Folk Music VS Classical Music

[coolkarni]

I am taking off , from the discussions on the sindhubhairavi and its folk connections.

Can we have a discussion on Folk Music here ?

My first brush with the term Folk Music came when My late father came into contact with one Mudenur Sangannanavar of Chigateri , In Davangere district, Karnataka.A very well read person -though he did not have formal schooling-he is considered an authority in our part of the state on Kannada Folk Music.Decades ago , he had travelled widely with a tape recorder in hand picking up the various shades of Music that can be classified as Kannada Folk music from the villages.If you have watched Sankar Nag's famous teleserial -Malgudi Days- .. well some of the music that has been used to create the period effect is from this stock.SankarNag slept in the barn for a night picking up the bits he liked (I was told).
These Days I make the trip to that remote village once a year to pick up stuff from this old gentleman.

Though a very influential person in( HM )Music circles , this gentleman never aspired for Official positions and on the occasion of his being asked to go abroad for the Festival of India series, he is reported to have suggested the name of an additional artist in his place.
Ever since we came into contact with this person, Folk Music has ceased to be a class of music on the fringe of our awareness , but something which is very real , very close to our hearts , and something we can identify with very easily.The kashmiri tunes from the santhoor, Rajasthani lullabies on the Sarangi ,the Baul Music of Nikhil Bannerji, Marathi natya Geeth, Punjabi tappas, the Kavadi Sindhus ,the great use of these tunes by Khayyam in Hindi Film Music, not to speak of Madan Mohan who bent more towards the Ghazal , the Bhupen Hazarikas of Assam.......
the tradition is so rich .. but which lies in the shadow of mainstream classical music.
And that is not restricted to the Indian Borders alone.Remember the Didi Didi song by an Iranian-Khaled-, those wild aboriginal beats by the Osibisa Troupe or the frenzied singing of Nustrat Fateh Ali Khan .

Devoid of all classical pretensions , there is something here that touches us immediately.

So I thought it fit to explore all the aspects of this genre , the regions involved and the various exponents.

So please pour in your thoughts here .I start with a track by Ajoy Chakraborthy-who sang Ka Karoon Sajni aye Na balam in (Sindhu)Bhairavi..

As I mentioned earlier the first half has a lot of Western touch and in the second track it takes on an Iranian Flavour

http://rapidshare.de/files/12361291/ajo ... 1.mp3.html

: http://rapidshare.de/files/12361832/ajo ... 2.mp3.html

For the record , Ajoy is such an interesting HM artist , ever looking out for new approaches.Going against tradition , he has sung full length khayals in Sindhu Bhairavi and Thumris/Dadras in Darbari and Malkauns !

And my heart goes out to Kumar Gandhrav , who after a near death Experience (because of a lung disease) had to settle in a Madhyapradesh Hill resort , got influenced greatly by the Folk Music there and wove it so beautifully to Hindusthani Music .We shall see samples of his genius also as we progress..

[Sivaraman]

Dear Mr.Coolkarni,
That was an excellent and very erudite post on the role of folk music in our Indian culture.Mention must also be made of the "magudi"and "themmangu" songs of Tamilnadu and the "pahadi" dhuns of North India.
Incidentally, your music links to the rapidshare files do not work.I get an error message that file not found.
Can you help?
Sivaraman.

[coolkarni]

sivaraman
the ajoy tracks here are working.
were you referring to the other tracks i would have posted in this forum ?the ones which would have crossed the 30 day limit would have expired.specific ones will have to be uploaded again...magudi tracks i can fish out.themmangu is a new word for me .can someone elaborate on kavadi sindhu .anyone here with nadamuni band tracks ???

[meena]

kji

DELETED

[new_cmfan]

CoolKji -

"Remember the Didi Didi song by an Iranian-Khaled-"
Since you mention Khaled's Didi - here's a link to a snippet of the song for those who haven't heard him.

http://i-cias.com/e.o/khaled.htm

btw - he's algerian.

[Sivaraman]

Coolkarni,
Themmangu songs are folk songs from tamilnadu villages, which bring out the raw emotions of the agricultural peasants and other village artisans.Most of these songs bring out the love angle of honest, hardworking peasants, who serenade their beloved with these folk songs set to rural melodies and foot-tapping beats.The link below from www.dhool.com offers a choice selection of themmangu songs for our listening pleasure:
http://www.dhool.com/sotd2/catlist.php?catid=19
Hope this will initiate everyone into this glorious genre of folk music which, however,is now being corrupted by the present generation of tamil film music directors into bastardised versions called "Ghana" songs, which are cheap, vulgar and totally against the spirit of the original themmangu folk songs.I see these ghana songs as totally deplorable efforts to cheapen a beautiful folk music tradition of themmangu.
Sivaraman.

[cookmex]

Interesting.
Looking for more information about this drum:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke9Tab91OFY

[kssr]

Welcome back after a break Sri.Coolji/Mankuthimma and coming back with a bang in this very interesting topic.
We can definitely include kummi and kolattam songs which are really fantastic. For a sample you can see Bharathiar's kummi song which also has a women's lib theme. If people have recordings of these songs, they should be saved for posterity through great reservoirs like Sri.coolji.

[vasanthakokilam]

Not everything that starts with coo is cool, kssr

[VK RAMAN]

Welcome back evergreen cool and mankuthimma mex