Persian Influence on North Indian Music
Contributing author on this prestigious research project that was released on 2nd September 2023 at Mumbai as The only book to trace India’s Cultural Pride in interrelationship with World Music Culture.
Fundamentals of Hindustani Classical Music
Art begins where science ends.
Indian Classical Music truly portrays this phenomenon. Be it the concept if Swar, Tal, Chhand or the history of evolution of Bharatiya Sangit, all the elements that combine to form this subject are manifestations of scientific principles. This approach of understanding music not only leads to logical conclusions but also touches human emotions – the Art of Music.
With this approach Fundamentals of Hindustani Classical Music is aimed for readers who have some elementary knowledge Hindustani Music, but wish to delve deeper into the subject to understand the science and art of Music.
This book essentially aims at explaining to the reader all aspects of Indian music through simple language.
ISBN: 978-81-215-1354-8
First published: 2021
Published & Printed by: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
Rāg Mālikā
Pathbreaking work in the field of Hindustani Classical Music.
Kramic Pustak Malika by the legendary musicologist Pt. V. N. Bhatkhande is the core foundation of Hindustani Classical texts that cover an ocean of Bandishes (compositions). The original work being in Hindi has remained inaccessible to the non-Hindi musicians, students and connoisseurs of Hindustani Classical Music across the globe. The language barrier caused lack of understanding & motivation towards learning the original compositions.
The author takes this work entirely to another level by not only adapting from Hindi to English, but also into alternative notations connecting to the Western style. As a result, this turns out to be a simple yet fruitful depiction of the notations being written not just in Indian system but also adapted and interpreted in the western classical style.
This scholarly adaptation provides a new life to the Original works, by taking it across the linguistic and geographical barriers. This book is useful not just for voice students but also for instrumentalists. These Bandishes can be easily played by western musicians in piano, flute, violin, guitar etc…
Through Rāg Mālikā , the age-old Bandishes will now reach a much wider audience thus enabling Hindustani Classical music to travel even across genres.
Elements of Hindustani Classical Music
It had taken much longer than expected, given the limited time available to work on it. In very brief, sharing here the objective of this work and the background as to how it all started.
During the initial years of teaching Hindustani Classical Music at Madras University, a majority of students were from Non-Hindi speaking background. It was hard to recommend and suggest relevant books on the subject in English, which could give a clear and simple outline of the fundamentals of Hindustani Classical Music. This is how the very thought of working on such a book came up.
As a feedback from various interactive sessions during Performances, Lec/Dem and Classes, especially from non-Hindi speaking audience, the need was felt for a book that would be an easy reference to help understand and appreciate the nuances of Hindustani Classical Music in its totality.
Accordingly, the book is written in a very simple English and easy to understand format, covering all the aspects of Hindustani Classical Music for beginners. It is hoped that this book will be extremely useful to all the students, connoisseurs and rasikas of Hindustani Classical Music.
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