Commercialism in Hindustani Classical Music - A Brief Survey with Arnab Chakrabarty
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8 February 2024, 1.30pm PST
Asian Studies Auditorium, UBC Campus 1871 West Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2 Tickets: Free |
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Hindustani classical music is one of the great art music forms of the world. It demands a combination of extraordinary skill, thought, memory and erudition from its performers, and at its very finest, is a delectable treat for the soul. However, this musical form, which has at least a 450-year tradition of oral and written transmission, faces challenges to its core ideology. The fundamental value of this music is the creative exploration of ragas, which are highly prescriptive melodic matrices, each of which possesses clearly defined building blocks in the form of tone material, and phrase geometries, and the tools that enable their manipulation to produce music in real time - navigational grammar, articulation syntax and phrase timing. This classical musical form has always been in flux, in a constant state of evolution, but this fundamental definition of Hindustani raga music - as raag sangeet, or raga music - has remained in a steady state.
However, over the last three decades or so, this art form finds itself at a crossroads which should, if it hasn’t already, bifurcate it into at least two genres (and their offshoots). If the name of the game is the discovery of melodic-rhythmic novelty within this aforementioned framework, we must contend that much of the Hindustani music performed on public stages today does not really conform to the basic tenets of this art form. How exactly did we get here? My talk seeks to explore the pressures on musicians, as they try to negotiate an increasingly complex world, while purporting to perform traditional music, which they sometimes claim goes back millennia. The bigger question, however, is of artistic integrity, and my position is that it is extremely difficult to remain accountable as a traditional musician when the prime driver of artistic choices is being accessible to as large an audience as possible.
Hriday Buddhdev will be joining Arnab Chakrabarty on Tabla.
However, over the last three decades or so, this art form finds itself at a crossroads which should, if it hasn’t already, bifurcate it into at least two genres (and their offshoots). If the name of the game is the discovery of melodic-rhythmic novelty within this aforementioned framework, we must contend that much of the Hindustani music performed on public stages today does not really conform to the basic tenets of this art form. How exactly did we get here? My talk seeks to explore the pressures on musicians, as they try to negotiate an increasingly complex world, while purporting to perform traditional music, which they sometimes claim goes back millennia. The bigger question, however, is of artistic integrity, and my position is that it is extremely difficult to remain accountable as a traditional musician when the prime driver of artistic choices is being accessible to as large an audience as possible.
Hriday Buddhdev will be joining Arnab Chakrabarty on Tabla.
Arnab Chakrabarty | Full Bio
“A musician known both for his emotive virtuosity and cerebral approach.” - The Hindu (2016)
One of the top-ranking sarod artists of the current generation, Indo-Canadian musician Arnab Chakrabarty (b. 1980) is a consummate performer and teacher of Hindustani instrumental music. Well known for his fine articulation of musical phrases, prodigious imagination, and fidelity to canonical raga forms, Chakrabarty is one of very few Hindustani musicians today who embody commitment to protecting and advancing the art form. He is the custodian of several hundred raga compositions inherited from both the Lucknow and Shahjahanpur lineages of sarod music.
Arnab has had his training under three major representatives of the Shahjahanpur Gharana of sarod music, Dr Kalyan Mukherjea, Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta and Ustad Irfan Muhammad Khan. He has also benefited from vocal training under the late maestro of the Gwalior Gharana, Pandit Yeshwantbua Joshi.
A student of music for over 35 years, Arnab Chakrabarty has been a professional musician for two decades, appearing at nearly 1000 public concerts in 33 countries. His performances have taken him to almost every important music festival in India and dozens in Europe and the United States, including the London Symphony Orchestra (2023), Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (2023), Copenhagen Jazz Festival (2014), Victoria & Albert Museum (London, 2017, in the presence of the then HRH Prince Charles), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, 1999), Silk Road Festival (Damascus, 2010) and Trafo House of Contemporary Culture (Budapest, 2012). His own initiative, the annual Dr. Kalyan Mukherjea Memorial Concert in Calcutta, India, was a runaway success in 2023, featuring some of India’s most respected classical musicians. Arnab plans to make this concert an annual event.
Recent Accomplishments:
● Chalmers Arts Fellowship (2023) - Ontario Arts Council
● Concept to Realization Grant (2023) for The Music of Lucknow-Shahjahanpur - CCA
● Circulation & Touring Grant (2023) - Arts Abroad, CCA for a tour of the UK and Spain
● Consultant for acclaimed Marathi film The Disciple (2021) by award-winning director Chaitanya
Tamhane. The film also features me in a cameo as myself.
● Toronto Arts Council Music & Recording Grant (2020) resulting in the solo album Cat's Cradle –
Fresh Expressions in Vintage Ragas, released digitally in June 2022 on all major music
platforms; played nationally on several CBC Music shows, winning fulsome praise from critics and
listeners.
● Worked on the soundtrack of 2005 Oscar winner, Born Into Brothels – Calcutta's Red Light
Children.
● Visiting lecturer at the Music Department, King’s College London, hosted by renowned music
historian Dr. Katherine Butler Schofield.
● Member of the Lute Legends collective, also featuring Canadian lutanist Lucas Harris,
Sino-Canadian pipa player Wen Zhao and Palestinian oud virtuoso Ronnie Malley.
This program is presented by the Indian Classical Music Society of Vancouver (ICMSV) with the support of UBC Department of Asian Studies and School of Music. Special thanks to Dr. Adheesh Sathaye and Dr. Michael Tenzer. If you are looking to sponsor this event please send us an email to [email protected]
“A musician known both for his emotive virtuosity and cerebral approach.” - The Hindu (2016)
One of the top-ranking sarod artists of the current generation, Indo-Canadian musician Arnab Chakrabarty (b. 1980) is a consummate performer and teacher of Hindustani instrumental music. Well known for his fine articulation of musical phrases, prodigious imagination, and fidelity to canonical raga forms, Chakrabarty is one of very few Hindustani musicians today who embody commitment to protecting and advancing the art form. He is the custodian of several hundred raga compositions inherited from both the Lucknow and Shahjahanpur lineages of sarod music.
Arnab has had his training under three major representatives of the Shahjahanpur Gharana of sarod music, Dr Kalyan Mukherjea, Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta and Ustad Irfan Muhammad Khan. He has also benefited from vocal training under the late maestro of the Gwalior Gharana, Pandit Yeshwantbua Joshi.
A student of music for over 35 years, Arnab Chakrabarty has been a professional musician for two decades, appearing at nearly 1000 public concerts in 33 countries. His performances have taken him to almost every important music festival in India and dozens in Europe and the United States, including the London Symphony Orchestra (2023), Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (2023), Copenhagen Jazz Festival (2014), Victoria & Albert Museum (London, 2017, in the presence of the then HRH Prince Charles), Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, 1999), Silk Road Festival (Damascus, 2010) and Trafo House of Contemporary Culture (Budapest, 2012). His own initiative, the annual Dr. Kalyan Mukherjea Memorial Concert in Calcutta, India, was a runaway success in 2023, featuring some of India’s most respected classical musicians. Arnab plans to make this concert an annual event.
Recent Accomplishments:
● Chalmers Arts Fellowship (2023) - Ontario Arts Council
● Concept to Realization Grant (2023) for The Music of Lucknow-Shahjahanpur - CCA
● Circulation & Touring Grant (2023) - Arts Abroad, CCA for a tour of the UK and Spain
● Consultant for acclaimed Marathi film The Disciple (2021) by award-winning director Chaitanya
Tamhane. The film also features me in a cameo as myself.
● Toronto Arts Council Music & Recording Grant (2020) resulting in the solo album Cat's Cradle –
Fresh Expressions in Vintage Ragas, released digitally in June 2022 on all major music
platforms; played nationally on several CBC Music shows, winning fulsome praise from critics and
listeners.
● Worked on the soundtrack of 2005 Oscar winner, Born Into Brothels – Calcutta's Red Light
Children.
● Visiting lecturer at the Music Department, King’s College London, hosted by renowned music
historian Dr. Katherine Butler Schofield.
● Member of the Lute Legends collective, also featuring Canadian lutanist Lucas Harris,
Sino-Canadian pipa player Wen Zhao and Palestinian oud virtuoso Ronnie Malley.
This program is presented by the Indian Classical Music Society of Vancouver (ICMSV) with the support of UBC Department of Asian Studies and School of Music. Special thanks to Dr. Adheesh Sathaye and Dr. Michael Tenzer. If you are looking to sponsor this event please send us an email to [email protected]