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hello

so let's begin our exploration of the

karanas of hindustani khayal music with

a recording of pandit krishna shankar

pandit

krishna shankar pandiji belonged to the

kwaliar gharana which is known as the

oldest among the hindustani gharanas the

madagarana from which most other

gharanas emerged as offshoots

pandiji learned from one of the

descendants of astar hadu and ustad

hasocha

the two brother musicians of the kwaliar

darbar who are widely considered to be

the creators of the modern khayal as we

know it today

krishna shankar pandit is often referred

to as a great representatives of what

old style gwalior gaiki was like

so we're going to use his music to try

and get a glimpse of what the old

gwalior musicians were trying to do with

their music

as you listen to pandaji sing this

tarana in the raga god

notice the freedom the abandon and the

exuberance with which he explores the

first pandaji sings the style and the

anthara of the bandish and then he

launches into his flights of imagination

and virtuosity

the musical tools that pandit uses in

his improvisation are called the

ashtangas the famous eight angels

meaning parts or structures of kuala

lumi now this was a specialty of the

gwalior musicians they used

improvisational devices angas such as

meed bahilava gamak boltan thaan and so

on and through each of them they took

the rag that they were singing to

different creative directions

so in the recording that we're about to

listen to we'll point out some of the

angers that pandaji employs in this

creative effort

do also keep an eye on the tal cycle

visual

to see how skillfully pandaji through

his spontaneous deployment of these

angers catches the mukhrah of the

bandish and arrives at the sun

so let's listen now to pandit krishna

shankar pandit singh

is
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foreign

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foreign

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ah

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oh

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ah

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i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

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oh

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i i

i i i i i i i i i i

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um

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wasn't that delightful

one could say that this sense of

exuberant spontaneity this freedom to

play with the melodies rhythms and

syllables of the bandish is

characteristic of the old walian

gualia gaiki seems to have everything in

it

it accommodates all the tals all tempos

a huge variety of bandishes many adapted

in fact the gualia garana is famous for

having perhaps the largest number of

bandishes for every rag in its

and the guy key the singing style

through which they sing these pandishes

and build upon them

the gai ki tends to be astonishingly

wide ranging and inclusive

as you heard in krishna shankar

pantiji's recording the old gwalior

singers made music by embracing the

entire range of their voices all of

their octaves all the time and by using

their ashtanga tools often in unplanned

permutations to explore every structure

sound and expression that was possible

in the musical situation that they found

themselves in

do go back and listen to this recording

again and again to get a sense of what

we're trying to say here

but as the exuberance the freedom of the

guardian

grew

it also invited reactions from other

visionary musicians who emphasized only

some aspects of the gwalior kal and

de-emphasized others
and in the process they created new

musical idioms each of which had a

character a flavor that was fresh

exciting and beautiful in ways that were

very different from the qualiar hell

so let us look for instance at how the

grey to start

though

was very inspired by the valyria let's

look at how he took it and turned it

into something else entirely

he turned it into the austere logically

complex and difficult style of the

jaipur gharana

now usada

came from a family of drupad singers in

rajasthan and found himself very

inspired by the music of some of the

greatest singers of the gwalior gharana

but

he used that inspiration to

single-handedly develop a style of

khayal singing that was so different

from the music around him that is admire

started calling it the allah diakha

gharana

now khasab himself decided to call it

the jaipur gharana because one of his

greatest inspirations

was the qualiar gharana musician ustad

who at the time was caught musician at

the jaipur darbar at the jaipur court

and that was where allah lived for a

time and constructed this new guy key

for himself

so what was so different about this new

style

well unfortunately no recordings of

khasab's own singing exist for us to

listen to

what we do have instead are recordings

of his disciples

so we're going to look at a recording of

one of his most famous disciples the

legendary

surah shri kesar by kirkar

from kesarbai's music we can deduce

kasab's intention to create an austere

and complex sky key

now there are a number of things that

set this guy key apart from the gwalior

style that we just heard and we'd like

you to look out for these as you listen

to this recording that we're going to

play for you in just a minute

now instead of exuberance and abandon

what you'll find here is a sense of

remarkable control
in case rabbi's unique use of her voice

as well as in the designs that voice

creates

you'll hear this control the sense of

structure

as you'll hear in case advice recording

she is able to maintain the magnificent

resonance of her voice through every

phrase she sings

there is a continuity of sound in this

gai ki that contributes

to the grand effect that it creates

you'll also notice how kesar by singing

creates clear well-structured patterns

clear and well-structured patterns that

appear to be controlled and logical

and as the singing progresses notice how

these spontaneously created but orderly

patterns gradually become more and more

complex so that they are eventually

breathtaking in their intricacy

but they always have a well-balanced

well-balanced clarity to them they are

never random they are never haphazard or

chaotic that is not to say that being

chaotic is a bad thing

but that was not the jaipur aesthetic

notice also how kesarbai builds up

tension in every avartan in every rhythm

cycle and resolves it at the sun

keep an eye on the tal cycle visual to

latch on to this and this process of

tension and resolution tension and

resolution and growing complexity this

is what continues cycle after cycle in

this music

so let's listen now to surah shri kesar

by kirkar singh

maru bihak

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last

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is

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oh

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ah

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what a magnificent awe-inspiring and

moving edifice k survive creates doesn't

she

you might have noticed that most of her

improvisation is an aakar using the

vowel r she uses her resonant tuneful ah

vowel to create her patterns and the

words of the composition become a little

less important to her music

this is another way in which the music

of the jaipur gharana tries to move away

from worldly human sentimentality and

tries to achieve an austere perfectly

balanced otherworldly but still moving

music

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so let's move on now to the karana that

brings us back to earth

and calls our attention to all the

worldly fragrances and the wonders that

populated

the agra gharana the agra garana is also

connected by the way to the old walia

singers through its teaching lineages

but the agaragharana as we know it today

century by the superstar of those times

after morsi ustad fayaskha

so

as you listen to faya's khansap singh

the first thing that grabs your

attention is the charisma of his voice

most male singers in those days sang in

a very high pitch an almost female pitch

this allowed them to sing loudly enough

to reach their audiences without

amplification

but vayas khansa was among the first

vocalists to sing in a low explicitly

masculine pitch

but fayash khasab's voice grabs her

attention for more than just its breadth

and depth of sound

it does so also for its incredible

expressive power

unlike the other singers that we've

heard so far

vayas khan sab was a native speaker of

braj bhasha the language in which most

kayal bandishes are written

so as you listen to him saying this

bandish in raag john puri pulavanaki

gained

notice as you listen how he how invested

words of the bandish in the poetry of

the bandish fayash khasabana's followers

were known for their word play

they brought the full force of human

emotion and charisma to their

enunciation of the text

but they also use the words of the

bandish as a means to create delightful

rhythm play

you notice how different this approach

is to the jaipur approach we just heard

with k serbia where the text takes a

back seat and melodic structure is

emphasized

but notice that this is also different

from the guardian approach where text is

certainly used but only incidentally

only because it's there

agra kharana singers were also known to

be masters of rhythm

you'll notice hafayas khasab uses the

words of the bandish almost as an

instrumentalist might use his or her

plectrum

to create accents at tricky points in

the rhythm cycle he'll create accents at

very tricky points in the rhythm cycle

and masterfully resolve their rhythm

statements on the sum that's what fayash

in the poetry of the bandish vayas

khansap's rhythm work never sounds like

an exercise in arithmetics

it always comes across as a lilting

melody

a song that sounds deceptively simple in

spite of the heavyweight frameworks of

raag and tal that it is built upon

as usual do keep an eye on the rhythm

visualization in the video to latch onto

the tal cycle so that you can really

enjoy the thrill of fayash khasab's word

play and the and his rhythm work in this

evocative rendering of this bandish

in raj john puri

fulham

namad

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foreign

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that we

have foreign

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my

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foreign

hey

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foreign

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what a different voice what a powerful

effect and what a moving rendition that

was

you might have also noticed the drama

that fayyas khansap creates with the way

he modulates his voice in order to give

vent to the expressive urge inside of

him

but isn't it always the case that when

one musician dominates the scene like

fayash khan's update at the time

with his extroverted charismatic and

rhythmic music
along comes another musician who scales

similar heights by doing the exact

opposite

we come now to the kirana

and its protagonist who started abdul

kareem khan

abdul kareem khasab hailed from the

village of kirana in uttar pradesh hence

the name of his kirana gharana now as

you listen to him saying you'll notice

that he doesn't seem to be thinking

about logical disciplined complexity

like in k s jaipur style nor is he

thinking about expressing through text

and rhythm like fayash khan subs agra

style

you might find some flights of fancy in

his music similar to krishna shankar

pandit's qualiar style

and you wouldn't be mistaken

but there is no attempt to sing all the

ashtangas and to develop the rag through

the ashtanghra's here

instead abdul kareem khan's entire focus

seems to be on his voice

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and what a voice it is high pitched

precise tuneful surilla

and so quick and so flexible

about it

here is

singing

oh

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my

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oh

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god

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my god

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my mother

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is

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my

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foreign

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foreign

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voice is so mellifluous and so laden

with pathos that one wants to attribute

the entire hypnotizing effect of his

music to his voice

khasab achieved such a high order of

surilapan of tunefulness in his time

that he could use his voice to meander

across his vocal range with ease

without ever disturbing the particular

resonance and emotional effect his voice

evokes

you might also have noticed in

khashogg's music the fact that the words

of the text are not very intelligible

kasab softens his continents and

dissolves them into the sound he creates

so that he sounds almost like a sarangi

and in fact khasab did come from a

family of saranghi and bean players

instrumentalists and he was an

accomplished bean player himself

scholars have argued that khasab and his

followers limited the range and scope of

the repertoire in order to scale

tunefulness

kasa's ability to bring his audience to

tears just through his alapi and the

quality of his sur was legendary

as the old kirana saying goes

you miss a trifle if you miss tal but if

you miss sur you miss all

so what we've tried to do here is to

present a very broad and very quick

survey of the contrasting styles of some

of the early masters of the khayal genre

masters whose styles represented and in

some cases founded the style

of a gharana

this is music that grows on you

gradually so please please do listen to

these recordings again and again

to really grasp the concepts that we've

been talking about and also do feel free

to search the internet for more

recordings by these musicians

and see as you listen to these

recordings see if our descriptions of

their music remain applicable

but the key thing to take away from this

is that the same larger system of raag

dal and bandish can find such a

diversity of expression

it is able to accommodate within it the

innovation

whatever form the artist's vision takes

structural complexity lilting simplicity

charming word play hypnotizing tonal

precision

the khayal comes in many many forms in

the next session we'll take a look at

how this kharana music morphed and

shifted in the long 20th century as we

listen to some of the masters of the

subsequent generations

you