Hindustani Classical

Like its sister southern Indian tradition of Carnatic classical music, north Indian classical music, or Hindustani classical music as it's also known, is one of the world's oldest and most sophisticated art-music traditions. Its roots go back to Vedic hymns from the Hindu religious tradition, whose recorded history stretches back to 1500–1000 B.C., and probably existed even earlier. Its first theoretical text, the Natya Shastra, attributed to Bharat Muni who wrote somewhere between 400 B.C. and 200 A.D., addresses the formal elements of Indian theater, dance and music.

Both Hindustani and Carnatic classical music are built on two basic and interrelated elements: raga (also spelled raag or rag), or melodic structure, and tala (taala), or rhythmic cycle. A typical performance of a raga is divided into three main sections: the alaap (or alap), which introduces the notes and mood of the raga in a slow and unmetered fashion; the jor, which introduces the piece's rhythm and in which the melody begins to evolve; and the concluding jhala, giving the performance a brilliant and fast-paced close.

While raga is often translated as "scale," it means far more: a raga is a self-contained melodic system that dictates not just the given notes and their tonal relationships to each other, but also their ascending and descending structure and characteristic movements, among other elements. All ragas are rooted in 72 so-called "parent" ragas. Each raga traditionally is also assigned a characteristic mood and even time of day, night, or season it is meant to be performed. For example, the popular rag named bihag is meant to be played and heard late at night; its mood is one of romance and yearning. Tala is the rhythmic pattern of a composition; each tala is an extended cycle of metric counts. A very popular tala is teentala, a 16-beat rhythmic cycle divided into a count of 4 + 4 + 4 + 4. It is very common for performers to stitch cycles together to create an even longer phrase.

However, north and south Indian styles grew apart over the centuries, in large part thanks to the motions of political and commercial history as well as geography. The Hindustani tradition is the flower of Muslim and Persian artistic elements and language being added into the mix since the 13th-century arrival of Muslim conquerors in the northern part of the subcontinent, and the establishment of the culturally influential Mughal Empire in the 16th century. During this period, music, like the other arts, synthesized Hindu and Islamic elements as well as indigenous and foreign traditions, resulting in hybrids and entirely new artistic forms that are still cultivated and cherished. For example, the iconic Amir Khusrau (1253–1325) is said to have invented two new forms of song: qawwali, the extremely popular Sufi devotional song style, and khyal (or khayal), a "semi," or "light" style of singing that emphasizes the emotional lyrical content. Hindustani music also became largely the preserve of courtly musicians and audiences.

Along with technical virtuosity, melodic invention and improvisation are the key elements to a masterly performance for both vocalists and instrumentalists (although solo percussion recitals are becoming more and more popular, thanks to such virtuoso artists as Allarakha and his son, Zakir Hussain). Whether performances are given by vocalists or by instrumentalists, the ability to mimic the human voice's ability to slide between notes is prized even by musicians performing on such instruments as the plucked sitar and sarod, the hammered dulcimer called the santoor, the bansuri bamboo flute and the beautiful bowed instrument called the sarangi (which now sadly has fallen greatly out of popularity with musicians, owing in part to its difficulty to master). Even percussion instruments like the tabla and its older counterpart, the double-headed pakhawaj drum, are often used to glide from tone to tone.

Recordings of great Indian classical musicians are remarkably easy to come by. Along with large catalogs of albums by such well-known names as sitarist Ravi Shankar and Vilayat Khan or sarod players Ali Akbar Khan and Amjad Ali Khan, there are many marvelous recordings of such legends as sitarist Nikhil Banerjee (whom many connoisseurs hold as the greatest sitar player of the 20th century), shehnai master Bismillah Khan (whose double-reed instrument is akin to an extraordinarily loud oboe), flutist extraordinaire Hariprasad Chaurasia and santur virtuoso Shivkumar Sharma. Vocal masters include four Dagar Brothers (one the "elder" pair whose archival recordings are an absolute must-have, and a "younger" set, both of whom specialize in the most ancient vocal style called dhrupad), Bhimsen Joshi, Lakshmi Shankar, Pandit Jasraj, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Girija Devi.

For those wanting a deeper look into raga form, look for the excellent four-CD set and accompanying book issued by Britain's Nimbus label called The Raga Guide, which introduces 74 of the most popular Hindustani ragas. Anastasia Tsioulcas