Modern Indian Music (Salil Chowdhary )

Came across this intersting article .Its written by Salil Chowdhary and was Published in "Sangeetika" magazine, 1st Year Puja Issue (1959) !! ..Its a long article too but its intersting to read ..was wriiten in 1959 so almost 50 years old !!..

Against modern Indian music there has been an accusation by a certain
select group - that modern Indian music is not Indian at all.
Additionally some would be reluctant to concede that it is even music .
About this second opinion I withhold any discussion. But as to the
comment that modern Indian music is not Indian - that is an intriguing
point of view which in my opinion deserves to be discussed. The reason
being that this charge has been made by a select and quite influential
group of aficionados. This group is of the firm opinion that: a)
modern Indian music does not follow any of the raag note patterns of
Indian music , b) this music has none of the characteristics of being
typically Indian – in other words Indian folk- music , and c) for
accompaniment with this music , it is all too easy to use foreign
'orchestral' music .
We need to keep in mind especially that the above accusation has been
made primarily around Indian Film music . It is through Film that
Modern Indian music finds its most popular expression. Among the above
mentioned group of critics is a section which has cultivated the
strong viewpoint that the melding of Indian music and western music
and the joint use of these different styles of music is not possible.
A similar view is held even by Aakaashbaani (All India Radio), in
whose light classical music department (not denoted as modern music )
the harmonium is considered to be an 'untouchable' instrument.
Here I would like to say a few words about that unfortunate
instrument, the harmonium.
Developed through a fusion and modification of the 'accordion' and the
'organ', it is by far the most popular musical instrument in India.
The use of this instrument is universal; it finds favour from leading
exponents of classical Indian music , the lowliest of music students
and even the street singer. Thus it has become our national musical
instrument. Talented classical musicians (prominent among these being
Ustaad Abdul Kareem Khan, Fayyaaz Khan and Akhtari Bai) have given us
such disparate styles of music as Thumri, Bhajan, Qawwaali and Gazal;
these as well as artists of 'adhunik' (modern) music have and continue
to use the harmonium to accompany their music .
I believe that it was Kobiguru Rabindranath (Tagore) who first opined
against the use of the harmonium. He understood that a student of
music just beginning would become a slave to the fixed chromatic scale
of the harmonium and would thus suffer a loss of spontaneity in the
expression of melody and voice. The logic of his pronouncement is of
course undeniable. However, why it is that the harmonium is condemned
for consideration even for the purpose of accompaniment, is beyond my
understanding.

Cont..

It is of course the sole prerogative of the composer to choose the
musical instrument that will accompany musical works of his own
creation. The 'organ' has been used as such an accompaniment in almost
all of the popular gramophone recordings of Rabindrasangeet.
It is my belief that if soft chords (using two or more notes) were to
be used in the 'organ' as part of the background music, it would
greatly enhance the expressive beauty of RabindraGeeti and make it
simpler and more beautiful. But even if today's composer believes that
the accompaniment of the 'organ' or the 'harmonium' will enhance the
expression of his music, he will be unable to use them. Why ? Because
it is a foreign instrument. The destroyer of all that is
characteristic of Indian music. In order to accept this premise to be
true, we would need to eliminate hundreds of recordings made by
artists that we consider to be 'ustaads' in our musical tradition. If
these classical artists could conclude that the harmonium helped
rather than hindered their musical expression, then why should modern
composers not accept the harmonium as accompaniment.
On the other hand Indian instrumental artists (as with the violin)
have with the harmonium been quite successful in creating a new kind
of sound which is heard nowhere else in the world. I know many such
instrumentalists who have achieved such dexterity with the instrument
that they can, while maintaining the expressiveness and particular
characteristics of Indian music, assert their equality with the
world's leading 'accordionists'. It is solely an attitude of 'status
quo' and orthodoxy that is responsible for the ban on the 'harmonium'
at AakaashBaani. Music composers and artists surely would not
ignorantly use this instrument if it did not facilitate their
expression of musical beauty.
Although there is no such ban in Film music, here too perhaps only one
song in a hundred will use the harmonium, and even then only if the
song is by a Baijee (courtesan style) or in Qawwaali style. Oh well,
as a result of AakashBaani's animosity towards the harmonium, it is
not the harmonium which is losing appeal; rather, it is AakashBaani
whose popularity is consistently being eroded. Now let us return to
our topic. Before embarking on an extended discussion of the
theoretical possibilities resulting from the melding of Indian and
western music, it is necessary to assess the practical impact that
such a melding has had. Since the last century, just as India has
assimilated western culture via its language, arts, dress, etc., so
has it absorbed and assimilated the western music in exactly the same
way.
A progressive culture is never afraid of foreign influence. Even when
an excessiveness of imitation does manifest itself, our culture will
ultimately reject it and progress towards an all encompassing unity.
The long history of India is full of accounts of our defeats at the
hands of foreigners and tales of their reigns. However none were
successful in uprooting our civilization and culture and sowing the
seeds of foreign influence in our soil; rather, India has always
managed to enhance its own greatness by absorbing what's good in them.
Then followed the age of British rule. The Indian mind was especially
attracted to the western way of thinking. European culture and its
influence on Indian literature and art found an appropriate expression
in the age of the Renaissance of Bengal.
In the field of literature, in Kobiguru Rabindranath, we found the
joint expression of both cultures and in painting it was
Abanindranath. In music, though the analogy is not that
straightforward, the influence of western music is none the less
present in a similar way. We will discuss this later. But as to the
question of whether it is possible to meld Indian music with western
music, we have already found the answer in recent times and in the
tremendous popularity of ninety-nine percent of 'adhunik' (popular)
songs of the last half a century. Proof of this is in the fact that
our population has accepted the 'adhunik' songs composed using a
successful synthesis of eastern and western melody.
In the creation of art it is not only the personality of the creator
(artist) which finds expression; also reflected and evident in it is
the contemporary age and the influence of the prevailing environment.

Will come back with my views on this article....

thanks dolly! 😃 wonderful wonderful article..i have read till part 2...info about the 'unfortunate harmonium' was an eye opener..

There's a thread on salilda already and this article is already posted there.So topic closed. Members are requested that please chk the archived threads link and see if the articles hav already been posted or not.. 😊


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