Hindustani Music

Hindustani music originated in North India. Based on the Raga system, here one raga and one tala is used per composition.

The scale of a song is called Raga which is composed of the notes called sa, re, ga, ma pa, dha, and ni. Talas are basically the beats of the song.

As soon as the raga is established in Hindustani music, the mode gets more rhythmical while taking up speed at the same time. Its called Jor.

At the end, the percussionist plays keeping track with the soloist, ultimately entering what is called the Jhala section. Raga contains a minimum of five notes.

The main theme of Hindustani music deals with the life of Lord Krishna and the prolific beauty of Nature.

Major exponents of Hindustani Music:

• Allauddin Khan
• Vilayat Khan
• Bismillah Khan
• Bhimsen Joshi
• Pandit Jasraj
• Ravi Shankar
• Hariprasad Chaurasia
• Zakir Hussain
• Shivkumar Sharma
• Ali Akbar Khan

Hindustani music assimilates regional and folk tunes and weaves them into beautiful Ragas. It uses an octave of natural notes called Shudha Swara Saptaka. Some of the important Gharanas ( school having a particular style of singing) of Hindustani music are Agra Gharana, Benaras Gharana, Delhi Gharana, Gwalior Gharana, Indore Gharana, Patiala Gharana, Ramdasi Gharana and so on.

Ten styles of Hindustani music:

• Dhrupad
• Dhamar
• Hori
• Khayal
• Tappa
• Chaturang
• Ragasagar
• Sargam
• Thumri.
• Ghazal

Hindustani music has also its influence from the performances of the Mughals besides drawing influence from Hindu musical traditions, Vedic philosophy and native Indian sounds. It was Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande who first created an organized scale for Hindustani music.