Traditional music and dance
India is a country of unparalleled cultural richness. An entire book would not suffice to offer a decent overview of the Dantesque variety of traditional music and dance in northern India. Without attempting to be exhaustive, here is an overview of the region's main practices.
- It's impossible not to start with Rajasthan, the state with the best reputation for traditional musicians. In fact, this is where you'll find castes of professional Muslim nomadic musicians such as the Manganyars (around Barmer) or the Langas (around Jodhpur). Their music is characterized by the fact that they only play ragas associated with specific times of the day or seasons, and also have a repertoire of ragas reserved for all occasions such as weddings, births, etc. As a reminder, ragas are a set of Vedic rules governing the construction of melodies, typical of Indian music. Another important caste in Rajasthan is that of the Bhopa (and their wives, the Bhopi), priest-singers, singing of rural life, accompanied by their rawanata (a bowed hurdy-gurdy).
Similar to forms of lyric poetry such as thumri and ghazal, maand is a sophisticated style of folk song, typical of Rajasthan and very present in the region's folk music. The singer Allah Jilai Bai was the great star of maand in the 1960s and 70s.
If you've never seen Rajasthani dances, you don't really know Rajasthan. Starting with Kalbelia, one of Rajasthan's most sensual choreographic forms. This mixed dance, a pillar of identity for the community of the same name, is recognizable by its undulating movements, which hint at the Kalbelias' snake-charming past. What's more, the musicians accompanying the dance play the pungi, a wooden wind instrument traditionally used to capture snakes. A jewel of Rajput culture, Kalbelia song and dance was inscribed on UNESCO's list of Intangible Heritage in 2010.
Known to dance enthusiasts because it has been fused with contemporary Western dance by the celebrated English choreographer Akram Khan, kathak is another of the region's great choreographic traditions. A dance with a special status, since kathak has historically had a social importance: by telling the story of Indian mythology, it once made it possible to transmit sacred texts to an illiterate public. Recognizable by its pirouettes interspersed with moments of immobility, kathak is a highly rhythmic dance requiring real athletic ability.
Originally the preserve of the Bhil community, who used it to worship the goddess Saraswati, Ghoomar is now practiced throughout Rajasthan. Graceful and slow, it sees dancers twirl in flowing gowns while accompanying their whirl with particularly expressive hand gestures. Ghoomar is usually performed at celebrations such as weddings or religious events, and can sometimes last a very long time.
The last major Rajasthani tradition, the Dandiya (or Dandiya Raas) is a mixed stick dance, with men and women facing each other in two lines, and each dancer advancing to the beat to hit his or her partner's stick.
Extremely popular and particularly popular with tourists, the famous Pushkar Fair is one of the best ways to get in touch with Rajput traditions. On the program: dances, music, puppets, funfair and circus..
- Dandiya is also practiced in Gujarat, but the region is best known for a related dance: Garba. Performed around a lit lamp or an image of the goddess Shakti, it takes place in concentric circles of colorful dancers, synchronized on the same steps, the rhythm rising to a crescendo. The dance usually takes place during Navarātrī, the great Hindu festival of nine nights and ten days, celebrating various forms of the deity Shakti.
-Odisha is home to one of India's most iconic classical dances: theOdissi. This dramatic choreography narrates a story extracted from Hindu texts, obeying the principles of Nritta and Nritya. The former deals with the aesthetic arrangement of body movements, the way they create beauty. The second deals with how facial expressions and hand gestures can convey emotion and tell a story.Odissi places great importance on rhythm (with foot strikes), expressiveness and symbolism through the use of mudras (codified and symbolic hand positions)
- A small state of 22,000 km2, Manipur is renowned for its folk dances. This is where the magnificent Manipuri is practiced, one of the eight forms of classical Indian dance. Performed by women wearing skirts and conical headdresses, it depicts the divine love between Krishna and Radha, with dancers playing all the roles, from Krishna to the shepherdesses, including Radha, Krishna's favorite. Overall, a quiet harmony emanates from this dance, with its slow rhythm, gentle movements, peaceful facial expressions and circular, undulating movements. Still practiced as a spiritual dance, it is performed mainly in front of temples during religious festivals.
- Poorly known abroad, Manipur is also the state from which this jewel, the Sankirtana, originates. These beautifully sung poems, usually performed by two drummers and a dozen singer-dancers, deal with the life and achievements of Krishna. The voices and rhythms accelerate to a crescendo, and the intensity of the performance can move the audience to tears.
- In the vast state ofAssam, there are many traditional practices, one of which is emblematic: Sattriya. Another of India's major classical dances, it takes its name from the sattras, the monasteries where performances have long taken place. Here, themes are linked to Krishna and stories drawn from epics such as the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyana, all told through the body, gestures and facial expressions. The dance is accompanied by musical compositions called borgeet, a series of lyrical songs set to specific ragas. These songs were composed by Srimanta Sankardeva (and Madhavdeva) in the 15th and 16th centuries, an Assamese saint, poet and Hindu reformer whose figure is very important in the region.
Assam is also home to the joyous Bihu dance, with its lively steps and rapid hand movements, performed during the three Bihu festivals associated with agriculture, the harvest and rice in particular.
Assam is also the birthplace of Tokari Geet, an Assamese folk song sung while playing the tokari (a kind of single-string guitar), Kamrupi Lokgeet, folk music in Kamrupi dialects, and Goalparia Lokogeet, sung in Goalpariya.
- Originating in Odisha and widely practiced in West Bengal, Chhau is a semi-classical Indian dance somewhere between choreography and martial art. It is also inspired by episodes from the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyana, but stands out for its simulated combat movements and animal imitations. Exclusively for men, it is typically practiced at night, in the open air, to the sound of wind instruments such as the mahuri and the shehnai. In 2010, it was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
West Bengal is the birthplace of Kirtan, a highly appreciated form of devotional singing, performed in a group, in a call-and-response style. Typically, a lead singer calls out a chant or mantra, to which a group of singers respond in chorus.
These Sanskrit chants can last several hours and have a profound spiritual dimension. They are generally accompanied by instruments typical of the country, such as the vinā, the tabla (one-sided drum) or the mridangam. The vinā is one of the most prized instruments in Indian classical (and traditional) music. This zither takes the form of a wooden neck around 1.50 meters long, with resonators at each end. The performer sits cross-legged to play it. A version without frets, the chitravinā, is more imposing and is played with the resonators on the floor. The mridangam is used for rhythmic accompaniment. It is a horizontal drum with two sides, each made up of three concentric skin circles.
Bhatiyali, a form of folk music originally sung by boatmen, is also sung in this region, using numerous metaphors to describe the state of the water and the situation of boatmen and fishermen. The genre had its heyday between the 1930s and 1950s, when leading songwriters contributed to Bhatiyali.
- In the Punjab, the emblematic musical tradition is Bhangra, a dance-based folk music form strongly influenced by the energy of the dhol (a drum with a recognizable sound). The term bhangra also refers to the dance that accompanies this music, the purely feminine version of which is called giddha. Singular and emblematic, Bhangra is a pillar of Punjabi culture, including in its diaspora.
- In the state of Chhattisgarh, Pandavani folk singing draws its stories from the ancient Indian epic, the Mahābhārata. A narrator-singer embodies all the characters, without props or scenery but sometimes supported by a group of performers on harmonium, tabla or dholak.
Let's not forget to mention a tradition present throughout the north, indeed the whole country: the Ramlila, a staging of the Rāmāyana epic in the form of tableaux combining song, narration, recitation and dialogue. It is performed during Dussehra, held every year in autumn. The Ramlila evokes the battle between him and Rāvana, a symbol of the victory of good over evil in which the audience is invited to sing and take part in the narration. And like many Indian traditions, the Ramlila is on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The Konark Dance & Music Festival is an excellent way to get a glimpse of these many traditions at the same time and in the same place. Since 1986, this festival has featured performances by the country's finest artists, includingOdissi, Kathak, Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi, Manipuri, Mohiniattam..
Classical music
Very roughly speaking, Indian classical music is divided into two major traditions: that of the North, known as "Hindustani music", and that of the South, known as Carnatic music. Identical twins (and for a long time one and the same), both obeying the melodic framework of the raga, these aesthetics differ on a number of essential points. For example, in Hindustani music, improvisation is encouraged, whereas Carnatic music requires strict adherence to composition. Naturally, there are very different influences between North and South, and the secular impact of the Mughal courts and artists from Iran on Hindustani music can be guessed at.
Another specificity of Northern music lies in the three major types of song it allows: dhrupad, khyal and tarana. The first is essentially devotional, once very common, but has gradually given way to the khyal, a less austere, freer style of singing. The third form is tarana, used to convey a sense of exhilaration, usually at the end of a concert.
The orchestra generally includes a soloist - on sitar, sarod (a distant cousin of the Afghan rabâb), sarangi... A tabla player and an accompanist on tampura, a type of plucked lute used not to produce the melody, but to support it with a drone.
As you can guess, the gallery of Hindustani musicians is immense. The most famous, at least to Western ears, is the famous Ravi Shankar (1920-2012). This sitar virtuoso, a great master of Indian music, has become the emblem of Indian music the world over. His worldwide reputation is due in no small part to his collaborations with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Beatles guitarist George Harrison. All his albums are real jewels, and many of them deal beautifully with Hindustani music.
Other important names include Ali Akbar Khan (1922-2009), a sarod virtuoso who taught music in California. Abdul Rashid Khan, known as "Rasan Piya", was one of the great singers of Hindustani music (famous for his khyal), and Hariprasad Chaurasia, a great flautist who greatly popularized Hindustani music.
The Harballabh Sangeet Sammelan, founded in 1875, is the world's oldest Hindustani music festival, held annually in Jallandhar.
Popular music
One of India's most beloved forms of music is " filmi ", or Bollywood songs. A huge market, the genre accounts for the vast majority of music sales in India, and many of its artists are stars. We're talking about the artists who sign the soundtracks - often great names in classical music, such as Ravi Shankar or Ali Akbar Khan - but also the "playback singers". In Indian films, actors rarely sing, and professional musicians take over playback duties. It's a profession in its own right, in which some northern artists have excelled and continue to excel, such as Geeta Dutt (1930-1972), considered one of the best playback singers of all time; Mohammed Rafi (1924-1980), one of the country's greatest and most influential singers, famous for his ability to adapt his voice to the personality and style of the actor on screen; Kishore Kumar (1929-1987) a legend, capable of singing in several voices and more recently Shreya Ghoshal, one of India's most prolific singers or Alka Yagnik, recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's most watched artist in 2022 with 15.3 billion views on YouTube.
