under a magnifying glass they would very happily say they enjoyed it or they didn’t enjoy it.

238 Fusion Music Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - I would just like to say that may be broadly we can classify fusion music - if all the panelists are fine with that – as a collaborative process between performers perusing different styles or different systems of music. We are not just talking about Indian or Western, even within the Indian system you can have Hindustani and Carnatic, or within Hindustani you could have folk element and classical, and so on. If we look at it in a very broad manner, at least I as a student of music very often come across musicians who are practicing fusion music talking about it in different terms when they are in different contexts. In one context they would even join the gang and say, “Oh, this is confusion music”. There is another one who says, “Well, you know I would love to do that but I am scared that my image as a classical musician will be spoilt”, and yet you want to get all the performance opportunities which that particular collaborative process may open you to. Mrs. Aruna Sairam - I think fusing impressions, taking a particular impulse and then integrating it into what you do, is also a kind of fusion, if you may call it that. Our artistes of the previous generation, especially the composers have been doing this. For example, Dikshitarji walked right up to Benaras and brought in Brindavani sarang, the version as it is sung in Carnatic tradition is absolutely like raga Megh but he calls it Brindavani sarang. When he came back nobody thought it was fusing of influences. They just loved it. Or when the Maratha rulers settled down in ; I believe the mrdangam playing before was a bit staid or monotonus and these people brought in kirtankar’s influences, which completely changed the style of mrdangam accompaniment in a classical Carnatic vocal concert. We don’t call it as a folk element coming into a Carnatic tradition. In fact Palghat Mani Iyer is an icon who we celebrate. All of these are results of fusion as Ustad Zakirji said. I must say he is one musician who in his own lifetime has done path-breaking work, and is being acclaimed and acknowledged by his own peers. I think he is a phenomenon. I really appreciate what he is doing. We are all following our artistic impulses and living the life of an artiste as one should. Whatever discussions happen, well they happen because they have to happen! Mr. Ranjit Barot - When you have collaborative processes with musicians from different ethnicities, not just internationally but even within your own country, the most amazing thing is that the artistes want to meet at a place, which belongs to everyone. That spirit of music doesn’t really belong to any one ethnicity or any specific form or genre. That structured or improvised

239 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 spirit exists and it is the same in Indian classical music as it is in jazz or Western classical music. There is one place where all the ideologies meet. That is where we all want to go. Take example of Zakirbhai’s Shakti; all the artistes met at that place. When you heard it you didn’t really regard that as the East meets the West. It was just this large space where everything that you could imagine was being realized. I come to why people would be guarded. Most artistes are inquisitive by nature. Nobody is going to reject somebody because of what it is called or what is going to happen. You will only reject something if you are not informed. Music cannot be disassociated from the social and everyday life. There is an intellectual part to music, there is study, there is riyaz, but there is also a social impact. Western music and Jazz music comes from street corners and clubs. It is not enough just to listen to it. It is a language, an attitude and a mental state of mind that once appreciated, prompts you to look even at your own music differently. The guarded aspect would come and it is valid if I am not informed about the music. You know that I have grown up in a classically trained family. I have chosen to play drum set, I am working on an album and I realize how I am not informed about the harmonic structure of jazz. I have to study side by side to realize my project because otherwise I would be faking it up. I have enough imagination and good taste to say that I shouldn’t do this because it is going to look like a fake. It is quite an ongoing process and yes, I agree that this term fusion is suspect. Mr. Louis Banks - I would just like to say that there are only two kinds of music – one is good music and the other is badly played music. Fusion music comes under the umbrella of experimental music because we are experimenting and today we are experimenting all the time. I don’t like to categorize music but you cannot get away from it. There are definitely categories in music and that is how these disciplines come about. There are norms and rules you have to follow to be able to play that music. You can’t just haphazardly play classical music. You cannot definitely just play jazz, there are norms to follow. That might come under the umbrella of pure music. For me, the base for fusion music is impurity. It starts from impurity because you are mixing things – some good, some bad – it is all experimentation. That is why I think Indian musicians are guarded definitely, but the brave ones try to experiment and try new things because it is a fresh idea and it is something new.

240 Fusion Music As far as pure music goes we have really touched the summit and some of the great musics have already been written. Now where do we go from there? If I was doing classical music I would not dream of writing better than what Rachmaninoff wrote. If I was doing painting, it was impossible to paint something better than Rembrandt or Michael Angelo. So where do we go? We retract our steps or we expand our experimenting and that is where fusion comes into being. We are guarded because the area is very experimental - it is not definite. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - The second question I would like Zakirji to answer– Would you say that specific forms or structures have emerged over the years that could be identified under the fusion music category, just as khayal, thumri can be grouped under classical or art music? If so, could you describe the salient features of these forms? Mr. Zakir Hussain - Taking a cue from Mr. Banks I would have to be very guarded with my answer, simply because I guess this is the age of experimentation. This is where we figure out where to go next. How to play Tintal better or how to expand on a kayda that has already been looked at from every possible angle! Having said that I don’t know if there is a structure yet. I don’t know if there are salient features in fusion music. Every day there is something different that is coming out. I was listening to something that I thought was disco but I was told that it was house-music because it had a certain beat tempo, which is what makes it house! There is something new emerging in music every hour, on the hour. We have utilized our resources whether folk, classical, just contemporary or whatever, and have come up with some very incredible as well as quite ordinary music over the years. If we were to explore using say the Rajasthani folk or the Punjabi bhangda and qualify the different salient features then we would have to have a book bigger than the Britannica! I don’t think we have got yet to that point but we can say that this music would have the “ten commandments” that we would follow. To me it is always different. To speak even of Indian music I don’t think that I would limit myself to saying that there are these do’s and don’ts. Because if I do, I would be limiting my vision and not think of what more I can do with it. Though I would adhere to certain rules as a launching point I would open up a little bit. When khayal was invented it wasn’t called fusion and over the last centuries or so it developed in to a system that we all follow. May be it is possible that a 100 years down the road we may have a form that may emerge from all

241 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 this potpourri of stuff and may find a way to create some kind of a rule book as to how to go about doing it, how to learn it, how to sift through good and bad in it and so on. At the moment, I don’t see that. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - When you are a performer and a composer in any project, do you strive to develop a kind of structure that you would continue even in another ensemble? Mr. Zakir Hussain - Absolutely, one always brings one’s experiences to the table, no matter which table it is. If I am playing Indian classical music, I am sure I am guilty of injecting in to my tabla whatever I have come across through my journeys in the world. With certain musicians I may not do it but with others who are open to certain interaction, that may take a new direction, by all means. Yes, I am very much in that way with my music. Arunaji pointed out the way the great Palghat Mani Iyerji changed the tone of the mrdangam. In his accompaniment he used the space in the tala system and there were times when he would just let it go and stop for a second while the korvai was going on and pick it up at a certain point and make it very dramatic. Pandit Kishan Maharajji was very different from how Benaras gharana said it should be played. Ustad Alla Rakha didn’t sound anything like his Guru from Punjab gharana. So everything changes. These changes happen because you learn from what you have seen and imbibed. Then it spontaneously comes forth like we are speaking in English and not in Hindi, even though we are from India. But it is something we have grown to do and we enjoy and interact with others in English. So it is all a growing process. Mrs. Aruna Sairam - When someone asked a great musician, “What do you know about this?” He replied, “I surely know that I don’t know and to be in the space of ‘I don’t know’ is what makes me an artiste.” So we are all in this place and we don’t know. This is what really fires our imagination, raves up our creativity and we are able to move ahead simply because we don’t know and we are curious like children. I really don’t know if such forms do exist. May be something is coming later. At the moment I don’t see any special category appearing on the firmament. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - Would Ranjitji and Louisji also agree with that? Mr. Ranjit Barot - Absolutely, it is wide open now. I think, as artistes when you see the body of work that has been done on almost every genre and instrument, at times when you come to your own instrument, it is daunting. You ask yourself, “Why am I here? Am I going to take this forward and have

242 Fusion Music something valid to say? Am I going to find new ground and how do I fit in this whole thing?” If I am going to the West as a drummer, how are they going to look at me? What is it that I have that is new? This is such a selective process and each individual will find some way to interrupt it. It is hard to say that there is one form or one structure. It is wide open at this point. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - Louisji, would you agree? Mr. Louis Banks - Yes definitely. There are no written rules for fusion music and I don’t think there ever will be rules written even in the future because the music is so experimental. But there are unwritten rules that you have to follow if you want to make sense of what you are doing and fuse different styles. If I want to fuse Carnatic music with jazz, I have to make that marriage happen by understanding what Carnatic musicians do. I haven’t studied Carnatic music, so I get the best Carnatic musicians to play with me. Then I take a cue from that and try to merge with that. So me being a jazz musician, I do not play Carnatic music, I play jazz. When I am playing with Carnatic musicians I fuse that element and we sort of find a common ground or a point of departures in the music where we come together and then take off. When the Carnatic musician takes off, he does that with what he has learnt in his own pure form, structure and discipline that he has followed over the years. The jazz musician does the same thing, they do not try and imitate. I do not try and play like a Carnatic musician, or the Carnatic musician does not play jazz. Jazz has different norms and styles and you have to follow them. Jazz basically is chromaticism and Carnatic music is modal, so there is a difference. You can bring these two forms together and make interesting music. That’s what we are doing but the name given to it is “fusion”. Mr. Zakir Hussain - A thought just occurred to me when Mr. Banks said there are unwritten rules. It appeared to me in my interactions with musicians that I wasn’t trying to find a way to make the music interact and shape my music in a way so that it fitted that socket – it wasn’t that. The unwritten rule was the social interaction between the musicians and between the artistes. How that appeared, how you talked with each other, how you behaved with each other and how you approached each other. Having interacted in that manner, it kind of opens the door as to how the music would then come together with interaction of the individuals involved. That is something maybe to look at in the future or may be now if somebody has any comments on how unwritten social actions or rules may apply.

243 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Mr. Ranjit Barot - It is interesting that Zakirbhai said that. I was not brave enough to bring that up. I thought it may be not too pertinent but it is absolutely true. As Louis mentioned, one way around the collaborative process would be, if I am not well versed with the jazz piano or with the Carnatic violin, I will invite that player in and see what comes off the moment. Yes, certainly that is the valid way to do it. Let us talk about a good friend of ours, John McLaughlin, who makes it a point to take Rickshaw rides in Chennai to understand why the upma tastes so fresh pre-7.30 am! All the way from Monaco, you cannot get a more sterile environment than Monaco and then to find yourself in Chennai, but not mourn about the rickshaws, and take it as the way the life works here, I think gives him an insight into a sub- text, if you will. There is music on top we know. We all are an extension – our music is an extension of our personalities and it would seem logical that if I am playing my life story and want to play another life story, I should at least try and find out where this life story comes from. This is extremely valid. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - Would you all agree that for this curiosity to develop and evolve into some sort of a long-term process, may be event organizations could look at workshopping a certain performance. Let us say two months before that, get the musicians in – I know it calls for a lot of money and time – but I think for this kind of experimental work you need that time and space. Perhaps, even NCPA – we are sitting in the Experimental Theatre – perhaps this venue can be given out to musicians who want to experiment. Mr. Zakir Hussain - May I add to that from what I have seen over the years? When you put two great musicians and tell them that they are going to be locked up in a room, provided with food and per day honorarium and many more. for a couple of weeks so that they could come up with something together, perhaps a very exciting or decent statement can emerge from that interaction. However, I think any kind of music that is a combination of various genres or traditions has to happen because the musicians themselves take the initiatives to make it. It does not emerge if you take two guys and say okay you do it, it just doesn’t work that way. I feel that it is important that such opportunities should be made available in a way where the selection of who does what with whom and how should be left to the artistes themselves.

244 Fusion Music Dr. Aneesh Pradhan – Absolutely, but the space should be provided. Arunaji, if I may come to you with the next question – Would it be correct to say that most fusion music projects involving Indian musicians are restricted primarily to instruments? Would you agree that voice is seldom used in fusion music project? Mrs. Aruna Sairam - I can only tell about the work that I have done. I have worked with Dominique Vellard of France. I have done a series of concerts, which have gone down very well for us and for the audiences. There is a lot of work happening with the voice but I would say it is more with the instruments. I think vocalists are trying out. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - Is it because of the language? Is it more of a reflection of the culture and cultural context? Mrs. Aruna Sairam - Perhaps in vocal music there are several dimensions like the poetry, the voice, the timbre etc. Therefore to that extent it is something that one would think twice before one really entered into that arena, because you got to deal with all these things. But I feel that if two artistes vibe with each other as human beings and really know each other as friends, or people that respect and trust each other, then the rest follows. We came upon this programme because Dominique was in the audience for several of my concerts as I was performing in Theatre de la Ville and other places. He is a pioneer in his genre of medieval singing and liturgical music of Europe. He suggested that we just meet. He invited me to visit him and spend some time with his family. We did not set out to do a concert in the beginning. We spent time at his home for ten days. We did all kinds of things like cooking vegetarian food, Indian food and things like that. Then he sang a song which I felt was in raga Kalyani and I burst in to some alap in Kalyani – so it emerged like that. It is a very slow and organic process. Mr. Ranjit Barot - May be it is hard to say why fusion music and experimental music started out primarily with instruments. I have heard voice being used in many contexts. We tend to look at it from Indian point of view- whether the Indian classical voice has been used - but may be not as much. You have Pat Metheni working with Cambodian singers, you have the Tuvan singers working with many other people, and so on. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - I was talking more in the Indian context, not only classical but Indian music per se.

245 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Mr. Ranjit Barot - I would imagine there is lot more space for that to emerge. It has not been as much as instrumental music probably because they are not familiar with exactly what we are singing and need to inform themselves a little more. Mr. Louis Banks – I agree that voice is seldom being used but I love voice. If I find the right voice, I would love to interact with that voice. So far in Indian music I have found a few voices with open minds – they have to have open minds otherwise it does not work – with closed mind fusion music cannot happen. Mr. Zakir Hussain - As far as I am concerned, all the early fusion music featured voice and that goes back to when Indian music or khayal was first being sung or being performed. The preferred element in that was singing. Everybody sang and that was the fusion of dhrupad and prabandh gayaki. Similarly forms such as thumri, kajri, and many more. where classical music or khayal music mixed with folk, it was again singing. Singing was a very important element of that fusion at that time. When you came to film every song was sung and it was all fusion music. Until recent time – early 70s – most of the collaborative music, experimental music, and interactions between different genres of music have singing as the featured mode of expression. It was only in the 70s that instrumental groups like Shakti emerged. Even in jazz, singing was a very important part and some of the finest singers like Loretta James, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra and others, all sang. Similarly when you talk about fusion music in the film world you cannot imagine anything without the voice of Lataji, Rafiji or Mukeshji. But in recent time in the experimental music world like Shakti, there was instrumental music because that was the element from the jazz world that reached out to this part of the world, which was the instrumental element and you talked about John McLaughlin or ’ Bitches Brew and so on. It seems like what is recent is what stands out, so we feel that instrumentalists are choice of fusion artistes. But I don’t think that is really true when you talk about the recent hip-hop music or elements of African music, which you are singing with hip-hop or rap or what not. It is largely singing that is happening in all these combinations. I feel it is less instrumental - Peter Gabriel doing his thing and so on. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - Do you think that improvisation plays more of a role than compositional element? 246 Fusion Music Mr. Zakir Hussain - If you take all these different styles of experimental music that we are talking about, improvisation is the least. When you are talking about Ravi Shankarji’s composition for himself and Yehudi Menuhin, it was a composed piece of music. His concerto too was a composed piece of music. Similarly his performances with other musicians were all composed pieces of music with very little improvisations. When you talk about all the experimental music now; rap, hip hop, electronic, Asian underground and many more, there is a lot of element brought into it, but it is all within the skeleton form of drum and base, and then you fly in various sound samples and so on. Improvising element vis-à-vis someone’s personal involvement is very limited. There are very few groups that do that – Mr. Banks, Ranjitbhai, John McLaughlin and people like that use improvising as a major element for their compositions for experimental music, but not much more than that. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - Are you all in agreement? Mr. Ranjit Barot - Yes, I would add that the few instances that you see improvisation playing a larger part than the compositional structure, is merely because it is really hard to write good music. You try writing a song; it is hard for us to translate across all levels. It is hard to write a song that exists as comfortably as the duality that we have. We all go home, I am going tomorrow morning and say suprabhatam to my father-in-law, I am here talking English to you, I play jazz drum set, my mother is a kathak dancer – it is a melting pot. For the music to exist as seamlessly as all these things exist in us, is a lot of work. It is getting rid of the ego, it is getting rid of the need to impress, it is coming down to the most child-like yet valid - it has to be honest, cannot be fake or pretentious. So the bands that you hear where they have one little tihai and seven minutes of jam, they can’t write down the music. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - Thanks so much for a candid answer. Mr. Louis Banks - I will go with it. Mrs. Aruna Sairam - Me too. I do alap most of the time and then we peg it on a Latin piece or a Sanskrit piece or something like that. But then the alap forms the major part because that is how you sort of couch the composition. It is a blend of improvised music and sure enough, you have a composition, which is so beautifully written. It is there, it is the material that is available to you and you would be crazy not to use that.

247 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - Would you all agree that most of the intercultural exchange that has taken place between India and other cultures is primarily between India and the West and not so much between India and let us say Asian countries? If you think it is true then why would it be true? Is economics also part of the reason? Mr. Ranjit Barot - I think primarily because the West brings one element to Eastern music that never existed here, which is the harmonic element. As you travel eastwards you will find a lot of monophonic solo instruments. Indonesia has ensembles like Gamelan. But they are not only recently trying to be chordal but it is pretty much religious kind of thing. When you bring Western music with Indian music you have the most beautiful marriage of the most heart breaking melodies. If you have the right piano player like my friend Louis Banks here, it just takes your breadth away. You can take one mode, one raga but can colour it in so many different ways if you are knowledgeable. You can react to that melody and you have all these chops under your belt that you can bring to it. I think the West was intuitive and they reached out to us because of our microtonal approach to melody and we organically connected with them because suddenly we heard beautiful chords playing the melody that we had never experienced before. Mr. Zakir Hussain - We also have one other thing, jazz. It has one thing common with Indian music, and that is the element of improvising. That fits in like a glove! Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - You can turn the last question into a statement. Now we want you to say that Fusion music has definitely come to stay! Mr. Arvind Parikh - Well, I don’t know Aneesh how to react to your question because of several reasons - looking at my age and the 60 years that I have spent with Ustad Vilayat Khan, I believe that there are two ways in which the personality of a musician can develop – one is horizontal and the other is vertical. I believe the discussions that have been going on here, all point to horizontal expansion. Some of us like myself, you may consider very conventional, orthodox, narrow-minded or whatever, but I believe in vertical expansion. In other words the genre which I have taken, i.e. sitar - classical music with light classical added, I go deeper and deeper vertically in that area of work. May be as I have said it is conceivable that I have blinkers but I enjoy it, I like where I am. From that point of view, if you ask me this question - after all everyone has the freedom to develop one’s own musical personality

248 Fusion Music in the manner one thinks one is enjoying it, I have no business to criticize anyone. But I have also equal freedom to like it or not like it. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - The floor is now open to questions. Mrs. Saskia Rao de Haas - Actually this is to respond to Arvindji’s remarks about horizontal versus vertical expansion. I can imagine that you start one experiment and find it so interesting that you start going deeper into it. Mr. Zakir Hussain - As far as I am concerned we are actually at a transitional stage with experimental music. There is a whole lot on the plate and we are just kind of sifting through it - we meaning musicians all over the world. Hopefully, as I said, hundred years down the road when the do’s and don’ts emerge, it would be possible then to focus on it and have a vertical expansion. Mrs. Saskia Rao de Haas - From your own experience which music experiments you feel you have gone deeper into? Mr. Zakir Hussain - My own music that I grew up with is Indian classical music, which is my first love and will always be. As Arvindji says, that is what gives me the most satisfaction and also allows me to soar into a deep medi- tative state and be able to become one with an incredible energy that has existed for so many thousands of years, and tie into that plug and be rejuvenated. So in that way this is really what I go for. But at the same time if I am to grow as a musician I need to look at both sides of me. Obviously, when I see what is going on all over the world I want to interact and learn more from it. Some of it will help my music that I am comfortable with, at home with, relaxed with, because that is what I grew up with. This element, I have a feeling will help me to make my comfortable music much more passionate. May be, isn’t it what Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Saheb did or the way Ustad Amir Khan Saheb rendered Marwa and so on? These were personal insights which we know happened, because they looked at a raga in a different manner and totally changed the way khayal is sung now. Keeping that in mind, that again is, I imagine a look that may have had a horizontal help to go deep into it. For me, indeed music and these experiments will help me to make that better. Mr. Arvind Parikh - To have more than one vertical it requires a genius like Zakirbhai.

249 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 Mr. Ranjit Barot - To respond to your question in another fashion - I would like Louis to correct me if I am wrong, the little that I have learnt playing with him, I understand that the spirit of jazz is pretty much to break the form of everyday. That in itself is an antithesis to the vertical expansion. The masters are asking you to go deeper into the art form by not playing it the same way every day. Miles would go on stage with his band and even after being in the song for 15 minutes he might keep eluding and not play the head. It is interesting to understand that the tradition asks you to break the form night after night - to play the same song but never the same way. Mrs. Aruna Sairam - I understand that you need to break the form. But this can happen only if he or she knows it from the gut; otherwise there is no form to break. I remember when Balasaraswati amma would dance; she is the only dancer that never premeditated her abhinaya when she went on the stage, she could just emote, do abhinaya, do solkattu with her feet and hands, all improvised as well sing! This was possible because the system she grew up with was so much part of her conscious and sub-conscious. I am sure when you are breaking any form; it is because you know it right from inside. Prof. Joep Bor - I worked a long time at Rotterdam Conservatoire and we had many departments; classical Western music, world music, jazz etc. What I observed in the jazz department is that there was very little attention given to improvisation and experiment. Can this vital aspect be taught in some way or another? Mr. Louis Banks - You mean can improvisation be taught? Prof. Joep Bor - Improvisation or for lack of a better word – fusion or hybrid music. Mr. Louis Banks - No, I think you can only teach the traditional disciplines and after that you have to close the book. Then keep an open mind and start experimenting. Mr. Ranjit Barot - There must be a searching spirit within you. There must be a spirit that wants to know – you must be curious. If I want to really familiarize myself say with Flamenco music, which I am crazy about, I will go to Spain and meet some musicians and would try and understand more about it. I think it is not possible in a Conservatory or in an institution to bring so much information. You would need many teachers to try and bring that about. Like Louis said, you learn the tradition, you learn the basics and

250 Fusion Music then you decide how you want to interact with the rest of the music that is available to you. Mrs. Aruna Sairam - As far as improvisation is concerned, I believe that you cannot teach improvisation but you can help a student to learn the tools of improvisation. For example, I have experienced with a great master, Mr. A. S. Mani, who was the disciple of Tiger Varadacharya. He took me by my hand and taught me some things. I remember trying to improvise with sargam in raga Ananda bhairavi. He asked me to sing a few sargams and I started from the Sa and then come back Sa, then again go up and come down. I was singing the octave up and down and after a while he just looked blank. Then he said, “What next, what more?” He told me to limit my range just to two, three or four notes and then try to do the same thing but go within that. Slowly I learned the tools. So these kinds of methods, I am sure every master has, and these are only tools and not the actual improvisation. It is up to the artiste what he/she makes out of these tools and for that you have to have the spirit to want to do something. Mr. Ranjit Barot - One more thing I would like to add quickly. I play the drum set. It is a very physical instrument and involves certain amount of practice, which gives you muscle memory. Anything that involves physicality, there is muscle memory involved. When you practice a lot, your muscle memory remembers to execute that on stage. I cannot claim to be a teacher because I am self-taught, I can share and I can show some sub-text. It is interesting for me to meet young kids because I am pushed to evaluate my own instrument and try and make that one-hour valuable for them – that it is not a waste of time. Today, with internet if you want to know certain rudiments and practices, it is all available. I remember when a young drummer played for me; it struck me that he only played things he was comfortable with. For myself I notice that when I sit and play, I play things that I know. Off the instrument, when I play in my mind, it is everything I don’t know. Now we want to bridge that gap. We want to bring everything we don’t play off our instrument on our instrument. That is a tool for improvising. I told him to stop playing and just sing me a four bar phrase. He sang and I then I told him to play the same. He did not have the muscle memory but he played. That is the way we can try and bridge that gap. Mrs. Aruna Sairam - Map it in your mind first and then use it physically. Mr. Arvind Parikh - I have a slightly different approach to this whole situation. Arunaji described it as tools, I call it concept. I have had the privilege of 251 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 writing a paper on “Can improvisation be taught?” I feel the concept can be taught, the content cannot be taught. However, the content has two dimen- sions – one is what and the other is how. As far as the how part is concerned, I have developed six tenets to teach my students. They are emo- tional content, variation in speed, variation in volume, use of decorative elements, use of gaps between phrases and element of surprise. These are various elements that can be taught to students in terms of the expression. As far as the content or the matter or what is concerned, I think especially the Kirana tradition uses a lot of what we call merukhand, whereby you get 24 combinations from a 4 note phrase without repeating the note in a given combination. You teach students these combinations and let them decide how they would like to use them in actual practice. I think therefore the answer is that the concept can be taught, content cannot be taught. Mr. Zakir Hussain - I guess you also should say that one should have the talent to be able to assemble the content. That is very important and if it does exist then teaching the concept would work for that. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - Wouldn’t you all agree that if you don’t have curiosity per se even about your own tradition then you are not going to have it about anything else? You have to develop that open-mindedness even about your tradition, not just treat it like a quote book. Mr. Vivek Virani - This is a question that is actually related in a way to this horizontal and vertical development but in a practical form for a performer of classical fusion music. It seems that whenever traditions are coming together there is necessarily some kind of a trade off for every benefit. As an example, I feel that by adding harmony for the colour that you get from it, you are necessarily imposing certain limits on the mobility of a raga, especially if it is a raga without the fifth, emphasizing the tivra Ma. Likewise in the case of tabla, I find that when you have a tabla and a drum together on the stage, you get a new dimension of performance but certain tonal aspects of the tabla may be obscured against the new body of sound that emerges. In your own experience and in your own work when you are doing this kind of fusion music where these concerns may arise, do you allow the process to emerge organically and just take what comes, or do you feel you need to have a voice regardless of the greater context - certain elements that you feel are crucial to the soul of your instrument or to the soul of your style that you do not want to be obscured by the fusion performance?

252 Fusion Music Mr. Zakir Hussain - For me, I do not agree that playing with the drum limits my ability to be able to play tabla and showcase its full gamut of information. As I said the two, or three or four musicians involved have to want to do it. If they do, they will find a way to allow each other space to be able to make that happen. Say playing with a drummer like Ranjitbhai or Eric Harland, I don’t find that I have any issues or problem at all because they are sensitive to what my instrument is capable of doing and the dynamic range of it. Their playing is mindful of that and allows them to be able to actually bring out an interesting dynamics in their own instrument. We had the same discussion at Prithvi last year and we talked about this in one lecture demonstration. Mr. Ranjit Barot - It is possible to write a set of changes that do not compromise the raga. You can keep it neutral enough yet coloured so that it does not affect the ascension or the dissension. One has to be mindful of that. If you are going to add certain extensions that get in the way of the raga, for sure it is going to be a clash. In a structured compositional aspect improvisation really would be wide open because it is a common response and we are having a conversation. The more sensitive you are the more informed you are. Your reaction will be in keeping with that conversation. Dr. Aneesh Pradhan - Ranjitji, I don’t think they are trying to play traditional items like khayal, peshkars or kaydas per se. Mr. Ranjit Barot - I understood what he is saying. There is often a problem of Western harmony involved with Indian structured ragas. It can get in the way. A close friend of ours who has worked with all of us – Shankar Mahadevan – and my early work with him – I made him sing through changes. This actually allows some musicians to also explore being in a raga and stepping out from time to time, it is not a purist’s approach, it comes from the experiment. Mr. Dharambir Singh - My question is centered round intonation. Up to now we have been working against the tempered tuning and we know that this clashes with our ragas. Recently I came across a new acoustic keyboard called fluid piano, which can be literally tuned as you are playing in a tone up and down. I just wanted to know whether any of you have worked out this issue of intonation and do you think this will be resolved in the times to come, so that we can really have a global kind of possibility? Mr. Ranjit Barot - Lot of Indian classical musicians have a problem with the tempered scale - may be not so much in acoustic piano because that is still organic but definitely with electronics and synthesizers. I had a recording

253 Panel Discussion SRA Conference January 2010 once with Lata Mangeshkarji and she was uncomfortable with the unyielding fixed pitch of the synthesizer. Yes, I understand that it can be a problem for classical musicians. We are trying something with an instrument called Continuum, which is a fretless keyboard. It is a very new instrument but it is something that needs to be mastered because if you leave it “that” wide open, there is a great room for error. It is a new ground but one that is being addressed to. Mr. Dharambir Singh - Even in the Western world the way things are going, the future is looking at “Just intonation”. Mr. Zakir Hussain - “Just intonation” has existed since perhaps late 50’s and so on, the pianos can be tuned accordingly. Terry Riley has been one of the pioneers of that but I would ask Mr. Banks to elaborate on this. Mr. Louis Banks - Not only the musicians need an open mind, the listeners too need an open mind to listen to fusion music because it is full of impurities! Mr. Ranjit Barot - That is the most evil I have heard him sound since 30 years! Doesn’t get more evil than this! Mr. Louis Banks - Because it takes a lot of courage to hear an Indian classical musician sing a pure raga using a set of notes that cannot be changed, and behind him to find a piano playing chromatics and changing every note. It needs courage to listen to that! Mrs. Aruna Sairam - When Ranjitji talked of being unyielding, I was reminded of a funny incidence that happened with a great mrdangam maestro called Madurai T. Srinivasan. One of his students from abroad gifted him a metronome so as to assist him in teaching. Srinivasanji asked him to play the instrument. The metronome went tak, tak, tak, tak. He observed it for two minutes and said, “Correct, it works well!” That is where he is coming from. He is never going to have the courage to face things the way they are. That is a different mind set. Mr. Arvind Parikh - We are talking about impurities. I thought fusion music is such a chargeable fuse that it clears all the impurities! Mrs. Yogeshwari Sahu - I just want to say that my first touch point with Indian classical music was fusion music. I wanted to share that in the West fusion music has allowed many people to get in touch with the Indian music. For me, it has allowed going deeper in to classical Indian music studies and I

254 Fusion Music know many people who are now actually trying to learn Indian classical music. They would never on their own go to listen to Indian music because they don’t know the language, rhythm and many more, but in the fusion music they get part of what they know already as well as something new.

255 Contributors Amelia Cuni is a singer, composer and performer. She studied dhrupad with Vidur Mallik, D. C. Vedi and Fahimuddin Dagar. She also has training in katthak dance. Her present work includes contemporary music and multimedia collaborations with several international artistes. Currently she teaches Indian music at the Vicenza Conservatory in Italy.

Aneesh Pradhan is a disciple of Nikhil Ghosh. Besides having a doctorate in History and a book on tabla, he is an accomplished soloist and accompanist to vocal & instrumental music and dance. He has participated in several cross-cultural projects and established Underscore Records Pvt. Ltd., a record label with vocalist Shubha Mudgal.

Arvind Parikh is the senior-most disciple of Vilayat Khan, the legendary sitar maestro. An incisive musicologist, eminent sitar player and a dedicated teacher, Parikh is as much respected in the world of music as in the world of business. Presently, he is the chairman of ITC-Sangeet Research Academy western India chapter.

Late Ashok Ranade was a senior musician, musicologist, composer and a teacher. His numerous publications include books, thematic multimedia albums and research papers. He has composed music for several exhibitions, plays and a feature film.

Denise Nuttall is a cultural anthropologist with specialities in South Asia, postcolonial, and feminist theories and the anthropology of music. As both a scholar and a practitioner of tabla drumming her research interests include the performing arts of India and more specifically the lived experience of tabla players around the globe. At present she teaches at the department of anthropology of the Ithaca college.

Dilorom Karomat is a music critic and musicologist with special interest in Persian texts on Indian music and Sufism; theory, history and practice of Indian, Iranian and Central Asian music and dance; Persian and Turkish lexicography in India; Persian and Turkish literature in India; ethnomusicology of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Currently, she is engaged in a research project on the “North Indian Literary Culture: 1450-1650”.

Durga Bor studied odissi with stalwarts such as S. Jena, Gangadhar Pradhan and Kelucharan Mohapatra. Having taught dance over a decade at various

256 Contributors organisations in Amsterdam she continues to teach classical Indian dance and South Asian dance history and theory at Cornell University. She also works as an outreach educator through the South Asia Program.

Huib Schippers studied sitar with Jamaluddin Bharatiya and Ali Akbar Khan. His research is in the area of community music activity, world music, cultural policy, music learning & teaching, and artistic practice as research. At present he is the Director of Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University and Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre, Australia.

Keshav Paranjape has been associated with Swarmauli, an organization dedicated to the promotion of upcoming talent. He has to his credit many lec-dems and public interviews conducted with several eminent musicians. Besides compeering musical events and contributing music related articles in Marathi media, Paranjape is an amateur composer.

K. Ganesh Kumar is a composer and performer of namsankirtan, specialising in the devotional genre of Marathi abhang. He has been actively serving the cause of music through one of the major music organisations in Mumbai, The Chembur Fine Arts Society. Presently he is also associated with several other music related organizations.

S. A. K. Durga is a professor emeritus at the Univesrity of Madras. As a highly qualified ethnomusicologist she has participated in several international seminars and conferences, and has many publications to her credit. She is the founder-director of the Centre for Ethnomusicology and has been teaching music for many years.

Simonne Bailey has participated as a community musician in Nepal for fifteen years, currently playing shawms and trumpet as part of a caste based group of professionals and accompanying temple singers on natural trumpet. She has lived and worked in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific since1970.

Subroto Roy’s doctoral dissertation is on the aspect of avartan in khayal. He has been a post-doctoral fellow at the National Film Archives of India. Currently he is involved in making a comparative study between the Sama Gana and Hindustani vocal music.

Suvarnalata Rao is a disciple of the eminent sitar player Arvind Parikh. As a musicologist she has a special interest in computational musicology and organology. At presents she heads the Indian music department at the

257 Contributors National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai, and is engaged in developing an automated transcription system for Indian music.

Wim van der Meer is a musician and musicologist with special interest in computer assisted research in musicology. He has studied Hindustani music (vocal) and also does research in the field of Brazilian music. At present he teaches at the department of musicology of the University of Amsterdam.

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