Part of Hindustani Classical
Hindustani classical vocal music is the singing tradition of North Indian art music. Singers develop a raga through composition and improvisation in khayal and dhrupad.
Historical Timeline
The ghazal began inside the qasida, the long Arabic ode. The name first meant the ode's opening passages on love and the beloved (nasib), and later any poem on love, wine or spring. Persian poets of the Seljuk period made it a free-standing form signed with the poet's pen name, and the Turkish scholar Halûk İpekten places its height with Salman and Hafiz. Sufi poets such as Attar and Rumi used it to write of divine love.
How the ghazal became a sung form in India is disputed. Grove credits Amir Khusrau with establishing ghazal singing around 1300. The ethnomusicologist Gordon Thompson treats most genres credited to Khusrau as myth, and an IGNOU unit dates ghazal as a musical form to the 18th-century court of Muhammad Shah. In the 20th century, women of courtesan (tawaif) lineage moved their performances from salons and courts to gramophone records, radio, theatre and film. Ghazals were a favourite in films of the 1940s and 1950s, and composers such as Madan Mohan specialised in them.
Literary Origins
Arabic poets write the first ghazals as love passages inside longer odes. Persian poets make the ghazal a poem in its own right, and Grove credits Amir Khusrau with establishing it as a sung form in South Asia around 1300.
Urdu Flowering
Vali Deccani (1667-1707) writes an Urdu divan that surprises Delhi, where Urdu, then called rekhta, still counted as a lesser literary language. Mir Taqi Mir (1722/23-1810) leaves six Urdu divans and Mirza Ghalib (1797-1869) writes in Urdu and Persian. Singers later set Mir's and Ghalib's ghazals many times.
Modern Era
Begum Akhtar (1914-1974), trained in the Patiala and Kirana gharanas, wins fame for ghazal, thumri and dadra. In 1972 the Sangeet Natak Akademi gives her its award for Hindustani Vocal Music.
International Reach
Mehdi Hassan (1927-2012), from a family of dhrupad musicians, sets verses by Faiz and Ahmad Faraz and tours abroad. Ghulam Ali first performs in India in 1980. Jagjit and Chitra Singh win a mass audience with The Unforgettables (1976 or 1977).
Playing Techniques
Couplet Structure
A ghazal is a chain of couplets, each called a sher (plural ash'ar), and each line of a couplet is a misra. Every sher carries its full sense, so the poem may change subject from one couplet to the next. In concert a singer picks four or more couplets from a longer poem, and a line of the opening couplet returns as a refrain.
Rhyme and Refrain
The qafiya is the rhyme every second line repeats. The radif is a word or phrase repeated unchanged after it, and some ghazals have none. The matla, the opening couplet, rhymes in both lines, and the maqta, the closing couplet, carries the poet's pen name (takhallus). Metre (bahr), radif and qafiya together make up the zamin (ground) of a ghazal.
The Mehfil and Accompaniment
In a mehfil (mahfil), a gathering for music, listeners applaud with wah-wah (bravo). Jameela Siddiqi writes that by tacit agreement the most classical rendition pairs one voice with tabla and one melodic instrument, ideally a sarangi, now more often a harmonium. The melodic instrument shadows the singer and fills the gaps between couplets.
Journey to Mastery
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Urdu diction and the poem
Voice and Pitch
Raga, tune and rhythm
Interpretation
Performance Practice
Past Performances
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