Skip to main content

Devotional Music

The term devotional music doesn't have a particular definition. The language and cultural variation in India is very vast and the interpretations of Devotional music leads to fantastic diversity. Often performed at gatherings, Devotional music is commonly described as "Bhajan" all over India. "Gurubani" in Punjab, "Keertan" in Bengal, "Dasara Sahitya" in Karnataka, "Tevaram or Tirupugazh" in Tamil Nadu, "Ram charit manas" in Uttar Pradesh etc.

Devotional Music are often a contribution to Gods and Godesses, or expression of feelings towards spirituality. The technical perfection of "taala" and "raga" are not mandatory in Devotional songs but the perfection increases the depth and evokes the spiritual feelings. It's said that pronunciation of the lyrics is of utmost importance. The contributions by Pandit Onkar Nath, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit D.V. Paluskar, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan created an aura when they performed Devotional songs in their concerts. Perhaps, their mastery in Classical Music played a part and created Master Pieces. Hence, Devotional music can also be known as Classically based contributions.

Any performing artiste can bring life to these devotional songs by understanding the saint composers feelings via the lyrics. So, in order to do that, a performer should have some knowledge about these composers. It will also help in understanding why the writings are still relevant and can never be replaced. All the saint composers have stressed the superiority of spiritualism over materialism and the need for "shraddha and Bhakti". Some of the famous Saint composers are:

Tulasi Das (1532 - 1623)

Sur Das (1483-1563)
Purandara Das (1484 - 1564)
Kanaka Das(1509 -1609)
Meera Bai (1498 - 1547)
Kabir (1440 - 1518)
Vyasa rayaru (1460 -1539)
sant thukaram (17th century)
They are a few saint composers who have given a glimpse of the great cultural heritage of India through Devotional Music. Their compositions are vast and a little portion of this rich literature has been utilised by us so far. For musicians like me, we can dive deep into this wealth of songs and bring them to the people at large.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

She - A woman

Image source: http://lilliemcferrin.com/five-sentence-fiction-isolated/ She began a new life with a family in the name of marriage. A family where women were considered men if they had given birth to a male child. She received the portent and tried to impress them but, the only way to impress them was to starve and become lame. "I was not born for this" she thought. She was isolated for the rest of her life for she was a woman. Jahnavi.K.J written for Lillie McFerrin's five sentence fiction .
12 comments
Read more

Vintage letters

Vintage letters are treasures for me. The art of writing letters was in practise since 300 A.D. After 16th century writing letters became an art. Letters were not just used for communication but it became an art also. The design of the letter took a uniform design when the British came to India and started ruling over. Even to this day in some villages of India, the post man or the teachers of the school should open the letter and read it. Today,some vintage letters are preserved in the families, in the Government offices, Parliaments and the collectors who fancy collecting vintage letters. I have preserved letters from Great grandfather and my GrandFather.  I feel that these vintage letters are some sort of treasure that I have. Funniest part is, it takes a long time to come to the matter itself because the starting two- three sentences is to be polite enquiries and whereabouts of each other and ending the letter used to be with elegant words. I will post some pictures of the ...
10 comments
Read more

Chaarukeshi raga

Chaarukeshi raga is the 26th melakartha raga. This is the fifth raga of fifth baana chakra. The swara sthanas are chatushruthi rishabha, antara gandhara, shuddha madhyama, shuddha daivatha, and kaishiki nishada. The purvanga of this raga indicate shankarabharana raga and the uttaranga of this raga indicate thodi raga. This is a saarvakalika raga and was brought to light by Thyagaraja Swamy. One of the famous composition in chaarukeshi raga is Aadumodigalade by Thyagaraja Swamy. Reference: The origin of raga- Bandopadhyay s, The story of Indian music- Goswami O.
3 comments
Read more