An Introduction to Hindustani Classical Music


Book Description

An Introduction to Hindustani Classical Music: A Guidebook for Beginners is Vijay Singha's comprehensive guide to savour and appreciate classical music. Written in a simple and easy-to-comprehend style, this book delves into the understanding of raga sangeet, semi-classical and fusion music, raga sangeet in Hindi films, as well as the future of classical music in India.




The Music Room


Book Description

When Namita is ten, her mother takes her to Dhondutai, a respected Mumbai music teacher from the great Jaipur Gharana. Dhondutai has dedicated herself to music and her antecedents are rich. She is the only remaining student of the legendary Alladiya Khan, the founder of the gharana and of its most famous singer, the tempestuous songbird, Kesarbai Kerkar. Namita begins to learn singing from Dhondutai, at first reluctantly and then, as the years pass, with growing passion. Dhondutai sees in her a second Kesar, but does Namita have the dedication to give herself up completely to music—or will there always be too many late nights and cigarettes? Beautifully written, full of anecdotes, gossip and legend, The Music Room is perhaps the most intimate book to be written about Indian classical music yet.




The Dictionary of Hindustani Classical Music


Book Description

In this book the author has dealt with the musical terms as found in the old sastras and are also in common use. He has explained these terms in simple language with reference to their history of origin. Description of seventy-eight different musical instruments and forty-seven different Talas are also there. An essential aid to research-scholars and students of music. The Bengali version of the book Bharatiya Sangeetkosh earned for him Sangeet Natak Academy award as the best book on music published during the period from 1960 to 1968. Bimalakanta Roychaudhuri was born in 1909 in all illustrious family of musical heritage. He had his training in music from Sitalchandra Mukhopadhyay, Sitalkrishna Ghosh, Amir Khan (Sarod) and then from Inayet Khan, the foremost Sitar players of those days. He also had his musical training from his maternal uncle Birendrakishore Roychaudhuri and maternal grandfather Brojendrakishore Roychaudhuri. He took part in the translation of Sangeet Ratnakara from Sanskrit to Bengali under the patronage of Brojendrakishore Roychaudhuri. He was Chairman of the Board of Musical Studies of the University of Calcutta. His work Raga Vyakarana (in Hindi) has been published by the Bharatiya Jnanpith.




Solkattu Manual


Book Description

Solkattu, the spoken rhythms and patterns of hand-clapping used by all musicians and dancers in the classical traditions of South India, is a subject of worldwide interest—but until now there has not been a textbook for students new to the practice. Designed especially for classroom use in a Western setting, the manual begins with rudimentary lessons in the simplest South Indian tala, or metric cycle, and proceeds step-by-step into more challenging material. The book then provides lessons in the eight-beat adi tala, arranged so that by the end, students will have learned a full percussion piece they can perform as an ensemble. Solkattu Manual includes web links to video featuring performances of all 150 lessons, and full performances of all three of the outlined small-ensemble pieces. Ideal for courses in world music and general musicianship, as well as independent study. Book lies flat for easy use.




Finding the Raga


Book Description

Winner of the James Tait Black Prize for Biography An autobiographical exploration of the role and meaning of music in our world by one of India's greatest living authors, himself a vocalist and performer. Amit Chaudhuri, novelist, critic, and essayist, is also a musician, trained in the Indian classical vocal tradition but equally fluent as a guitarist and singer in the American folk music style, who has recorded his experimental compositions extensively and performed around the world. A turning point in his life took place when, as a lonely teenager living in a high-rise in Bombay, far from his family’s native Calcutta, he began, contrary to all his prior inclinations, to study Indian classical music. Finding the Raga chronicles that transformation and how it has continued to affect and transform not only how Chaudhuri listens to and makes music but how he listens to and thinks about the world at large. Offering a highly personal introduction to Indian music, the book is also a meditation on the differences between Indian and Western music and art-making as well as the ways they converge in a modernism that Chaudhuri reframes not as a twentieth-century Western art movement but as a fundamental mode of aesthetic response, at once immemorial and extraterritorial. Finding the Raga combines memoir, practical and cultural criticism, and philosophical reflection with the same individuality and flair that Chaudhuri demonstrates throughout a uniquely wide-ranging, challenging, and enthralling body of work.




A Practical Guide to North Indian Classical Vocal Music


Book Description

Illustrations: B/w Illustrations Description: This book is a step-by-step practical guide to North Indian music. With the help of this book, the reader can understand the basic aspects of North Indian music and learn to appreciate it better. It describes the ten basic ra.gs of North Indian classical music. It also gives instructions on how to sing and how to play the musical instruments. This book describes the tonal patterns and the tonal embellishments. By following the practical exercises given in this book, you can train your voice, sing notes correctly, develop your own ability to improvise, and make your own tonal patterns. This book is your guide to creating and singing you own ra.g.




An Introduction to Hindustani Classical Music: A Beginners Guide


Book Description

An Introduction to Hindustani Classical Music: A Guidebook for Beginners is Vijay Singha's comprehensive guide to savour and appreciate classical music. Written in a simple and easy-to-comprehend style, this book delves into the understanding of raga sangeet, semi-classical and fusion music, raga sangeet in Hindi films, as well as the future of classical music in India.




Indian Sun


Book Description

One of Library Journal's "Best Arts Books of 2020" The definitive biography of Ravi Shankar, one of the most influential musicians and composers of the twentieth century, told with the cooperation of his estate, family, and friends For over eight decades, Ravi Shankar was India's greatest cultural ambassador. He was a groundbreaking performer and composer of Indian classical music, who brought the music and rich culture of India to the world's leading concert halls and festivals, charting the map for those who followed in his footsteps. Renowned for playing Monterey Pop, Woodstock, and the Concert for Bangladesh-and for teaching George Harrison of The Beatles how to play the sitar-Shankar reshaped the musical landscape of the 1960s across pop, jazz, and classical music, and composed unforgettable scores for movies like Pather Panchali and Gandhi. In Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar, writer Oliver Craske presents readers with the first full portrait of this legendary figure, revealing the personal and professional story of a musician who influenced-and continues to influence-countless artists. Craske paints a vivid picture of a captivating, restless workaholic-from his lonely and traumatic childhood in Varanasi to his youthful stardom in his brother's dance troupe, from his intensive study of the sitar to his revival of India's national music scene. Shankar's musical influence spread across both genres and generations, and he developed close friendships with John Coltrane, Philip Glass, Yehudi Menuhin, George Harrison, and Benjamin Britten, among many others. For ninety-two years, Shankar lived an endlessly colorful and creative life, a life defined by musical, emotional, and spiritual quests-and his legacy lives on. Benefiting from unprecedented access to Shankar's archives, and drawing on new interviews with over 130 subjects-including his second wife and both of his daughters, Norah Jones and Anoushka Shankar- Indian Sun gives readers unparalleled insight into a man who transformed modern music as we know it today.




A Southern Music


Book Description

One of the foremost Karnatik vocalists today, T.M. Krishna writes lucidly and passionately about the form, its history, its problems and where it stands todayT.M. Krishna begins his sweeping exploration of the tradition of Karnatik music with a fundamental question: what is music? Taking nothing for granted and addressing readers from across the spectrum - musicians, musicologists as well as laypeople - Krishna provides a path-breaking overview of south Indian classical music.




Sangeet Aarohee - An Essential Study of Hindustani Classical Music


Book Description

…A concise yet extensive coverage of various aspects of Hindustani Classical Music. …48 well-crafted chapters… …Different terms used in Hindustani Music are defined in simple terms… …A lucid explanation of the science behind music, including vibratios, frequency, naad, shruti, swar, raga, thaat and various musical compositions… …The journey of Hindustani Music from the Vedic ages to the modern age explored, including a commentary on the important musical treatises and a brief look at the gharana system of the Hindustani Music… …A section devoted to the practical performance of Hindustani Music… …Detailed information given about 22 taal and 55 raga popular today…. … “a flow of information of music, useful to all students of Hindustani Music, whatever their level of expertise”… … “a boon to the … students pursuing Visharad in Hindustani Music”