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Mirkhand and Amir Khan
Mirkhand and Amir Khan
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to Asian Music
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Volume XXIV, number 2 ASIAN MUSIC Spring/Summer 1993
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90 Asian Music, Spring/Summer 1993
1 b3 2 b3 4 6 1 - i 6 4 b3 2 - b3 4 - 2 - 1
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Ross: Amir Khan 91
A 1 I__-
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AYIt
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toI
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92 Asian Music, Spring/Summer 1993
(a) 1 2 3
213
132
312
231
321
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Ross: Amir Khan 93
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94 Asian Music, Spring/Summer 1993
1 2 b3 4
2 1 b3 4
1 b3 2 4
b3 1 2 4
2 b3 1 4
b3 2 1 4,
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Ross: Amir Khan 95
b3 4 6 1
4 b3 ~ 1
b3 4 1
6 b3 4 1
4 6 b3 1
6 4 b3 1
b3 4 1 6
4 b4 1 6 ..
These combinations, and the ones that would follow, are within a
freewheeling area of Abhogl (b 4 1). If some of them are chosen,
taste will decide how they should be couched. Ma dha bga sa (4 6 b
1), for example, is extremely angular and might be best offset if
prepared and followed by less adventuresome phrases.
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96 Asian Music, Spring/Summer 1993
mzt -z Of
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Ross: Amir Khan 97
A3 shifts a little toward ga, but again ends with dha: b -4.-
And
introducing A4end
at its steers away
a new note,from ga, sa.
the tonic touching dha repeatedly,
Lookn, showing while
thmore closely
at this last phrase, one notices that it consists of three phrases, each
casting a different light on dha: () b: 4degree, dha, is(1) 4prominent, 1 - 6.with
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98 Asian Music, Spring/Summer 1993
4 b? 6 A3
b? 6 4
Sb 4
4 6 b? A2
6 4 b?
4 6 1 D1, El
6 4 1 DI
41 6 D2
146
614 D3
A few
note phrases
arrays. Somesuch as 1are
patterns 6 bespecially
4. (D3) may plausibly
prominent derive
because their from four-
last note ends a phrase, while others are imbedded in a larger
gesture. Here, Amir Khan's ability to keep dha fresh under scrutiny
(and to suspend the listener's perception of time) seems beholden to
the shell-game dexterity that m1rkhand imparts.
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Ross: Amir Khan 99
1435651-1765"454-21
A slightly expanded chalan might be
1435-456b7 6 5 1 - 1 7 6 5 4 5 4 - 2 1
The lore of Kedar's raga-ripa (and the list could go on!) is thus
considerably more extensive than that of Abhogi, and its
improvisatory scope is accordingly more regulated. But as in any art,
mastery is required to discover the freedoms within these confines. In
the following passage of Kedar bistar, Amir Khan spends some four
minutes shifting a balance from degree 2 to 4 (re to ma) 7
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100 Asian Music, Spring/Summer 1993
Am__ha - E~ b;+fj+7 r
AL W 77-7,
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7. _' - "
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ny v " ~ n
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Ross: Amir Khan 101
:00.
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_ir - v f ___ _ i _
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102 Asian Music, Spring/Summer 1993
I (4) 2 - 1 (ma) re - sa
II 5 - 1 pa - sa
III 1 - 5 sa - pa
IV 5 - 4 pa - ma
V 1 (4) - 5 sa (ma) - pa
A 1 I II I III
2 I III I II
3 I 11II II I
4 VI II IV
5 V II I
6 VI I II I
7 III II II [mukhral
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Ross: Amir Khan 103
B 1 V IV I
2 IV IV
3 V IV I IV
4 I II I
5 IV V IV I IV
C 1 V IV I
2 IV IV
3 V IV II IV
4 I 11II II I
5 V IV I
6 II IV I
7 V IV I [mukhral
D 1 V IV
2 V IV I
3 V IV V IV I II
4 II IIV
5 IV III II I[mukhral]
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104 Asian Music, Spring/Summer 1993
-} _ _Z,
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Ross: Amir Khan 105
I (4) 2 - 1 (ma) re - sa _
II 5 - 1 pa - sa
III 1 - 5 sa - pa
IV 5 - 4 pa - ma
V 1 (4) - 5 sa (ma)- pa
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106 Asian Music, Spring/Summer 1993
Jhomra tala favored by Amir Khan, and how these tala-cycles in turn
may be seen to be counterbalanced in an overarching awareness of
architectonic design, await future analyses. Such studies may once
again reveal the permutational principle: indeed, it is from this
vantage that Jairazbhoy has noted that "the whole concept of the
development of the melodic line in ... khayal [sic] seems to have a
marked similarity to the development of the sequences of [mirkhand]"
(Jairazbhoy 1961:313).
Union College
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Ross: Amir Khan 107
Notes
5 Excerpt, Music from Pakistan: Nazakat and Salamat Ali Khan, EMI
EALP 308, 1964. A line of vocal melody is represented on two staffs,
comprising one system. The upper of these shows the rhythmic cycle
in large divisions: in this case, the tala is a medium-slow Jhnmra of 14
beats, taking up two systems with each beat marked by a half-bar.
The corresponding passage in Abhogl by Amir Khan is in the 10-beat
cycle Jhaptal of medium tempo, all on one system with a dotted
barline showing the 5 plus 5 subdivision. In the Kedar transcription,
which is in Amir Khansahab's famously slow Jhumra, the systems are
in groups which alternate between 3 and 4 beats. Passages of bistar
are separated in all examples by returns to the mukhra, which
consists of the first few notes of the composed khyal. I omit these
returns in the transcription, since they do not figure in the
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108 Asian Music, Spring/Summer 1993
9 In the chapter "Men of Few Notes: Miles Davis and Amir Khan,"
from A Tune Beyond Us, Yet Ourselves: On Transcultural Hearing
(Ph.D. Thesis, Wesleyan University: 1985), I pursue this parallel in
aesthetic viewpoint.
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Ross: Amir Khan 109
References Cited
Bhatkhande, V.N.
1956 Hindustani Sangit-Paddhati (Hindi translation)
(Marathi originally publ. 1910) Bombay: Hathra
Jairazbhoy, Nazir
1961 "Swaraprastara in North Indian Classical Music,"
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies, Vol. XXIV, Part 2, University of London.
Thakur, Omkarnath
1954-62 Sangitanjali (I-IV), Banaras (Vol. II, publ. 1938
Nettl, Bruno
1974 "Thoughts On Improvisation: A Comparative
Approach," The Musical Quarterly 60:1.
Neuman, Daniel
1980 The Life of Music in North India: The Organization
of an Artistic Tradition. Detroit: Wayne State
University Press.
Powers, Harold S.
1976 "The Structure of Musical Meaning: A View from
Banaras," Perspectives of New Music 14:2/15: 1.
Wade, B.C.
1984 Khyal: Creativity within North India's Classical
Music Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
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