Tappa (music)

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Tappa , tappā, is a singing style of North Indian classical music alongside Dhrupad , Khyal and Thumri , which was developed from an Arabic-influenced folk music style in Punjab at the end of the 18th century by Shori Mian at the court of Lucknow . Above all, singers from the Khyal Gharana in Gwalior and courtesan singers in Varanasi cultivated the secular style of entertainment performed in Hindustani , which is related to the dhrupad, although the tones are not developed in a long melodic arc but are individually embellished with ornaments.

With his Bengali version of Tappa, Nidhu Babu (1741–1839) founded his own romantic-poetic song genre, which inspired Rabindranath Thakur and other poets in Bengal . Since the middle of the 20th century, the difficult to sing style has faded into the background.

Origin and development

The tomb of the mythological lovers Hir and Ranjha in Jhang , Pakistan, revered in popular Islamic belief . Scraps of fabric tied to the trees outside in the courtyard are intended to fulfill children's wishes.

In earlier times, Arab traders took camel caravans to Punjab in northwest India via Iran and Afghanistan. What she sang evening of songs merged with the regional folk music to a rough style that Dhapa called and in the local language Panjabi was sung. The dhapa songs are about the love story, spread out in numerous stories and ultimately tragically ending, between the rich and beautiful Hir from the Jat ethnic group and the wandering Ranjha, who is employed as a cowherd at her father's court and beautiful flute ( bansuri , regional wanjhli ) can play.

According to another story of origin, Tappa used to be sung only by women and came from Afghanistan. According to popular belief, it was Shori Mian (Shourimiya, pseudonym of Ghulam Nabi, 1742-1792), a trained khyal singer at the residence of the Nawab of Avadh , Asaf-ud-Daula (r. 1776-1797), who was in his Capital Lucknow transformed the Punjabi folk songs into an elegant courtly style. Shori Mian is also named as one of the creators of the Thumri style. He was the son of Ghulam Rasul, a Dhrupad singer from Lucknow, the soon to Khyal style of the emerging in his time Gwalior gayaki began to sing ( gayaki is the vocal style of the Khyal- Gharanas ). Originally Ghulam Nabi is said to have sung Arabic modes ( maqāmāt ) until he heard the folk songs on his travels in Punjab and provided various melodic embellishments such as tana, jamjama, khataka, gitkari and muriki according to his vocal abilities . At the time of Asaf-du-Daula, the previous folk music genre was recognized as the classical style of Tappa.

The Punjabi word dhapa became Hindi tappā , the central themes remained unfulfilled love and a feeling of loss. The songs sound accordingly romantic and atmospheric. Tappa means "to jump over" in Punjabi and tap in Hindi "unexpected", "briefly". The rhythmic sequences as well as the jumping melody movements make the name appear suitable for the musical style in a clear way.

The classical music style Tappa should be distinguished from a verse form in today's folk music of the Pakistani and Indian provinces of Punjab . The one-line verse ( tappā ) has the character of a proverb and represents the smallest unit of a short poem (regional boli or mahia ). The songs with these anonymous (love) poems are sung to accompany dances such as giddha and jhumar .

Hindustani Tappa

Tappa singer Malini Rajurkar from the Gwalior Gharana, 2011

Shori Mian composed tapas, which were characterized by a lively vibration of the voice ( gitkari ) (from gita-kriya , "to perform a song", corresponds to khatka in instrumental music, the rapid ornamentation around a note). Neither in its original form in Punjab, nor in the further development of the court, was strict adherence to the tone sequences of the raga or ragini a criterion; the focus is solely on the elegant design of gitkari . Furthermore, a trill ( murki ) is formed from three adjacent notes . On the other hand, the peculiarity of the khyal lies in its tana s, the vocalises or melodic decorations, which are formed in short, rapid succession in the tappa. Performing these demanding tana s, which did not appear in the former Punjab folk music style, requires thorough vocal training. Tana s are frowned upon in the strictest style, the dhrupad. The word dhrupad is composed of dhruva , the fixed mode and the meter pada . The clear melody line of the dhrupad also occurs in the Tappa, where it should remain recognizable behind the carefully designed decorations.

In Dhrupad, the sung verses are usually divided into the four sections sthāyī, antara, samcharī and the final ābhoga , the musical composition uses different areas from the raga sound supply for each. The Tappa only consists of the last two sections and is therefore much shorter than Dhrupad and Khyal. The ragas and raginis of the Hindustani tappa are called, among others, Barowa, Bhairavi, Jhinjhit, Kafi, Kolangra, Khambaj and Pilu . The talas (rhythm structures) are the same as in the khyal, they usually have a medium speed ( madhya kala ) with 16 beats , the most common is the Sitarkhani tal , others are Ekwai, Adhha and Trital . Other beats have Tevra, Jhumra and Pashto.

Under Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Avadh (r. 1847-1856) Tappa became so well known that numerous kyals were performed in the Tappa style. The mixed form Tappa-Khyal (or Tapkhayal, Tap-Khayal ) emerged, the melody of which came from the Tappa and, as there, consisted of the two parts sthāyī and antara .

The Tappa style has also had an impact on some semi-classical styles of music in Maharashtra such as Lavani , a style of singing and dancing whose songs deal with love or historical-social issues and the barrel drum dholki , the single-stringed plucked drum tuntune (similar to the ektara ), the Stringed sarangi and more recently accompanied by a harmonium . Other semi-classical styles in Maharashtra associated with Tappa are Natya Sangit and Kirtana . Musically different, but similar in content and romantic mood, is the South Indian style Javali .

Girija Devi sings Khyal, Tappa and Thumri, 2006

Shori Mian's classic tappa style also influenced the Punjab singer Bade Ghulam Ali Khan (around 1902–1968) and his brother Barkat Ali Khan (1905–1962), who introduced ornamentation of the tappa in their thumri singing, but rarely in the tappa Style sang. There were no Gharanas (musical traditions) for Tappa, but the influence on the Gwalior-Khyal-Gharana and the Thumri style of Varanasi (Benares-Gharana) was considerable.

Other well-known Tappa singers from Gwalior in the 20th century were Krishnarao Shankar Pandit (1893-1989) and the singer and musicologist Raja Bhaiya Poonchwale (1882-1956), who supported Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande in his research. For the second half of the 20th century, Balasaheb Puchhawale, Sharachchandra Arolkar, Jal Balaporia and especially Malini Rajurkar (* 1941) should be mentioned. In addition to Tappa, she also sings Natya Sangit and other light classics. Khyal and occasionally Tappa are singing Girija Devi (* 1929), Sulochana Brahaspati (* 1937) and Bharati Vaishampayan (* 1954). The influential and adventurous classical singer Kumar Gandharva (1924-1992) brought together Thumri with Tappa, Bhajans (religious songs) and Tarana (a classical raga style) in his concerts . Some of his students sing Tappa. Exceptions are musicians like the sitar player Budhaditya Mukherjee (* 1955) and the harmonium player Aravind Thatte from Pune , who played tappa on their instruments.

Bangla Tappa

In Bengal , a special form of Tappa goes back to Nidhu Babu (born as Ramnidhi Gupta, 1741–1839), who - without belonging to a specific Gharana - became an influential figure through his diverse activities in Calcutta's musical life . From 1894 he devoted himself entirely to music in Calcutta, refining the Akhrai Bengali folk music style to a classical style, the complexity of which only the city's educated upper classes could judge. Around this time, a Bengali middle class had developed in the capital of the British colonial power , which was indifferent to European cultural influences and valued music and dance theater performances that were characterized by Vishnuism , the cult of Radha and Krishna, and popular forms of expression. Another style of folk music that became popular with the middle class in the early 19th century was called kavigan . For the general entertainment there were the song genres Jhumur, Kavi, Panchali and above all the erotic-vulgar Kheur songs.

Nidhu Babu founded a "reformed" Akhrai troupe in 1805/06 , which became the leading orchestra in this genre. Nidhu Babu was probably the first to compose tappa songs in Bengal, the Punjabi form of which he had learned from a Muslim music master ( Ustad ) during his early musical training . In the first two decades of the 19th century, Kalidas Chattopadhyaya (Kali Mirza, around 1750 - around 1820) and Radhamohan Sen Das Tappas wrote alongside him. Nidhu Babu made partial use of the ragas and talas of the North West Indian Tappa style along with the melodic embellishments such as gitkari and tana , the latter being expressed in long melodic wavy lines to better match his pathetic love songs. He found such a style that was clearly different from the Tappa in his region of origin.

The Vishnuit singers in Bengal often used combinations of two ragas, which Nidhu Babu apparently adopted. To his talas belonged in the first place Jalad tetala , then Ada-cautal, dhime tetala, Dhamar tala, Ekatala, Hari tala and Kaoyali . A list of 108 ragas and a list of talas are contained in his anthology Guitaratna from 1837/38, along with 554 self-written song texts that can also be read as poems.

In 1845 Krishnananda Vyas published in Calcutta in the third volume of his Sangitaragakalpadruma the largest collection of Tappa songs to date. Among other things, the musicians and poets are mentioned:

  • Govinda Adhikari (1798–1876), writer of the Krishna Yatra folk drama
  • Manomohan Basu (1831-1912) published Sati natak , a drama about Shiva's wife Sati , in 1873 . He was the most famous poet in the Basu family.
  • The Brahmin Kalidas Chattopadhyaya (Kali Mirza) carried the Muslim honorary title Mirza because he dressed like a distinguished Muslim. He received his musical training in Delhi and Lucknow and composed nearly 400 tappas.
  • Radhamohan Sen Das published Sangitataranga , a collection of his poems and pieces of music , in 1818 . He was an important musicologist of his time, but was ignored by Krishnananda Vyas.
  • Ashutosh Deb (1803–1856), sitar player, composer mainly of tapas and priest of the Orthodox Hindus in Calcutta
  • Kalidas Gangopadhyay, a contemporary of Nidhu Babu, was known for simple compositions in the classical style.
  • Kashprasad Ghosh (1810–1873), poet and journalist
  • Sridhar Kathak (* 1816), professional Kathak dancer, who recited the Puranas and explained them in Bengali.
  • Dasarathi Roy (1805-1857), composed Panchali songs
  • Rabindranath Thakur (1861–1941) wrote some compositions in the tappa style, with others he was influenced by the atmosphere of the tappa in his European melodies.
  • Jyotirindranath Thakur (1849–1925), the brother of Rabindranath.

In addition to the older musical forms still cultivated in Bengal, such as Dhrupad, a few new styles were added in the 18th century, of which Tappa was the most important. Rabindranath Thakur was based on the structural and design specifications of the Dhrupad, the style had already lost much of its importance in northern India since the second half of the 18th century and given it to the less strict Khyal. In 19th century Bengal, on the other hand, Dhrupad and Tappa were the two leading classical styles; Khyal only became more popular there at the beginning of the 20th century.

literature

  • Ramakanta Chakrabarty: Nidhu Babu and his Tappā. In: Jayasri Banerjee (Ed.): The Music of Bengal. Essays in Contemporary Perspective. Indian Musicological Society, Bombay / Baroda 1988, pp. 31-47
  • Nazir A. Jairazbhoy, Peter Manuel: India IV. In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians . Vol. 12. Macmillan Publishers, London 2001, p. 226
  • Karunamaya Goswami: Bengali Music . In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 3. Macmillan Publishers, London 2001, p. 255
  • Ashok Damodar Ranade: Music Contexts: A Concise Dictionary of Hindustani Music. Promilla & Co Publishers, New Delhi 2006, pp. 129-132, ISBN 978-81-85002-63-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Madhavbua Ingle: Gwalior gaayaki. shadjamadhyam.com
  2. ^ Ranade, p. 130
  3. ↑ Gibb Schreffler: Western Punjabi Song Forms: Māhīā and Ḍholā. (PDF; 337 kB) In: Journal of Punjab Studies. University of California, Santa Barbara. Volume 18, No. 1–2, 2011, p. 76f
  4. ^ Alain Daniélou : Introduction to Indian Music. International Institute for Comparative Music Studies. Heinrichshofen's Verlag, Wilhelmshaven 1982, pp. 82, 84, 87
  5. ↑ Chakrabarty, p. 37
  6. ↑ David Courtney: Sitarkhani (Punjabi theca). chandrakantha.com
  7. ↑ Jairazbhoy, Manuel, p. 226
  8. ^ Ranade, p. 129f
  9. ↑ Chaitanya Kunte: Tappa - an Overview .
  10. ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva: An Introduction to Indian Music. Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting , Government of India, New Delhi 1981, p. 43
  11. ↑ Peter Manuel: Ṭhumrī in Historical and Stylistic Perspectives. Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi 1990, p. 124, ISBN 978-81-208-0673-3
  12. ↑ Krishnarao Shankar Pandit. ITC Sangeet Research Academy
  13. ↑ Chaitanya Kunte: Tappa - an Overview .
  14. ↑ Kavigan . Banglapedia
  15. ↑ Chakrabarty, p. 32
  16. ↑ Chakrabarty, pp. 39f; Goswami, p. 255
  17. ^ Sukumar Ray: Classical Musical Activities in Bengal During the 19th Century and Later: A Broad Survey. In: Jayasri Banerjee (Ed.): The Music of Bengal. Essays in Contemporary Perspective . Indian Musicological Society, Bombay / Baroda 1988, p. 62