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Indian Classical Music
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Cannot learn North Indian classical music without a guru ... Style no longer important in differentiating instrumental gharanas. No stylistic gharanas at all? ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation
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Title: Indian Classical Music
1
Indian Classical Music
- 8 The gharana
Lecturer Katherine Brown Email
k.r.brown_at_leeds.ac.uk Room 2.21
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Todays Lecture
- How the social organisation of NICM community
shapes the musical tradition itself - How Hindustani music is preserved and transmitted
without written notation - Gharana (from ghar house)
- Guru-shishya-parampara (master-disciple-succession
)
3
Gharana system
- Only the bare bones of the bandish written down
(if that) Bhatkhandes collection - Everything else passed down orally/aurally
- Done through gharana system.
- a group of hereditary specialists and their
prominent disciples with a body of musical
knowledge and a distinct style James Kippen
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Gharana system
- Lineages of (Muslim) musicians
- 1) biologically related core (khandan family)
unrelated disciples - 2) unique body of compositions, ragas and
techniques - 3) unique style
- Geographical association with a princely court
5
Imdad Khan (Etawah) gharana
The older the gharana, the purer its tradition,
and the more worthy it is of patronage
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Gharana system
- Gharanas claim to be very old
- In fact modern, no earlier than late nineteenth
century - A way of preserving the professional musicians
livelihood (unique intellectual property) against
modernity, urbanisation, change of patronage,
competition from other performers and ways of
teaching.
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Gharana system
- Assertion of age and authenticity about power in
a competitive age - Jealous guarding of gharanas intellectual
property increases its commodity value to the
consumer - Arbiters of the most authentic tradition
- Shorthand for a musicians pedigree and valid
claim to patronage
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Guru-shishya-parampara
- Mechanism for preserving and passing on the
tradition - Chain of masters and disciples central pillar
of the gharana - Guru master, guide, teacher
- Shishya disciple
- Parampara chain of succession
- Muslim equivalent ustad and shagird (professional
not religious connotation)
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Guru-shishya-parampara
- Cannot learn North Indian classical music without
a guru - Musicians social identity guru
- Your credentials are based on who your guru is
the more distinguished his lineage the better - The gurus identity acts as a guarantee of the
authenticity of your performance
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How it works
- Deep obligations on both sides
- Guru must pass on prized body of knowledge to
future generations intact - The medium of transmission is his disciples
- Needs to ensure the disciples worthiness
- Shishyas obligation is devotion
- Gurus obligation is love
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The shishyas devotion
- Total obedience, respect and loyalty to the guru
in all areas of music and lifestyle - Riaz practice, discipline (spiritual)
- Riaz the most important test of devotion
- The quantity of hours spent in riaz is the
determinant of his/her devotion not his/her
musical accomplishment
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The gurus love
- Guru responds to shishyas devotion with love,
taking them into his family - Formal ritual expressing this contract ganda
bandhan, symbolic adoption - Transferring secret body of knowledge is proof of
the gurus love - If the guru does not love and trust the disciple
he will not pass on the secrets of his tradition
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What is transmitted
- The guru gives knowledge in exchange for services
and gifts - The guru enculturates the disciple into the life
of a professional musician - 1) body of secret musical knowledge
- 2) gurus distinctive style
- 3) the way a musician must live
- 4) performance practice
- 5) folklore and oral history of the gharana
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Preservation through 20C
- Indian nationalism and the rise of the Hindu
middle classes - Change in values secrecy elitism, gharanas
immorality and decadence - V N Bhatkhande (theorist) collected, championed
and popularised NICM amongst the middle classes - Brahman disciples made NICM acceptable for middle
classes - Middle classes natural new patrons
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Preservation through 20C
- Music schools, more virtuous environment, women
disciples - Technological change
- Private court to public concert hall
- Three new sources of patronage AND authority
mass media, music schools, public performances - Gharana hostility initially to these changes
- Have adapted successfully to meet the threat
- New evolution of the gharana concept
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New gharana
- Star as core of new gharana-type entity
- Change in style due to change in taste and
technology revival of old styles - Style no longer important in differentiating
instrumental gharanas - No stylistic gharanas at all??? Perhaps
clustering around great performers? Looser - BUT still as a social system, lineage an
indicator of authority and prestige - Gharanas train all professional musicians
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