Celebrating Lalan Piya

It's that time of the year when music and literature lovers gather at the National Centre of Performing Arts (NCPA) to celebrate the marriage of the two. The sixth edition of the Bandish festival next month will see well-known khayal, thumri and dadra exponent Shubha Mudgal presenting a specially-curated concert dedicated to Lalan Piya.

Mudgal in particular has been invited to present thumri compositions by the artist (1850-1927) from Farukhabad, who was known as Nandalal Sharma, but composed under the pen-name Lalan Piya.

"Every lover of thumri has heard and appreciated both the melodic nuances and beautiful lyrics of Lalan Piya's thumris. It's sad that so little is known about the man himself," says music historian Mukul Joshi. "Given the way Mudgal has intelligently curated concerts based on other composers like saint-poet Kabir in the past for the festival, one is excited to think of what this concert holds."

In his book Indian Music, revered Indian musicologist-philosopher Thakur Jaideva Singh writes about Lalan Piya. "…In the later half of the 19th century, a movement of composing thumaris on the pattern of gats of instrumental music like sitar or sarod had started. These thumaris were mostly of fast tempo. There were some good composers of this type of thumari. None, however, surpassed Lalan Piya in composing these. His compositions were of such svelte, rhythmic variations that it was often difficult for a tabla accompanist to catch the sam. He composed hundreds of thumaris. They were all of bandish (well-set and improvised) pattern and in medium or fast tempo. They were mostly on the pattern of gats (fast instrumental compositions) of sitar. ."

Mudgal points out that while Lalan Piya's 1977 thumri anthology Lalan Piya ki Thumariyan was fairly well-known, few knew of another such hard-to-come-by anthology, which had come 56 years earlier. "For the concert, I decided to use a mix of compositions from both anthologies," she says, "It is to the credit of Bharatendu Vajpayee that we can attribute this legacy to. He learnt and put down these compositions from Lalan Piya's disciples like Suraj Bali and Dwarika Maharaj."

As is widely known, Mudgal trained in music with Pandit Ramashray Jha, the distinguished composer, musician, scholar and teacher of Hindustani Classical music. "As student of music, one was of course familiar with Lalan Piya's compostions, but my guruji would sing several of his rare compositions that weren't well-known. That only heightened my interest in this composer. When NCPA approached me with idea of a special concert dedicated to him, I was happy to revisit these works – many of which I'd encountered before – and discovering others."

Elaborating on the crafting of Lalan Piya compositions, she explains, "Lalan Piya's compositions present various challenges to a singer. Some Lalan Piya bandishes are crafted to highlight rare and specific use of lyrics, for example, his 'adhar-band' compositions, in which no labial sound is used. The sahitya of such compositions therefore use words in which the lips never touch, for example 'sakhi saiyaan ki suratiya…' as opposed to lyrics like 'paniya bharan jo gayi…', the enunciation of which would require partial or complete closure of the lips."

Adds Suvarnalata Rao, head programming (Indian music) NCPA: "With every edition of Bandish, we aim to bring together works of Indian composers who have contributed immensely to our rich musical heritage. It is a great platform to showcase creations of legendary figures that have been passed on to us through generations and is still significant in today's time. As we seek a chance to cherish and relive different eras of music presented by esteemed musicians keeping alive the memory of those greatest composers our country has ever seen, how could one not include Lalan Piya?"