Khayala Vocalism: Continuity Within Change presents stylistic perspectives on the music of nineteen modern and contemporary Khayala vocalists, representing various legacies which have guided vocal music for about 200 years. The book is the result of over five years of research, involving the painstaking analysis of over 500 recordings spanning almost a hundred years of Khayala vocalism. The nineteen vocalists are classified into five stylistic legacies, based on their history of tutelage and the stylistic tendencies evident in their music: Agra legacy, Gwalior-Agra confluence, Jaipur-Atrauli legacy, Kairana legacy, and Patiala legacy. Written by an author of impeccable credentials as a musician, researcher and writer, the book contains seven sections. While the first section serves as an introduction to the Khayala genre and to the various Gharanas, the last presents an annexure containing the various Khayala forms, a glossary of non-English terms rendered in italics, and an index. The intervening five sections deal with the history and stylistics of the five legacies and the music of the vocalists belonging to them. The book makes complex musicological concepts accessible to non-academic readers and contributes significantly to widening the understanding of contemporary trends in Khayala vocalism.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Deepak S Raja
Deepak Raja (Born: 1948) is amongst the finest contemporary writers on Hindustani music. He is a Repertoire Analyst for India Archive Music Ltd., New York, the most influential producer of Hindustani music outside India. He is also a columnist for Sruti, the performing arts monthly, and frequently contributes papers to seminars and journals of the ITC-Sangeet Research Academy, Sangeet Natak Akademi, and the Indian Musicological Society. The author is a sitar and surbahar player of the Imdad Khan/Etawah gharana, trained for over forty years by two of its stalwarts, Shri Pulin Deb Burman, and Pandit Arvind Parikh. He studies Khayal under Pandi Dhondutai Kulkarni of the Jaipur-Afrauli gharana. As a performer, he is respected for the soundness of his approach to music, and his command over the instruments. Deepak Raja took a BA Honours degree from Delhi University, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and studied advertising at the Watford College of Technology in the UK. For over thirty years, he has been a prolific writer on media, marketing, finance, as well as music, and has occupied senior positions in the media industry, including the Editorship of Business India. While being well versed in the traditional concepts of Indian musicology, he brings to the subject a fresh perspective using the conceptual tools and analytical methods cultivated by his careers in media research, business journalism and financial consultancy.
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