Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande

Chaturpandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande. The pseudonym under which he published most of his works became an honorary designation

Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (born August 10, 1860 in Mumbai ; † September 19, 1936 ibid.) Was the most influential music theorist of his time and a promoter of classical North Indian music within the anti-colonial national movement that relied on Indian tradition from the end of the 19th century . It was from him that the classification of ragas , which is still used today, comes from a system of ten thatas ( scales ).

Career

Training as a lawyer

Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande was born the second of five children into a Marathic Brahmin family in Mumbai. He had two brothers and two sisters. His father was a bank clerk and played swarmandal in his spare time , while his younger brother played dilruba . During his school days at Elphinstone High School , the youngster called Gajanan first learned the flute, later sitar and also gave concerts as a singer of bhajans at events . After graduating in 1880, he studied law at Elphinstone College , where he graduated with a BA in 1885 .

Initially without knowledge and against the wishes of his parents, he took sitar lessons in the evenings of college with Vallabhdas, a recognized sitar player. He learned Dhrupad and Khyal singing from two other musicians . Music lessons and concerts were organized by wealthy Parsees and Gujarati . The parse organization Gayan Uttejak Mandali (Association for the Promotion of Music) for interested music students organized concerts as one of the first music clubs. Teachers were recognized musicians who taught for money. Because the British had dissolved some of the small princely states , their court musicians had become unemployed without their patrons and had come to Mumbai to earn their living here. From 1884 Bhatkhande was a member of this organization.

In 1887, Bhatkhande began his professional career as a lawyer, specializing in criminal law. For a short time he was employed at the Supreme Court in Karachi . His family life lasted only a few years, as his wife and only daughter died early. In 1910, Bhatkhande gave up the legal profession in order to devote himself to the study of Indian music, single and financially frugal.

Musicological studies

Up to this time Bhatkhande had traveled again and again to study Indian music theory in libraries in the large southern Indian cities, in Gujarat and Bengal , and to seek contact with recognized music masters ( Ustads ). It was the phase that shaped him musically when he noted the knowledge they taught. Together with the old Sanskrit texts on music, such as the Natya Shastra, which was written around the turn of the century and first published in full translation in the 1890s, or the Sangita Ratnakara from the 13th century, the basis for his own works . He had mastered several Indian languages ​​besides English, and read books and hard-to-access manuscripts on music. If these were written in a regional language that he did not understand, he hired translators. The first trip took him to Gujarat in 1896, in 1904 to South India, in 1907 through central India via Hyderabad to Kolkata . The last great research trip he undertook in 1908 to Allahabad , Varanasi , Lucknow , Agra and Mathura .

Bhatkhande was a member of the Gayan Uttejak Mandali music club in Mumbai for 15 years . Here he met numerous musicians, including Raojibuwa Belbaugkar, who taught him about 300 dhrupad ragas. He collected many khyals from Ali Hussain Khan, a singer from Jaipur . His main teacher was Muhammad Ali Khan from Jaipur. From him and his two sons Ashiq Ali and Ahmed Ali he learned compositions of the Manrang Gharana between 1900 and 1907 and recorded over 300 pieces of music on phonograms. At that time the phonograph was still little known in India; Musicians feared that if they allowed sound recordings to lose part of themselves, or at least part of their income, because then nobody would go to their concerts. Here, the recognized scholarship and Brahmanic origin helped Bhatkhande to gain authority, with which he finally managed to obtain sound recordings of many rare and difficult ragas.

In December 1904 Bhatkhande met a well-known pioneer of music research in South India, Subbarama Diksitar (1839–1906), who had already recorded songs in a book by the South Indian composer Tyagaraja (1767–1847) in 1859 and the standard work Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini (“ Representation of the musical tradition ”) published. This was one of the first musical compilations of carnatic compositions. He later published several old manuscripts collected on this trip in Mumbai.

In Kolkata, Bhatkhande's encounter with Saurindra Mohan Tagore (1840–1914) in November 1907 should be highlighted. The wealthy Zamindar (landowner) was an authority on Hindustan music in his day, author and editor of many books on music.

His stay in the small princely state of Rampur , a center of north Indian music at the time , had the greatest influence on his musical theories . Bhatkhande met the famous court musicians of the Nawab , the vina player Wazir Khan (a Binakara ), the rubab player Muhammad Ali Khan and the singer Kale Nazir Khan. Nawab Ali Khan was himself a valued musician and student of Wazir Khan. The nawab was the trustee of extremely valuable compositions that reached back to Tansen . Bhatkhande was introduced to the Nawab in order to gain access to Wazir Khan through him. Since the latter could not refuse the Nawab's request, Bhatkhande was accepted as a student and thus learned the important compositions of the Rampur Gharana as Dhrupad, Khyal or Dhamar. Binakars generally guarded their musical knowledge like a family treasure and only passed it on to students who came from their own gharana. Wazir Khan also taught Allauddin Khan , the teacher of Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar .

Music mediation

Bhatkhande compiled hundreds of compositions in different styles, studied the playing techniques of famous musicians, but missed an underlying musical grammar in many musicians. Notations for ragas had already been developed in Baroda and Kolkata, but the notation system developed by Bhatkhande spread rapidly. It was first introduced as a teaching material at the Gayan Uttejak Mandali when he started teaching there. His first publication was the booklet Swar Mallika published by Mandali in 1909 , a collection of basic melodic structures in the notation he developed, given in swaras (musical notes) and talas (division of time, rhythm). With the help of two students, he translated the two old musical treatises Sangeet Ratnakar and Sangeet Darpan into Gujarati . They appeared in 1911.

In 1916 he began teaching his own class with an assistant in Mumbai on the basis of a newly developed lesson plan from music theory and performance practice. Before starting his vocal training (basics of instrumental music), he theoretically explained every raga. Many singers known later had received lessons from him. The system was used in other music schools and soon, in line with its goal of mass music education, in Mumbai's urban elementary schools. In the same year, Bhatkhande switched the Baroda State Music School to his curriculum, which with some well-known teachers became the starting point for the Music College at the University of Baroda . With the support of the Maharaja Sayaji Rao von Baroda , Bhatkhande succeeded in organizing one of the first major conferences of musicians and musicologists, despite their often conflicting positions and biases. The president of the congregation was none other than Raja Nawab Ali Khan from Lucknow , an admirer of Bhatkhande, who later published his ideas summarized in the book Marif-ul-naghmat in Urdu . He later founded Madhav Music College in Gwalior and the music department at Banaras Hindu University and Poona Women's University. In 1926, the Morris College of Music was founded in Lucknow, which had been planned a year earlier at the fifth All India Music Conference in this city. It was later renamed Bhatkhande Music College in memory of Bhatkhande . Today it is called Bhatkhande Music Institute University .

The first of these All India Music Conferences, which Bhatkhande launched in 1916 in Baroda, was a revolutionary idea, as it was the first time that it brought together members from different gharanas in concerts. Although it was difficult for Bhatkhande to raise the necessary funds in advance, the event, under the auspices of the Nawab of Baroda, was a complete success, as musicologists from all over India came together and gave lectures. It was about the right fundamental tone ( sa ) and the number of microtone intervals ( shrutis ) up to the pitch level pa. Questions that were interpreted and controversially discussed by experts according to the old Sanskrit texts. Bhatkhande presented a paper entitled A Short Historical Survey of the Music of Upper India , in which for the first time a historical derivation of music theory from the writings on music from the 16th and 17th centuries was made. In it, he rejected the raga-ragini classification (system of six male and six female ragas that was valid from the 14th to the 19th century) and confirmed that the beginning of the 19th century was the basis for North Indian classical music Raga Bilaval. A permanent working group called the All India Music Conference was established with Bhatkhande as its general secretary to organize future meetings.

The second conference took place in Delhi in 1917, at which, in a second attempt, the music masters of the various gharanas were to agree on their different interpretations of controversial ragas. Bhatkhande then incorporated the consensus he had reached into his music theory. Between 1920 and 1937 Bhatkhande published the results of his studies under the title Kramik Pustak Malika in six volumes. It contains over 1000 compositions. First, the musician's interpretation is given, followed by Bhatkhande's own view and classification. There is also a list of musicians, with their place of residence and the name of their Gharana. With the writing of the work helped Ganapati Buwa Milbarikar (1882-1927), a well-known singer who had a large collection of compositions of various gharanas and engaged the Bhatkhande as a teacher at the Gayan Uttejak Mandali music school.

This was followed by Hindustani Sangit Paddhati, a work written in Marathi in four volumes and with almost 2500 pages, which describes 150 North Indian ragas. In addition to numerous other works of his own, he published some musicological writings by other authors, including those of the southern Indian Ramamathya ( Swara Mela Kalanidhi ), who describes the principle of some southern Indian ragas and raga classifications (assignment to melas, the southern Indian counterpart of thats ), raga Tatva Vibodh by Shriniwas and Sanskrit textbooks by Pundarika Vitthala from the 16th century. The following five music conferences organized by Bhatkhande, which also brought together the most famous musicians, took place in Varanasi (1918), Delhi (1922) and Lucknow (1924).

Last years

Since 1933, Bhatkhande suffered from paralysis and was confined to bed after a broken thigh. He died on September 19, 1936, the day of Ganesh Chaturthi , a holiday that is celebrated with processions in honor of Ganesh on the birthday of the Hindu god, especially in Maharashtra . His birthday, which coincided with Janmashtami , the feast for Krishna's birthday, is seen as just such a stroke of fate . On Janmashtami 1961, the Indian Post issued a special postage stamp with Bhatkhande's portrait.

Music theory

An idea of ​​Bhatkhande's fundamental theoretical goals results from the points recorded as a declaration of intent at the first All India Music Conference. In summary: Indian music should be strengthened at the national level; an easy-to-learn teaching program that simplifies ragas and talas (especially the north Indian ones) is to be introduced; the north and south Indian system should be brought together by a uniform notation; Preservation and protection of old masterpieces; a central library is to be set up for this purpose, in which these works are collected and made available to students; Research and definition of the microtones ( shrutis ); Establishment of a national music academy and publication of a monthly magazine. All in all, it was about a program to revive Indian classical music, which should reassure itself of its ancient roots.

Since the Vedic times, at least since Panini , music has been written down in a sketchy way by indicating a finger for a corresponding note. However, this made the music incomprehensible and valuable compositions were lost if they were no longer transmitted orally. The only important thing was the practical aspect of the music, listening to and copying from the guru and the oral explanation of what had been learned over generations. Learning by sitting in front of the Master is called guru shishiya parampara. It was not until the 13th century (in the Sangitaratnakara of Sarngadeva) that designations for individual parts of the raga and various types of melodic ornamentation ( gamak ) were introduced, which, however, could not express the musical forms that had changed due to Muslim influence. The need to introduce a universal notation was obvious for Bhatkhande. It was about the preservation of theoretical knowledge and at the same time about the spiritual element of music. Unlike many of his compatriots, he cared little for stories from revered sages and did not accept theories simply because they were particularly old.

He saw it as a Herculean task to free music from its state of decadence and stagnation, which had arisen through ignorance of the old texts. In his day, five or six gharanas dominated the music scene, in which the students were required to unconditionally submit to the teacher, but no theoretical foundations were imparted. He contrasted this with the only valid method for him of learning a raga composition using the notation. Only after the theoretical understanding should the vocal implementation take place. Bhatakhande admitted that tonal nuances and vocal expression could not be fixed in writing, and considered the new technical possibility of sound recording for documentation all the more necessary. In his time, a number of notation systems had been developed, all of which were more or less based on the European system. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar (1872–1931) had invented a notation that was quite complicated because of the large number of characters. At the beginning of the 20th century, Rabindranath Thakur wrote down the several hundred songs he composed in his own notation ( Akar Matrik Swaralipi ), which is still used today for learning his Rabindra Sangit (Thakurs song genre). Bhatkhane's system had the advantage of being easier to learn. A student can grasp the basic structure of the composition in a few minutes, but it cannot fully acquire the raga.

Social environment

In the 19th century, the decline of the princely states reduced the number of supporters of classical music; the cultural function of the old rulers was only partially replaced by zamindars and urban traders. The new upper class was less pompous, but more cultured. The decline of music is explained as a parallel development, the transition from the proud aristocracy to an enterprising merchant class is illustrated in Satyajit Ray's film Jalsaghar ("The Music Room").

Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande and Digambar Paluskar, who fought with missionary zeal against the disdain for music by the old conservative bourgeoisie and against the isolation of professional musicians in their circles, were the most influential exponents of Indian music theory. Both worked for the revival of the classical tradition in contrast to Rabindranath Thakur, who tried to establish a new kind of music from western and Indian elements. The intellectual environment of the three was the anti-colonial nationalist movement of the traditionalists ( revivalists ) towards the end of the 19th century, which expressed itself politically and apart from music also in other cultural areas such as architecture . Within this movement there were considerable differences in questions of interpretation, application, or reformulation of the ancient scriptures.

Paluskar and Bhatkhande were only similar as traditionalists and in their firm conviction of their own cause, otherwise they took opposing positions: one was radically religious, the other championed scientific and secular goals. In addition, both were trapped in the patriarchal structure of Indian society, in which women had no place in music.

Criticism of music theory

Especially the young Omkarnath Thakur (1897-1967) and Dilip Chandra Vedi (1901-1992) criticized Bhatkhandes own system of classifying ragas in ten large scales ( thatas ), while in their opinion the ragas should be divided into murchanas and jatis . Murchanas connect the ragas with each other through transposition , so they have the same intervals according to the tradition of Bharatas Natyashastra (treatise on the arts, around the turn of the ages), but start from a different keynote . Jati describes the equally old classification of raga according to the ascending and descending tone sequence. Thakur and Vedi showed that many of Bhatkhane's notations were wrong and his explanations of the ragas too superficial. It is enough if tones are wrongly given as strong ( vādī ) instead of weak ( durbal svar ) to make students lose the clear picture of the raga. Even in old age, Dilip Chandra Vedi accused the music theorist of having been taught, but of having no practical knowledge of music.

Many of Bhatkhande's interviewees complained about his brahmanic elitist demeanor and felt that they were victims of the initially gentle and gradually increasingly aggressive questioning, which often ended with his exposing the theoretical ignorance of his counterpart (he did not interview women). With his restriction to the male music world and the search for the pure, classical past, the singing styles of women accompanied by sarangis escaped him .

Bhatkhande refused to attribute music theory and practice directly to the Natyashastra or the highly esteemed Sangitaratnakara of the 13th century, but only saw a music-theoretical continuity from the 16th / 17th. Century, which earned him criticism from the Orthodox side. At the same time he had to admit that classical music has been indebted to the Muslims since the Mughal era , against whom he harbored prejudices and whose dominance in music he otherwise deplored. In an interview with his rival Paluskar, his difficult relationship with the ancient Hindu tradition in music became clear. The question was why Bhatkhande writes in Sanskrit, in a language that is highly regarded, but hardly understood and which would have to contradict his democratic-egalitarian interests. According to Bhatkhande, classical music needs a classical language. Anything that cannot be traced back to Sanskrit texts is not accepted by the people. The only way to convince the population of new musical rules is a book in Sanskrit.

The classification of ragas could often only be achieved through standardization. For this purpose he had each singer perform his version of a certain raga at the All India Music Conference in 1916 and, if there were any deviations, urged those present to agree on the majority version as the standard. These innovations in favor of standardization brought him the annoyance of many musicians. Even if his theory of microtones ( shrutis ) is largely rejected today and the division of the ragas into ten thatas reveals a number of gross errors, Bhatkhande's theoretical oeuvre remains remarkable in view of the music-theoretically gloomy time in which he was active.

Works

• Lakshya Sangit. 1910
• Lakshangitas. 1912, collection of his own compositions
• Kramik Pustak Malika. Abbreviated KPM. In Hindi. 6 vols. 1919-1937. Manual describes over 1000 raga compositions
• Hindistani Sangit Padhati. Abbreviated HSP. 4 vols., First 3 volumes published 1910–1914, vol. 4 published 1932. In Marathi, later translated into Hindi
• Lakshangit Sangrah. 3 parts, about raga compositions
• Sreemallaksya Sangitam. A Sanskrit treatise written in Shlokas describes the important ragas
• Abhinava Raga Manjari. In Sanskrit
• A Short Historical Survey of the Music of Upper India. 1916. Essay presented at the All India Music Conference in Baroda
• A Comparative Study of some of the Leading Systems of Music in the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries.

literature

• Janaki Bakhle: Two Men and Music: Nationalism in the Making of an Indian Classical Tradition. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005
• Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva: An Introduction to Indian Music. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, New Delhi 1981, pp. 101-104
• Sobhana Nayar: Bhatkhande's Contribution to Music: A Historical Perspective. Popular Prakashan, Mumbai 1990. ISBN 0-86132-238-X
• Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in history and present , person part 2, 1999, Sp. 1546-1548

Web links

• Chaturpandit Bhatkhande. chembur.com
• Ramesh Gangolli: Chatura Pandit: VN Bhatkhande. Rajan Parrikar Music Archive (PDF; 74 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva, p. 102
2. ↑ Sobhana Nayar, p 299
3. ↑ Sobhana Nayar, pp. 46-48
4. ^ Reginald Massey: The Music of India. Abhinav Publications, New Delhi 1996, p. 70
5. ^ William Jackson: Tyagaraja and the Renewal of Traditions: Translations and Reflections. Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi 1995, p. 70
6. ↑ Janaki Bakhle, p. 107
7. ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva, p. 103
8. ^ Bhatkhande Music Institute University ( Memento from April 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
9. ^ Joep Bor: Three Important Essays on Hindustani Music. In: Journal of the Indian Musicological Society, 36-37, 2006, p. 10
10. ↑ Sobhana Nayar, pp 272-274
11. ↑ James Kippen: The Tabla of Lucknow: A Cultural Analysis of a Musical Tradition. Eastern Book Corporation, Delhi 2005, p. 25
12. ↑ Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande. Indian Post (biography on the occasion of the commemorative stamp on September 1, 1961)
13. ↑ Sobhana Nayar, pp. 284-286
14. ↑ Sobhana Nayar, pp. 288-296
15. ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva, p. 108
16. ↑ Janaki Bakhle, p. 103
17. ^ Wim Van Der Meer: Hindustani Music in the 20th Century. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Den Haag 1980, pp. 160, 183. Van der Meer certifies that Bhatkhande had as much good as bad influence on music.
18. ↑ Dilipchandra Vedi: There is too much noise. 1994
19. ↑ Janaki Bakhle, p. 103. In his speeches he often described professional musicians as hopelessly uneducated, ignorant and narrow-minded (“ignorant and illiterate” as the standard formulation).
20. ↑ Janaki Bakhle, p. 117 f
21. ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva, p. 104