|
(b) Men’s music.
Of non-specialist men’s music the most common genre is that of group devotional singing (fig.11). Two words in India commonly used for devotional songs are bhajan and kīrtan (see §IV, 1 above). The two categories refer to many different types of song. In western north India kīrtan refers most commonly to repetitious hymns sung by groups of non-specialist males. One member of the group plays the dholak, and others accompany with clapping or with small cymbals called mañjīrā, jārī, or jhāñj (slightly larger); often one man plays the harmonium, introduced by French missionaries. The music is intended to generate ecstasy, and its strategy is for the initially moderate volume and tempo to increase slowly to a more intense level. This pattern is repeated a number of times during the course of a session. The texts of devotional songs express devotion to deities that vary according to region. Khandoba is worshipped in the western Deccan plateau, Rāma, Hanumān and Krsna are popular in Uttar Pradesh, and Durgā and Kāli are popular in Bihar, Bengal and Assam.
Ex.24 is a nām-kīrtan recorded in Varanasi (locally called Banāras). In nām-kīrtan the text of the song consists only of the alternation of the name(s) of the deity. Here, the names of Rāma and his wife, Sīta, are repeated throughout the song. Rāma is the hero of the Rāmāyana, one of the two most important epics in Hinduism, and in the Varanasi region Rāma is identified with Bhagwān (‘God’). The name of the deity ‘surpasses the level of symbol. The vibrations of its utterance are considered to be one form of the absolute’ (Slawek, 1986, p.111). Here again we see the melody in two parts with slightly different scales. The fervid, percussive quality of the music is typical of non-professional men’s devotional music.
(c) Specialist repertories.
This third category is subdivided into two groups: first, the self-conscious, urbanized singer, singing either folk songs garnered in the field or new compositions, and secondly, the non-professional but adept performer. A young man recorded in Madhubani, Bihar, in 1995, exemplifies the category of urban folk singer. He was one of three men who were recorded in different locations in northern Bihar who sang a song well known by speakers of the Maithili language, Kakhan harab dukh mor. This song, clearly a part of the oral tradition, is attributed to the 14th–15th-century Maithili poet, Vidyapati. His songs are one of the distinguishing cultural features of the Maithili region. The song is often sung as a parāti or prabhāti, a devotional genre sung solo and unaccompanied in the very early hours of morning as an offering (ex.25 was recorded in a session in Madhubani convened for documentation purposes). The song gently admonishes the deity Śiva, here called Bholā Nāth.
Hey, Bholā Nāth, when will you take away my sorrow?
I was born in sorrow; I grew up in sorrow.
Even in my dreams there was no happiness.
Rice and sandalwood on a wood apple leaf and incense I offer you.
So sings Vidyapati: hey Bholā Nāth, when will you take away my sorrow?
The singer, Prasanna Mani Jha, sings in cultural programmes and at civic functions. Classical tendencies are evident in his performance, which differed from the other two versions of the song collected, in his long sustaining of some tones and elaborate melody. The opening melodic formula found in this song and the long convex curvature of the melody are common stylistic traits of traditional songs, especially the women’s songs, of northern and western Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh.
A herder in eastern Uttar Pradesh who performs a musical ‘holler’ (a song intended to be heard over a long distance) also serves to illustrate this category of ‘non-professional specialist’ (ex.26). The song is called kharī birahā and is performed by members of two castes associated with herding, the sheep-herding Gareriyā caste and the much more numerous cow-herding caste called Yādav or Ahir. The herder spends much of his time at a distance from other people, and the kharī birahā allows him to communicate with them. A man also may sing it simply for his own enjoyment or when he is with a group of his caste members, in which case they will join in on the last word of a line of poetry, usually a verb.
In its most common form the singer chants the first two lines of text primarily on the tonic. In the remaining two or three lines the singer lifts the melody up a substantial interval into a range in which he can sing at his highest volume – the kharī birahā can be heard for a mile or more across the flat countryside – and then slowly lowers it back to its starting point. The pitch-collection of the kharī birahā is unique in the music of this region.
Devotional (primarily Vaisnava but also including nirgun, the formless divine) and philosophical topics predominate in the kharī birahās heard today, although some are concerned with heterosexual attraction and love. The text of the kharī birahā presented here refers to an episode in that period of Krsna’s mythical life when he was involved with Rādhā, a gopī or ‘cow-maiden’. Her love for Krsna and passionate yearning to be united with him is taken as a model for bhakti devotion. The song states that she was so entranced by the sound of Krsna’s flute that she could not even pick a ripe plum from the bowed branch. Most kharī birahā texts are similarly able to stand on their own as an image, vignette or devotional assertion.
The kharī birahā is an emblem of the herding castes, the Yādavs in particular. The kharī birahā singer is an unpaid specialist who knows songs most others do not know and who has developed a distinctive performance style that requires ability, time and effort to master. His recompense is his own gratification and the respect and admiration of his neighbours and members of his caste.
India, Subcontinent of, §VII, 1: Local traditions, North India.
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
