She’s a versatile artiste who has transcended the boundaries of music and is equally at ease with Khayal, Thumri-Dadra, fusion, Indipop and folk music. Shubha Mudgal in a jugalbandhi with PAARTH JOSHI
Passion Vs Convention: My parents, both teachers of English at Allahabad University, were passionate about music and made sure my sister Ragini and I learnt music. After graduation, my mother even suggested that I take a year off to decide whether I wanted to pursue music as a career. I think, 25 years ago, that was a fairly unconventional suggestion!
Board Exams Vs Hobbies: No, Indian classical music is not becoming irrelevant to today’s youth. And why blame the youth? We haven’t made efforts to introduce them to ancient practices in music. Board exams ensure our children put aside their hobbies. But, I see a growing number of students joining Indian classical institutes in Delhi and Mumbai.
Vanity Vs Effort: Whenever I walk on the streets of Europe, I see so many posters mentioning when and where a particular writer wrote a book. When you google Bob Dylan, you get lakhs of web pages, while Gangubai Hangal barely shares a few dozen. Not enough steps are taken to preserve and document our culture and tradition, we sometimes use them for just lip service or as vanity.
Titillation Vs Innovation: While popular music enjoys the status of being experimental, I feel we are unfair to classical music. There is so much experimentation even in classical music, with every given instrument and its style.
Respect Vs Attitude: It is one thing to crib and another to work towards the problem. I think, first one has to shed the attitude that ‘we’re the greatest thing to happen to mankind’ since we’re classical singers. Musicians need to nurture respect for all kinds of music, there is no ‘high art’ and ‘low art’. Secondly, a sense of community among the musicians can help reach out to the masses.
Item numbers Vs Real symphonies: While it is sometimes fair to generalise, I think there is a need for improvisation in Bollywood. Of course, there are beautiful pieces composed for Hindi films too, but sometimes it lacks research. In this movie on the revolt of 1857, there is a mujra and an item number! The folk music of that era has been very well documented. It could have been used here.
Passion Vs Convention: My parents, both teachers of English at Allahabad University, were passionate about music and made sure my sister Ragini and I learnt music. After graduation, my mother even suggested that I take a year off to decide whether I wanted to pursue music as a career. I think, 25 years ago, that was a fairly unconventional suggestion!
Board Exams Vs Hobbies: No, Indian classical music is not becoming irrelevant to today’s youth. And why blame the youth? We haven’t made efforts to introduce them to ancient practices in music. Board exams ensure our children put aside their hobbies. But, I see a growing number of students joining Indian classical institutes in Delhi and Mumbai.
Vanity Vs Effort: Whenever I walk on the streets of Europe, I see so many posters mentioning when and where a particular writer wrote a book. When you google Bob Dylan, you get lakhs of web pages, while Gangubai Hangal barely shares a few dozen. Not enough steps are taken to preserve and document our culture and tradition, we sometimes use them for just lip service or as vanity.
Titillation Vs Innovation: While popular music enjoys the status of being experimental, I feel we are unfair to classical music. There is so much experimentation even in classical music, with every given instrument and its style.
Respect Vs Attitude: It is one thing to crib and another to work towards the problem. I think, first one has to shed the attitude that ‘we’re the greatest thing to happen to mankind’ since we’re classical singers. Musicians need to nurture respect for all kinds of music, there is no ‘high art’ and ‘low art’. Secondly, a sense of community among the musicians can help reach out to the masses.
Item numbers Vs Real symphonies: While it is sometimes fair to generalise, I think there is a need for improvisation in Bollywood. Of course, there are beautiful pieces composed for Hindi films too, but sometimes it lacks research. In this movie on the revolt of 1857, there is a mujra and an item number! The folk music of that era has been very well documented. It could have been used here.
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