Maihar gharana

Last updated

The Maihar Gharana or Maihar-Senia Gharana is a gharana or school of classical music, a style of Indian classical music originating in the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent. The school was formed by Allaudin Khan in the princely state of Maihar, now in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, and hence the name. [1] Allauddin Khan learnt music from Vina player Wazir Khan, an exponent of the Senia gharana. The Maihar gharana is therefore sometimes referred to as the Maihar-Senia gharana. [2]

It is one of the most prominent gharanas of the 20th century; much of the fame of Hindustani classical music in the west stems from this gharana. Prominent musicians belonging to the Maihar gharana include prominent sitar players Ravi Shankar, Nikhil Banerjee, Allauddin Khan's son sarod player Ali Akbar Khan, daughter Annapurna Devi and grandsons Aashish Khan, Dhyanesh Khan, Pranesh Khan, Rajesh Ali khan, Alam Khan, Manik Khan and Shiraz Ali Khan.

Other prominent musicians with links to this gharana include the sarod player Bahadur Khan, Sharan Rani, Vasant Rai, Kamlesh Moitra, Kamal Mallick, Rajesh Chandra Moitra, Rajeev Taranath, Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, Debanjan Bhattacharjee, Pratik Srivastava, Soumava Bhusan Chakraborty, Pradeep Barot, Shamim Ahmed, Gourab Deb, Damodar Lal Kabra, Apratim Majumdar, Vikash Maharaj, Jyotin Bhattacharya, Abhisek Lahiri, Vishal Maharaj, B.N.Choudhury,and Basant Kabra, violinist V. G. Jog, Sishir kona Dhor Chowdhury, Indradip Ghosh, Souvik Chakrabortty, guitarists Brij Bhushan Kabra, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and his nephew Krishna Bhatt, Manju Mehta, flautists Pannalal Ghosh, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Nityanand Haldipur, Rupak Kulkarni, Rakesh Chaurasia, Milind Date, Vivek Sonar and Ronu Majumdar, and sitar players Chandrakant Sardeshmukh, Kartick Kumar and his son Niladri Kumar, Kushal Das, Jaya Biswas, Abhishek Maharaj, Bhaskar Chandavarkar, Indraneel Bhattacharya ,Sudhir Phadke, Sandhya Phadke-Apte

Musicians belonging to the gharana adhere to a dhrupad aesthetic in their approach to playing the alap and jor portions in a raga. [3] Variations in tempo are used to demarcate sections while playing the jor, with a short rhythmic figure indicating closure of a section. Therefore, rhythmic figures within the jor assume structural importance. [4] Alap-jor is followed by a khayal style vilambit gat with taan improvisations, and the performance ends with a jhala. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarod</span> Indian musical instrument

The sarod is a stringed instrument, used in Hindustani music on the Indian subcontinent. Along with the sitar, it is among the most popular and prominent instruments. It is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound, in contrast with the sweet, overtone-rich texture of the sitar, with sympathetic strings that give it a resonant, reverberant quality. A fretless instrument, it can produce the continuous slides between notes known as meend (glissandi), which are important in Indian music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allauddin Khan</span> Indian musician

Ustad Allauddin Khan, also known as Baba Allauddin Khan was an Indian sarod player and multi-instrumentalist, composer and one of the most notable music teachers of the 20th century in Indian classical music. For a generation many of his students, across different instruments like sitar and violin, dominated Hindustani classical and became one of the most famous exponents of the form ever, including Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikhil Banerjee</span> Musical artist

Pandit Nikhil Ranjan Banerjee was an Indian classical sitarist of the Maihar Gharana. Along with Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Vilayat Khan, he emerged as one of the leading exponents of the sitar. He was a recipient of the Indian civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annapurna Devi</span> Indian musician (1927–2018)

Annapurna Devi was an Indian surbahar player of Hindustani classical music. She was given the name 'Annapurna' by Maharaja Brijnath Singh of the former Maihar Estate (M.P.), and it was by this name that she was popularly known. She was the daughter and disciple of Allauddin Khan, and the sister of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Pandit Ravi Shankar was her first husband, with whom she had a son, Shubhendra Shankar, who was an artist and a sitaritst.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aashish Khan</span> Musical artist

Aashish Khan Debsharma is an Indian classical musician, a player of the sarod. He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2006 for the 'Best Traditional World Music Album' category for his album "Golden Strings of the Sarode". He is also a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. Besides being a performer, composer, and conductor, he is also an adjunct professor of Indian classical music at the California Institute of the Arts, and the University of California at Santa Cruz, in the United States.

Ustad Bahadur Khan was an Indian sarod player and film score composer.

Mushtaq Ali Khan and was an Indian classical sitar, surbahar player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sursingar</span> Musical instrument

The sursingar, sursringar or surshringar, is a musical instrument originating from the Indian subcontinent having many similarities with the sarod. It is larger than the sarod and produces a deeper sound. It precedes the sarod chronologically.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maihar State</span> Princely state of the British Raj

Maihar State was a princely state in India during the British Raj, located in what is today Madhya Pradesh, central India. The state had an area of 1,050 square kilometres (407 sq mi), and a population of 63,702 in 1901. The state, which was watered by the Tons River, consists mainly of alluvial soil covering sandstone, and is fertile except in the hilly district of the south. A large area was under forest, the produce of which provided a small export trade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vikash Maharaj</span> Indian sarod player (born 1957)

Pandit Vikash Maharaj is an Indian sarod player. In his childhood, he initially learnt to play the tabla and then discovered and studied the sarod as his preferred instrument.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manju Mehta</span> Indian sitar player

Vidushi Manju Mehta is an Indian classical sitar player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anindo Chatterjee</span> Musical artist

Pandit Anindo Chatterjee is an Indian tabla player of the Farrukhabad gharana school. He was born into a musical family. Chatterjee is a disciple of Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh.

Debasis Chakroborty is an Indian classical slide guitar player from Senia-Maihar Gharana.

<i>In Concert 1972</i> 1973 live album by Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan

In Concert 1972 is a double live album by sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar and sarodiya Ali Akbar Khan, released in 1973 on Apple Records. It was recorded at the Philharmonic Hall, New York City, in October 1972, and is a noted example of the two Hindustani classical musicians' celebrated jugalbandi (duet) style of playing. With accompaniment from tabla player Alla Rakha, the performance reflects the two artists' sorrow at the recent death of their revered guru, and Khan's father, Allauddin Khan. The latter was responsible for many innovations in Indian music during the twentieth century, including the call-and-response dialogue that musicians such as Shankar, Khan and Rakha popularised among Western audiences in the 1960s.

<i>Swara Samrat festival</i> Indian classical music festival

Swara Samrat festival is a four-day annual festival of Indian classical music and dance held during the winters in Kolkata, India. This festival is the brainchild of Sarod maestro Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, his vocalist wife, Manasi Majumder and their Sarod player-son Indrayuddh Majumder. The festival is dedicated to Swara Samrat Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Indian Classical Music and Dance Legends such as Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Pandit Birju Maharaj, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Pandit Jasraj, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Ustad Aashish Khan, Dr. Girija Devi, Begum Parveen Sultana, Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, Guru Karaikudi Mani, Ustad Rashid Khan, Shankar Mahadevan, Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee, Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar, Pandit Venkatesh Kumar, Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty, Pandit Anindo Chatterjee, Pandit Sanjay Mukherjee, Ustad Shahid Parvez, Ustad Shujaat Khan, Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, Pandit Kushal Das, Pandit Rajendra Gangani, Guru Sujata Mohapatra, Pandit Subhankar Banerjee, Pandit Yogesh Samsi, Pandit Bickram Ghosh, Pandit Tanmoy Bose and Kaushiki Chakraborty are some of the artists who have previously performed in this festival.

Ashutosh Bhattacharya was a noted Indian classical musician of Hindustani classical music from Varanasi, who was Tabla player and music educator, besides a practicing Ayurvedic doctor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wazir Khan (Rampur)</span> Indian Classical Vocalist

Ustad Mohammad Wazir Khan(1860 – 1926) served as the head of Arbab-e-Nishat during the period of Nawab Hamid Ali Khan of Rampur. He was also an excellent playwright who established the Rampur theatre in the building of club Ghar in Rampur.

Ishaan Ghosh is the son and disciple of the Tabla and Sitar maestro Pandit Nayan Ghosh. Ishaan is a Tabla player from the Farrukhabad Gharana.

Aayush Mohan is an Indian Classical Musician who plays the Sarod. He performs in the style of Maihar Gharana of Hindustani Classical Music. He is a four-time TEDx speaker and has worked towards creating cultural awareness in India. He frequently performs Jugalbandi(duet) with his brother Lakshay Mohan who is a Sitar player and the two are known as Mohan Brothers. Aayush Mohan and Lakshay Mohan are the first Indians to be invited to perform at the Grammy Museum, Los Angeles for the opening of the exhibition 'Ravi Shankar : A Life in Music'.

References

  1. Rashtriya Sahara. Sahara India Mass Communication. 1998.
  2. Banerjee, Meena (16 March 2018). "Understanding a raga is no less than understanding a person: Tejendra Narayan Majumdar". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  3. 1 2 Nair, Jyoti (15 March 2018). "The Maihar gharana is represented by Pt. Ravi Shankar". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  4. Bruno Nettl; Melinda Russell (15 December 1998). In the Course of Performance: Studies in the World of Musical Improvisation. University of Chicago Press. p. 335. ISBN   978-0-226-57410-3.