The Songs of Khayal (2 Vols-Set With DVD)

Contents: Vol. I: Foreword. Orthographical note: 1. Background. 2. Notating Khayal. 3. The subject matter of Khayal. 4. The language of Khayal. 5. The tals tempos and song structures of Khayal. 6. Melodic nuances and devices of Khayal. 7. The life of a song. Glossary of Khayal vocabulary. Glossary of musical terms. Bibliography. Index.

Vol. II: The Song Collection:  1. Rag Abhogi: Amir Khan. 2. Rag Adambari Kedar: Mallikarjun Mansur. 3. Rag Adana: Abdul Karim Khan. 4. Rag Ahir Bhairav: Amir Khan. 5. Rag Alhaiya Bilaval: Kishori Amonkar. 6. Rag Asavari: Amir Khan. 7. Rag Bagesri: Amir Khan. 8. Rag Bagesri Bahar: Vilayat Hussain Khan. 9. Rag Bagesri Kanada/D.V. Paluskar. 10. Rag Bahaduri Todi: Mallikarjun Mansur. 11. Rag Bahar: D.V. Paluskar. 12. Rag Bairagi : Amir Khan. 13. Rag Barva: Vilayat Hussain Khan. 14. Rag Basant: Abdul Karim Khan. 15. Rag Basant Bahar: Hirabai Barodekar and Saraswati Rane. 16. Rag Bhairav: Gangubai Hangal. 17. Rag Bhairav Bahar: Ramkrishna Vazebua. 18. Rag Bhankar : Faiyaz Khan. 19. Rag Bhatiyar : Amir Khan. 20. Rag Bhimpalasi: Abdul Karim Khan. 21. Rag Bhupali: Abdul Karim Khan. 22. Rag Bhupal Todi: Ghulam Mustafa Khan. 23. Rag Bibhas: D.V. Paluskar. 24. Rag Bihag: Khadim Hussian Khan. 25. Rag Bihagda: Azambai. 26. Rag Bihari: Mallikarjun Mansur. 27. Rag Bilaskhani Todi: Amir Khan.  28. Rag Brindabani Sarang: Basavraj Rajguru. 29. Rag campak: Narayanrao Vyas. 30. Rag Candrakauns: Amir Khan. 31. Rag Chaya Malhar: Bhimsen Joshi. 32. Rag Chayanat/Faiyaz Khan. 33. Rag Darbari: Abdul Wahid Khan. 34. Rag Desi: Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. 35. Rag Des : Mallikarjun Mansur. 36. Rag Deskar: Mallikarjun Mansur. 37. Rag Dev Gandhar/Girija Devi. 38. Rag Dhanasri: Vilayat Hussain Khan. 39. Rag Durga: Bhimsen Joshi. 40. Rag Gandhari: Chote Ramdas. 41. Rag Gara Bagesri: Ramkrishna Vazebua. 42. Rag Gaud Malhar/Anjanibai Lolekar. 43. Rag Gaud Sarang: Azambai. 44. Rag Gauri: Abdul Karim Khan. 45. Rag Gavati: Firoz Dastur. 46. Rag Gorakh Kalyan: Nazakat and Salamat Ali. 47. Rag Gunkali: Bade Ghulam Ali Khan….

Khayal is the pre-eminent genre of Hindustani vocal music. It is a dynamic ever-changing art form which in its present form, accompanied by tabla, began to crystallise in the early nineteenth century. Many changes occurred in the twentieth century, most notably a radical slowing down of the vilambit part of performance and the gradual replacement of the bowed sarangi by the harmonium as the preferred instrument of melodic accompaniment.

In this substantial contribution to the literature on Khayal the authors have collected transcribed translated and analysed 492 songs bandises of Khayal. The songs are all culled from commercial recordings of the twentieth century, beginning with the first ever recording of Khayal Gauhar Jan’s rendition of rag Sur Malhar recorded in 1902. The transcriptions utilise a modified form of Indian Sargam notation achieving an unprecedented degree of detail and accuracy with regard to rhythmic values and tonal nuance.

Chapter one defines Khayal and looks at the birth of the recording industry in India and the history of Khayal on records. It also presents hereditary and teaching lineages of the artists whose recordings have been transcribed. Chapter two explains the notation system after surveying the great variety of notation systems which have proliferated since the mid-nineteenth century. Chapters three and four examine Khayal songs from poetic, thematic and linguistic perspectives. Chapter five looks at the rhythmic structures of Khayal songs while Chapter six explores the melodic nuances of Khayal. Chapter seven is a melodic, structural and poetic examination of a single Khayal Bandis as performed by five different artists.

The discussion and analysis is housed in Book one. Book two presents the songs. The enclosed DVD contains almost 2000 sound files, the Sthayi and Antara sections of each song extracted from the original recordings. Nearly 500 additional sound files of Khayal nuances illustrate the notated examples in chapter six. There is also a collection of alternative song texts for many of the songs and a series of charts presenting technical information from the author’s database. (jacket)