Dhrupad: Tradition and Performance in Indian Music

Description

Dhrupad is believed to be the oldest style of classical vocal music performed today in North India. This detailed study of the genre considers the relationship between the oral tradition, its transmission from generation to generation, and its re-creation in performance. There is an overview of the historical development of the dhrupad tradition and its performance style from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, and of the musical lineages that carried it forward into the twentieth century, followed by analyses of performance techniques, processes and styles. The authors examine the relationship between the structures provided by tradition and their realization by the performer to throw light on the nature of tradition and creativity in Indian music; and the book ends with an account of the ‘revival’ movement of the late twentieth century that re-established the genre in new contexts. Augmented with an analytical transcription of a complete dhrupad performance, this is the first book-length study of an Indian vocal genre to be co-authored by an Indian practitioner and a Western musicologist. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Dedication Original Title Contents List of Figures List of Music Examples List of Tables and Maps Preface Acknowledgements A Note on Notations and Spellings 1 What is Dhrupad? A View from the Audience A View from the Platform A Problem of Definition The Structure of Performance Melody Rāg Melodic Style Intonation Rhythm and Metre Ālāp Tāl and Time-keeping Melodic Rhythm Laykārī Text The Dhrupad Repertory Cautāl Dhrupad Dhamār Sādrā Fast Dhrupads Other Items The Talwanḍī Gharānā Repertory Instruments Accompaniment and Ensemble Pakhāvaj Rudrā Vīṇā Other Instruments Singers The Senīyā Tradition Regional Dhrupad Traditions Dhrupad Ideology 2 The Historical Emergence of Dhrupad Style Dhrupad at the Mughal Court Origins Composition Performance Style and Transmission The Rise of Khyāl and Decline of Dhrupad The Nineteenth Century: Willard and Imām Conclusions 3 Tradition and Style: The Four Bānīs The Origins of Bānī The Four Bānīs Sources Bānī as a Synaesthetic Concept Bānī and Gīti The Gauḍahār Bānī The Ḍāgar Bānī The Khaṇḍār Bānī The Nauhār Bānī The Fate of the Bānīs 4 The Transmission of Tradition: The Ḍāgar Heritage Sources of Tradition Bahrām Khān Bahrām Khān at Jaipur Bahrām Khān the Musician Bahrām Khān the Teacher Bahrām Khān’s Origins Bahrām Khān’s Successors The Ḍāgar Heritage in the Twentieth Century Transmitting the Ḍāgar Bānī Aesthetic Concepts The Musical Repertory The Teacher-Pupil Relationship Tālīm Institutional Transmission 5 Ālāp and Tradition Function, Form and Process Traditional Aspects of Ālāp Performance Ālapti The Stages of Ālāp The Nom Tom Syllables The Mukhṛā Lakṣaṇas Aesthetic and Philosophical Concepts 6 An Ālāp Performance in the Ḍāgar Tradition Analysing Ālāp Performance Objectives Representing Melody and Rhythm Rāg Multānī Slow Ālāp The Opening Slow Ālāp: Sthāyī Slow Ālāp: Antarā Medium Ālāp Fast Ālāp Rhythm in Fast Ālāp Tradition in Performance 7 Composition and Tradition Dhrupad Compositions as Cultural Objects Origins and Transmission Identity Form The Formal Archetype Origins of the Archetype Composition and Tradition 8 Performing the Composition: Rhythmic Variation and Improvisation ‘Fixed’ and ‘Free’ Laykārī Historical Context Augmentation and Diminution Historical Evidence for Improvisation Laykārī in the Talwanḍī Style Śuddh Gait Āṛ Gait Kuāṛ Gait Viāṛ Gait Laykārī in the Darbhangā Style Laykārī in the Ḍāgar Style General Characteristics of Style: Ritwik Sānyāl The Articulation of Metrical Space Tihāī Improvising Laykārī 9 Dhrupad in the Modern World: Tradition, Performance and Revival The Dhrupad Revival The Ḍāgar Family and the Beginnings of Revival ‘Festivalization’ Transmission Dhrupad Overseas Media Festivals of Dhrupad Banāras and Vrindāban: Inception and Organization Two Symbols Three Individuals Dhrupad and Wrestling: Tradition and Modernity Continuity and Change Other Festivals Revival and Change Appendix 1: Principal Dhrupad Tāls Appendix 2: Dhrupad Lineages Appendix 3: Ālāp and Dhrupad, Rāg Multānī (Transcription) Contents of the CD Bibliography Index of Authors Index of Musicians Index of Rāga Names General Index