Fwd: [Reader-list] Marathi natyasangit

[Veena Naregal]

Dear Urmila,

Its great  to  read of your  finds...I am very  interested  because I
have a  project  going  on the lavani and tamasha [apart from my sarai
project  which, alas,  is supposed  to be on film distribution]  I was
  very struck by what you said  about the  undeclared  sources  of
base  tunes... I wondered if your  sources  speak of any names  of
musicians/performers/artistes or  lyrics or  tunes  that can help
track the early  traffic between the 'high'/respectable arena of the
natyasangit  and  the low, supposedly obscene realm of  the lavani 
and  tamasha.

Much of  my own work  so far on the lavani  project has been
ethnographic in nature, though I  do want  to delve into  archival
sources too. I have  been amazed  at the wealth of  information to be
gleaned  through oral testimonies and  interviews. For the most part,
this  record  remains quite  consistent  and, more  importantly, seems
 totally unavailable through  other  means. Sometime soon I did  want
to look at   the  journal,  Rangbhumi,  which took up the task of
specifying  what the  norms and content for a respectable Marathi
theatre that was to be  simultaneosuly  traditional and modern would
look like...  I cannot help but wonder if  the eroticism of the lavani
form  [whose  uniqueness and
worth, somewhat  surprisingly, is celebrated  and acknowledged  by
elite Marathi literary  scholars such as Y. N. Kelkar and D.V. Potdar
in the 1950s]  had anything to  do with the respectability that the 
baiji  thumri  seems  to  acquire...very ironical because  was  not
the  thumri actually equally reminiscent of  a   'decadent past'
through its  association with  courtesan culture? But  because  it 
had  already  lent itself   to appropriation  into the emerging 
middle-class/classical aesthetic, the Hindustani  thumri
 seemed more  acceptable  than the  Marathi lavani, which as we know
also  came with an uncomfortable  caste  pedigree.... You probably
know  Peter Manuel's article  on the  Evolution of  Modern Thumri,
where he tracks  the rise  of  the  Banarasi bol banao thumri and the
gradual eclipse  of the  bandish thumri of  lucknow? Is the baiji 
thumri  a
kin of the former  variety ...not  being  musically trained  myself, I
hope  you  will forgive  my ignorance...

What you say of  the revival of interest in  Marathi natysangit  is
very interesting... do you trace  it to the  growing  cultural market
for regional  forms, thanks to  regional language  satellite TV
channels  and/or  current  trends in  middle class  taste,  eager to
shrug off  even the shadowy former  connections  with the  tamasha [
as against the  significant  increase in patronage for  the  sangeet
bari in recent  years]. Definitely true, it  woud seem, at  least, of
cities  such as  Bombay and Pune?

Looking forward to your reply,

Veena

On 5/4/05, urmila bhirdikar <urmilabhirdikar at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi
>
> Most of the time i have been looking at the disacographies of the
> 78rpm records (in the remarkable work of Michael Kinnear and other
> scholars like Rajeev Patke) and acquiring and listening to the
> records. i am beginning to see ways of thinking in some definite ways
> about what i have conveniently called the 'aethetiics of the three
> minute format" (which applies to the records of slightly longer
> duration as well ).
>
> Specific to my context, it seems that this format went a long way in
> determining the idea of a 'complete' musical performance across genres
> and individual styles and for a music that was ideally/ essentially
> interminable because of the cyclical rhythm and the basic principles
> of improvisation. the imposition of external time over this music and
> the determination of genres through this imposition seems an
> interesting idea to follow.
>
> On another level the discographies may allow the 'construction' of a
> (very large perhaps) popular repertoire of both bandishes and tunes.
> let me talk about only tunes here. the early texts of marathi plays
> declare the 'base tune' (post 1910s mostly of hindusthani bandishes)
> of the stage songs. Does this declaration presume the familiarity of
> the reader with these tunes, and possibly the popularity of the
> gramophone records with the general public?
> there were of course 'Padyawalis" published in separate booklets with
> notations (which presumes the public is educated enough in reading
> music!!), but these booklets were diiscarded in subsequent editions.
> the tune, i think is a more interesting area to look into, as it
> behaves as the most abstract musical format in which words are
> 'fitted' to bring out specific emothins. this is not a new insight,
> (as we hear all those election songs based on popular tunes) but an
> area to look into how languages are negotiated in the abstract musical
> tunes. this is what i am looking at right now, so more on this later.
>
> Also the genres: this is a vast and mostly gray area... but i am still
> at the stage of wonderment to understand precisely how the baiji
> thumri became the genre of establishing ideal and respectable
> uppercaste womanhood in marathi theatre. at this moment i do not want
> to put my finger on some seemingly obvious conclusions, but suffice it
> to say that i am thinking of the core of 'fragile' practices in
> determing gender roles and relations.
>
> Apart from this, the "glossary" of terms for describing music is on
> the way. I wonder why some voices are called "Pahadi". i know the
> voice that is being mentioned here... but what does that word mean
> really?
>
> the time i spent in bombay was worth every moment, specially for
> getting hold of an idea of some 'undeclared' sources of certain base
> tunes.
>
> Quite suddenly, there are is a lot of marathi natyasangit in the
> market in new cds etc... the general hype of re discovering natysangit
> is in the air.. on that note, i am going to see two new productions of
> plays first performed in 1890s and 1916 respectively. I guess there is
> a lot to be said about the continuation of the popularity of this
> genre here.. some of which is best captured in begum barve...
> will speak about this a bit later.
>
> Urmila
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