9 Hindustani Classical Vocalists That Revolutionized The Artform
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Classical singing has been a part of Indian culture and heritage for centuries, with its entertainment value touching new heights in the recent past.People have started manifesting it as a way to establish a spiritual connection with the Divine, a means of worship, besides being known as a superior art form worldwide.
All these artists have received recognition and acclaim in the country as well as all over the world.And of course, it's simply impossible to not miss out on some of the most prominent names in the history of Hindustani Classical music.
Pandit Bhimsen Joshi: The modern day Tansen
Bhimsen Joshi represents a prosperous era in Margiya music. This Bharat Ratna awardee was known for his legendary ‘Khayal gayaki’, robust voice, impeccable breath control and gifted music sensibilities. He was an avant garde vocalist that created several new ragas like Kalashree, Lalit Bhatiyar and Marwa Shree. He also started the ‘Sawai Gandharva Mahotsav’ to pay homage to his guru Sawai Gandharva, which is held in Pune even today.
Kishori Amonkar: A radical that questioned tradition
Kishori Amonkar was a liberal and an experimental Hindustani classical vocalist. She belonged to the Jaipur gharana and trained under her mother along with various other tutors belonging to other gharanas. While Jaipuri gharana’s rhythmic and melodic traits were the base of her style, she reformed it by adding attributes of other gharans to it. She was a firm believer that gharans constrained a singer's technique.
Ustad Inayat Hussain Khan: A vocalist, composer and instrumentalist
Inayat Hussain Khan played the Veena and was the founder of the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana.Though his forte was khayal and tarana, he was comfortable with dhrupad, dhamar, thumri and tappa as well. When he got married into the Gwalior gharana, the synergy resulted in addition of the prestigious Gwalior gharana techniques to his repertoire. He was at the Hyderabad Nizam’s durbar for a while and later joined the durbar of King Bir Shamsher Rana of Nepal.
Ustad Amir Khan: The self taught musician
Amir Khan was the founder of the Indore gharana and he dedicated a large part of his career to study taranas. He developed his own gayaki influenced by the styles of various other maestros and it included slow tempo, improvisations and clarity of notes. He also created an effortless fusion of the romantic khayal and the spiritual dhrupad through it. He had a three octave range
voice but he used its limitations to complement his emotion, technique and temperament.
Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan : The slurred vocalist
Bade Ghulam Ali Khan belonged to the Patiala gharana and excelled at light-hearted ragas such as Adana, Bhupali, Hameer, Jaijaiwanti and Jaunpuri. He believed the beauty of classical music lay in leisurely improvisations and so he sometimes changed conventional styles as well.
He amalgamated Behram Khani elements of Dhrupad, the gyrations of Jaipur, and the behlavas of Gwalior into his style while performing his fathers and grandfather compositions.
Pandit Kumar Gandharva : The resurrected voice
Kumar Gandharva was an Indian classical vocalist and he experimented with other genres like bhajans and folk songs as well. He questioned the purist concept of gharans and also defended this ideology by encouraging innovation. He created new ragas by combining old ragas and he was criticized for this. During his 40s he got tuberculosis and was told he would never sing
again. However this didn't happen and he recovered with a new edge in his voice.
Ustad Abdul Karim Khan : The multi instrumentalist
Abdul Karim Khan was a vocalist and he also played the sarangi, veena, sitar and tabla. He founded the Kirana gharana along with his cousin brother. His sublime, slow melodic musical style was influenced by Rehmat Khan of the Gwalior gharana. An expert in repairing musical instruments, he carried his tools everywhere. He was the sangeet ratna for the Mysore Palace
and was also known for mysteriously teaching a dog to sing while he stayed in Mumbai.
Girija Devi : The Thumri queen
Girija Devi is an Indian classical singer who belonged to the Seniya and Banaras gharana. Her repertoire included the semi-classical genres kajri, chaiti, jhoola and holi. She sang in the Banaras gharana and performed the purabi ang thumri style. Her contribution towards improving the status of the thumri style has been an imminent one. Devi was also a firm believer that folk
music was passing into oblivion and she motivated musicians to indulge in it.
Ustad Rashid Khan : The 21st century Hindustani classical torchbearer
Rashid Khan belongs to the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana, and is influenced by the styles of Amir Khan and Bhimsen Joshi. He has exceptional expertise in the use of sargams and sargam taankari. Khan is also a master of the tarana like his guru but he prefers singing them in the khayal style rather than the traditional instrumental stroke-based style. His renderings stand out
because of the strong usage of emotional overtones and his experimental touch of modernity.
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