Instruments of music without boundaries

Eight years after Jodha Akbar released, the opening harmonium bars in the popular A R Rahman composition Khwaja Mere Khwaja still makes one wonder why the Oscar awardee decided to use an instrument that came to India only in the early 19th century long after the third Mughal emperor Abu'l-Fath Jalal ud-din Muhammad Akbar died at 63.

“The stringed tanpura and sarangi have been on the subcontinent's classical music scene since late 15th CE,” points out socio-cultural ethnographer Mukul Joshi speaking of his favourite Rahman composition, “I'm amazed a big budget film didn't get this right, in what is otherwise one of Rahman's better, soul-touching compositions. Since the tanpura and sarangi were both around in the Mughal court (as evidenced by paintings from that era), the glaring inclusion of harmonium here always riles.”

Firangi baaja

Pointing how almost all film music composers use it to compose, he laughs how the “firang” harmonium is an accompanying omnipresence in almost all Hindustani classical music concerts and recounts the harmonium's invention by a Copenhagen physiology professor Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein (1723-1795). “It went through alterations by Gabriel Joseph Grenie (1756-1837) - who named it ‘orgue express,’ for diminuendo and crescendo sounds it produced. Frenchman Alexandre Debain made changes, named it harmonium and patented the name in 1842. Nearly 18 years later, Boston's Mason & Hamlin introduced suction bellows and made it smaller than a piano,” explains Joshi who adds, “Older harmoniums had more keys, a foot pump and were played with both hands seated in a chair.” He quickly points out how how smaller versions of these, were once part of both Marathi/Parsi music theatre, are still part of non-filmy, traditional tamasha troupes.

Missionary position

Though not documented clearly, most exponents specialising in harmonium admit its immense popularity in chapels and churches across both Atlantic coasts led to its arrival in India with missionaries.

“Musicians in North India took to it immediately as the hand pump version helped them retain the tradition of performances seated on the floor. It was able to shadow/mimick vocalisations of the singer and was seen as a capable of steadying the flow of the composition and was easier to learn, tune and play, compared to the tanpura and sarangi,” points out much sought after harmonium exponent Sudhir Nayak. “Unlike harmony-based Western music, Indian music is more melody based and playing with one hand was adequate.”

He explains how the spread of harmonium and the gramophone coincided and went hand-in-hand from 1901 onward. “Several companies manufacturing both and were proud to announce so on their labels.”

Hiccups galore

Yet it faced its own lamentable hiccups. “That it has been able to capture public imagination across genres despite giving it so many handicaps makes one wonder how it would have grown unhindered.”

The Swadeshi movement during the freedom struggle saw it come under a cloud as a foreign import and the Hindu right wing frowned on something that missionaries had got to India. But criticism from purists in the music fraternity (fanned by sarangi players who saw a threat to their livelihood) seems to have done most and lasting damage. “I admit the harmonium's limitations in creating the meend (glide from one note to another), gamaka (graceful turn, curve or cornering touch given to a single note or a group of notes) or andolan (gentle oscillation around a note, touching peripheries of the adjacent note and micro-notes in between).”

However he is quick to point, “These criticisms in India were not new. It had been all but given a quiet burial by the West many years ago, denounced as 'an instrument for beggars.' The West stopped making them over 70 years ago and today harmoniums are exported there from India.”

He lists several strengths of the harmonium like continuity of note, infinite unbroken sustenance, crispness of sound production, fullness and richness of sound that provides great support for vocalists and its ability to hold a tune despite heat and humidity. “This has made it the leading instrument today for accompaniment of Hindustani classical music (except dhrupad dhamaar) despite the AIR continuing with its ban on it being played solo.”

According to him, given that it came without any baggage of traditional didactism the harmonium was adapted and interpreted by artistes in their own style. “Experiments with it in music theatre, in kirtans, bhajans and qawwalis and have benefitted it a lot. Madhukar Pednekar and Tulsidas Borkar's names come to mind for creating new styles, techniques and compositions which popularised the harmonium.”

Other maestros who helped the instrument grow were Jnan Prakash Ghosh, Bhishmadev Vedi, Govindrao Patwardhan, Appa Jalgaokar, Purushottam Walawalkar. Dr Vidhyadhar Oke, disciple of of the late Govindrao Patwardhan created a new version of the harmonium called melodium through which the instrument is not restricted to 12 frequencies within an octave but can play all 22.

Indianising the violin

What the harmonium is to the Hindustani genre, the violin (a product of European Renaissance invented by Andrea Amati in 1555) is to the Carnatic where it enjoys an equal pride of place.

Though it came to here only in the late 17th Century, something about the way the violin technique has Indianised it beyond belief. “Carnatic violinists sits cross-legged. S/he holds the instrument lightly with its base at her chest and its scroll at the right ankle hollow. This is at complete variance from the West. It totally frees the left hand making it easier to move it across the fingerboard,” points out Pune-based violin guru Bhavya Iyengar. “This is why we have such uniquely different fingering techniques like the slides (jaru/ullasita), gamaka and kampitas (trembling oscillation).”

According to her, “If the violin has been able to completely take over from the traditional accompaniment of Sarswati veena credit for that must go to both its sheer ease in reproducing vocal notes and its ease of handling and transportation. An expert veena player can do some jutice to some gamakas but the full range eludes her unlike the violin where the sound in continuous.”

Many lay credit for violin innovation in Carnatic music on one of the Carnatic Music Trinitie, Muthuswami Dikshitar (one of three greatest composers) From a family of traditional veena players, he was attracted to the violin which the European settlers in the cantonments played. “He sent his brother Baluswami Dikshitar to the cantonments to learn the violin. To help him he would compose Carnatic songs to Western hits calling them Nottuswara (swaras based on notes),” she laughs, “Since they played perfectly on the violin, Baluswami became quite popular with the then European orchestras in India.”

Then of course there was the stalwart vocalist, dance expert and violinist Vadivelu who after being musician jewel in the Tanjore court for eight years joined the the employ of Swati Thirunal’s court at Travancore. “You can imagine his sheer genius that the king was willing to pay him a monthly upkeep of Rs 100 in the 1830s.”

Not only was a palatial home constructed for the brothers, the king was so pleased that with Vadivelu’s prowess and introduction of violin in classical music that he gifted him an ivory violin. “It is still preserved by his descendants in Tanjore,” says Iyengar.

While its true that the violin has made its home in the South of the Vindhyas which has given several maestros like Mysore Tirumakoodalu Chowdiah, Negumangad Sivanandan, Lalgudi Jayaraman, MS Gopalakrishnan, TN Krishnan, Mallaikkottai Govindswami Pillai and L Subramaniam, some like N Rajam have carved special name for themselves in the Hindustani genre.

This Professor of Music at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in the Faculty of Performing Arts for nearly four decades, headed the department and was dean of the college at BHU. Her specialisation is the gayaki style with she elaborates a raga, a technique she mastered from the classical vocal legend Pt Omkarnath Thakur. “He couldn't play the violin and I wouldn't sing. I just kept trying to practice everything he sang and created this style,” says the Padma Bhushan violinist.

The new firang

The latest to join the ranks of instruments that have joined the classical Indian pantheon is the saxophone which was pioneered by the legend Dr Kadri Gopalnath. “A childhood fascination for the sax I saw being played at Mysore Palace led me to a 20-year-pursuit in mastering this complex western instrument in Carnatic style,” he says and adds, “I modified the conventional alto saxophone to play Carnatic music.”

Though he has won praise from greats like Carnatic doyen Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and gone on to jam with international artistes like John Handy (a jazz exponent from California), jazz flautist James Newton and jazz festivals in Prague, Berlin, Mexico, Paris, London and even collaborated with AR Rahman on a K Balachander film Duet, there are still some naysayers.

“There have been those who doubt whether the instrument can reproduce the tonal subtleties on which Carnatic music thrives. There are accusations that in “approximating” gamakas, the music itself is getting diluted,” he admits and adds, “I only use the criticism to drive me to work harder on my music.”

His disciples MS Lavanya and MS Subbalaxmi have also emerged as big names on the concert circuit.

Music without boundaries

Renowned ethnomusicologist Dr Pappu Venugopala Rao says brushes off purists who call instruments which came from the West as alien. “Music is an expression of human feelings. How can that have geographical boundaries?” he asks pointing out how there has always been a give and take between the music systems of the world.

He admits to drawing a line at electronic gadgetry taking over from instruments though. “Now you see people using a shruti box instead of tanpura and even apps. This will actually destroy the rich tradition of handmade instruments and we should carefully keep a tab on how much and no more.”