Music from India

Long description:

Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.

The recordings featured in this collection were made by Rolf Killius as part of a collaborative project between Rolf, The British Library and the Horniman Museum. The aim of the project has been to document folk, devotional and ritual music of rural India.

The recordings featured in this collection were all recorded by the recordist and ethnomusicologist, Rolf Killius, as part of a collaborative project between Rolf, The British Library and the Horniman Museum. The aim of the project – entitled Traditional Music in India and set up in 2000 – has been to record, document and research folk, devotional and ritual music of India, and to collect and document relevant musical instruments. A number of these instruments were specially commissioned for the Horniman Museum and were displayed in their recent Utsavam – Music from India exhibition. The instruments now form part of the Horniman Museum’s permanent collection. All the recordings are deposited at the British Library and can be accessed via the Listening & Viewing Service.

Historically, little work has been done to document and research performance traditions in the remote rural areas of India. In many of these communities, music and dance could be regarded as ‘endangered’, the main reasons being the extremely fast changing socio-economic fabric and the traditionally high stratification in Indian society. This collection and documentation project has, thus, concentrated on the oral culture of distinct communities living in some of these more remote rural areas, where music and dance still play an important part in everyday life. Recordings have been made among a range of communities mainly within the Indian states of Kerala, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Assam (Majuli Island), Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat (Kachchh) and Mizoram.

[Note that the Orissa and Andhra Pradesh recordings were made largely within the Sora community. Listeners interested in this community should look under both these regions.]

Rolf Killius is a consultant (museums, exhibitions, and media), ethnomusicologist (MMus SOAS, London University), sound recordist, film producer/editor and radio journalist whose work appears in a variety of contexts. He works in academic research, music and sound production, film editing, exhibition curating and the delivery of music and arts events especially related to the Indian subcontinent.

Website

http://www.rolfkillius.com

Context

Music of the Monpa people in Arunachal Pradesh

The Monpas are the largestBuddhist community in Arunachal Pradesh, living along the north-western borderswith Tibet/China and Bhutan. Monpa language, religion and customs are closelyrelated to those of their neighbours. [The Tibetan names for instruments areshown beside the Monpa names in brackets.] The Monpas follow either the Gelugpa(dGe-lugs-pa) ‘yellow hat’ or Nyangmapa (rNying-ma-pa) ‘red hat’ orders ofTibetan Buddhism. Their religious centre is the gompa or monastery inTawang city, which is the most important in the state. Every village has a gompawith a lama (priest) who performs rituals and pujas (acts ofworship). Each house also has a little prayer room (chösam). Bonreligion, which is rooted in pre-Buddhist faiths, is followed in some villagesof the Tawang district.Song and music-making are essential to festivals, ritualperformances and rites of passage.

Music of the gompa and house shrine

The day-long village and gompareligious rituals and festivals are performed by the resident lamas,village lamas, or by visiting monks from a near-by monastery (gompa).At least the dah (rnga) drum and the bubhjah (rol-mo)cymbals are used when the sacred texts are recited; often greeb (dril-bu),dorjee (rdo-rje), damling (damaru), dhungkar(dung-dkar), kangling (rkang-gling), and gyaling (rgya-gling)are added. In some villages, pre-Buddhist Bon priests (Bon-pa) stillconduct the rituals. Over time, many of the Bon deities as well as rituals havebeen replaced or incorporated into the Buddhist religious practises.

Music played for entertainment

In the Monpa village festivals, groups of men and womendance and sing together. Most of the music is pentatonic, with five notes tothe octave. They dance in rows, circles, and pairs according to the song andrhythm of the songs. Like all other communities of Arunachal Pradesh the Monpasuse only a few musical instruments to accompany their dance. Often flutes orthe dramnyan (sgra-snyan) lute accompany the singers. Thoughreligious themes are prevalent, the songs often describe the beauty of thevillages and the surrounding natural environment. Only jew’s harps and flutesare used as solo instruments, the latter being preferred by herders.

The Music of the Banni people in Kachchh (Gujarat)

All the pieces in this section were recorded in the Bannisalt-marsh area in western India, which is a part of the Rann-of-Kachchh desertand the Kachchh district. These recordings show an overview of the genresperformed by its inhabitants, the Hindu Meqwar (Harijans) and the MuslimMutwar, Sheikh and Halepotra communities.

In Kachchh, situated along the border to Pakistan in the north-westernmost corner of the Indian state of Gujarat, very different communities havemixed and moved in and out of the area. The Banni salt-marsh area reaches up tothe fringes of the Rann-of-Kachchh salt desert; the Rann itself belongs to thecultural area of the Thar desert.

Apart from smaller communities, like the Sheikh andHalepotra, the small villages of the Banni area are inhabited by Mutwar(Mutwal) and Meqwar (Meqwal) and related communities. Traditionally theMutwar’s occupation is animal husbandry, thus rearing buffalos, goats, andcamels. The traditional task of the Meqwar was it to slaughter the animals ofthe Mutwar and produce fine leathers. Nowadays the main income of bothcommunities is the world-famous handicraft, especially embroidery of cloths andblankets. Mutwar and Meqwar are still known for their roundhouses, called bhungas,adorned with intricate stucco work.

As in other parts of India, there seems to be a tendency forcommunities to define themselves as either Muslim or Hindu. Traditionally thebelief system was rather blurred.  For example, annual festivals of Muslim saintsand Hindu celebrations were performed together. Nowadays the Mutwar definethemselves as Muslim and the Meqwar as Hindu.

Until recently, the numerous music genres were stillperformed in every village and therefore were part and parcel of all communities’identities. Today the main interest of the Banni inhabitants, possibly caused bythe tourists’ preference for handicrafts,

has shifted somewhat away from traditional music making. Asthe selected music examples show, music making is still a part of lifeespecially in the remote villages in the Banni area.

The Banni residents speak mainly Kachchi language, which isgenerally regarded as a dialect of Sindhi (north Indian language group).

(Additional input from Aarif Khatri of Kachchh.)

The music of the Chakma in Mizoram

Approximately 600,000 people (source: Ethnologueaccesses on 15/07/08) belong to the Chakma community in Bangladesh (ChittagongHill Tracts) and north-east India. The Chakma language is part of the northIndian language group and closely related to Bengali and Assamese. It isassumed that the Chakma people once moved from northern Burma (Arakan) into theChittagong Hill Tract area.  From there they brought with them their ballads,like ‘Radhamon and Dhanpati’ and ‘Chhatigaon Chhara’, which recount the Chakmahistory and are still performed by very few remaining Gengkhuli, theChakma bards.

The massive socio-economic and political changes within theChakma community have threatened the traditional musical culture, although therecordings in this collection, selected from the main musical genres, show thatit is still performed.  The music assembled here is exclusively from the ChakmaAutonomous District in Mizoram (north-east India, bordering Bangladesh), wherearound 40,000 people live, still speak the Chakma language, and playtraditional instruments.

Music from the Majuli river island in Assam

The north-eastern Indian state of Assam comprises mainly theplains of the Brahmaputra River. It is surrounded by mountains, with the Himalayasto the north and east and the Garo Hills towards the south. The name ‘Assam’comes from the Ahom, who were rulers of eastern Assam from 1228 to 1826. Theofficial language is Assamese, but the Mishing, the largest group on Majuli,speak a Tibeto-Burmese language as do the island’s Sunuwal Kachari and Deoricommunities.

The Brahmaputra River island, Majuli, is situated in upperAssam and regarded as the largest inhabited river island in the world. Majuliis frequently flooded by the Brahmaputra, thus each year fertile land is takenaway by the river. Residents and government agencies have applied to UNESCO forrecognition as a World Heritage Site.

The population on Majuli consists of various ancient communities and somemore recently arrived, who have influenced each other. Some of the plainscommunities, such as the Mishings, Sunuwal Kacharis, and Deoris, are thought tobe the earliest settlers in Assam. This mixture of these ancient inhabitants,flourishing Hindu Vaishnava communities, and the relative isolation of thisriver island, has produced a wide range of distinctive musical and dancecultures.

The variety of Assam’s wildlife and natural materials isreflected in its musical instruments. Most of them are made from its wealth oflocally available bamboo, clay, wood and buffalo horn.

Satriya music as played in Vaishnava village communities

Upper Assam and especially the island of Majuli is consideredthe spiritual centre of Assam, due to the high concentration of Hindu Vaishnavacommunities called satras. A satra is a self-reliant villagecommunity with economic, cultural and religious functions. The themes in the satramusical genres are dominated by the Vaishnava philosophy – devotion to the godVishnu and his various incarnations – and therefore are mainly devotional andmoral. The earliest satras, and the satriya dances and playsperformed there, were established in the 15th century by the saint and poetShankardeva.

Dance and music genres practised on Majuli and known allover Assam are: various satriya dances, nam (group singing inpraise of god Krishna and Vishnu), the seldom shown hiranam (singing andplaying of large cymbals), bargit (devotional songs accompanied on dholor mrdang drums), and especially the percussion-dance-song genre, gayan-bayan.

(Additional input by the Assamese satriya dancer, MenakaPP Bora.)

Vocal music

Some devotional song genres,like dihanam, praise the god Krishna, while bianam are weddingsongs. Both are ideally sung by groups of women. Cymbals usually accompany thevoices, with male musicians playing khol and nagara drums.

Tokari (lute) and loko geet are genres ofsongs connected to those of wandering mendicants of central and northern India.Accompanied on cymbals and the khamok frame drum, they are usuallyperformed by men at shrines of the Hindu god Shiva.

Mishing people perform dance songs called an-oinitam,which is an agricultural song genre.

Bihu dance music

Thebihu dances are performed mainly at the Assamese New Year festival Bohag(or Rongali) Bihu. Bihu dances and songs are performed by virtually allAssamese communities, although differences in performance practice,instrumentation and rhythm exist. Generally the Bihu festival is associatedwith springtime and planting seeds.  The lyrics of bihu songs contain bothcoded and obvious erotic motives and the dance features prominent hip movementsperformed by female dancers. The artistic expression of bihu combinesthus ideas of fertility in the agricultural and social areas.

Throughout the state, groups of bihu singers, dancers and musicians giveperformances

from house to house. During a series of invocations and prayers (husori) eachhousehold is blessed for the year ahead by the visiting group’s leader.

The instruments employed in bihu dance performances arethe pepa, a single-reed oboe with a cow horn bell, the side blown murali flute, the dhol drum, and cymbals. The dancers playthe jew’s harp (gogona) and the mud flute (sutuli) to embellish music and dance. In addition to these instruments,the earliest settler communities - Mishings, Sunuwal Kacharis, and Deoris – usethe bamboo toka clappers.

Ritual Music of Central Kerala

Situated in the very south-west of India and separated fromthe rest of the subcontinent by the Western Ghats mountain range, the cultureof Kerala is unique. The people of Kerala speak the Dravidian language,Malayalam, and around 60 percent are Hindu; the rest being either Christian orMuslim.

There are two main forms of Hindu rituals: ksetramand kavu, named after the sacred spaces where they are performed. Ksetrammeans temple and kavu refers to the grove where the village or houseshrine is located. Integral to daily rituals and annual festivals, traditionalmusic of Keralan Hindu rituals is extremely popular. Its hallmark lies in the dominanceof percussion instruments, and it is quite distinct from the south Indianclassical music system.

Within the ksetram context the musicians are traditionallytrained professionals. Almost all the drummers belong to the Marar or Pooduvalcommunities, and the wind instrument and cymbal players to the Nayar or relatedcommunities. In the kavu traditions the musicians are from the Nayar,Pullavas and many other communities.

Music of the Ksetram (larger temples)

Several types of centamelam (melam = drum ensemble) and pancavadyam(‘five instruments’ ensemble) are the well-known percussion orchestra genres inKerala. While the melam types – each with unique length of beat-cycle –are fixed compositions, the pancavadyam comprises composed andimprovisational elements. Drummers, wind- and cymbal players repeat each cycleaccording to the given total time frame (for instance two or three hours) andwith steadily increasing tempo.

Usually the progress of a melam cycle matches themovement of the whole orchestra. The musicians gather in front of the mainentrance of the inner temple, start the first part of the melam andwalk, while playing, clockwise around the temple. On each point of the compass,they stop and perform. A prescribed odd number of elephants are positioned onthe right side of the entrance, so that the musicians perform in front of theelephants. The main elephant in the centre carries the temple deity. For each melam,the god or goddess idol is taken out of the inner temple chamber (Srikovil)to lead the procession. Male members of communities linked to the temple sit onthe elephants’ backs carrying hair whisks, feather fans and colourful umbrellas.These articles are moved up and down, indicating the progress of the melamrhythm cycles.

The drums – valantala and itantala centa, timila, idakka, and maddalam– are regarded as the main instruments, while the supporting instruments are ilatalamcymbals, kombu trumpet and kurumkulal oboe. The function of the wind instruments is mainly to embellishand prolong the beat of the drums and to play certain patterns within the tala(beat) cycle.

Sopanam Sangeetam

Sopanam Sangeetam is the unique singing style ofKerala state and belongs to the ksetram genre group. Sopanam arethe steps leading to the inner shrine (sanctum) of the temple. The templemusicians stand on the left side of the steps, play the idakka drum andthe cennala bronze percussion plaque, and they sing. The majority ofsongs are dedicated to the destructive and erotic goddess Bhagavathi orBhatrakali.

Music of the Kavu (smaller temples and shrines)

All temples were built around a kavu – a littleshrine beneath a sacred tree or in a grove. These ritual genres are seldomperformed at smaller shrines, in houses, or makeshift temples.

Pana pattu (pattu being a musical ‘piece’ or‘song’) is usually a subsection of the elaborated pana ritual organisedin an extended family household and is performed only once in a lifetime. Theaim of the ritual is to make the fierce goddess Bhadrakali benevolent. Thesongs are sung by members of the Nayar communities, who accompany themselves oncenta and para centa.

Ayyappan pattu is performed for festivals in templesdedicated to the god Ayyappan or at special festivals organised for pilgrims leavingfor the pilgrim centre Sabarimalai in South Kerala. The vocal genre tells thelife story of Ayyappa and the singers support themselves on the small udukku drums.

The vocal genre nandunipattu or totam pattu praises Devi, the goddess of the temple;the singer also plays the nandunilute.

Cettia vadyam or thappe melam isperformed at Hindu and Christian festivals in Kerala. The music and dance isrelated to the agricultural year. The artists dance and play thappe and centa.

The bowed instrument, villu, is one of the oldest instruments, and isnowadays only rarely used. It either accompanies onam songs (for the Keralaharvest festival) or the solo percussion performance villu tayambaka.

The traditional ritual expert and musician community,Pullavan, enact the nagini (snake gods and goddesses) ritual and singserpent songs (pulluvan pattu)to propitiate the malign aspects of the serpent gods; though after a successfulperformance, it is believed, they protect land and people. The instruments ofthe Pulluvan are pulluvan vina and the pulluvan kudam. The kudam is preferably played by women andthe vina by men. This is unusual, as nearly allpercussion instruments in Kerala are exclusively played by men.

Music of the Sora people in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh

TheSora people, numbering around 500,000, are one of the oldest communities knownin India. They are mainly situated in the hilly border area of the east Indianstates Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. The Sora live on the hill slopes just below theremaining forests and in the valleys relatively isolated from the surroundingcommunities. In comparison to the neighbouring communities, Sora society isrelatively egalitarian in respect to gender and class. The Sora habitats aremainly surrounded by Hindu Telugu (south Indian) and Oriya (north Indian)communities. The language of the Sora belongs to the Austro-Asiatic (Mundabranch) language group. The centre of the Sora life within the traditionalgroups is their traditional belief system of ancestor worship.

Over the last 15 years, the socio-economic structures inIndia have undergone a rapid change: for instance, the communal land of theSora Adivasi [Adivasi – term for original inhabitants of India] is threatenedby encroachment through non-Adivasi land-owners and government agencies,extensive deforestation, and exploitation by local businessmen. Christianity,especially in the form of Baptism (brought in by North American missionaries)made a big impact on Sora villages in Orissa. Less than fifty percent of Soradescribe themselves as Hindu, that means they regard their traditional beliefsystem – ancestor worship – as being part of Hinduism. The most importantspiritual experts are kudan (mainly women), kudan-boi (women) andkudan-mar (men). Using elaborate rituals, dance and music performances,these experts are able to communicate with the deceased.

The ritual and the dance ensemble

AllSora traditional music forms are more or less related to the religious ritualsas performed individually or at festivals. Ancestor festivals are celebratedeither immediately after the death of one person or after a longer time forseveral people. Therefore the intricate ritualistic festival Gu-ahr, consistingmainly of funeral stone planting and buffalo sacrifices, is usually performedfor all ancestors who died in the previous 13 years.

The dance band, kading-pane – providing the acousticambience for the festival – requires at least a pair of pane (oboes),the mono-facial frame drum (kading) and the large vessel drum (tudum);the instruments nening (plaque), dagedu (small drum), draketan(scraper), and suura koma (horn) can be added. The dancers form a row oftwo or three, interlock their arms and spin around. Apart from basic dancesteps and dance formations, the dancers improvise, depending on their talents,the available space and mood.

The voice and accompanying instruments

Vocal music is mainly unaccompanied and the majority of performersare women. For each song one singer leads and the other singers follow with a slightdelay. The women sing in a guttural raspy voice and use slight melismaticeffects. Sometimes singers are accompanied by the gogoray fiddle, thetwo-string lute jenjurangrai, or the tiriduy flute. All ancestorrituals require certain lengthy mantras to be performed before the medium fallsinto trance.

Music in co-existing communities

The introduction of new forms of worship goes hand in hand with new forms of music,like the singing of bhajans, which are Hindu devotional songs, andChristian hymns. Both genres are accompanied on the instruments mrdanga and tala, both having been adopted from neighbouring communities. Dance is either completely abandoned or restricted. The two instruments, along with the rong-rong padai, have also been adopted for the traditional Sora instrument ensemble.

It is also peculiar that communities who speak Telugu either regularly visit Soravillages or live in their habitats. We have selected pieces from three of theseTelugu speaking communities, Erakulu, Maasti, and Daasari.

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