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Kirana gharana

 
Wikipedia: Kirana gharana
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Kirana Gharana is one of the most prolific Hindustani khyal gharanas.

Contents

History

The name of this school of music derives from Kirana or Kairana, a village near Muzzafarnagar in Uttar Pradesh [1]. It is the birthplace of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan (1872-1937), who was one of the most important musicians of this gharana and of Hindustani music in general in the twentieth century, and considered by some to be the real founder of the Kirana Gharana, while the roots of the tradition can be traced back to his great-grandfather Ghulam Ali and Ghulam Maula, the brother of Ghulam Ali. A frequent visitor to the Court of Mysore, Ustad Abdul Karim Khan was influenced by Carnatic music.

Singing style

Much to the credit of Abdul Karim Khan, today most Hindustani musicians from Karnataka are exponents of Kirana Gharana and Kirana Gharana has imbibed many of the features of the Carnatic tradition. Particularly the culturally fecund border region between Karnataka and Maharashtra is famous for its tradition of the Kirana school of singing.

Another towering figure of this gharana in the early 20th century was Ustad Abdul Karim Khan’s cousin Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan (1871?-1949). Pandit Bhimsen Joshi is considered to be the foremost representative of the Kirana school of music today.

It was late in the nineteenth century that the two ustads Abdul Karim Khansahab and Abdul Waheed Khan Sahab revolutionized the very concept of khayal gayaki by introducing the vilambit or the slow tempo method to delineate the raga note by note.

In the Kirana Gayaki, the individual swaras (notes) of the Raga are considered not just random points in the scale but independent realms of music capable of horizontal expansion. Mind blowing, emotion drenched Pukars in the higher octaves form a part of the musical experience. Another unique feature of this gharana is the highly intricate and ornate use of the Sargam Taan, (weaving patterns with the notations themselves) which was improvised by Ustad Abdul Karim Khansahab as a direct influence of the Carnatic Classical style.

Performers from this gharana have established their indelible mark on certain Ragas so much so that both the audience and the performer desire the Ragas time and again. Ragas like Todi, Lalit, Multani, Patdeep, Puriya, Marwa, Shuddha Kalyan, Darbari Kanhara,Komal-Rishabh Asawari and many others have acquired new dimensions under the Kirana Gayaki.

Noted Marathi thespian PuLa Deshpande has very rightly pointed out that performers from the Kirana gharana have had a "soft corner" for the Komal Rishabh note of the Indian Classical Music scale. The ragas mentioned above as Kirana favorites surely second this observation.

Prominent exponents

Further reading

  • Kirana, by Roshan Ara Begum. Published by Gramophone Co. of India, 1994.

References

  1. ^ Kirana Gharana at indoclassical.com.

External links

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