Serious listeners only
Serious listeners only
Previously the concept of popularity did not exist in the arts, for the barometer of acceptability was patronage alone
By Sarwat Ali
Occasionally in Pakistan one realizes strongly that the case of classical music is not really that hopeless. This usually happens when a large number of people turn up to listen to their favourite vocalists and instrumentalists and stay for hours, even till the early hours of the morning just to appreciate a rare raag not commonly sung these days.
There was an audience and there were also a large number of very able and creative musicians at the time of partition. Then what really went wrong was that classical music slipped from its high pedestal to a point where the musicians for months did not have the opportunity to perform, and as a result tethered on penury unable even to feed their families.
There may have been many cogent reasons but probably the fault also lay with the patronage or a failure to develop a system of patronage to supplant the older order of patronage in which music could not only survive but thrive as well.
One cardinal mistake committed was to pitch the classical forms against the more popular forms of music. Actually the distinction between popular music and art music was created as the market forces came into play and displaced the older quasi feudal manner and style of patronage. Previously the concept of popularity did not exist in the arts for the barometer of acceptability was patronage alone. If patronage was extended by someone who mattered then the rest became inconsequential as one did not have to go to the bazaar to sell one's goods. This distinction may have started with theatre, the Parsi Theatre but it became overpowering with the coming of the talkies. It is hard to imagine any of the great ustads matching the popularity based on the sale of the records of K.L Saigol in the nineteen thirties and forties.
But till partition parallel systems of music were still in force. If there was the emerging market to determine the kind of music that was being made the older system of patronage by the princely states guaranteed that the good musicians, particularly practicing the classical genres were given a decent financial cover and protection. The total disappearance of the feudal princely system in Pakistan, as if overnight was too catastrophic and most people were not able to grasp its full implications. It pitched all kinds of music against each other and the only criteria that were applied to both apples and oranges were as to how much they were being sold. The result was that art music started to disappear altogether as more sellable commodities started to replace it.
The same trend has continued gathering momentum. There is no harm in it as the market has to determine who is going to stay in business and who is to lose out but then everything cannot be left to the whims of the market.
There also has been some problem with the understanding of the classical form for they were seen more as fixed entities. This usually happens when it is considered that the artistic forms, or for that matter any other endeavour has reached a certain perfection which qualifies it to attain the status of the classical. The subsequent artists are allowed only the freedom of emulating the classical forms and everything else is perceived as a deviation. This attitude gave way to the neoclassical phase in Europe when after the Dark Ages they started to emulate the Greek and Roman works of art and architecture.
The dhrupad had nearly died out but the kheyal was vibrant and in the many forms of kheyal were a key to the diversity that existed within the genre itself. Then there were the semi classical forms like thumri, dadra and kajri. The forms called classical and semi classical were not fixed and finished entities but in a state of flux and continuous change. The purist tradition of classical music best represented in dhrupad and kheyal was nourished in the relatively closed door environment of the courts under the exacting demands of a connoisseur patron. The eventual demise of the princely states opened the flood gates of unfiltered outside influences.
In India well known musicians have coped with this changing situation. Ustad Faiyyaz Khan of the Agra Gharana relied on his versatility and such was his facility as a performer that after an elaborate raga depiction he quickly switched over to the thumri or a ghazal. His art symbolized the evolution from the ancient dhrupad dhammar to the modern thumri, ghazal and dadra. The most significant departure from convention was the nom tom alaap technique to his kheyal singing as the dhrupad technique was effectively used as a preface to kheyal. At times even all this did not work, or so he thought and switched to gesticulations while singing the thumri in the manner of a kathak dancer rendering a thumri number.
The unorthodox vocalization of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan offended purists. They raised their eyebrows at the brevity and tempo of his raga compositions. No less intriguing was his penchant for sarangi oriented patterns and variety of sargams which sometimes dominated his singing.He also created a stir in the nineteen thirties by yet another innovation, the Punjab variety of thumri. It is now regarded as pace setter in light classical music but there were self- proclaimed sticklers for tradition who still continued to feel that under the impact of his innovations, the pristine Purab ang genre would eventually fade into oblivion.
It seemed Bade Ghulam Ali Khan was all for stretching the limits of tradition which to many had become sacrosanct. Ustad Abdul Karim Khan too did not allow himself to be overburdened by the do's and dont's of the raag gaiki and often violated the rules to suit the emotional content of his rendition. His shagird Sawai Gandharva, who was also associated with the theatre, was quite unorthodox in his musical performances. His shagird Pandit Bhim Sen Joshi's singing was amalgam of various styles like Gwalior, Atrauli Jaipur, Indore and Patiala. Amid the straight taans of the Patiala style he startled his audiences with lightening array of intricate, odd shaped patterns characteristic of the Atrauli Jaipur gharana. The sarangi like slippery flourish in the Kirana fashion was defty grafted on the lai oriented taankari of the Gawalior Gaiki.
Kumar Gadharva, whose aesthetics was based on the assumption that the classical music raags have their genesis in folk music, collected three hundred folk songs, cast them in notation and created Dhun Ugama (folk based raags).
The classical musicians have often resorted to gimmicks as well, like Bhim Sen Joshi in a jugalbandi with Balamurali Krishna, the Carnatic vocalist or with celebrated painter M. F Hussain. In the 'Unity of Art' programme he sang for an hour while Hussain put white paint on the white canvas and then bright red. When asked what it all meant he said "the work of a modern artist is difficult to appreciate unless explained by the artist himself."
Previously the concept of popularity did not exist in the arts, for the barometer of acceptability was patronage alone
By Sarwat Ali
Occasionally in Pakistan one realizes strongly that the case of classical music is not really that hopeless. This usually happens when a large number of people turn up to listen to their favourite vocalists and instrumentalists and stay for hours, even till the early hours of the morning just to appreciate a rare raag not commonly sung these days.
There was an audience and there were also a large number of very able and creative musicians at the time of partition. Then what really went wrong was that classical music slipped from its high pedestal to a point where the musicians for months did not have the opportunity to perform, and as a result tethered on penury unable even to feed their families.
There may have been many cogent reasons but probably the fault also lay with the patronage or a failure to develop a system of patronage to supplant the older order of patronage in which music could not only survive but thrive as well.
One cardinal mistake committed was to pitch the classical forms against the more popular forms of music. Actually the distinction between popular music and art music was created as the market forces came into play and displaced the older quasi feudal manner and style of patronage. Previously the concept of popularity did not exist in the arts for the barometer of acceptability was patronage alone. If patronage was extended by someone who mattered then the rest became inconsequential as one did not have to go to the bazaar to sell one's goods. This distinction may have started with theatre, the Parsi Theatre but it became overpowering with the coming of the talkies. It is hard to imagine any of the great ustads matching the popularity based on the sale of the records of K.L Saigol in the nineteen thirties and forties.
But till partition parallel systems of music were still in force. If there was the emerging market to determine the kind of music that was being made the older system of patronage by the princely states guaranteed that the good musicians, particularly practicing the classical genres were given a decent financial cover and protection. The total disappearance of the feudal princely system in Pakistan, as if overnight was too catastrophic and most people were not able to grasp its full implications. It pitched all kinds of music against each other and the only criteria that were applied to both apples and oranges were as to how much they were being sold. The result was that art music started to disappear altogether as more sellable commodities started to replace it.
The same trend has continued gathering momentum. There is no harm in it as the market has to determine who is going to stay in business and who is to lose out but then everything cannot be left to the whims of the market.
There also has been some problem with the understanding of the classical form for they were seen more as fixed entities. This usually happens when it is considered that the artistic forms, or for that matter any other endeavour has reached a certain perfection which qualifies it to attain the status of the classical. The subsequent artists are allowed only the freedom of emulating the classical forms and everything else is perceived as a deviation. This attitude gave way to the neoclassical phase in Europe when after the Dark Ages they started to emulate the Greek and Roman works of art and architecture.
The dhrupad had nearly died out but the kheyal was vibrant and in the many forms of kheyal were a key to the diversity that existed within the genre itself. Then there were the semi classical forms like thumri, dadra and kajri. The forms called classical and semi classical were not fixed and finished entities but in a state of flux and continuous change. The purist tradition of classical music best represented in dhrupad and kheyal was nourished in the relatively closed door environment of the courts under the exacting demands of a connoisseur patron. The eventual demise of the princely states opened the flood gates of unfiltered outside influences.
In India well known musicians have coped with this changing situation. Ustad Faiyyaz Khan of the Agra Gharana relied on his versatility and such was his facility as a performer that after an elaborate raga depiction he quickly switched over to the thumri or a ghazal. His art symbolized the evolution from the ancient dhrupad dhammar to the modern thumri, ghazal and dadra. The most significant departure from convention was the nom tom alaap technique to his kheyal singing as the dhrupad technique was effectively used as a preface to kheyal. At times even all this did not work, or so he thought and switched to gesticulations while singing the thumri in the manner of a kathak dancer rendering a thumri number.
The unorthodox vocalization of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan offended purists. They raised their eyebrows at the brevity and tempo of his raga compositions. No less intriguing was his penchant for sarangi oriented patterns and variety of sargams which sometimes dominated his singing.He also created a stir in the nineteen thirties by yet another innovation, the Punjab variety of thumri. It is now regarded as pace setter in light classical music but there were self- proclaimed sticklers for tradition who still continued to feel that under the impact of his innovations, the pristine Purab ang genre would eventually fade into oblivion.
It seemed Bade Ghulam Ali Khan was all for stretching the limits of tradition which to many had become sacrosanct. Ustad Abdul Karim Khan too did not allow himself to be overburdened by the do's and dont's of the raag gaiki and often violated the rules to suit the emotional content of his rendition. His shagird Sawai Gandharva, who was also associated with the theatre, was quite unorthodox in his musical performances. His shagird Pandit Bhim Sen Joshi's singing was amalgam of various styles like Gwalior, Atrauli Jaipur, Indore and Patiala. Amid the straight taans of the Patiala style he startled his audiences with lightening array of intricate, odd shaped patterns characteristic of the Atrauli Jaipur gharana. The sarangi like slippery flourish in the Kirana fashion was defty grafted on the lai oriented taankari of the Gawalior Gaiki.
Kumar Gadharva, whose aesthetics was based on the assumption that the classical music raags have their genesis in folk music, collected three hundred folk songs, cast them in notation and created Dhun Ugama (folk based raags).
The classical musicians have often resorted to gimmicks as well, like Bhim Sen Joshi in a jugalbandi with Balamurali Krishna, the Carnatic vocalist or with celebrated painter M. F Hussain. In the 'Unity of Art' programme he sang for an hour while Hussain put white paint on the white canvas and then bright red. When asked what it all meant he said "the work of a modern artist is difficult to appreciate unless explained by the artist himself."
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