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Indian Music
The performing arts also have a long and distinguished tradition. Bharata natyam, the classical dance form originating in southern India, expresses Hindu religious themes that date at least to the 4th century ce. Other regional styles include odissi (from Orissa), manipuri (Manipur), kathakali (Kerala), kuchipudi (Andhra Pradesh), and kathak (Islamicized northern India). In addition, there are numerous regional folk dance traditions. One of these is bhangra, a Punjabi dance form that, along with its musical accompaniment, has achieved growing national and international popularity since the 1970s. Indian dance was popularized in the West by dancer and choreographer Uday Shankar.
Saraswati veena—often known simply as veena—is an ancient stringed instrument (Goddess Saraswati’s favorite) with a rounded wood resonator, a long neck with 24 frets (which may have a smaller resonator at the top end for balance), four playing strings, three drone strings, no sympathetic strings, and a slightly curved bridge. The veena is held at a sideways angle for playing, with the (main) resonator resting on the ground. Renowned instrumentalists on the veena include Sundaram Balachander and E. Gayathri.
Rudra veena has two rounded gourd resonators, a long, hollow neck, and steel strings that are plucked with a plectrum. Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar is a prominent rudra veena soloist.
The comparatively new gottuvadhyam has six main strings, three drone strings, and a series of sympathetic strings that pass under the main strings. It is played with a slide, and features as a solo instrument in Carnatic music. Seetha Doraiswamy and N. Ravikiran are prominent performers.
The sitar has a rounded gourd resonator, with a badaa goraa (large bridge), a chota goraa (small bridge), and a long, hollow neck, with curved, movable metal frets, six or seven playing strings that run over the frets, and about 16 sympathetic strings that run under the frets. The instrument is rested at an angle between the player’s knee and foot, and played with a mizrab (plectrum). Ustad Vilayat Khan, Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, and Ustad Shujaat Khan are renowned Indian sitar players.
Beginning with the film Alam Ara (1931), Indian film music has developed an extensive reach, with filmi sangeet utilizing classical ragas, semiclassical tunes, folk music, and various world music genres. In the early years, performers like Bal Gandharva, Kundan Lal Saigal, Suraiya, and Noorjehan sang the songs themselves; playback singing (that is, a separate vocal track recorded usually by a specialized playback singer and overdubbed) came later. The filmi songs highlight a scene, take the story further, or are simply a formulaic device; some films work only on account of their songs, while others, like Satyajit Ray’s films (such as Jalsaghar and Charulata), are primarily cinematic with the additional benefit of beautiful music. Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Geeta Dutt, Shamshad Begum, Mohammad Rafi, Manna Dey, Hemant Kumar, Kishore Kumar, Sonu Nigam, and Shreya Ghoshal are some notable singers, and Naushad, Shankar-Jaikishen, Vasant Desai, C. Ramchandra, and A. R. Rahman are some well-known film composers and music directors.
Indian pop music takes elements from classical, semiclassical, folk, and Western genres like jazz, rock, disco, pop, reggae, and hip-hop. Fusion music came into fashion after Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Pandit Ravi Shankar’s musical collaborations with Western artists. Nonfilmi pop began in the 1970s with the catchy songs of Nazia Hassan, Remo Fernandes, and Usha Utthup, and really caught on in the 1990s, with singers like Alisha Chinai, Daler Mehndi, and Ila Arun finding a wider audience. TV music programs further sparked an interest in popular music.
Bangla rock takes its inspiration from diverse sources, such as Western rock, metal, blues, jazz, Baul and Batiali songs, Bangla and Assamese folk, and Carnatic and Hindustani classical. It is performed in Bengali to the accompaniment of electric guitar, keyboard, violin, flute, and drums. The first rock band, Moheener Ghoraguli, formed in the 1970s, but the rock scene evolved in the 1990s. Calcutta pubs began to feature live rock music, rock music festivals and events mushroomed, and computer technology facilitated music production. Some of the leading bands are Bhoomi, Krosswindz, Cactus, Fossils, and Lakkhichhara.
A.R. Rahman’s use of rap in film scores, the songs of Baba Sehgal (the first Indian rapper), and foreign-based Indian rappers like Bally Sagoo, Hard Kaur, Blaaze, and VOOFA popularized hip-hop in India. Indian hip-hop utilizes English as well as Hindi and other Indian languages, and, apart from commercial party rap, tackles social issues like religion, politics, and corruption.
Indo-trance music is infused with Indian spiritualism, using various mantras and chants, and mixing Indian percussive elements with techno beats. A well-known style is Goa trance.
Dhwani is any sound, and nada is a pleasing sound. A nada of a specific, melodious character is a swar (note). The basic seven swars (sargam, collectively) and their short forms are: Shadja (Sa), Rishabh (Re; Ri in Carnatic), Gandhar (Ga), Madhyam (Ma), Pancham (Pa), Dhaivat (Dha), and Nishad (Ni). These swars are, in their pure forms, called shuddh swars. Sa and Pa are achala (fixed) swars, never deviating, while the rest are chala (movable) swars; Re, Ga, Dha, and Ni have komal (soft/flat) forms, while Ma becomes tivra (sharp). So there are 12 swars—seven shuddh, four komal, and one tivra— and a group of any seven swars is a saptak. There are three saptaks (scales/octaves): mandra (low), madhya (middle), and tar (high).
Raga is a melodious arrangement of five or more swars that are rendered in an aaroha (ascending) and avaroha (descending) order. The number of swars in a raga determines the jati; an Audhav jati raga has five swars, a Shadhav jati raga has six swars, and a Sampoora (complete) jati raga has sevenswars. These basic jatis combine to form more complex jatis; for instance, a raga with five aaroha swars and seven avaroha swars is of the Audhav-Sampoorna jati.
