The Indian Classical Music Schools

A short introduction to Indian Music
Indian classical music is defined by two basic elements : it must follow a classical mode, the raga, and a specific rhythm or tal.

A music which follows the characteristics of this tradition is called classical - in opposition to Western classical music, where classical means belonging to a period of time (approximatively from 16th to 17th century).
This concept of classical music is, in that way, very open. A musician can "invent" new classical forms, new poetical forms, new modes, new rhythms and Indian instrument makers can produce new instruments.
All Indian classical music follows this rule even if some completely different styles exists side by side. To develop precisely a raga, the musician needs the presence of a drone, whatever the music : singers are always accompanied with the tambura or the harmonium, that produce the singer's tonic and dominant (SA and PA).
Classical Indian music is mainly divided into two branches, North and South. The South Indian music is called Carnatic, in reference of the Southern State of Karnataka, and the northern branch, Hindustani, in reference of the Hindi speaking region going to North-West Frontier and to Poorab, the East.
Carnatic music is nearly totally unified and the different schools are based on the same ragas (about 300 different ragas), same solo instruments, mainly the veena, flute, violin and same rhythm instrument, the mridangam and the ghatam.
The actual development of a concert has been codified recently, around 1920 by an eminent singer, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyer : a dozen of short pieces are enclosing a long "alapam, tanam, pallavi, or improvisation on notes, on rhythm and poem, a classical scheme you will find also in North Indian music, except for the short piece of music at the start. On the contrary, Hindustani Music has never been really unified, many styles and genres have been developed and encouraged by a family system now called gharana.
Those numerous gharanas all over North India have developed very different styles of music, genres and instruments.
The patronage of royal families (India has been a set of feudal states for all its history before 1948) has given those gharanas the "peace of mind" necessary to create, preserve and nourish an incredible amount of genres.
Today those are :
Dhrupad, the 15th century temple and court genre.
Qawwali, a 14th century Muslim fusion with Persian music.
Khyal, the 18th century most fashionable court music.
Thumri, the old dance oriented music,
and Ghazal, the Panjabi love song, in vogue from 19th century till now.
Each one of these names covers an incredible amount of different styles, and a layman will not make any connection between the music of instrumental court Dhrupad of the Dagar and a singer of Darbhanga Temple dhrupad.
Those genres are focusing more on a poetical form : Dhrupad, on strangely complex verse with no rime, Qawwali, on Persian couplet versification etc.
Originality comes from the fact that all those musics are inseparable of the poetry they are structured on. So even strings and percussion instruments always try to reproduce vocal music and its poems : the instrument talks, its speaks with words. Inside each genre (including Carnatic music), many ways of singing, or vanis (same roots as "voices") have been developed. In khyal, those vanis have disappeared and dozens of schools have emerged.

As we said earlier, musicians are not obliged to play a specific instrument on a style but the musicians and their family instrument makers have invented instruments suited to each style :
Rudraveena, surshringar and pakhawaj for Dhrupad.
Those are fantastic, tune oriented instruments that fit dhrupad's precise tuning obligations.
Sitar, sarod, sarangi, vichitraveena, flute, shehenai , santoor and tabla are suited to the fast playing speed of Khyal, Thumri and Tappa.

A favourite of the Great Moghols, this music has spread all over North India from the 15th to the 17th century.At first mainly vocal, dhrupad can also be played on string instruments which allow an important sustain of the note (Been, Rudraveena).

Consisting of an alap (first improvised or composed movement) followed by one or several compositions (played with the accompaniment of the pakhawaj drum), dhrupad slowly pours out the notes and intervals that shape the raga. Compositions are set on a fixed rhythm (metre) structure (tal) of 12, 14, or 10 beats.

Soloist and drummer develop the composition, playing with rhythm and note, in simultaneous and differents ways.

They both end on a musical phrase typical of the composition.

DAGARVANI DRUPAD

Originally composed of an alap (an improvised form of progression), then of a long poem sung to the accompaniment of the pakhawaj drum, Dagarvani dhrupad has progressively come to particularly stress the alap rather than the poetical composition.

The alap starts on a very slow tempo, nearly one beat a minute, and increases its speed step by step. The medium fast part is called Jor, the fast one, Jhala. In this Dagar style, a whole alap may last more than one hour.

At the end of the alap the poems are sung. They are based on a rhythm (tal) of 12 beat for vilambit (slow) dhrupad, 10 or 7 beat for the madhyalay and drut (medium and fast tempi) dhrupad.

Soloist and drummer develop the composition, playing with rhythm and note, in simultaneous and different ways.
They both improvise on the poem and on the meter of the composition.
Two main branchs of the Dagar vani exist now : the lineage of Ziauddin Dagar with Ustad Fariduddin Dagar, Pandit Chandrashekar, Bahauddin Dagar, Uday Bhawalkar and Ritwik Sanyal
and the Nasiruddin Dagar branch with Ashoka Dhar.

The Khandar vani

The Khandar vani is one of the most ancient schools of Dhrupad.
This style was at first instrumental, founded by the descendants of the famous Mian Tan Sen, who was, during the 16th century, the favourite singer of India's greatest emperor Akbar

.

The shape of the improvisations, the specific gamaks and the origins of the poem are a way to indentify this school.

The Khandarvani Dhrupad singer on our record is Indra Kishore Mishra.
The Best Khandarvani Instrumentist is Ustad Shamsuddin Faridi, on been.
Some khyal musicians has maintained a vani, like Ustad Nasiruddin Saami who sings a in perfect Khandarvani.

The Gohar vani

The Gohar or Gouhar or Gouri vani is one of the most ancient school of Dhrupad.

During the 16th century, Myan Tansen, the favourite singer of India's greatest Emperor Akbar, founded this school of dhrupad and transformed dhrupad into the most famous music in India.
With a slow and forcefully exposed improvisations, heavy gamaks this vani enhances the religious and devotional aspect of its music.
This school has influenced the Dagar vani school.
The name comes from the Town of Gwalior, corrupted into Gohar, but it may come also from the caste name of Myan Tan Sen, who was a Gaura Brahman. The exponent of gohar vani is Pandit Shivshankar Mukherjee.

Haveli dhrupad
Haveli dhrupad is an Indian classical music mainly sung in the Pushtimargi's temples, a hindu khrisnaite religion founded by Vallabhacharya, adoring Krishna as Shri Nathji.

Their main temple is situated in Nathdwara (Rajasthan).

Composed of a short alap (an improvised form of progression), then of a long poem sung to the idol, with the accompaniment of the pakhawaj drum, Haveli dhrupads are particularly short and intense.
They are made for a very short session during which the idol is shown to the public, the darshan.
The choice of raga depends on the time of the day, and the season.
The poems are based on a rhythm (tal) of 12 beat for vilambit (slow) dhrupad, 10 or 7 beat for the madhyalay and drut (medium and fast tempi) dhrupad.

Soloist and drummer develop the composition, playing with the subdivision of rhythm, and improvise on the notes of the raga, in simultaneous and different ways.
Only one recording of haveli dhrupad is available worldwide, the one of : Girish Karya

The Darbhanga style

The Darbhanga school, according to legend, was born in the 18th century when two brothers (whose pious occupation was to sing in a temple) made the rains pour down when asked to do so by the Maharaja of Darbangha :
for that miracle the maharaja rewarded them with land and the title of Mallick (land owner).

Consisting of an alap (first improvised movement) followed by one or several compositions (accompanied by the pakhawaj drum), dhrupad pours out precisely the notes and intervals that shape the raga.
Compositions are set on a fixed rhythm structure (tal) of 12, 14, or 10 beats.
Soloist and drummer develop the composition, playing with rhythm and note, in simultaneous and different ways. They both end on a musical phrase typical of the composition. A lively style using also fast tempo, Darbhanga has preserved a light and happy style of dhrupad, especially in the Dhamar exposition.

The members of the Mallick familly are the Darbhanga's style masters and Pandit Vidur Mallik is the senior most musician.

Khyal

What is Khyal : Khyal is a main hindustani classical music genre. It means imagination, thought in hindi, mostly because khyal doesn't follow only one preconceived poetical structure, or a particular tal and is based on various musical improvisation.

Furthemore, Khyal is rooted in three musical grounds :
religious Hindu music (dhrupad), Persian music, and Sufi music, and has been richly fed by those multiple influences.
Originating from the Laboratory of musical influences that used to be the Dargahs of soufi saints, maintained by the nobility of India's 18th decadent and music loving moghol empire, khyal has developped rich patrimony of devotional, romantic even (shadowed) erotic poems.
The richness of the different gharanas of khyal singers has multiplied language of poems, poetical structure but always reunites opposites :
meditation and virtuosity, extremely slow and extremely fast playing speeds, ragas of restrained structure and freedom of inspiration.
Khyal is also played on string instruments (sitar, sarangi) and wind instruments (flute, shehenai).

The Gwalior Gharana
The rise of the Gwalior gharana started with the reign of the great Moghol emperor Akbar (1542-1605).
The favourite singers of this patron of the arts, such as Miyan Tansen, first amongst the vocalists at the court, came from the town of Gwalior.

This indian classical music school has counted numerous dhrupad poets and musicians, who have invented a great number of poetic styles and ragas.
Born in the XVIIIth century the khyal of the Gwalior school has flourished on such an inheritance : Dhrupad has nearly vanished, leaving the front to a new and fashionable style : khyal.
In this gharana a large number of poems have been composed on each raga.
Those poems are structured by different tals such as Ektal, Tilvara, Jhumra, Adachautal and Saveri.
The concert is composed of an alap followed by the presentation of numerous poems with melodic et rhythmic improvisations, on a tabla accompaniment.

One of the seniormost singers of the Gwalior gharana is Pandit Jal K. Balaporia

The Agra gharana
The Agra gharana was founded by a Rajput family of Dhrupad musician who were singing in the Nauhar bani style.
Settled in Agra in the XVIth century, they converted to Islam and were allowed to sing in the court of Akbar.
Through marriage they associated with Mian Tansen, a famous court singer from Gwalior.

The gharana started singing khyal at the end of the XVIIIth century.
The distinctive features of the style are the melodic fluidity and complexity of the compositions associated to simple and sober poems.
The compositions sung here are signed by Muslim artists with a devotion to Krishna.

The concert is generally divided in three parts : the "great" khyal which contains a short alap presenting rapidly the notes of the raga and then a poem sung and developed with improvised phrases; the "small" khyal following on a rapid tempo; a thumri which closes the concert.

One of the only singers still singing pure Agra style is Purnima Sen.