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Evolution of Hindustani Slide Guitar
  • Evolution of Hindustani Slide Guitar

    ₹450.00Price

    Sitar, sarod, tabla, sarangi or dhrupad, khayal, ghazal or raga, tala, gharana- these are known the world over today. They represent Hindustani Art Music - in reality, a part of Indian Classical music. Indian music has developed through very complex interactions between different peoples of different races and cultures over several thousand years. In a musical tradition in which improvisation predominates, and written notation, when used, is skeletal, the music of past generations is irrevocably lost. However, references to music in ancient texts, aesthetic formulations, depictions and written discussions of musical instruments can offer clues. In rare instances, an ancient musical style may be preserved in an unbroken oral tradition. For example, musical notes or the structure of a raga, as we know them today, must have had their origins in the Samavedic times. For most historical eras and styles, surviving treatises explaining musical scales and modes, provide a particularly important means of recapturing at least a suggestion of the music of former times. Tracing the musical theory of the past makes clear the position of the present musical system. In this book, we have discussed how Hindustani Slide Guitar is being developed. That is why we first described Indian Classical Music in this book and then we describe how Hindustani Slide Guitar has been associated with Indian Classical Music.

    SKU: 9788180903366
    • PRODUCT INFO

      AUTHOR

      ANIL RAI AND

      JOYANTA SARKAR

      PUBLISHER BHARATIYA KALA PRAKASHAN
      LANGUAGE ENGLISH
      EDITION 1st
      ISBN 9788180903366
      PAGES 164
      COVER HARDCOVER
      OTHER DETAILS 8.5 INCH X 6.0 INCH
      WEIGHT

      400  GM

      Year                           2018                                                        
    • AUTHOR INFO

      Dr. Anil Rai

      Dr. Anil Rai, Assistant Professor (Music), Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. He joined BITS in the year 1989 and since then he has been teaching various courses of music, in BITS-Pilani, PIlani Campus. He has completed Graduation from Gorakhpur University, Post- graduation degree from the music university, Allahabad in 1987, Post-Graduation in Sanskrit (Sanskritasahityacharya) 
      from Sampoornanand University, Varanasi, U.P and Post- Graduation in Sitar from Indira Kala Sangit Vishwavidyalaya (Khairagarh). He received Ph.D. in the year 2008 from Banasthali University, (Rajasthan). He has performed Tabla and Sitar at various places in India. He attended a musical convention, organized by Spic Macay, at IIT-Roorkee for Seven Days in 2015.


      Teaching Experiences
      •   Taught in Jailal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, Naini, 
      Allahabad (U.P.) from 1986-1989.
      •   Taught in Sharda Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, Allahpur, 
      Allahabad (U.P.) from 1985-1986.
      •   Has been teaching in Birla Institute of Technology and 
      Science, Pilani, (Rajasthan) since 1989 till now.

      Joyanta Sarkar

      Joyanta SarkarIs an Indian slide guitar player. One of the serious, young exponents of Indian Classical Music, who constantly endeavours to infuse interest and respect for this traditional art form in the heart and the minds of the younger generation. Joyanta Sarkar was born in Tripura on 03 January 1985 to a Bengali family. His father’s name is Dr. Jowhar Lal Sarkar, Renowned Tabla Player and his Mother name is Priti Sarkar. He began taking lessons from famous guitar player Pankaj Kumar Das. Then he also learned from Pandit Debasish Bhattacharya (Renowned Sarod Player), Pandit Vishwamohan Bhatt (Renowned Mohan Veena Player), Alakendra Debbarman, Dr. Troilee Dutta, Arunabha Sharma. Joyanta is a creator of Saroj Veena (Modified Hawaiian Guitar), He started performing at the tender age of 13, since then he never looked back. He has completed B.Mus from Tripura University and MA in Music from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata. He has also Completed Architectural Assistant from NCVT and Certificate in Human Rights (CHR) from Tripura University. Currently he has pursuing Ph.D. in music from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS, PILANI), under the supervision of Dr. Anil Rai. He worked in Panacea Biotec Ltd as a Sales Development Executive and Mano Pharma (A Division of Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd.) as a Sales Development Executive and Sigma Research and Consulting Pvt. Ltd. (Evidence Action). He is now working as a Rural Programme Manager in the Panchayat Department of the Tripura Government. He has published many Research Papers in various National and International Journal.

    • ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

      First and foremost, I would like to thank God Almighty for giving me 
      the strength, knowledge, ability and opportunity to undertake this 
      research study and to persevere and complete it satisfactorily. 
      Without his blessings, this achievement would not have been 
      possible.
      In my journey towards this degree, I have found a teacher, a friend, 
      an inspiration, a role model and a pillar of support in my Guide, Dr. 
      Anil Rai, Assistant Professor of Birla Institute of Technology and 
      Science, Pilani. He has been there providing his heartfelt support 
      and guidance at all times and has given me invaluable guidance, 
      inspiration and suggestions in my quest for knowledge. He has 
      given me all the freedom to pursue my research, while silently and 
      non-obtrusively ensuring that I stay on course and do not deviate 
      from the core of my research. Without his able guidance, this thesis 
      would not have been possible and I shall eternally be grateful to him 
      for his assistance.
      I have great pleasure in acknowledging my brother and research 
      scholars at Tripura University, Joy Lal Sarkar in ensuring that the 
      fire keeps burning and being there at times when I required motivation and propelling me on the course of this thesis and also for assisting me in collation of data for my research. Their support, encouragement and credible ideas have been great contributors in the completion of the thesis.I take pride in acknowledging the insightful guidance of Dr. Pushp Lata, Associate Professor of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, for sparing his valuable time whenever I approached him and showing me the way ahead.
      I would also like to express my gratitude to Dr. S.K. Choudhary, Dr. 
      Anupam Yadav and Dr. Kumar Sankar Bhattacharya at Birla 
      Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and the entire staff at 
      Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani who have been so 
      helpful and cooperative in giving their support at all times to help 
      me achieve my goal.

      It would be inappropriate if I omit to mention the names of my dear 
      friends Ajahar Uddin, Bikash Das, Dwipta Sundar Sen and Sushmita 
      Goshwami, who have, in their own ways, kept me going on my path 
      to success, assisting me as per their abilities, in whatever manner 
      possible and for ensuring that good times keep flowing.
      My acknowledgement would be incomplete without thanking the 
      biggest source of my strength, my family. The blessings of my parents Mrs. Priti Sarkar and Mr. Jowhar Lal Sarkar (Doctor of Homoeopathy) and the love and care of my sister Jinia Sarkar and her husband Tapas Roy and of course my prime source of ideas, my wife Jayanti Banik who never let things get dull or boring, have all made a tremendous contribution in helping me reach this stage in my life. I thank them for putting up with me in difficult moments where I felt stumped and for goading me on to follow my dream of getting this degree. This would not have been possible without their unwavering and unselfish love and support given to me at all times.
      I would like to dedicate this work to my mother Mrs. Priti Sarkar 
      whose dreams for me have resulted in this achievement and without 
      her loving upbringing and nurturing; I would not have been where 
      I am today and what I am today. It is true that if god ever existed, he 
      would be in the form of a mother, because only a mother can love 
      and give without expecting anything in return. Had it not been for 
      my mother’s unflinching insistence and support, my dreams of 
      excelling in education would have remained mere dreams.

    • PREFACE

      This thesis focuses on the evolution of Hindustani slide Guitar. 
      There is a lot of speculation as to the origin of slide guitar, but 
      undoubtedly the two main contributors are Hawaii and Africa via 
      North America. The story goes that in Hawaii around 1887-89 a boy 
      called Joseph Kekuku was walking down a road or some say an old 
      railway track playing his guitar, when he picked up a metal bolt 
      and started sliding it on the strings. Fascinated by the sound, he 
      practised and perfected the new technique until he felt it was ready 
      to be performed in front of an audience. In the years that followed 
      the new sound and approach proved to be a great success. His 
      popularity further increased when he toured America and Europe 
      where he even played at the London Palladium in front of royalty. 
      Guitars were popular in Hawaii as Mexican Cowboys who used to 
      work on American run ranches brought the guitars over from Mexico. 
      Another influence also brought to Hawaii via Mexico was Bavarian 
      yodelling, as Emperor Maximillian in the 1860s was colonising 
      Mexico, so the Mexican Cowboys brought Alpine yodelling as well 
      as guitars to contribute to the Hawaiian sound, this can clearly be 
      heard in the music. The Hawaiian guitar is also known as ‘steel 
      guitar’, or ‘lap steel’, the ‘steel’ is referring to the solid steel slide bar 
      used when playing. A lap position is adopted when playing the 
      instrument and over the years since it first appeared there have been many types of variations and modifications from double neck 
      versions to hollow necks to pedal assisted, all very much part of the 
      mainstream now and adopted in many forms of popular music. 
      Hawaiian guitar bands grew in popularity in America particularly 
      around 1915 when the San Francisco Panama– Pacific trade fair 
      had musicians from Hawaii playing on the Hawaiian stand to 
      promote tourism. From then, it eventually became famous the world 
      over. Shortly after the emergence of Hawaiian guitar in America the 
      slide guitar associated with the blues also appeared. The famous 
      blues man W.C. Handy, documents hearing a guitarist around 1907 sliding a knife across the strings to great effect. Blues slide guitar 
      may have evolved concurrently with Hawaiian guitar at this time, 
      as a one stringed instrument known as the diddly bow of West 
      African origin was also played with a slide. The diddly bow was 
      mainly played and popularised in the rural South, and considered 
      a forerunner to the blues slide guitar we know of today. The technique of placing a hollow slide on the finger so a conventional guitar could be used, quickly gained in popularity. The slides themselves also featured all manner of materials from hollowed out bones to the necks of bottles hence the term bottleneck guitar, each material giving distinctively different sounds. These types of slides can fit over the finger and are not solid thus allowing the guitar to be played in an upright position as opposed to the lap position. This of course facilitates the different playing styles in the ever evolving world of slide guitar. As the popularity of Hawaiian and blues guitar started to spread, the cross pollination of different types of music started to take form, blues and gospel music of African American origins started to cross pollinate with rural American folk forms of European origins namely Irish, English and French music. This in turn led to the formation of different types of country music, which of course heavily features different types of slide guitar from pedal steel to lap steel to resonator guitars etc, creating a whole industry of slide specific guitar types. Amplification had also appeared as far back as the 1930s as electric instruments were starting to take hold. Slide guitar by this time had found its way into many popular forms of music from, Big Band to Western swing, Country & Western, Bluegrass, Folk, the list goes on. It is worth checking out a few players from around this period, musicians like Alvino Rey who played in a big band setting and conjured all manner of sounds and techniques from his steel guitar ,even on occasion making it literally talk, by using early vocoder technology. This cross pollination of different styles and techniques however does not stop here, the slide guitar has travelled and evolved in many diverse locations and regions including Burma and India. In Burma for instance the Hawaiian guitar was added as a result of a developing film industry in around 1943. Burmese slide guitar is tuned like a violin with variations like one of the unison strings dropped a quarter of a tone to achieve authentic Burmese intonation. 
      This gives Burmese slide its own identity, together with the music 
      itself that can have abrupt shifts in rhythm and melody with vivid 
      contrasts of texture and unpredictable sudden outbursts. On first 
      hearing to western ears, it can sound chaotic, almost like a backing 
      band for a great Captain Beefheart record. All good for the continuing evolution and diversity of the slide guitar. Another important location of course is India where the slide guitar was introduced by an important figure called Tau Moe. Tau Moe was a Samoan raised in Laie Hawaii, he toured extensively in Asia andindeed all over the world with his particular brand of Hawaiian and Samoan music, and this included both dancing and native ritual music. He created a lasting impression, particularly in India where he lived during the war years. He cut his final record with the late great Bob Brozman in 1988 and passed away in 2004 aged 95. After the war years there was a time of very productive cultural exchange and immigration and the blues had infiltrated many forms of popular music including Rock ‘n’ Roll and Jazz. The postwar freedom enjoyed in the 1960s lead to a revolution of exchange, travel and communication, all good news for the further development of musical ideas. Indian music in particular at this time was very important, and the slide guitar in the early 60s found itself in the hands of Brij Bushan Kabra, his slide guitar was perfectly suited to the Hindustani classical tradition of North India in that it could simulate the vocal inflections and nuances that are so important to this music. The guitar itself was adapted with sympathetic strings and drone strings and played in a lap position with a steel bar slide. This tradition of Hindustani slide guitar has continued to the present day with modern exponents like the excellent Debashish Battarcharya who has many recordings available. During the 1960s further integration with Indian music came when sitarist Ravi Shankar toured the west and met with George Harrison from The Beatles. Harrison was also a slide player as we know, he was particularly interesting, in that he played slide, but not in an overtly blues context. His collaboration with Ravi Shankar and interest in Indian music lead to some timeless songs and also his lesser known soundtrack album Wonderwall music, which was an experimental psychedelic sounding record with a heavy dose of eastern influence and instrumentation. George Harrison’s song ‘Norwegian Wood ‘and later ‘Within you without you’ lead many people to want the sitar sound on their recordings. The problem was that the sitar is a difficult instrument to tune, play and obtain in the west. In fact it was apparently Jimmy Page at the time, when he was a session man, who told a journalist that an electric sitar was needed. The sitar influence eventually collided with the guitar in the form of a sitar guitar invented by Vincent Bell. The coral electric sitar was launched by the company in 1967. In India Western instruments like the Hawaiian steel guitar had combined with traditional Indian instruments particularly in the Indian film industry where film composers such as Burman Hemant Kumar and Salil Choudhury introduced music from folk traditions, mixing modernity with tradition and combining Western and indigenous elements. One notable slide player in Bollywood film music was Sunil Ganguly who had a lot of popularity in India for both songs and film music. There are of course many other musicians of note, but sadly too many to mention here. From the beginning of the last century to the present day slide guitar continues to evolve and integrate in many forms of music and styles and it is important to check out all the great slide players from the past to the present day, guitarists like Derek Trucks and Rick Vito who combine West and East in their playing together with Sonny Landreth for Cajun influences or Dave Tronzo for experimental approaches, and don’t forget there is also a wealth of innovative equipment and slide gadgets out there.

       

    • CONTENTS

      About the Authors.....................................................................v
      Acknowledgement...................................................................vii
      Preface.......................................................................................ix
      1. Introduction........................................................................
      1.1.Indian Classical Music......................................................
      1. 2.History of Indian Classical Music....................................
      1. 3.Texts.....................................................................................
      1. 4.Major Traditions.................................................................
      1. 5.Carnatic music.................................................................... 
      1.5.A. Origin, Sources and History of Carnatic Music...
      1.5.B. Nature of Carnatic Music.......................................
      1.5.C. Important Elements of Carnatic Music.................
      1.5.D. Improvisation..........................................................
      1.5.E. Compositions of Carnatic Music...........................
      1.5.F. Prominent Composers.............................................
      1.5.G. Learning Carnatic Music.......................................
      1. 6.Hindustani Music..............................................................
      1. 6(a) Principles of Hindustani Music...........................
      1. 6(b) Types of Compositions..........................................
      1. 7.Persian and Arab influences.............................................
      1. 8.Features of Indian Music...................................................
      1. 8(a) Raga.........................................................................
      1. 8(b) Tala..........................................................................                                        1. 8(c) Notation system......................................................
      1. 8(d) Instruments.............................................................
      2. Origin of Instrumental Music..........................................
      3.    History and Development of Instrumental Music
      3.1.Ancient Time.......................................................................
      3.2.Medieval Time.....................................................................
      3.3.Present Time........................................................................
      4. What is Guitar?..................................................................
      5. History of Guitar................................................................
      6. Types of Guitar...................................................................
      7. Constructions......................................................................
      7.1.Handedness........................................................................
      7.2.Components........................................................................
      8. Guitar Tuning.....................................................................
      9. Guitar Accessories..............................................................
      10.Structure of Hindustani Guitar.......................................
      11.Background of Hindustani Slide Guitar........................
      12.Evolution of Hindustani Slide Guitar.............................
      References............................................................................

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