vidya shah

The Last Mughals, William Dalrymple and Vidya Shah

2011-12-18T21:28:00.000-08:00

Asia Society New York: Coming Soon

Celebrated author William Dalrymple reads from his award-winning book The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857, accompanied by North Indian vocalist Vidya Shah. This evocative evening celebrates the bygone era of India's last Mughals, bringing to life a world of emperors, poets, courtesans, politics, bayonets, intrigue and love through word and music.

http://asiasociety.org/calendars/last-mughals-william-dalrymple-and-vidya-shah

TOI Fest Hyderabad: Sufi Music is Beautiful

2011-12-07T02:50:00.000-08:00

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-09-17/news-and-interviews/30165575_1_sufi-music-carnatic-music-sufi-lyrics

Bathed in moonlight and the magic of soulful Sufi music, the Quli Qutub Shahi Tombs will come alive as part of the Times Sufi Nights.

Renowned classical musician Vidya Shah, who will performing tonight, says she couldn't be more excited. "Sufi music has the potential to create a beautiful atmosphere. It is magical and that's why I enjoy performing it very much," says Vidya, who loves coming back to Hyderabad.

"This is my fourth time in the city in three years and I totally love Hyderabad. It's beautiful and so rich — architecturally, musically and foodwise. I've performed at the Qutub Shahi Tombs, Durgam Cheruvu and there's something about this place that just transports you back in time," she says.

Vidya, a trained classical singer, who was born into a family with a rich musical heritage, says that Hyderbadis can look forward to a tirbute to the Sufi greats tonight. "I like to bring in a lot of rhythm and percussion into my performance. I will be singing the works of Baba Bulle Shah and Shah Hussain. I also I plan to croon a Kaafiya which is sung by a lot of Sufi saints in Pakistan."

The musician is thrilled with the new trend of Sufi music reaching out to more people than ever, thanks to popular music projects in Pakistan and India. "I think it is a fantastic thing to have happened. These kind of cross-cultural music projects create an opportunity to synergize cultures and musical genres. And that's exactly what the idea of Sufism is all about. Currently, I'm working on a crossover project with jazz musicians in Europe. We are using saxophones, electronic sounds, tabla and sufi lyrics — it's all so exciting," says the musician, who has trained in Carnatic music and went on to study khayal, thumri, dadra and ghazal gayaki. "I can never stop learning. It's like getting a dose of vitamin everyday. You just keep going," quips Vidya, who has studied under the tutelage of Shubha Mudgal and Shanti Hiranand.

Even when she is playing the part of a social activist, Vidya uses music as a medium of change. "I feel, culture is a very important vehicle of spreading peace, love and it connects people together like nothing else. And what could be more powerful and poignant than singing these messages," says Vidya, who aims to do just that with Times Sufi Nights.

"I think a festival like this reaches out to diverse audiences. It's a lovely way of bringing people together. After all, there is some truth in the cliché — music transcends all boundaries."

An evening by the river -in Song (For The Yamuna- Elbe Public Art Project)

2011-11-16T05:07:00.000-08:00

India is full of mythologies (Namami Yamunamaham ), rituals (Ganga Nahaana), non-theistic verse (jal me kumbh-kumbh me jal), which are replete with metaphorical references to water; semi-classical genres of music – Dadra, Sawan, the Hori, that describe vividly the birds, the swings, imagery in physical spaces …

The performance by Vidya Shah traverses through many of these references both literally and metaphorically. She delves into the deep waters through the various North Indian music traditions.

Q and A in The Times of India

2011-10-26T03:12:00.000-07:00

Q&A ‘Music production has undergone a sea change’ Musician Vidya Shah is known for her stirring and soulful performances. However, she’s now stepped into the realm of archiving music and its memorable stars. Speaking with Srijana Mitra Das, Shah explains Women on Record (WoR), her multimedia project documenting female singers of the gramophone era – and why this is relevant in modern times:

Pleasetellusabout‘Women on Record’ – what inspired you to capture the voices and experiences of women singing in a far-removed era of jalsaghars and mehfils?

WoR began a few years ago when i was requested to perform the repertoire of the lesserknown Baijis at a concert in Delhi. I heard a lot of the music from this time and in the process got introduced to women who sang on these records and the incredible versatility they showed. This became the beginning of my journey into early 20th-century India.

Fascinatingly, women were at the forefront of this phenomenon. As a woman performer, i felt that perhaps there was a continuum here – the intersection of women and the record made way for the likes of me to take to the stage, but comfortably, without the social baggage they had dealt with.

Why is it important to celebrate women who sang in the gramophone era?

The Baijis were important to the world of performance, yet they have not been part of a mainstream discourse on music in India. Initially, it was mostly women who recorded in different regional languages across India in the early 20th century. These women of the 78 RPM era made a significant contribution not only to Hindustani music but also to literature, especially Urdu prose and poetry and, later, by their active involvement, to the worlds of theatre and film.

Will the project appeal to younger people whose tastes in music are so different?

Young people today are so challenged by the options they have – so much to choose from! But the flip side is, they have an appetite for all kinds of creative endeavours. We have tried to produce this project with attractive ingredients – it has stunning visuals, different kinds of music, songs, riddles, and now a website. It’s received fantastic responses from young and old audiences in the subcontinent. Having said that, something like this, even if very popular, will never match up to a Bollywood-like scale.

From the gramophone to the iPod, has the evolution of technology shaped music too?

The advent of sound recording changed the experience of listening to music forever. It redefined the world of entertainment. Artistes took on the challenge presented by this new technology – mainly of presenting an improvisatory genre in approximately three minutes. From these beginnings, music production has undergone a sea change. It continues to be more and more democratised. Technology has become very powerful in its presence, be it in live concerts or a recording.

Music is meant to soothe the senses – yet there are musicianslikeyoualsotakingup causes as activists, grappling with hard reality. Can the two roles be reconciled?

Culture has always played an important role in our pluralistic traditions, epitomised by the Bhakti and Sufi movements... but over the years, this critical space has been displaced by a very modular implosion – music has to be entertaining and commercial, its message becoming passé...however, i do not see my role as mutually exclusive to my creative expression. If i perform for World Peace Day, it’s also because i believe in the works of Faiz, Kabir or Surdas…it’s time we stop softpedalling our culture.

TOI Fest Hyderabad

2011-09-18T01:44:00.000-07:00

Just back after singing to a wonderful discerning Hyderabadi crowd of nearly 3,000. What a stunning ambience to have the Quli Qutub Shah Tombs in the background, lit up beautifully, a gentle breeze and and a very engaged audience; feel humbled! My Interview in the TOI:
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-09-17/news-and-interviews/30165575_1_sufi-music-carnatic-music-sufi-lyrics

Webite launched

2011-09-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

www.womenonrecord.com check it out.
More on http://epaper.indianexpress.com/10278/Indian-Express/21-August-2011#p=page:n=3:z=1

Mori Araj Suno from the Album Mere Paas Raho

2011-08-01T02:22:00.000-07:00

A small clip from my Faiz Album 'Mere Paas Raho' (Times Music) : I composed this unusual piece written by Faiz Saheb titled Nazr-e-Khusro, feels like his tribute to Amir Khusro's poetry.
http://soundcloud.com/vidya-sings/mori-araj-suno-nazr-e-khusro

"At this point it is quite hard to figure out which is greater, Vidya’s passion for music, or her love for singing Faiz. Not that it matters of course; what matters is the fact that ever since I have come to know her, I have been deeply moved by her understanding of what Faiz means to the people of the Sub-continent. If music creates an unshakeable bond, words strengthen it ,as does Vidya's celebration of Faiz, poet of love and peace in his Centennial Year."
Salima Hashmi (Faiz Saheb's daughter)

Show cause, will travel : The Hindu, Metro Plus, 15th June 2011

2011-06-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

SHAILAJA TRIPATHI

Frequent travels to other countries for performances have made vocalist Vidya Shah more experimental towards food.

Vidya Shah doesn't fuss over food. Anything sour is what she usually keeps at bay and understandably so, as Vidya is a Hindustani classical singer that too in the midst of a busy season. The scorching summers ensure choc-a-bloc schedule with extensive tours around the world for many from the fraternity. Vidya, also, is just back from Switzerland's Schaffhauser Jazz Festival where she performed with a newly formed group Orbital Garden.

“We are like a group now. And at the festival, I sang fairly complex compositions centred on Indian raga Jog. The ensemble has flute, electronics, drums and clarinet,” states the artiste. She appreciates the chana chaat, a typical Indian street food recipe with boiled chickpeas and potato, served as an appetiser at The Spice Market restaurant in Saket. The singer, in any case, loves desi grub.

If incessant travelling, an innate part of her profession, has made Vidya more willing towards experimenting with different cuisines, her stay at a tribal village in Madhya Pradesh, early on in her career gets maximum credit to appreciate and feel grateful for every morsel. She was collating folk songs an oral history of the area for an NGO in 1994. “We used to be so excited whenever we would get a vegetable like baingan or bhindi. After a long day of work, we used to be so tired and sometime it was like whether we are getting anything to eat today or not…”recalls Vidya.

The disciple of Shubha Mudgal and Shanti Hiranand regales us with anecdotes from her travels about the accompanists who while travelling to foreign lands, carry their ‘dabbas' with home-cooked karele ki subzi. She is reminded of a remarkable book by Sheila Dhar, “Raga'n Josh – Stories from a musical life”, which comprises essays on different musicians. Some of them, includes, really interesting quirks related to their eating habits.

The activist tag

The conversation once again veers off to her music as she digs into the main course mirchi ki roti - red or green chillies mixed in wheat flour and ghee, diwani handi - mixed veg with a spinach base. Over the years, Vidya has come to acquire this image of activist-singer. Formally trained in the field of social work, she has been a research Officer with National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), a consultant with Centre for Development Studies, a programme co-ordinator with Naz Foundation, director of Education in Breakthrough, a Human Rights Organization. She is now the programme director of Centre for Media and Alternative Communication (CMAC), an organization started by her designer-photographer husband Parthiv Shah with the objective of facilitating cultural exchange. Yet Vidya doesn't quite like the activist tag.

“There is social consciousness that can be seen in the trajectory of my work but there are a lot of artists who have a stand on certain issues. There is a certain branding that has happened and I don't know if I am responsible for it,” says the singer who performs regularly at Sahmat's Safdar Hashmi Memorial on January 1 every year. In these concerts, you can often hear her singing the poetry of the legendary poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz.

And quite recently, the artiste has released an album on one of her favourite poets. “I have heard him in so many contexts. People in Narmada ghaati sing him, Iqbal Bano sang “Hum Dekhenge” in a film. I like Faiz sahib because of the kind of subjects he has taken up in his poetry. He is so versatile.” The album is now going to be released by Faiz Ghar, a project of the Faiz Foundation Trust in Pakistan soon.

It takes a little bit of coaxing by our photographer and Vidya gives in to sweet temptations. Gorging on the delicious phirni, she tells us of the sterling project called women on record (women singers in the gramophone era), on which CMAC had mounted an exhaustive multi-media exhibition at IGNCA. Moving on further, CMAC is now focusing on varied technologies in use in different eras “What's the history of arrangements in our music? While researching we got to know from where did the name of Anthony Gonsalves come. He was actually a musician from Goa who was one of the most sought after music arrangers in the film industry,” says the musician who has now got a Charles Wallace Fellowship to deeply engage with the subject.

Keywords: Hindustani classical music

The State Of The Arts How to stop our patchwork cultural fabric from ripping at the seams

2011-05-18T01:45:00.000-07:00

Outlook Magazine
Vidya Shah

The very mention of Indian culture brings to mind its sheer diversity both in form and content. But this mental picture is quite different from how narrowly we view it now. Today, there is a tendency to homogenise— like running a road-roller over the cultural fabric of India. While mass media— largely television and cinema— has usurped most of our attention, culture, in the more conventional sense of live performance, is also fast gaining a glamour quotient. One does see more imagination being put into programming and venues today. Can we, then, stop lamenting about how Indian culture is deteriorating? Perhaps not till we’ve found answers to some pressing questions: Whose responsibility is it to safeguard culture? Who will be the patron? Can the thousands for whom their art form is their livelihood survive? And are they surviving now?

Some of these concerns saw a silver lining in a report released recently by the review committee of the zonal cultural centres (ZCCS) under the ministry of culture— in its silver jubilee year, significantly. The ZCCS, created under Rajiv Gandhi’s prime ministership, are located in seven cities across the country. They were set up with the intention of bringing India’s resurgent cultures to its masses and, in this spirit, they were not situated in state capitals, but in smaller cities with an important connection to culture. So, Thanjavur instead of Chennai, Shantiniketan and not Calcutta.

Initially, several promising objectives were put in place— delink the ZCCS from state politics, promote financial independence, encourage young and up-and-coming artists— and some good did come of it. The Shilpgram, a first-of-its-kind, one-stop crafts and culture village, defied its low budget to become a “must see” when in Udaipur. The Manganiyar singers are another success story. ‘Discovered’ by the ZCCS, they now perform internationally extensively.

The review report, an extensive undertaking under the chairmanship of Mani Shankar Aiyar, consulted eminent artists from across the country and concluded that the centres have seen a steady decline in the quality of their content, their promotion of art and their encouragement of artists— contravening the very purpose of their existence. It admits acerbically that the centres have, over the years, become excessively bureaucratised, insufficiently creative and essentially extensions of their state’s department of culture. The folk and tribal forms are worse off than ever before with newer generations having to eschew their traditional skills and become migrant labourers to survive.

Ironically, we need these institutions because the onus is on the State to look after these artists and art forms and to provide platforms for their performance, and because there exist, quite simply, no alternative survival mechanisms.

The re-engineering of the ZCCS has to be a reformative exercise at several levels. The review committee’s recommendations, including the setting up of an Indian Council for Zonal Centres, cutting down on major infrastructural expenditures (raising the centres’ corpus funds to Rs 50 crore each), increasing performance budgets, cultural audits to control corruption, improving documentation and archiving by bringing in the requisite expertise, have the potential to address existing issues. The committee stressed the need to support folk and tribal cultures through a revamped Guru-Shishya Parampara scheme, which will assure talented but indigent artistes to secure livelihoods through such proposed initiatives as a Folk and Tribal Arts Akademi (and National Museum).

While the report’s recommendations are quite comprehensive, it also supports the creation of superstructures and big budgets for cultural management. In a country like India, which has an array of art forms that is as diverse as it is extensive, it remains to be seen how low-cost models can be created. Also, if the youth are to be engaged, then there is a need to find a synthesis between fast-paced change-oriented technologies and the cultural traditions of communities. Community radio, digital archiving and the internet are avenues that need to be used optimally. The greater involvement of local communities and decreased outside interference will only add richness to content.

In three bulky volumes, the review committee’s report is an important contribution in that it not only reiterates how culture is much-neglected in India, but also puts forward concrete suggestions on avoiding an irretrievable collapse. It needs to be seen, however, how these recommendations will be implemented. Given the step-child treatment meted out to culture in India, the reincarnation of these zonal centres should help us rediscover our displaced (read: by Bollywood) cultural pride.

(Vidya Shah is a Delhi-based singer and programmes director at the Centre for Media and Alternative Communication)

Vidya Shah: Singing for women: The Republica, Kathmandu

2011-04-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

DIKSHYA KARKI
KATHMANDU, April 12: She’s a classically trained singer, researcher, writer, and a social activist. Her talents are many, but she says, “Singing is closest to my heart. It’s the way I express myself best. All the other things I do are to support my singing, broaden my knowledge on the subject.”

Vidya Shah, the talented Delhi-based artist, was here as a performer for the Melba Devi Mahotsav on April 11 and 12.

She gave a multimedia presentation about her project, “Women on Record” and enthralled the audience with her powerful voice at the Army Officers’ Club in Kathmandu on Monday.

Talking about her project, Shah explained, “During one of my musical performances, I was asked by an elderly gentleman to listen to some women singers of the early 20th century in India. Then I was introduced to a whole new world of music.”

This started her research to unearth the gramophone records of South Asian women singers of the early 20th century.

“Those were the times when the Indian Subcontinent was one musically. There were many women in that era who sang beautifully, but their talents were restricted to their homes.

“But the invention of the gramophone was a boon for them. Women didn’t have to be seen; they could follow their passion by recording their music and not have to come out in the limelight,” she added.

Shah performs those age-old renditions in her concerts along with her own compositions.
Trained initially in Karnatic music, Shah’s teachers include singer Subha Mudgal and Shanti Hiranand.
Secure in her career as a classical singer, Shah discerns popular music derived from classical music.

“Film music has always been popular. There’s no use in comparing it with, or complaining about the devaluation of, classical music.” According to her, classical music has its own audience, “its own niche.” “The audience I sing or play to may not be counted in thousands but I connect with each one of them in person.”

Having performed in prestigious events like the India Festival at Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago, Assilah International Festival, Morocco, and the Bode Museum in Berlin, the singer likes to interact with her audience.

“The audience in the West and the East are different, but as an artist, I’m exposed to newer reactions.” She exemplifies her recent performance at Patan Musuem where the audience sang bhajans along with her.

“I wouldn’t be able to get that reaction from the audience in Europe but they are good listeners. I’m often applauded for the way eastern classical music treats the abstract.”

Hugely inspired by the works of poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, she enjoys singing to his lines. In a concert one month ago in Bangladesh, she was particularly touched by the reaction of one of the listeners. She had sung Faiz’s lines as recorded by a Bangladeshi female artist during the gramophone era.

The artist’s brother happened to attend the concert and expressed his gratitude to her for having revived his sister’s legacy.

She came across the works of Melba Devi Gurung while working on her project and mentions that her life and work is a testimony of women empowerment.
“Having come from the Gurung community and traveled so far to fuel her passion, she’s a great source of inspiration.”

The multifaceted singer has penned numerous articles on music, gender and other social issues. Currently, Vidya Shah works as the Program Director of the Centre for Media and Alternative Communication (CMAC).

Published on 2011-04-12 11:57:18

Linguistic Survey of India

2011-02-28T04:34:00.001-08:00

Some amazing work brought into public domain by Prof.Shahid Amin, read in
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/arts-letters/voices-from-colonial-india

Melting Into the Word – Singing Faiz

2011-02-13T03:26:00.000-08:00

For a special Supplement of The Dawn, Karachi, on the occasion of Faiz Centenary, 13th February, 2011

Some years ago, in the mid-nineties, I walked about twenty kilometeres in a Yatra over several days along the amazing Narmada river that cuts across the middle of India through the states of Madhyapradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. This was to discuss with villagers along the river the consequences of a development project in the area. It was a peoples rally in a very difficult and remote part of India quite inaccessible to the city bred likes of us. Meetings were held in this Bhil tribal belt through night and day. And an important part of this activism were the songs that were sung. Several of these were tribal/folk songs calling out to the locals to take pride in their identity, their culture rituals and so on. But there was also songs written by Gorakh Pandey, Sahir Ludhianvi and Faiz Ahmed Faiz. I must say coming from a background of musicians and music lovers, I was quite awkward with how out of tune the group singing was, but the energy and the passion with which people sang was enough to forget the musical inadequacy.

But this experience also brought to mind the prolific interpretations that Faiz’s poetry lends itself to. In a comparable political fervour, in a completely different environment Iqbal Bano sang her Hum Dekhenge. The “Inqilaab Zindabaad” one hears from the audience in the recording still makes listening to it a thrilling experience. I for one first became familiar with Faiz’s poetry through Mehdi Hasan Saheb’s music, which played often in our Tamil household. Just as with others in the family, my being a musician brought me closer to the raag before it did to the poetry. But the beauty of the lyric also shines through these renditions. In his singing the poetry and music fuse into each other – the cascading he creates with Baamey Meena Se Mahtaab Utarey in Aaye Kucch Abr in Gaud Malhar is a superb example.

As I became more drawn to the poetry of Faiz, I also saw a distinct musical style in which several of the Pakistani singers approached his work. They were almost always based on a classical raag, but the raag never took over the lyric. In a sense this is a third kind of an interpretation, quite unlike say Khayal gayaki which is about raagdaari, where the raag is central and almost always the lyric is incidental or the Tarannum where the poem is recited so it does not get interfered by the melody. Iqbal Bano, Noorjehan, Farida Khanum, Nayyara Noor and even Tina Sani (an unusual Durga for Bahaar Aayi) while they sing the ghazal or the Nazm based on a raag the structure of the Sher or the couplet also comes through clearly. Perhaps one of the reasons why the Indian Diva of Ghazal Begum Akhtar did not sing too much of Faiz’s work, (Shaam-e-Firaaq stands out in its soulfulness though) considering that she brought raagdari into Ghazal singing like never before.

Singing Faiz gives me an opportunity to address a void that has come to be in the understanding of cultural protest, of raising a concern, of being angry or anxious, within the context of my own musical framework. I do enjoy composing some of his work and the fact that he loved Classical music encourages me to explore various raag – including Shahana, Khamaj, Malhar several of which lend themselves beautifully to his poetry. Singing at the Faiz Ghar at the invitation of his daughters last year and the love and appreciation from the audience that I received seemed ironical, that I should come across the border to sing remembering a man who fought these boundaries all his life.

Vidya Shah

Bhimsen Joshi

2011-01-25T03:06:00.000-08:00

Bhimsen Ji
When I was learning Khayal Gayaki, my guru had once remarked somewhat disdainfully, you need to get into the raag, the bandish, feel with it – ek junoon honaa chahiye, only then will you fill your canvas beautifully. Listening to Pandit ji’s Miya ki Malhar or Komal Rishabh asavari or the Puriya Kalyan, actually any of his recordings, to my mind was exactly all of this that was told to me. It was as if he had overwhelmed the Raag itself by exploring every possible aspect of it. To come back to the Mukhda and have a new interpretation almost every time is quite thrilling to a practioner. Panditji had a voice that was Gold. It had power, it could be soft, it had depth, the resonance, it brought with it many colours, therefore the touched hearts of many. His unbelievably flexible voice enabled him to traverse at terrific speed, the great range of 3 octaves.
Although he was primarily a Khayal Singer the star of the Kirana gharana, we also know him for his Thumris, bhajans, Abhang, all of which he sang with equal ease and élan. While it is a well known thing about him that he left home very early in life, but what is more fascinating is his intense search for a Guru at such a young age. Mad about music, single minded in his pursuit (he traveled for months, doing odd jobs to earn his food and travel to get to Gwalior which he knew was an important site for classical music) to know your calling, even before you are twenty years of age, I think is indeed the mark of a genius. An epoch maker; a true inspiration, no less than God!

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Celebrating Faiz Saheb's Centenary: Newsletter from faiz Ghar

2010-11-22T00:51:00.000-08:00

Walking across the border is such a thrilling experience, even if all involved ensure that you are completely conscious of the physical act of it. This last mile is loaded, a palpable tension. But one look at the other end of this passage, where an elegant figure in the same Salwar Kameez that I am wearing, waves at you, all this melts into a muffled excitement. So close to entering Pakistan.

When Prof. Salima Hashmi and her sister Moneeza Hashmi mentioned to me sometime last year that they would like to explore with me the possibility of my performance at the Faiz Ghar as part of events to set off the Centenary celebrations for Faiz Saheb, at the cost of sounding maudlin, I have to say I was moved to tears. An appropriate irony, I should come across the border to sing remembering a man who suffered these boundaries in life and in thought! This was really special, an invitation to share my music in a space set up in the memory of this remarkable wordsmith, one who continues to inspire many in my generation in his belief that peace, syncretism and equality should not become mere rhetoric.

On day one at the book launch of Shoaib Saheb’s translations Salima requested me to sing a short piece to lend to what was such a beautifully choreographed evening with readings and music and reminiscing. But day two belonged to me. I sang the traditional Khayal (in Basant since this was also special in Lahore just as it is in North India), Thumri, Dadra and some of Begum Akhtar, who Salima remembers listening to with her father. In this intimate space of a Baithak at the Faiz Ghar, me and even my Saazinda’s who had come with me from Delhi, felt rather emotional and warm about the overwhelming response that we received.

Ali Sardar Jaffrey concludes his powerful verse Isi Sarhad pe kal dooba thaa suraj ho ke do tukde with:

Main is sarhad pe kabse muntazir hoon subhe-e farda ka (I stand on this border
waiting for tomorrow’s happy dawn)

Vidya Shah

Mint Tea in the Medina

2010-09-06T00:29:00.000-07:00

Mint Tea in The Medina
The Hindu: 5th Sept 2010

Invited to sing at the International Arts Festival in Morocco Vidya Shah returns with a vivid account of her experience.

The drive from Casablanca to Assilah is confusing; nothing to see on the way really except for occasional towns and hamlets. Also the monsoon hasn't yet arrived so the landscape is very dry. Somewhat like a train ride from Jaipur to Sri Ganganagar. But after a four-hour drive you begin to feel the sea breeze and the coastline starts to appear. Assilah is a fortified town on the northwest tip of the Atlantic coast of Morocco, about 50 km from the better-known Tangier. It is now becoming a popular seaside resort with modern holiday apartment complexes on the coast road.

History, revealed

Story goes that this town was founded by the Phoenicians around 1500 B.C. It was a prosperous trading post until a group of pirates ransacked the place, turning it into a hideout in the early 1900s. The town suffered decades of decline and had fallen into disrepair. It wasn't until the late 1970s when Mohamed Benaïssa, the Culture Minister of Morocco, who was later elected mayor of the town cleaned up Assilah, restoring many of its historic buildings, including the Raissouni Palace, now a concert hall, and the Al-Kamra Tower citadel in the Medina. He also brought together a group of artists, invited them to culturally refresh the town with their ideas and creative inputs. This was really the beginning of the Assilah festival, one that has emerged and established itself as a popular International festival for over thirty years now.

As in most towns in Northern Africa, life in Assilah revolves around the Medina. It is a bit of a maze, but since it is a small town it is difficult to really get lost in — one street eventually leads you to where you need to go. The shops sell everything from antique turquoise, coral and silver jewellery to hand woven Berber rugs. Hotels and vehicles aren't allowed inside the rampart walls making it a lovely walk through its cobbled streets. And around this time of the year the town is particularly alive and buzzing because of the Festival.

This Assilah International Festival established in 1978, is an annual cultural extravaganza that takes place in the month of July/August. Both studio and performing artists from all over the world, journalists, writers, painters, musicians and dancers gather here imparting the setting with colour, exuberance and dynamism. Over the last three decades, the event has promoted cultural dialogue, exchange and solidarity. It hosts more than 100,000 visitors. There is a performance a day from across the world open for general public which included this year contemporary dance from Portugal, Jordanian trio on the Lute, an Andalusian Ensemble from Tangier and my music from India, making the spread vibrant. Of course now every city in Morocco boasts of an annual Cultural festival, the most well known being the Fez Spiritual music Festival.

Farid Belkaiah a well-known artist in Morocco informs me that the festival has grown considerably in content and numbers over the years. Where it began with artists, it now is much more encompassing and brings together major global figures from the world of culture, politics, diplomacy as well as the arts, including journalists, writers, painters, musicians and dancers to meet, share ideas and collaborate. Belkaiah who works with Henna, was most amazed at the “orange” beard of my accompanist Khan Sahib and incidentally has had the pleasure of listening to and knowing Pt.Ravi Shankar from the 70's.

Land of music

Hamza Abdaless studying Business Studies, my transportation coordinator at the Festival over a cup of the famous Moroccan mint tea, tells me in great detail about the different kinds of music that comes from this beautiful country - Chaabi, Rai Andaloussie, Arabic, Gnawa, Berber, Reggada to name a few. He is embarrassed about the “Pop” music blaring out of the shops in the Medina that is busy, full of locals and tourists way beyond midnight. He laments about how music like the Gnawa - the slave music which came into the country in the 16 th century or the Rai - which literally means an opinion, a form of protest music, somewhat akin to the Blues, lead by peasants in Algeria, subsequently banned in the country, or the rich and exuberant Berber music is getting displaced by “mindless” popular stuff!

Haj Youness, the well-known Oud player, endorses this view. Haj who has been recognized by the Smithsonian for his contributions to Moroccan music, is quite a National hero, is very popular, every one wants an autograph and a photo with this director of the Music Conservatory, and says that television reality shows on which he is also a judge are no solutions to real talent. Young musicians need training, hand-holding opportunities, or else they end up playing in nightclubs and no more. A story only too familiar to the Indian terra, a refrain that is also very much a symptom of the satellite television in the globalised world.

But in my travels through this town and then to Casablanca, Marrakesh and Rabat, the one thing that did become apparent, repeatedly is that Morocco is a unique cultural fusion of Middle Eastern, European, and African influences. You can have the opportunity to experience life in a Muslim country while exploring the distinct society and traditions of the Maghreb and the French culture as well. To venture in and out of shops in Morocco is a pleasure for the eye and the mind as diverse colours converge into moments of shopping, eating, and entertainment. A mélange of the traditional and the modern is very visible within different societies and towns in Morocco.

Whether sitting at a café in Casablanca enjoying a croissant and tea, or visiting Marakkesh, wandering through the medina's looking at apricots and prunes, or sitting at the train station in Rabat looking at a woman sweeping the platforms at ten in the night, every experience in Morocco makes one reflect on how irrational stereotypes can be. It is the simultaneous inclusion and exclusion of different cultures that makes the country even more fascinating. A young boy who sells me a little pellet of Indigo rummages through a pile of used plastic bags looking for the one that will be just enough for the portion I have bought. A young woman dressed in a pair of shorts and short top on Casa's Corniche Beach walks along with a more conventionally attired young girl in a Djellaba or a Gandora, this co-existence of modernity and tradition seems to be the face of Moroccan nationalism.

Assilah is a case of political will in moving culture from a softer focus to an issue of cultural diplomacy between communities and countries, leaving me a craving for such approaches here – creating an international platform for not only performance, but on deliberating how culture can become a powerful vehicle to centre-stage syncretism in the sub-continent. Only I wish the wonderful people didn't call out to me on the streets as “Namaste Shah Rukh Khan”!

Women on Record

2010-03-14T07:08:00.000-07:00

A Multi-Media Touring Show

Seminar 29th-30th March, 2010
Performance 2nd-3rd of April, 2010
IGNCA, New Delhi

Women in the 78 RPM Gramophone era have made a significant contribution to Indian Art music, and literature, and by their involvement in theatre and film. They have had a profound influence on subsequent performance music.
Ironically there is little that is available in the public memory about the Gaanewali’s, and also not in books on Indian music. This is legacy that has largely been preserved through the gramophone records that first made their appearance in India in the first decade of the 20th century.
The advent of sound recording in India had far-reaching social and musical effects, disseminating various genres of music to a mass audience for the first time. In the early 20th Century it is perhaps the first fascinating encounter between technology and music. The vocalists took on the challenge presented by this new technology – of presenting their work in approximately 3 minutes, this given the innately improvisatory nature of Indian music. Collectors estimate that the number of records issued in India would amount to about half a million – a large corpus of which remains unheard of and inaccessible to contemporary audiences.
Women on Record is a multi-media project that combines newer technologies with contemporary art practices in collaboration with artist communities traversing across film, photography, scenography, dance, theatre and music.
It combines different art practices with the idea of recreating an environment and mood of the gramophone era. The idea of reviving interest in the immense contributions made by these artists in the late 19th and early 20th century lends itself to immense visual possibilities given that their lives were about music, theatre, film and overall entertainment.

The Exhibition: This traveling show is an overview of the women who sang in the gramophone era, of the technology that evolved in the 1st half of the 20th century and the impact of these changes on the world of Indian music

The Video walk through: Through a series of interviews with artists, collectors and connoisseurs, some of whom even witnessed some of these soirees, CMAC creates another world of stories and experiences through the vibrant world of archives

Live Performance: A scripted performance involving narration, visuals and a concert to walk the audience through and experience the time and the challenges of women singers as well as their sense of enterprise including the diverse repertoire they brought into Indian music.

Seminar/Workshop: involving artists, historians, musicologists, film makers, art and media institutions to disseminate and discuss the products, the issues and the ideas that arise from the project. The seminar will focus on the role and status of women professionals in the entertainment industry today. It will attempt to trace the role of technology in overcoming the gendered barriers that women have faced over centuries in the Indian subcontinent.

STAYING IN TUNE?

2009-10-17T21:07:00.000-07:00

(For the 50th Anniversary issue of Seminar: Republic of Ideas)

‘NOBODY appreciates its great utility. People will certainly repent one day. The next decade will kill most of the leading musicians and scholars.’ In the year 1922, so wrote Pt. Vishnu Narayan Bhatkande, a seminal figure of Indian musicology, about the steady decline of Hindustani classical music in India in a letter to a close friend.1 Nearly nine decades later, despite a vastly different and rapidly changing social world, the refrain that classical music is deteriorating and suffering with each passing day, remains. Typically old is gold and the new or contemporary can certainly not meet the mark. A combination of rapid social changes and technological advances, pitted against the rather organized structure that classical music lives within, makes the situation somewhat confusing and a discussion on the future of this tradition difficult.

My thoughts, given my own practice and concerns, are centred on the world of North Indian classical music. Where does this music get located? Music in India is a heterogeneous reality and the well-known ethnomusicologist Ashok Ranade refers to this world of music as a ‘cultural federation of sorts.’ Such an aerial view might help put in perspective the present form, patronage and the manner in which this music has changed over time.2 It is, however, important to remember that this very culture of music has persisted through major changes – be it wars or the rise and fall of kingdoms. This is also a culture that has journeyed away from its ‘home’ only to be welcomed in other parts of the world. The spread of Indian classical music is reflective of its ability to thrive and adapt across time and space.

The nervousness around the falling standards of classical music is perhaps linked to a perceived purity and classicism that has come to be closely associated with this form. A connoisseur recently shared his special respect for the Kirana legend Gangubai Hangal, ostensibly because she refused to sing a bhajan in a concert: ‘Hum bhajan wajan nahi gaatey. Pakka gana sunna hai to baith jao’! But what we know as classical music today has gone through a veritable metamorphosis over nearly four centuries and continues to adapt and evolve even today. Through this period it has undergone several transitions – redefining audiences, their expectations and those of the ‘performer’. These changes become visible, to use Weidman’s categories, in performance, context and practice.3

Most documentation on the subject marks the 13th century as a period when Muslim musicians were an important force in India. This continued through the 17th and 18th centuries with musical activity in North India increasingly dominated by them. Extensive patronage by the Mughals and their nobility continued well into the 19th century despite seminal political events, including the British expulsion of the two major Muslim rulers around the 1857 Mutiny (Nawab Wajid Ali Shah to Calcutta in 1856 and Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal king, to Rangoon in 1858).

The gharana was an important vantage point of artistic identity that indicated a comprehensive musicological ideology. The gharana’s emerged in their present form in the late 19th-early 20th century. The gharana system was a direct result of music being patronised in the courts of medieval India as exemplified by their names – Gwalior, Jaipur, Patiala, and other princely kingdoms. An important aspect of this tradition was the gurushishya parampara that embodied the living and learning relationship between teacher and the pupil in a very personalized manner in the oral tradition. Although notation of the cheez also came into practice more vigorously around the same time, there is little documentation of what was handed down to a student in class. Referred to as seena-ba-seena, students of Indian classical music even today learn by ear. These gharanas, tightly structured kinship groupings, monopolized the production of professional musicians until well into the 20th century.

Simultaneously however, music in the 20th century was also becoming a product of cultural modernity, of a new national identity which, on the one hand, was part of a framework of liberal secularism and, on the other, created a divide between the Hindu and Muslim music communities. The construction of the Hindu Brahminical national tradition, such as through the efforts of D.V. Paluskar, brought in ‘Bhakti Nationalism’, connecting performance with religiosity, taleem with worship. Classical music came to be viewed as an important expression of successful cultural resistance to colonialism.4

Post Independence in 1947, non-hereditary musicians too started gaining importance as performers, given the social respectability that music had begun to achieve professionally. Also some of the Muslim hereditary musicians moved to Pakistan after Partition, partly due to entrance of other musicians into a profession otherwise dominated by hereditary groups. What happened to music in Pakistan post-Partition is, however, another story, one which highlights the death of many traditions associated with it. Musicians and experts lament the impact of laws that banned various forms of classical music – often terming it as Hindu – especially during the Zia-ul-Haq years. Even through these challenging times, there were small efforts to maintain and strengthen the traditions, though they met with little success. All this is indicative of the fact that democratization of the art forms in India clearly provided the basis and opportunity for survival if not a renaissance.

This period also witnessed major changes in the gharana system, a process that in fact continues apace. For one, the reasons behind the emergence of these groupings are perhaps less significant today; this is not to take away from their musical contributions. People are now much more open to incorporating different styles into their music.

Once the urban elite became interested in learning and demanded an expansion in the teaching of classical music, traditional modes of instruction too underwent change, generating shifts in the guru shishyaparampara. Current practitioners range from hereditary musicians to first generation ones and even non-Indian scholars and performers. The gandabandi tradition where a student is formally inducted into a system of tutelage is today almost non-existent. And while these changes are more marked in non-lineal arrangements, there is also a tendency for the noveau gharanas to emerge among families of musicians.

Another important reason for a decline in the strongholds of gharanedar singing is the impact of technology on the way we listen to music, significantly increasing the exposure to different styles of music. There are two worlds that still exist around the world of technology – one that believes in this change and the other that feels it has done intense damage to music. A noted connoisseur and collector based in Ahmebdabad, now in her ’90s, reminisces how till even as late as the 1960s, baithaks and mehfils were regularly organized in the homes of wealthy patrons. These soirees would go on till the early hours of the morning, providing artists an opportunity to present a range of time-appropriate ragas, elaborating each to the audience’s delight, and making it possible to express a more versatile and varied repertoire. She laments that the microphone played spoilsport by changing the very nature of performance, taking music out of the intimate interactive spaces to more impersonal auditoriums!

This discussion continues even a hundred years after technology first entered the world of Indian music. Recorded music came to India in 1902 with the recording by Gauhar Jan, the star of her times. Gramophone companies, initially run by Americans and Europeans and not by upper caste Indians, actively recruited the Baiji’s for their early recordings.

The gramophone record not only began to revolutionize ways in which music was heard, but gradually started to craft new social norms associated with it. Initially there was resistance from the Ustads who felt that recordings might mean giving away their precious repertoire or that it was devaluing their music by making it available to the public at large. However, the commercial success of the record made this avenue an attractive option for many musicians, both performers and accompanists.

While the gramophone companies were purely capitalist enterprises, the All India Radio started in the 1930s as a nationalist venture to further institutionalize and make music respectable. Ironically, the rules governing broadcasting, more than provide an opportunity, actually served to marginalize several popular performers of the time, significantly the Baiji’s. The Baiji’s notably had to put up with the indignity of the All India Radio, which made it compulsory that female singers be married, even insisting that they use a separate entrance to enter the studio.

Even as these changes impacted the social complexities of music, both making it difficult for hereditary musicians and attractive to other communities, the 21st century has seen a frenzied growth of technology redefining the listening experience. People now increasingly listen to music on iPods and mobile phones, even as a lot of the music is downloadable from the internet through sites that indulge in piracy and have little concern for intellectual property rights.
Technology actually has the power to create new genres – Asian Underground is one such popular and commercially successful example. The market-electronic media nexus now dictates creative spaces. There is a blurring of categories, a mushrooming of new genres (Sufi-Rock), much of which goes into one large melting pot of popular or film music. In fact we are at a point when most top-ranking classical musicians have at some point been tempted to engage with popular music – film or otherwise – to ensure visibility and to some extent impact their public popularity. It would not be incorrect, for instance, to say that a repeated appearance in a reality show as a judge, or as a columnist in a newspaper supplement which may or may not talk about music, or doing a one-off playback song for a film, gets an artist the visibility and attention which hundreds of concerts may not be able to. Reality shows and film music appear to be the only kind of music that satiates the Indian and even international palette. Today the idea of success has been converted into visibility in magazines and on television.

Then there are other faster paced changes underway, ones that can overwhelm both the performer and listener. Digital music has been spreading large and wide, giving opportunities to even non-musicians who may not have any formal learning, do not sing or perform live, to create music through machines. The popularity and commercial potential of this genre of music makes classical music a less attractive option. The use of computers has also resulted in amazing changes within the recording and music industry. Recorded sound can now be processed, manipulated and altered more than ever before. What would have been sacrilege to the purist at one time is now quite acceptable – pitch correction for instance.

Every generation needs to define its own version of the classical. Though music history in India has so far largely relied on the memories of communities of musicians, this may not always be a sound source, particularly in the context of future planning. A good starting point might be to identify what information we actually have on classical music in India. An audit of the living conditions of artistes would reveal the many difficulties faced by this community. Some researchers and scholars even suggest that information on musicians should become a part of the census data, instead of merely categorising them as ‘self-employed’.

Declining spaces in mainstream media have resulted in reduced visibility of the tradition. The music critic has become a creature of the past and the limited coverage that there is to be found in supplements could well pass off for trivia. Doordarshan and AIR, which had taken on the task of regularly broadcasting classical music as a public responsibility, are under pressure to go commercial. They want to compete with other private TV and radio channels, though it is well-known that commercial or sponsored spaces largely promote only Bollywood or its equivalents. There is clearly a need for fresh ideas and more innovative programming.

While AIR and Doordarshan do make available some of the old recordings through CDs and DVDs, they are usually difficult to find and are certainly not representative of the treasures that these institutions have accumulated over several decades of their existence.

Practitioners often face a challenge from the current modern commercialization of the profession. The music industry does not offer any support to musicians for recording. Let alone commission recordings, it does not even publish quality materials that are ready for release – ‘doesn’t sell’ being a common refrain. There are, however, newer labels which have mushroomed to fill up these gaps, but though they do give new opportunities to younger musicians, they rarely constitute a commercially comfortable proposition.

Going to a music store to find a good collection of Indian classical music is becoming increasingly difficult. And this restricted choice has disappointed not just music connoisseurs, but artistes too. There is of course the potential of new technology – the net websites, blogs, chat rooms and so on – though few within the musical community seem equipped to creatively use the opportunity.

Fortunately, archiving is gaining momentum as a handful of people see the worth of preserving and documenting this music – The Sangeet Research Academy, Saptak, Jadavpur University and the AIIS to name a few. There are, however, difficulties in accessing this music – in reality there is a thin line between a private collection and a public archive. Having the music or information and not sharing it isn’t particularly useful. Ironic, given that there is perhaps less than a handful of people interested in this treasure anyway.

At a recent seminar addressing issues of archiving and copyright, a group of Manganiyar singers from Rajasthan shared at length their frustration and helplessness in cases of copyright infringement, lack of attribution and unfair use of their compositions. Take the ‘Nimbuda’ case – where a song created by one of them was used in a popular Hindi film and went on to win several popular music awards, of course, without any acknowledgement. All they wanted was an attribution, of which there was no sign. No wonder most musicians feel a need to find appropriate mechanisms to safeguard their rights since, barring a few top ranking ones, most have little leeway for meaningful negotiations.

One major problem concerns the usefulness of rights for artistes with economically challenged careers. Legal rights are complicated and if one needs to turn to the legal system, the process is both expensive and time-consuming. Also, if one litigates, the industry may well brand you as a troublemaker and thus affect opportunities. Royalties are nearly impossible to claim; it’s easier just to get a payment upfront. But even then one does not have much room to negotiate: if one asks for a written contract, the sponsor may turn to other artists who aren’t so demanding. There is a need to find newer ways of dealing with issues of piracy and copyright to protect the interests of different stakeholders. These efforts are beginning in India as well – models which allow freedom to use, share, study and publicly perform without restrictions, as long as the work is in the public domain.5

There are two sets of reaction to the democratization of music that has taken place since independence in India – one that suggests that Indian music is really ‘happening’ now across the world and the other which is concerned about the way it’s ‘happening’!

In an organic and evolving cultural tradition of Indian classical music, changes and adaptations are integral. For instance khayal borrowed from folk, film music borrows from everything – folk, khayal, qawwali. As Neuman6 points out, it is quite incredible that despite the rapid change in social contexts, our music culture continues to maintain its integrity.

Footnotes:

1. Janaki Bakhle, Two Men and Music: Nationalism in the Making of an Indian Classical Tradition, Permanent Black, New Delhi, 2005.

2. Ashok Da. Ranade, Perspectives on Music: Ideas and Theories, Promilla and Co., Publishers, New Delhi, in association with Bibliophile South Asia, 2008.

3. Amanda Weidman, ‘Gender and the Politics of the Voice: Cultural Modernity and Classical Music in South India’, Cultural Anthropology 18(20), 2003, 194-232.

4. Janaki Bakhle, op cit., p. 139.

5. Report from a workshop on Documentation and Archiving in Performing Arts, American Institute of Indian Studies, May 2009.

6. Daniel M. Neuman, The Life of Music in North India: The Organization of an Artistic Tradition, University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Spirtituality and music

2009-08-16T23:37:00.000-07:00

A recent collection of ideas has emerged on the subject from a world of musicians, musicologists and therapists on what could be the spiritual significance of music. I was very honored to be a part of this project.
Spirituality and Indian music, what I practice, are connected to each
other like breath and existence. Indian music has many spiritual bearings. The experience of spirituality in Indian music is many hued, layered – it could mean a religious experience, it could refer to mysticism, or just be one way of praying. Indian music has been used over centuries to overcome religious orthodoxy, and as a vehicle to spread syncretic movements all over the region. For women, people belonging to the lower social stratum (caste), peasants, weavers, these movements offered an instant connection with God, through
the medium of music. The tradition of Temple music, the Bhakti (to worship) movement and Sufism are perhaps the more obvious manifestations of the same. Also, the very premise on which Carnatic or the South Indian tradition evolved and continues to be practiced today is spiritual.
At a purely abstract level, sound is referred to as the “Nada Brahma” or the divine sound, that is to say, in abstraction too there is a connection with the divine. The ancient Vedic scriptures teach that there are two types of sound: un-struck sound and struck sound. Un-struck sound is a vibration of ether, the upper or purer air near the celestial realm. The enlightened yogis seek the unstruck sound called “Anaahata Nada”, and only they can hear it. The struck sound or “Aahata Nada”, is the vibration of air in the lower atmosphere closer to the earth. It is any sound that we hear in nature or man-made sounds,
musical, and non-musical. The very location of music is in the metaphysical space, in an aura that has the strength and potential to transport one into another sphere of existence – one that is definitely spiritual!
To read about what others (including legends like Pt.Ravi Shankar) have said check out http://www.xtrememusic.org/world.html

Holi and Music

2009-03-02T03:24:00.000-08:00

Color Me in Song

(Was published in The Hindustan Times))

A group of boys and girls in ragged clothes, were asking for money and mithai, drenched in colors that would frustrate any environmentalist – red, silver, green, walking through the gali-koocha of dilli nagari’s DDA colonies. While this asking for Phagwa was not exactly Braj Ki Hori, but the dholak and the fairly high pitched ranting along with it was intriguing – I was quite taken aback with what I managed to make out. They were actually singing the trademark Holi song – Aaj Biraj Mein Hori re Rasiya. But to my mind it also brought out the core idea of this festival –it transcends many boundaries in the way it gets celebrated. And a uniting theme in all of this is the music that is so intrinsically linked to Holi – I definitely do not refer only to the Bollywood staple Rang Barse here.

Celebrated throughout northern India by the privileged and the commoner alike, the music around Holi suggests how folk and the classical traditions co-exist, how color and music come together and how traditional festivities can overlook religious convictions. Whether it is the songsters on the streets, the sonorous strains of legends like Thumri singer Shobha Gurtu or the Qawwal Jaffar Hussein Badayuni, there is so much music in Holi and this is just a glimpse into that world.

What is really the connection between color and music? It is actually an unusual one. Color can be seen, is perceivable while music exists on another plane – more abstract, more intangible. Yet the two are closely connected. The strains of Kafi, Pilu, Tilang or Bhairavi, some common Raag in which Holi songs are sung, do elicit moods of love, celebration, belonging, separation and sensuality. These Raag have mostly risen from folk tunes - with their origin in folk music. Although over time they have come to be formalized into Raag in the classical genre, they remain relegated to the domain of “lighter” Raag. In fact the folk element in the semi-classical tradition of Thumri is the most evident in the sub-genre of Hori. And therefore a lot of us grow up with these tunes in our conscious; the familiarity making it all the more enjoyable.

A more obvious connection between color and music is the rich text that comes through Basant, Holi and even Sawan where moods and colors merge into a beautiful tapestry. References to Hari Chudiyan (green bangles), Gori baiyyan (fair skinned arms) Kumkum (vermillion), Kesar (saffron), Gulal (red color), Daph and Shehnai, Rang Rez (the Dyer) and Chunariya (the Stole) come to mind straight away. Even today people relive legends through these songs; celebrate the exasperating, but highly charming ways of Krishna as he drenches the Gopis in color and love; songs associated with Radha and Krishna and with games and pranks that young Krishna played with the Gopis. You can feel the romance in the intent of the lyric, like in this traditional Thumri:

Vanshi wale Se Khelungi mein Holi;

Mohe rang mein kari aur jhakjhori;

(With the Flautist will I play this Holi,

He who drenches me in indefatigable color)

In fact there is a song for every mood in Holi including the Nayika in Viraha – or the heroine distressed by separation in rare Thumris and Dadra’s:

Hori Aaj Jarey Chahe Kaal Jarey, Mora Kunwar Kanhai Mose Aan Mile

Jar Jaye Hori Piya Ghar Naahi, Abir Gulal Mein Aag Lagey

(Referring to the pyre that is lit to signify the triumph of the good over evil, this traditional Dadra is the voice of a lonely heart pining for her lover, Krishna)

But the real mood is having fun and being naughty (haven’t we heard of Natkhat Kanha!) - a time to flirt and let your hair down. These fun songs bring out the risqué in the celebration. Aayi Hurdangon Ki Holi Ayi – here comes the riotous Holi, as a popular Bihari folk song aptly describes it. Barsana where Lathmaar Holi is traditionally celebrated finds mention in a lot of the Phag and Holi text. Women pick up sticks to beat men who do not retaliate – all done playfully! There is also a tradition where women let out Gaari’s (literally meaning abusive words), giving women a slim opportunity to let go just one day in a man’s world! Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar who couldn’t resist joining the fun used Braj Boli to write:

Kyon Mo Pe Rang Ki Maari Pichkaari
Dekho Kunwar Ji Doongi Mein Gaari

(Why drench me with color, now Kunwarji I will let out a Gaari!)

This fanfare and gaiety also entered art music – Khayal and Dhrupad - not something you would see for instance in Diwali. Dhamar, a sub-category of Dhrupad, is specifically related to Holi and thematically has nothing to do with either the ritualistic context or the feudal aristocracy that Dhrupad so represented. A popular Dhamar which infuses both sensuality and spirituality at once:

Khelat Hari Sang Sakal Rang Bhari Hori Sakhi

Kanchan Pichkari Karan, Kesar Rang Bori Aaj

Bheegat Tana Dekhat Jan Atii Laajat Mann Hi Mann

Aise Dhoom Brindavan Machi Hai Nandalal Bhavan

That music in Holi satisfies an emotional bonding with the listener -no use for worldly wisdom here - comes through in the secular aspect of the festival. Major traditions of devotional music in India such as Sufi and Bhakti Sangeet come to mind in this regard. Whether it is the Bhakti poet Surdas’s pada “Tum Chalo Sabahi Mili Jaaye Khelan Horiyan” or the ‘Muslim’ Krishna Bhakt, Ras Khan’s “Aaj Khelen Hori Braj Gori”, the mood, the enthusiasm and the underlying intent of love and devotion is very comparable. The great poet, Amir Khusro has written hundreds of Holi verses addressed to his spiritual mentor Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, whom he compares to Krishna: Mohe suhagan, rang de Khwajaji, Aao, Sufiyon sang Hori khelo.

This music is pure inebriation infused with the magic and power of imagery. Best savored with your Gujia, Gulal and Gaari!

Vidya Shah

2009-02-07T03:30:00.000-08:00

I have just come back form a really fulfilling trip to Shantiniketan and Kolkata. Shantiniketan is quaint and beautiful - though like all other cities and towns everywhere in the world it has become more crowded and as some of the regulars in the town say the cars have affected the charm and the look of the place - "pehle wahan ki laal mitti itni udti nahin thi". But for a first time it was very interesting. As part of senior and very well known artist K.G.Subramanyam's 85th birthday celebrations it was an honour to be there. Organised by the Seagull Foundation the event was a total creative treat with 3 days of music and an exhibition of KG's recent works. My special treat apart from just being there was meeting Sharbari Roy Chowdhary the famous sculptor who lives there. Sharbori Da was a special meeting for another reason - he is an avid record collector and has wonderful anecdotes and stories to tell about the artists, their patrons and other collectors. He has met greats like Kesarbai, Hirabai, Faiyyaz Khan and has fond memories of these meetings and also some very funny stories to tell. In moments like this I often think how crucial and central anecdotes are really to understand the greatness of the tradition itself. How can one integrate it into a more significant presence in music research?

Baajat Anhad Naad

2008-11-17T04:20:00.000-08:00

My next concert on Sufi-Bhakti. Aways a challenge and an exciting one. Exploring medieval poetry is so close to ones heart. Medieval but something that is is as relevant if not more than the time it was created. People often ask you sing "sufi" music. Actually it is interpreting Sufi poetry - giving it a structure. I wonder if there is any such thing as Sufi Music really!

22nd November IHC New Delhi 7 PM

Feeling Music Vidya Shah in Concert

2008-09-23T22:36:00.001-07:00

Feeling music
Performance by Vidya Shah
Place: Berlin
Date: 7th and 10th October 2008
How does one feel an aural experience? How does the aural connect with a visual in eliciting another level of felt experience? With reference to a spatial context, it is interesting to note how and whether this experience can be measured and objectively perceived. The visual and the aural are on different planes yet experientially and at the affect level they connect. They both evoke emotions that could be subjective, prompted or even provocative.
In the context of Indian music the drone or the Tanpura that is played at the beginning of a performance before the vocal or the performing instrument begins, fills the performance space before the artist actually begins his or her quest for an experience that can well take us into a new and very different set of responses, perhaps another realm of existence.
The theme of the performance by Vidya Shah will be Shringar one of the nine essences that permeate all aspects of Indian Art. Shringar is about love, in all aspects from the romance to the erotic to the mystic union with the divine. But its earthly or physical manifestations are the ones we all recognize or that which becomes perceivable. We all know it as love in all its colors making it once beautiful for the beloved, the breathless anticipation of a meeting, the yearning, the separation, the ecstasies, these feelings are human and they are universal. In India they have also been captured in paintings and in songs as we bring in this interactive experience through the concert. The performance shares these aspects through the forms of Hindustani or North Indian Music and as a reminder of the organic nature of all Indian art. The visual representation of these moods will be through paintings and photographs from both contemporary and historical collections of Indian painters and photographers.

The concert is an effort to understand the tapestry of emotions that can be elicited, evoked, discussed and dissipated through this audio-visual experience.

2008-09-23T22:36:00.000-07:00

2008-06-01T00:33:00.000-07:00

I recently read the music Room by Namita Devidayal and Reviewed it for a paper Here is the review.
Inside The Music Room

The tradition of Indian Classical music has always been hailed with a sense of piety and grandeur, a sterling example of how an oral tradition uplifts the culture of a society through centuries and generations. The Music Room by Namita Devidayal gently nudges the reader into a journey about this tradition its magic, mysteries, the unspoken rules and the hidden layers.

The book is a biography the author has written about her Guru, a lesser known but very valuable musician in the Indian terra – Dhondutai Kulkarni, the student of the legendary Kesarbai Kerkar. It discusses the complexities of the Guru-Shishya Parampara, the vagaries of patronage in Classical music. The author locates the narrative from the early 20th Century to very much the present by highlighting the social contexts in which these traditions have lived, evolved and changed; her own journey from a privileged Mumbai to her teachers middle class existence; from the juxtaposition of Dhontutai’s Brahminical background to that of a more glamorous culture of the Bai’s - intersections that seriously determined access and possibilities of pursuing classical music and performance in India. Perhaps the only point of disconcertion is the placement of the self the author has indulged in – her wonderful voice, the “choti” Kesar – not unusual for a musician to revel in one’s creative strength. Maybe for Dhondutai it also met her deep sense of commitment to taking this impeccable tradition forward.

The deceptive simplicity in writing is a pleasure and through the anecdotes, personal experiences and narratives, the book fulfills a void in literature that so exists in the world of Indian music. A must read for music lovers and those who want to love music. As a musician belonging to the same tradition of Classical music I can say with a fair deal of conviction the book is a wonderful endorsement of the feelings, emotions, passion and frustrations of a whole fraternity of musicians out there!

Gagan Mei Thaal

2008-03-25T22:16:00.000-07:00

Guru Nanak Dev the Sikh Guru wrote this beautiful Aarti using nature as a metaphor! Click on the widget to listen

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Mohe Apne Hi Rang Mein

2008-03-02T03:45:00.000-08:00

Spring is that time of the year in North India when the yellow of the mustard flower and the red of the gulmohar fill lives with a sense of fragrance, joy, and celebration. Spanning a little over a month, the season is dotted with big and small festivals. The biggest is Holi, the festival of colour. Music is very much a part of this celebration of spring.Celebrate the colors of spring with the beautiful poetry of Amir Khusro in my composition Mohe Apne Hi Rang Mein.
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