Mission music
SHYAMA RAJAGOPAL
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Shubha Mudgal believes deviating from the style taught is not a sign of being unfaithful to the respective school.
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PHOTO: VIPINCHANDRAN
EXPLORING NEW FRONTIERS: Shubha Mudgal wants to go beyond rendering songs. She wants to study the musicof yore and also write lyrics.
Shubha Mudgal leaves a lasting impression. Her powerful voice remains etched in the mind after a performance. The artiste was in Kochi to participate in `Vasantolsavam.'
For a person, who has found her own style in Hindustani classical singing, her dedication and concern for music are laudable.
According to Shubha, mystical poetry has become part of classical music through time. Her love for music has her yearning to learn about the music of yore. "However, there is no documentation regarding the subject. Umrao Jaan is a legend, but whether she sang and danced as was portrayed in the movies is debatable," says the musician.
Different styles
Trained initially in the Gwalior gharana under Ram Ashray Jha, she later trained under various gurus. This training by different schools, she says, helped broaden her horizons.
She believes deviating from the style taught is not a sign of being unfaithful to the respective school. She is quick to add though that the musical gharanas or styles are important in continuing a tradition. "It is with the permission of the guru that one takes guidance from others. When the guru feels you are able to handle other styles of singing, he introduces you to another guide. That teacher, in turn, will introduce you to another guru when he feels you are ready. However, hopping from one teacher to another is unadvisable if you haven't conquered the nuances," she says.
Unlike popular belief, the gharanas, she cites, are not as stringent as they are made out to be.
Ragas that were created by someone following a particular gharana do not remain within a gharana. It is picked up and rendered by many in different styles.
"So, the emphasis of gharana is mainly for learning your music in a pure form," she adds.
Her interest in the literature of music has also made her write verses for classical rendering. "I have tried to create something in the language that I speak. As most of the compositions are in Braj dialect, I did not want to fall back on that dialect to write. We have not managed to achieve the simplicity of the verses that Braj has provided. Compositions in the Khadi boli (the language that is spoken now) are too wordy that elaboration, which is prime to classical music, becomes difficult," she says.
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For the records
Shubha Mudgal and her husband, tabla artiste Aneesh Pradhan, have ventured into distributing music that is not readily available on the shelf through their website www. UnderscoreRecords.com. Some of it is archival music, which was restored by them.
"This is a platform to preserve music without the label of any music company," she says.
An album of Kesarbai Kerkar's music from the 1930s was restored.
That was followed by an album of Marathi state music from the 1920s by Madhavrao Wallawalkar and an album by senior Jaipur Atrauli vocalist Kausalya Manjeshwar, a disciple of Mogubai Kurdikar.
"We were able to publish the first two albums because the Society of Indian Record Collectors (SIRC) had the 78 RPM recordings in mint condition, the recordings were old enough to be in the public domain and the SIRC was happy to share the music with other music lovers," she explains.
The music restored was published through their record label.
"Our purpose in setting up Underscore was to see if artistes can produce and share their work independently, on their own steam, and on their own terms and conditions. We sometimes get in touch with artistes ourselves, as in the case of Kausalya Manjeshwar.
"Aneesh and I felt that as students of music we would benefit from being able to hear a disciple of Mogubai Kurdikar. We, therefore, persuaded her to share her recordings with other music lovers. In other instances, artistes hear about Underscore and write to us about albums they have recorded and would like us to distribute."
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