Exploring the Musical Connection Between Raga Bhairavi and Indian Folk Songs (original) (raw)

The Inter-Relationship between Classical and Folk Tradition in North Indian Music.

Kutap, 2024

In the sphere of Indian musical tradition, “folk” and “classical” music have long been topics of discourse. However, the debate has mostly been one-sided, either highlighting the differences between these two styles in an attempt to determine which is greater or if more brings forward their fusion or confluences. What has received less attention is the inter-derivation and inter-relationship between both, which, if established, would contribute to the chasm of Indian musical democracy as well as strengthen the socio-cultural integrity of the country. In this article, we will analyse the inextricable linkage between folk and classical music, especially deriving the folk roots to various Indian ragas, trace the path of how pure-folk melodies have gradually been integrated into Hindustani classical music as distinct musical styles, and emphasise the significance of sustaining the unspoken connection that exists between them.

Rāgamālā : An Unpublished Source of Indian Music

The tradition of composing musicological texts and treaties is undoubtedly a glorious part of India's cultural heritage. At the very beginning the oldest documents of Indian literature, the Vedas, convey the first written information on Indian music. It is seen that, since the early days a set of specific rules have been adopted by the scholars and performers to maintain clarity in certain distinct forms of chanting, singing, dancing, instrument playing and other allied activities in the field of performance. 1 This system leads to originate the textual tradition of Indian performing art. The creative diversity became more prominent later on with the establishment of the heterogeneous system of Rāga-Rāgiṇī classification in Indian music. A large number of texts written in ancient and medieval India paid quite a little attention to Rāga-Rāgiṇī classification system. Doctrines of Hanumān, Śiva or Brahma or Someśvara, Bharata, Kallinātha, Indraprastha, Gaṇesa and many such scholars came up in this context. The vivid picture of Rāga-Rāgiṇī classification with explanation is undoubtedly helpful for understanding the origin, development and importance of this cultural practice in respect of the broader canvas of Indian music. A host of eminent scholars have been successful to unfold the profound mysteries embedded in the concept of Rāga-Rāgiṇī classification with the help of available textual documents. However, the work is still far from completion due to lack of available information. A good number of texts on Indian musicology are still lying confined in manuscript form. Rāgamālā, a descriptive work on Indian Rāga-Rāgiṇīs by Kṣemakarṇa is one such unnoticed treasury of medieval India. The work under discussion interestingly represents the existence of the age old concept of Rāga-Rāgiṇī classification system. The present paper is therefore sincerely aimed at tracing out the significance of the said text in researching the unrevealed elements of Indian music. History of musical activities is nothing but a part of human's cultural evolutions. Records of the history collected from different sources of information are helpful to understand how people lived and worked from the earliest times to the present day. The various sources of history are like the many pieces of a puzzle. These sources can be broadly classified into two groups – archaeological and literary. Among the literary sources manuscripts are major components. Handwritten records of the past in the form of books are known as manuscripts.

Melody Revisited: Tips from Indian Music Theory

… (HTTP://WWW. IJCC. …, 2010

The aim of this article is to tighten the mathematical definition of melody to capture its musical meaningfulness. This is supported by a comparative statistical study of melodic structures of two North Indian ragas, Bageshree and Bhimpalashree, that use the same notes.

A Reflection on the Aesthetics of Indian Music, With Special Reference to Hindustani Raga-Sangita

Like in any other heteronomous art-forms, the practitioners of Indian music and dance (Bharatiya Sangita) aim at expressing emotions and creating the aesthetic or the "beautiful." Indian thinkers and musicologists have gone a step further in declaring that Indian classical music (Raga-Sangita) is the most appropriate means for attaining aesthetic experience and delight, and the most suitable pathway, if not, downright, short-cut, toward self-realization or realization of the Ultimate Reality or Truth. Thus, aesthetics and spirituality make up the very woof and warp of the Indian arts, in general, and Raga-Sangita, in particular. Raga-Sangita is, thus, considered a spiritual exercise (nada sadhana) to attain salvation (moksha) through sound. This conceptual article reflects upon and sheds light on the Theory of Rasa, as propounded in Indian Aesthetics, and attempts to make an assessment of it in relation to Hindustani Raga-Sangita. Through this theory, the author examines and explains the different causes leading to an aesthetic experience, referred to as "out-of-this-world" (alaukika). In doing so, he also brings to light the possible pitfalls which both the performer and the listener should avoid.

The Emergence of Hindustani Music: A Cultural Investigation into the Syncretic Nature of Hindustani Music

Panjab University Research Journal Arts (PURJA) , 2019

The Hindustani tradition of music is a result of assimilation of Perso-Arabic music genres with indigenous Indian music genres over a period of five centuries. Since the advent of Delhi Sultanate, there was a gradual cultural synthesis in arts and culture between Hindu and Muslim communities. This process of assimilation led to the creation of Parsi-u Hindavi tradition. It indicates that there was an evolution of composite culture during medieval India. There are certain genres of art forms in which the syncretic culture of Hindus and Muslims can be observed such as architecture, painting, literature, Hindustani music, etc. In the repertoire of Hindustani music, khayal is a brilliant example of syncretic culture. In this paper, the evolution of Hindustani music is discussed from historical perspective. This study will reveal different ways in which motifs of syncretic culture can be seen present in Hindustani tradition of music.

The Intermediate Sphere in North Indian Music Culture: Between and Beyond “Folk” and “Classical”

Ethnomusicology

If in discourse about traditional music in North India, the notions of "folk" and "classical" continue to be widely used, in this essay I posit the existence of an "intermediate sphere, " comprising a heterogeneous set of traditional music genres that, in different ways, shares features with both folk and classical realms. I suggest five categories in this socio-musical stratum and provide brief glimpses of some of their constituents and distinguishing features, including the distinctive sorts of theory they embody and elite patronage that sustains them. I conclude with observations about historical changes in the status of this sphere in general. I n the music culture of North India, there exists a vast and rich stratum of traditional music genres that resist facile categorization as either classical or folk. Some of these idioms are typically referred to as light-classical or semi-classical; or they are described as being "between folk and classical, " or they are likened to a "regional classical music, " or they are noted to be in some way related or similar to classical music, while being clearly distinct from it. Other genres are not commonly spoken of in such terms but can in fact be seen to exhibit, to some marked degree, certain of the features that distinguish art music. This congeries of entities is internally heterogeneous, its constituents varying widely not only in form, style, region, and status but also in the specific sorts of affinities they may have to art music, which may or may not involve such particular features as presence of rāg and tāl. Not surprisingly, there is no indigenous umbrella term for this set of diverse music forms.