Introducing yourself to Indian Classical Music 1-Voices
If you know nothing about Indian classical music, but have liked random bits you have heard here and there, and are looking for a way to making it part of your regular listening at home: the best piece of advice I can think of is, just dive in. Listen to as much as possible. There is a lot of variety, and one needs to be exposed to as much of it as one can.
You won’t like everything you hear (you may like it one day in the future, Indian classical music has a way of slow cooking your ears), but keep listening, and listen to a range of stuff. Slow cooking is the only way to develop an ear for Indian music if you are new to it, and this applies to children too.
Taste in music is highly subjective. That said, I am going to take the risk and offer some tentative suggestions (based not just on my own subjective preferences) and some very basic introductory notes on Indian music in general to introduce Indian classical music to yourself and to your children. I am going to proceed at a leisurely pace. Some of the content is guided by what Starry requested of her readers in this post:
…please tell me the name of your favourite singer/album/CD in Hindustani/Carnatic…I’m looking to buy some to get the kids interested. Since I’m a complete ignoramus, having grown up outside India and never studied or been exposed much to any Indian music, I desperately need an education myself. I’m especially looking for some that are calming, that I could try playing when they’re in bed (a friend does this for her kids), a couple of energising ones and also any prayerful ones that are nice for kids.
Starry, an “ignoramus” has a great advantage in this case-the joy of discovery of a never ending world of fascinating treasures.
The series of posts I intend to write will be aimed at adults who know nothing of Indian music, but I hope you find something in them that will help you get your children going as well.
I am going to keep the posts very basic. There will be some separate posts on technical details but I hope to make it so that you can travel between the posts depending on what you want, and discard the technical detail if you wish. There will be some technical words in the beginning, but it is not essential to know what they mean immediately.
I’m going to start with getting used to the sound of different voices.
Voices
One of the great things about Indian classical music (or not so great, depending on what you believe), is that there is no standard requirement for a “good” voice, i.e. a voice that is immediately appealing.
Sometimes people find at an Indian music concert that they cannot fathom the music, the voice sounds strange, and even elderly singers with wavering voices are getting appreciative “wahs” and “balles.”
Sometimes the lack of “connection” with a particular voice may be because of an emphasis on technical detail, or it may just be that one isn’t used to the music.
Or, the singer may actually be singing off pitch!
In her book, All you wanted to know about Indian music but didn’t know whom to ask,
…classical musicians tend to emphasise at times, the technical dimension more than the emotive-aesthetic dimension, in their bid to show off their techinical virtuosity and command over the difficult grammatical aspects. This is particularly true of vocal music.
That is not to say, as Narasimhan emphasises, that techinical virtuosity cannot be combined with an aesthetically pleasing presentation. The world of “rasikas” is full of arguments deconstructing the various concerts of musicians, but this pleasurable activity can be left for later, our goal now is to simply start listening.
The difficulties people sometimes encounter with the voice is one of the reasons that some prefer instrumental Indian classical music to vocal music. But, one shouldn’t give up on the vocal music, even if one has struggled with it, because, eventually, one will find something one likes.
I suggest that even if the old/strange voices don’t appeal immediately, keep returning to them every now and then, and over time they will hopefully reveal their treasures. As far as kids are concerned, these voices can be playing in the background, when they are paying attention to something else, and they may slowly get accustomed to them (or they may not and protest vehemently! But try it).
Another thing to take into account with Indian music is that you may not like the way a piece sounds when it begins, so it is important to listen all the way through. Conversely, you may not like the way it sounds as it progresses, but may like the opening movement (alaap or alaapana that is not accompanied by percussion).
The key requirement is patience (lots of it) and the willingness to listen to extended pieces ’til the end. Improvisation is one of the central ingredients of Indian music and one has to be open to long listening sessions (though there are many wonderful short pieces).
The music can be very fast or very slow and leisurely. There is something for every mood, occasion and time of day. I will be peppering these posts with lots of clips-please listen to them from beginning to end, even you don’t listen to them all at once. Hopefully, you might find something that sings to your heart.
Below is an example of a famous, old voice. It is of the late Mallikarjun Mansur of the North Indian Hindustani (Khayal) tradition. The video is in two parts, the first is approximately 10 minutes and the next is approximately 9 minutes. They should be listened to together.
Useful Links
Mallikarjun Mansur – Maestro’s Choice – Series One (cd)
Mallikarjun Mansur Morning & Evening Ragas(cd)
Mallikarjun Mansur-Rasa Yatra – My Journey in Music. Translated from Kannada by Rajsekhar Mansur.
ALAAP – A Discovery of Indian Classical Music (Set of 20 Music CDs + Resource Book)
More on voices in the next post.
Nicely written. What you say about the voice is so true! It was the case with MDR for me. I didn’t care for him at all when I was getting into carnatic music, but now he is one of my favorite musicians and for some songs I can’t listen to anybody else’s rendition anymore! I am happy I gave myself more chances to appreciate his music.
I had actually included him in this post, but then saved him for later! I love MDR
Thanks for this post, Uttara! For a person like me who barely knows anything about Indian classical music, this is great!
I’d like to share some thoughts on the aspect of technical virtuosity in voice. Recently I got Kabir Bhajans by Girija Devi. I listened to the CD just once. I am sure there is a lot of technical virtuosity in it, and I am sure if I listened to her other CDs, the ones she usually sings, I would have liked them, but the one with Kabir Bhajans, i found no heart in them. There is a word called ‘Bhav’, I think. That seems to be missing. I loved Kabir Bhajans by Kumar Gandharva and Abida Parveen’s (Finding Abida’s was a result of reading one of your posts!). Both are mesmerising. Kumar Gandharva’s voice sounds ancient – like one who has the secrets of having attained the most primal. And Abida’s rendition reminds one of the depth of a deveotee’s feelings. Perhaps I should listen to Girija Devi’s CD once again, as it might just take some time to grow on me!
Hi, I don’t like Girija Devi too much too-though there was one live concert of hers I attended I really liked. Its impossible to like everyone, but its possible to widen our listening preferences a lot over time. Glad you’re enjoying Abida
Oh! i had always loved Abida’s popular Sufi songs – Tere Ishq Nacahaya Karke Thayiya Thayiya, Dum Ma Dum Mast kalandar and many more. Thanks to your post, I got to know that she has sung Kabir also
I like the sufi songs a lot too.
This is cool Ra. I was raised with two sisters who sing and I never learned the art ‘coz for some reason I didn’t have the lovely voice my sisters did. Over the years I have learned that there are many good singers with different kinds of voices that appeal to different populations. My daughter learns now but all my exposure has been to Carnatic music. I love them but am extremely lost when the concert moves to the varnams and the the singers improvisations
I much prefer the small fast numbers. Hopefully will learn about the other kinds of music here 
Sands, never too late to learn if you want to. Slow music-you get into it more by listening to it more-even if you’re napping, its nice to have on. Just let yourself flow into it.
uttara (and others):
you might want to check out this detailed description of south indian classical music by ramesh mahadevan. ramesh told me via e-mail that this pdf was published as a book, and also translated to tamil.
- s.b.
Thanks for leaving the link sb, am sure many will find it useful. I had it too-thinking of doing a post solely on resources like that.
Hey Uttara! I’d never got a chance to read thru’ your post in detail. And today I switched on the video, and it was magical! Didn’t like it at first, just as you said, but as it progressed there was a definite soothing aura, and both my kids didn’t protest! Let me go through your next posts slowly…this is still very new to me and I’d like to really understand it…it’s a real opportunity for me. For all I know, this summer vacation will be one of discovery for us and our kids!
I’d not had any interest in classical music until now, but have suddenly felt a shift…and realised there is an unfathomable power in it…like you said, maybe it’s an advantage to not know anything and have a completely open mind!