On Raga Sarparda Bilaval plus Bhairav composition
Rajan P. Parrikar
Namashkar. In this quick, short note is presented a montage of
the uncommon Raga Sarparda Bilaval (sarpardA bilAval). A composition
in Raga Bhairav concludes the excursion.
As the name suggests Sarparda is a bilAval prakAra whose conception
legend attributes to Hazrat Amir Khusro. Accounts from Bhatkhande
and elsewhere indicate that the rAga was very popular in the early
part of the century but it seems to have now fallen on hard times.
Which is regrettable since it is such a lovely melody. But who
has the time these days for widening repertoire? There are concerts
waiting to be conquered and NRIs eager to be lec-damned in the solemn
belief that in so doing Indian 'culture' will be preserved and with it
the virginity of our daughters.
The contribution to Sarparda's DNA in the main comes from the strands
of bilAval and gauD. The latter supplies a powerful shuddha madhyam (M).
The ArohAtmak approach to the (strong) dhaivat is notable. A heuristic
chalan may be constructed as follows:
N' S RGM, M (gauD so far); M, G R G P, P M G (G)R G R S (bilAval);
S RGM, M D D P (special sanchAri); P P ND N S" (bilAval molecule);
S", (S")D n D P (introduction of the bilAvalic komal nishAd);
M D D P, DNS" DPM, D (P)M (special sanchAri); RGM, M (gauD);
(G)R G P M G, R S (bilAval).
Most of these features are exhibited in the following well-known
traditional composition (see Bhatkhande, for instance) - "yeh to
manvA nA rahe hamarA..." - demonstrated by Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang" at:
http://reality.sgi.com/prince/music/jha_sarparda_old.wav
The incomparable Ramrang next issues his own composition in dheemA
teentAla. It is beautifully punctuated and for those who wish to
work on it, the text is:
ho banarA bani Ayo Aja mere dvAre
dhana ghaDi Aja dhana bhAga humAre
sooraja kiran jyoN mukha chhabi chhiTake
'rAmrang' ratana-jaDita seharA suhAyo
http://reality.sgi.com/prince/music/jha_sarparda_new.wav
There are very few commercial recordings of Sarparda among which
the bhajan by Abdul Karim Khan is best known. His student Firoze
Dastur sings it quite well but I'm not sure he has a commercial
release.
There's a vocal recording of Umrao Khan (son of sArangi-nawaz Bundu Khan)
and for a clip of his rendition click on:
http://reality.sgi.com/prince/music/umrao_sarparda.wav
It is a slow teentAla elaboration. Notice the preponderance of the
shuddha madhyam, the approach to the dhaivat, and the delineation of
bilAval-anga. But there are notable points of departure from the
'standard' Sarparda. A little thought reveals that if the shuddha
madhyam is made the virtual Sa, the phrases of canonical bilAval
yield to Yaman since G P (N)D N now assume (wrt the virtual Sa)
N' R (m)G m and so on. Around the final quarter of the clip you
will see Umrao Khan elegantly exploiting that fact to precipitate
Yaman. So much for Sarparda.
We now switch channels and conclude this note with a dip in the
waters of the hoary, expansive Raga Bhairav via a composition of Ramrang.
There is a dhrupad feel to the bandish and it can be steered in that
direction at the discretion of the exponent. The text of the antarA couplet
contains a deft play on words. The clip begins with Ramrang explaining
the sAhitya and is followed by a sketch of its tonal outline. His
voice is less than pleasing but it is easy to see how rAgadAri flows
in his veins.
Warm regards,
r
Raga: Bhairav
Tala: Jhaptala (dheemA)
Composer: Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang"
mAlA kara phire manuvA anata phire
sumirana ki yaha bAni nahiN
karakA manakA DAra de 'rAmrang'
mana kA manakA phera surata gahi
Glossary:
kara = hand
manuvA = mana = mind
anata = elsewhere
manakA = beads of the mAlA
surata = remembrance, recollection (not to be confused with
the Arabic/Urdu 'sUrata')
Key:
(1) All shuddha notes in caps (M=shuddha madhyam, m=tivra madhyam)
(2) The " and ' following a note denotes its tAra-saptak and mandra-
saptak affiliation, respectively.
(3) The grace note is enclosed in parenthesis of the type () and it
operates on the note immediately following it.
(4) A swara enclosed in square brackets indicates a khaTkA about
that note. For instance, [M] = PMGM intoned in a trice.
(5) )r( and )d( indicate the Andolans about the komal rishab
and komal dhaivat that are characteristic of Bhairav.
Asthaie:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
G M )d( - P (M)G M )r( - S
mA............lA...... ka.....ra phi....re.............
d' )d'( S - - S r r r S
ma.....nu.....vA............. a......na.....ta phi....re
G M )d( M P d - (d)S" - S"
sum....mi.....ra............na ki...... ya............ha
S" (N)S" (S")d - P PMGM PdNS" dNS"N dPMG rSN'S
bA............ni...... na.....hi...............................
Antara:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
d (P)M P - d N N S" - -
ka.....ra.....kA............. ma.....na.....kA.............
r" - G" - G" G" [M"] )r"( - S"
DA............ra...... de rA.....ma.....ran...........ga
S" N d P M P d N S" -
ma.....na.....kA............. ma.....na.....kA.............
S" - (S")d - P G M PM )r( S
phe...........ra...... su.....ra.....ta ga.....hi......
Abhay
Rajan P. Parrikar <parr...@colorado.edu> wrote:
>
> There are very few commercial recordings of Sarparda among which
> the bhajan by Abdul Karim Khan is best known. His student Firoze
> Dastur sings it quite well but I'm not sure he has a commercial
> release.
Thank you for your informative post!
Firoze Dastur's rendition of "more gopaalaa morii karunaa kyu.n nahii.n aave"
is available on a Rhythm House release (I don't remember offhand which one; he
has at least 3 releases on this label, one of which includes a very good Sur
Malhar). The recording is quite good, but I have heard him sing it much better
at the Sawai Gandharva Mahotsav, where he almost always ended his recital with
this piece.
Warm regards
Abhay
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Abhay
> the bhajan by Abdul Karim Khan is best known. His student Firoze
> Dastur sings it quite well but I'm not sure he has a commercial
> release.
Thank you for your informative post!
Firoze Dastur's rendition of "more gopaalaa morii karunaa kyu.n nahii.n aave"
is available on a Rhythm House release (I don't remember offhand which one; he
has at least 3 releases on this label, one of which includes a very good Sur
Malhar). The recording is quite good, but I have heard him sing it much better
at the Sawai Gandharva Mahotsav, where he almost always ended his recital with
this piece.
Incidentally, on both the AKK recording (HMV) and the Firoze Dastur recording,
the composition is listed as a thumri - and sounds like one!
Rajan P. Parrikar
I had written:
>We now switch channels and conclude this note with a dip in the
>waters of the hoary, expansive Raga Bhairav via a composition of Ramrang.
>There is a dhrupad feel to the bandish and it can be steered in that
>direction at the discretion of the exponent. The text of the antarA couplet
>contains a deft play on words. The clip begins with Ramrang explaining
>the sAhitya and is followed by a sketch of its tonal outline. His
>voice is less than pleasing but it is easy to see how rAgadAri flows
>in his veins.
Oops, the URL is:
http://reality.sgi.com/prince/music/jha_bhairav.wav
Warm regards,
r
>Raga: Bhairav
>Tala: Jhaptala (dheemA)
>Composer: Ramashreya Jha "Ramrang"
>
>
>mAlA kara phire manuvA anata phire
>sumirana ki yaha bAni nahiN
>
>karakA manakA DAra de 'rAmrang'
>mana kA manakA phera surata gahi
>
>
>Glossary:
>kara = hand
>manuvA = mana = mind
>anata = elsewhere
>manakA = beads of the mAlA
>surata = remembrance, recollection (not to be confused with
> the Arabic/Urdu 'sUrata')
>
<deleted>
DGandikota
>Oops, the URL is:
>
>http://reality.sgi.com/prince/music/jha_bhairav.wav
>
>Warm regards,
It's a 28 MB file! Please know thy 'bandwidth' before suggesting/downloading
such enormous files, not to mention that internet is a 'shared' resource.
dfuchs
(locations of large wav-files)
You could considerably decrease the size pf these files by saving them
in mp3-format. I don´t yet know what resolution they are in, but for
16k/44.1 files, the size goes to 10% of the original.
If you don´t have the tools, I can do it for you and send the files
back.
Daniel
News-2
Rang's Yaman and shri every other file got converted perfectly. The largest
file was Ram Rang's Hameer at 10 MB (quite an improvement from 28 MB). -
Mishra
dfuchs wrote in message <37173A1D...@stud.uni-goettingen.de>...
Daniel Fuchs
>
> Actually I have converted these files to mp3 format and except for Ram
> Rang's Yaman and shri every other file got converted perfectly. The largest
> file was Ram Rang's Hameer at 10 MB (quite an improvement from 28 MB). -
> Mishra
>
Good. I wrote this before I saw the files, haven't downloaded them. Just
saw they were *.wav-files.
So they must be quite long. I'll load them now.
Daniel