The Indian Classical Music Schools - Page 2

The Atrauli Jaipur gharana The Atrauli Jaipur gharana is a dissident branch of the Agra Atrauli gharana (see CD Makar MAKCD004), founded by the illustrious Ustad Alladiya Khan.

Born in 1840 in Baroda, Alladiya Khan learnt his music for 35 years under his uncle Jehangir Khan a student of his own father, Khawaja Ahmed Khan.
Settled in Bombay. He was invited in Kholapur to be the court singer of a very modern and rich Maharaja. Alladiya Khan saheb knew and wrote down almost 5,000 compositions, distroyed later by his suns.
The concert is generally divided in two parts : the khyal features a short alap, a quick presentation of the raga, then one or two poems developed on composed and improvised phrases of a very rich and virtuose rendition then a thumri ends the concert.

Still alive and preserving the real style of Alladya Khan is a lady singer Padmavati Shaligram Another master of the Jaipur Gharana is Pandit VR Kadnekar.

The Delhi gharana
The Delhi gharana was founded in the 14th century by Amir Kushrau, famous musician and poet in Persia, whose descendants were court musicians of the Great Moghol until the end of the empire in the 19th century.

There are many different influences on the style of this gharana: Qawwali, as the Delhi gharana invented it, dhrupad, which is part of the training there, vocal khyal, ghazals and sarangi (this difficult instrument has been taken up by this family).
Just as in dhrupad, the rules of the raga are very well respected in the Delhi gharana, and there is a wealth of beautiful compositions from previous masters.

From this school comes the Patiala gharana. Tanras Khan the khalifa of the Delhi gharana during the XIXth century gave his vast poem and composition patrimony to the young virtuosos Ali Baksh et Fateh Ali.
Those singers, known later under the common name of "Aliya-Fattu" became a famous duo in their time and settled as court musicians to the very rich Patiala Maharaja.
Two branches of this school are existing today, one in India, the other in Afghanistan. The concert generally consists of a first khyal called "great" khyal, including a long alap (improvisation without tabla), a poem sung slowly and developed, and a second shorter poem.
The second khyal or "small" khyal, starts on a shorter alap, followed by a composition on a fast and accelerating tempo.

In Pakinstan, the Delhi Gharana is represented by Ustad Nasiruddin Saami.
The actual Khalifa of the Khyal Delhi gharana is Ustad Iqbal Ahmad Khan.
His student is the excellent ghazal singer Indira Misra
The actual Khalifa of the Qawwal bacche of the Delhi gharana is Me'raj Nizami Qawwal

The Kirana gharana
The Kirana gharana is a very old school from a village near Delhi which style has been completely renovated by Ustad Bande Ali Khan, a dhrupadya from the Indore gharana

The Ustad taught his own style when he was living in Kirana and his students spread all around India : a branch came to the South, attracted by the generosity of the Bangalore and Mysore royals patrons.
His most famous khyal student, Abdul Karim Khan, founded a school in Dharwar, Karnataka : Bhimsen Joshi, Gangubai Hangal and Kumar Gandharwa all came from that school.
Dhrupad from the kirana gharana is represented by the dagar family.
It is the North Branch that we are presenting here, which has not much differed from the original style.
The khyal concert is generally divided into three parts : the great khyal features a presentation of the poem with improvisation, accompanied with tabla, followed by a small khyal, sung on a fastest tempo, and at last a series of thumri, hori, etc.

A great musician of the Kirana : Pandit Channulal Mishra

Rampur gharana
The Sahaswan gharana (affiliated to the Gwalior gharana, and having links with Mian Tansen) is a Indian classical school of music, khyal, settled in Rampur in the second part of the XIXth century.

For a century, Rampur was for musicians a very welcoming place.
They led a good life under the patronage of a maharaja who was himself an excellent musician.
Most of Bhatkande's (the famous musicologist) work is based on the Rampur School heritage.
The alap is sober and not improvised, it is a presentation of the distinctive features of the raga. Then the musician performs on a poem on a very slow lay (tempo), then two other poems, one on a medium lay and one on a fast lay, and this is where improvised phrases come in.

A great singer of this great school : Sulochana Brahaspati

The Bhendibazar gharana

The Bhendibazar gharana is a branch of the Gwalior gharanafounded by the illustrious Ustad Aman Ali Khan.

If the aspect of the compositions and presentation of the rag does not really differ from the Gwalior school, the singing techniques used in their development are very original (some are borrowed from the techniques of the been, the main instrument of dhrupad -
An exceptional musician, Aman Ali Khan was one of the most celebrated musicians in the 1940's Bombay.
The concert is generally divided in two parts : the khyal features a presentation of the poem, without accompaniment, then one, two or three poems developed on improvised phrases.
The last student of Aman Ali Khan still alive : Pandit TD Janorikar, and the great lady singer, student of Pandit TD Janorikar, Suhasini Koratkar
Lata Mangeshkar was from this school before to change to film music.

The Qawwali

Qawwali is an Indian Sufi Muslim musical concept expressed in many poetical styles, and based on the classical structure of tala and raga.
A melting-pot of many influences, qawwali is the meeting point of Islam and Hinduism, making use of the repertoire of the Arab and Coranic qaul, of Persian poetry, of Indo persian ghazal and at last but not least of the Hindu bhajan.

Qawwali is a music that uses the poetic delicacy of its texts to open the fire of extasy in the public's heart.
It includes numerous praises to Mohammed or to Ali, love poems where the Divine is transposed to the Sensual, but also extraordinary esoteric poems from the Sufi masters.

This lineage of qawwali singers, the sons of the original qawwal or Qawwal Bacche, was started by a man who, as the legend goes, was deaf and dumb. Miraculously cured by a Sufi saint , he became one of the first disciples of Amir Khusrau, the very famous Persian musican and poet who came to India during the 14th century.
Qawwali is sung by a group composed of a leader singer assisted by one, two or three of his best students. A choir (composed of the other students) adds strength to the music. The rhythm is underlined by the traditionnal dholak, a two-faced drum and the melodic accompaniment by an harmonium.

The chief of all the Qawwal bacche is the seniormost singer Me'raj Nizami Qawwal.

The Instrumental Schools

The Carnatic Veena banis
The Gwalior Gharana (instrumental)
The Imdadkhani Gharana
The Moradabad Gharana
The Maihar Gharana
The Tabla Gharanas

The Saraswati veena banis

The vani describe an old way to sing and play the indian classical music, deeply linked with the way the musician takes the notes, expand the raga. The vani gives a clear taste to the music and can be defined by style.
There are 4 main Saraswati veena banis :
The Tanjore bani, featuring Shree Pichumani Iyer
The Karaikudi bani, featuring Ranganayaki Rajagopalam
The Mysore bani, featuring Doreswami Iyengar.
The Andhra bani, featuring Pappu Someswara Rao.

The Instrumental Gwalior Gharana The Gwalior school of instrumental khyal is one of the most ancients indian classical school.

It is more exactly the reunion of two branches of this school that had been separated for centuries : Ratna Rahimat Khan has reunified the instrumental khyal of the Gwalior played on sitar in the 19th century (his own family tradition) and the instrumental dhrupad of the Gwalior, a style that has become very rare, played on the been.
This last style was taught to him by the great master Bande Ali Khan.

Based on the classical structure of the raga, this famous style includes a long alap, jor and jhala (slow then accelerating improvisation) without percussion as it is played in dhrupad followed by the khyal composition with the tabla, developed in numerous improvisations on rhythm and note like tans and laykaris.

A duo ( jugalbandi), of two grand-sons of Ratna Rahimat Khan on sitar : Ustad Hameed and Chhote Rahimat Khan.

The Imdadkhani gharana
The style created by Imdad Khan, comes from of the most ancient school, the Gwalior gharana.

To the techniques of been and rebab many new techniques have been added to this sitar playing. But the biggest changes have been brought by his grand-son, Ustad Vilayat Khan who coloured his style with the one of the gayaki ang (vocal) of Eastern India.

Based on the classical structure of the raga, this famous style includes alap, jor and jhala (slow then accelerating improvisation) without percussion as it is played in dhrupad followed by the khyal composition with the tabla, developed in numerous improvisations on rhythm and note like tans and layakaris.

Ustad Shujaat Khan is the grand-grandson of Imdad Khan and the new tenant of the Imdadkhani Gharana.