Gypsy music – a rediscovered heritage?

Modern and classical Western music is solidly based on the music tradition, structure, repertoire, of the Roma Gypsy.

Wax recordings of Roma Gypsy music being made.

Folk songs from Eastern Europe were a strong inspiration for the great composers Leos Janacek and Bela Bartok. Both of them travelled through the countryside – Janacek in the Slovak-Moravian borderland, Bartok in Transylvania – and recorded village singers using wax cylinders – the only equipment available at the time. The material they collected is still much sought after.

Yet this fieldwork is far from finished, and more musical gems still remain to be discovered – at least in the Roma settlements of Slovakia. These poor and muddy villages are probably the closest place to Western Europe, where Roma have managed to maintain their lifestyle untouched by urban life.

Jana Belisova – The Slovak ethnographer | Image source & courtesy – radio.cz | Click for image.

No wonder many Roma, who have settled in Czech towns have warm feelings for these villages – it’s where their relatives come from. Also, many songs now made famous by the Roma divas Vera Bila or Ida Kelarova come from these desolate regions.

Jana Belisova has spent the last 14 years travelling to these places, recording old Roma singers and musicians in their homes. But it was not until last year that she managed to launch her first CD Phurikane Gila and a beautiful book with some stunning pictures. At 38 years old, she is one of the leading experts on Roma music in Slovakia (via Radio Prague – Magic Carpet: Gypsy music – a rediscovered heritage?).

An estimated 6000 of these wax cylinders formed the back bone for Bartok’s music composition. Many other Western classical musicians used the Roma Gypsy themes and constructs in their compositions.

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Shahaji-I – a Prolific Music Composer

Shahaji I (1684 - 1712).

Shahaji’s compositions don’t figure in music concerts, a lesson worth learning for all who seek to create a culture. Great music, created by him and his royal successors, died with the short-sighted abolishment of the Devadasi community in the early 20th century. They never thought of popularising their music to a larger group nor did their descendants fund musicians to learn it. Among a constellation of royal composers, Shahaji I stands unsurpassed. His magnificent operas and padams that focus on the heroine seeking merger with the lord are soaked in metaphor and elegance, and must have had very creative deployment of the ragas. Sadly, all of this is relegated to dusty corners of the Thanjavur library in palm leaves that are rarely touched today. We have one tantalising glimpse of the music in an opera the king wrote, to be danced in his favourite temple for Siva as Tyagaraja in Tiruvarur. For this we need to thank that redoubtable musicologist Prof. P Sambamoorthy. (via The Hindu : FEATURES / SUNDAY MAGAZINE : Songs of a forgotten genius.).

Not in my dreams

In all my life, I was not prepared for Shahaji-I being a music composer.  A Maratha king, who composed poetry and music in Telugu and Tamil! I am still not quite able to accept this magnitude of achievement.

But then Shivaji’s dynasty, though short-lived were possibly the last great Indic rulers. Can anyone point out one palace that Shivaji or his immediate successors built. Or the erudition or learning displayed by Sambhaji or Shahaji! Instead look at the opulent palaces of the Holkars, Scindias, Gaikwads – who finally divided Shivaji’s legacy amongst themselves.

Another writer a lawyer-admirer, Anant Darwatkar is writing a book on  Chhatrapati Shri Sambhaji Maharaj, a job that a specialist should have done a long time ago. Shahaji-I’s descendant,

Sambhaji even wrote books— Boodhbhushanam in Sanskrit and Saatshatak, Nakshika and Nayika Bhed in Hindi. “While Boodhbhushanam talks about politics, governance and defence strategies, Nakshika and Nayika Bhed are based on how women have been perceived and idolised over the centuries. Unfortunately, even these authentic works have never been translated,” mentions Darwatkar.

I wonder why is it that Indian history does not bring out this part of forgotten history.