Ragatime: Glimpses of Akbar’s Court at Fatehpur Sikri

‘Ragatime’ is a piece of Visual Music in the form of a raga that recreates the sights and sounds of Akbar’s Court at Fatehpur Sikri. As the centre of the Mughal Empire for a brief period in the 16 th century, Fatehpur Sikri was remarkable for its architecture, art and music. Akbar’s favourite musician, Mian Tansen, was responsible for developing a genre of Hindustani classical music known as dhrupad ; it’s the principles of this genre that I’ve encapsulated in my own interpretation of Raga Bilaskhani Todi. Ragatime starts with a free flowing alap which, as tradition dictates, sets the rasa (emotion or sentiment) of the piece. The following section, gat , is announced by rhythmic drumming which signals the soloist to begin an extended improvisation on the Raga’s defined note pattern. It is the subtle differences in the order of notes, an omission of a dissonant note, an emphasis on a particular note, the slide from one note to another, and the use of microtones together with other subtleties, that demarcate one raga from another. To Western ears, raga is a musical form that remains ambiguous and elusive; only a declared master of the art, or guru , can breathe life into each raga as he or she unfolds and expands it. Similarly, a raga’s tala , or rhythm, requires a freedom of expression that embraces the ‘rhythm of the universe as personified by Shiva, Lord of the Dance’. It’s a tradition that goes back 2000 years or more when ragas were an integral part of Vedic ceremonies in Hindu temples. For a short time, Fatehpur Sikri was the setting for Akbar’s inspired patronage of the arts; it was a place where music and raga performance flourished. Tansen’s fame lives on; even for present day raga performers, his compositions are regarded as being as relevant now as when they were first performed at Akbar’s court.

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Terry Trickett

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Publication date: July 2017

Publication date (Print): July 2017

Pages: 304-310

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DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2017.61

SO-VID: a8c5c35f-abed-4b17-85f4-8f33c9a66dec

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Conference name: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA 2017)

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Conference location: London, UK

Conference date: 11 – 13 July 2017

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts

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8. REFERENCES

D. Bailey 1992 Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music. Da Capo Press New York
J. Bor 1999 A Survey of 74 Hindustani Ragas. Nimbus Communications International Limited
W. Kaufmann 1984 The Ragas of North India. Da Capo Press New York
K. A. N. SastriG. Srinivasachari 1982 Advanced History of India. Allied Publishers New Delhi
R. Shankar 2017 On Appreciation of Indian Classical Music. The Ravi Shankar Foundation. http://www.indianclassicalmusichawaii.com/Indianclassicalmusic.html February 2017
R. SuvarnalataW. van der Meer 2016 Music in Motion: The Automated Transcription for Indian Music (AUTRIM). Project by NCPA and UvA. Wordpress. https://autrimncpa.wordpress.com November 2016
T. Trickett 2015 Abîme des oiseaux (Abyss of the Birds). YouTube. https://youtu.be/cfVGnPnLddM 1 June 2017
T. Trickett 2016 Revealing the Colours of the Apocalypse through Visual Music J. P. BowenG. DiproseN. Lambert Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA 2016) London, UK 12-14 July 5 9 BCS, Electronic Workshops in Computing ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="DOI:10.14236/ewic/EVA2016.2">DOI:10.14236/ewic/EVA2016.2
T. Trickett 2017 Ragatime: glimpses of Akbar’s court at Fatehpur Sikri. YouTube. https://youtu.be/roo4n7bLHc 1 June 2017
B. C. Wade 1987 Music in India, The Classical Tradition. Ajay Kumar Jain for Manohar Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi. (The three genres of vocal music are dhrupad, khyal and thumri. Dhrupad is the oldest of the Hindustani classical genres. Khyal has been the most prominent genre of North India classical music for the past two hundred years or so. Thumri is the most important ‘light classical’ genre of North India.)
B. C. Wade 1999 Imaging Sound, An Ethnomusicological Study of Music, Art, and Culture in Mughal India. Oxford University Press New Delhi

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[1] D. Bailey 1992 Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music. Da Capo Press New York

[2] J. Bor 1999 A Survey of 74 Hindustani Ragas. Nimbus Communications International Limited

[3] W. Kaufmann 1984 The Ragas of North India. Da Capo Press New York

[4] K. A. N. SastriG. Srinivasachari 1982 Advanced History of India. Allied Publishers New Delhi

[5] R. Shankar 2017 On Appreciation of Indian Classical Music. The Ravi Shankar Foundation. http://www.indianclassicalmusichawaii.com/Indianclassicalmusic.html February 2017

[6] R. SuvarnalataW. van der Meer 2016 Music in Motion: The Automated Transcription for Indian Music (AUTRIM). Project by NCPA and UvA. Wordpress. https://autrimncpa.wordpress.com November 2016

[7] T. Trickett 2015 Abîme des oiseaux (Abyss of the Birds). YouTube. https://youtu.be/cfVGnPnLddM 1 June 2017

[8] T. Trickett 2016 Revealing the Colours of the Apocalypse through Visual Music J. P. BowenG. DiproseN. Lambert Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA 2016) London, UK 12-14 July 5 9 BCS, Electronic Workshops in Computing ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="DOI:10.14236/ewic/EVA2016.2">DOI:10.14236/ewic/EVA2016.2

[9] T. Trickett 2017 Ragatime: glimpses of Akbar’s court at Fatehpur Sikri. YouTube. https://youtu.be/roo4n7bLHc 1 June 2017

[10] B. C. Wade 1987 Music in India, The Classical Tradition. Ajay Kumar Jain for Manohar Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi. (The three genres of vocal music are dhrupad, khyal and thumri. Dhrupad is the oldest of the Hindustani classical genres. Khyal has been the most prominent genre of North India classical music for the past two hundred years or so. Thumri is the most important ‘light classical’ genre of North India.)

[11] B. C. Wade 1999 Imaging Sound, An Ethnomusicological Study of Music, Art, and Culture in Mughal India. Oxford University Press New Delhi

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