Swapnil and Piyush Gorey- a Singing based in Hindustani

Swapnil Gorey

Swapnil& Piyush: Born to a music family, Swapnil and Piyush both are originally from Gwalior Madhya Pradesh, the city of music maestro Tansen.

When we approached him for a feature here (his name suggested by some of the peers on Smule Sing), he immediately said, “I know you guys, let us talk on a direct chat, I am more comfortable expressing myself better when talk directly.”

When we finally caught up with him on a chat it was pretty late for him in his New Jersey, NY home. But Swapnil was still practicing his songs in his small studio he set at his house. A busy dad and taking care of a young family, we had to cut the conversations many times to speak. When finally settled down, on the other end of the chat was a young musician who clearly have a vision about his singing. He acknowledged many south India’s featured singers from Smule sing because he collaborate with many of them. We saw a singer in him who really see music seriously and have mature thoughts about it. In his own words here is what his music journey and music is all about. Since this feature is also about his younger brother Piyush there are some stuff that are redundant. But for all fairness, we did made a genuine effort to call his brother in India and there is a separate section for him as well. Keep reading.

Swapnil and Piyush both inherited this precious gift of music from their Mother and Guru Sadhana Gorey who herself is a professionally trained classical vocalist and staff  artist of the All India Radio, Gwalior. She started to train these brothers in classical music since very young age of three.

Swapnil an IT engineer by profession working in US says that he feels so gratified and thankful for the music skills he got and he will try every possible efforts to preserve and improve this golden asset forever.

Swapnil says  classical music is the core of any kind of music. He always kept music as hobby and never taken it professionally; still strive to sing better everyday and entertain people and for him it would be a dream come true if he could take his music professionally as well some day in future.

He says his guru, his mother always insisted that “Sangeet Shravani Vidya Hai” the more you listen the more you will get. Even he thinks that whatever he learnt, most of it is by listening to his mother’s practice everyday.

Talking about classical music, there is no single name but to name a few classical vocal maestros whom he grew up listening are Pt. Jasraj, Pt. Rajan sajan mishra, Ustad Rashid khan, Pt. Ulhaas Kashalkar and many more.

Talking about masters of singing in Bollywood, again he says he follows and listen everyone starting from Rafi Sahab, LataJi, Kishore Da, Sonu Nigam and Arijith Singh.

Asked about what kind of music he will make if given a chance, he wants to make such a music which is Sufi mixed with classical music and singing or performing it in a place like coke studio such a way that it takes singer and listeners in trans state.

“Swapnil Classics” that is the title of this selected songs from his Smule profile. Here he sing one of the iconic songs from Rafi era; it will not be an exaggeration if we say this is probably one of the best rendition of this song on Smule Sing. So count number Swapnil Classics one. He joins here an invite from Pradip Soman and as usual Pradip set the stage for a youngster to come and sing with him to show his talent. We think this one of Swapnil’s best performances. Listen

A Swapnil Calssics 2. Ranjish Hi Sahi, as Swapnil said in his interview, he would like Coke studios unplugged songs and sessions much. Have you heard this original version by Mehdi Hassan. There are many versions for this song. Here is Swapnil’s version. It is not a simple matter to sound like that. He sure know how to blow his horn. Listen.

Friends all the way. Bhavishya from लखनऊ से गौलिओर टेक great singers and one get the taste of both Lucknow and Gowlior ‘gayaki”. An AMAZING invite from Bhavishya joined by Swapnil on another Swapnil classics 3. Listen.

Brothers of Gwalior, Swapnil joins Piyush in his invite Kehna hai, Kishore classic, from movie Padosan.

This one is a special song here. Swapnil want to join hands with Piyush to make music like this. This is an extra special to display that wish of these brothers in an experiment stage. Ajay and Atul are two National award winning Marathi music directors who shot to fame nationally. Khel Mandala. Enjoy. Have heard a Music mojo version of this on Kappa TV? If not listen here

Song: Khel Mandala Singer: Ajay Gogavale Lyrics: Guru Thakur Music By: Ajay & Atul

Swapnil join his brother on a recent movie song. Here brothers made so much improvisations, it is sure a Gorey brothers version. Very nice performances.

This following one is added here to show a very healthy collaborative group of singers that Swapnil and Piyush is a part of. These singers we wish to bring here with these brothers are Jyoti Mishra, Sneha Hole, Maitreyee, Pall Sing, RVR, Ajit, Bhavishya Joshi, and the birthday girl Lyssa . Most of these singers are covered on previous features here. They all are excellent talented singers and they collaborate encourage and nurture each others music. This is one bunch of excellent talents here that we had the pleasure to know. Excellent singing here. There are two other singers in this song Jashmine and DevashritaSahu.

Piyush Gorey

It was such a pleasure here to introduce our second featured singer Piyush Gorey. When we wanted to feature him the task was to find a convenient time call him. Finally when we called him it was just after his work. We felt so sorry not to have him even a chance to go back home to relax before catch up for a chat. On the other side of the chat a professional engineer just out of his work after a very busy day. The other side was bright with Sunlight, finally he hurried with his phone to settle down some where peaceful to chat; We found a very bright young man with a lot of dreams of singing career. He said ” If I want to make music my brother Swapnil will be a part of it”. He wanted to be with him on the same feature, when we offered him to go on a separate feature as we are doing for all the singers off late.

Piyush started describing him growing up side by side with Swapnil who is a great singer and a mother who taught both of them right from very young age Hindustani. They both were taught to treat all humans equal and taught universal love.  Piyush said, of the two, Swapnil had been the more dedicated one when they were young. Now Piyush realize how lucky he had been taught the basics of raagas at such young age itself.

Let us get to know Piyush and his singing aspirations from himself.

Piyush,  who works as an IT professional based in Pune said “that music is a way to attain a blissful state of mind and also its is the true meaning of existence.” Very profound thoughts right there.

He says, his mother is the source of imparting that musical knowledge, whereas his father has been a medium to make sure that the music be always a divine tool which nourishes both the brothers spiritually as well. It is just like meditation (naad brahma) that has to flow from the heart which when practiced makes it divine.

Singers like Abida Parveen, Rashid Ali khan Sahab,  Ajay-Atul,  A. R. Rehmam are few among those great musicians who have always inspired and motivated Piyush.

When it comes to taking music professionally,  creating or composing his own music has always attracted him most as he wishes to experiment different genres and expand the culture of conventional music that exists in Indian film industry.

Without delay let us hear Piyush and his singing with some of the other fine singers on Smule here. First one is an awesome composition from the movie Katyar Kaljat Ghusali, originally sung by Rahul Deshpande, in the raag Kirwaani. Awesome singing by Piyush here. Joined by Swapnil. A treat for any ears. Beyond doubt his basics are as strong as his brothers. Give a listen for sure. Excellent singing by far any Smule peers.

Piyush joins other singers on the Smule Sing. O Saiyan. Enjoy this. Piyush is a less appreciated singer on Smule Sing. Yet he deserve better everything for sure. Give a listen.

One of the gem of  a join by Bhavishya on Piyush’s invite. Aahatein . Is it the song or is it that magic of every singer from Gwalior can bring such magic when joined with singers from Lucknow. No matter, beautiful singing by both.

Piyush join Swapnil’s coke studio classics invite Ranjish hi sahi. Very nice join; may be the best other than the whole song by Swapnil himself (see above embed). Both brothers show they both have learned the Hindustani and execute in two different styles, but very complementary to each other.

Please visit Piyush and Swapnil at their Smule Sing page and encourage these brothers in their singing. It was such a pleasure to know both these guys since we get to write in this feature more about the most prominent Gharaanas of Hindustani Sangeeth, Gwalior Gharaana. It is very important here for us to emphasize again the reason for this big recognition of these two singers from the hundreds of profiles on Smule Sing is their efforts and time spending practice learning the Hindustani; that training reflects their understanding of singing light music and that goes a long way for sure. The respect for the classical music system of India and the youngsters who embrace it make a pleasure to watch.

All the best for both brothers in the future and happy singing time.

Keep reading our extra long Anecdote on Gwalior Gharana.

Gwalior Gharana – A short visit to the Heart of Hindustani Sangeet

It makes us more than jittery when we sit down to write about this music system of Hindustani classical music. Nothing is written with out proper references. See below a list of web resources used during this short survey. Authors learned and write this special section based on hours of listening to the this style of Gharana Maestros and texts written out by many experts of this music system. This feature is written with a sole intend to make things as simple as possible and aimed towards a young audience who want to listen and enjoy Hindustani music. There could be lot of over look and mistakes, please do write to us if you think somethings are not presented the right way. Thanks to all readers. Please enjoy this great singing style of India we all are proud of.

Gwalior Gharana

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Historic Gwalior Palace and the blue stones

The city of Gwalior, the adobe of Northern India’s Classical music, the beautiful city of Gwalior, where the history sleeps under the spell of a khayaal gaayaki; the palatial basements of the Gwalior kingly homes were big enough even for elephants to pass through them; where Ustad Haddu Khan and Ustad Hassu Khan would do “riyaz” (practice) for hours every day; so that nobody but the royalty can listen to their music (1). From there to now the same music is in front of everyone to enjoy without any discrimination of race, gender and caste. The current universal accessibility status of Hindustani music is the result of efforts by many great patrons of this Gharana.

Who is who

Before the introduction we want to give a chronological order of patrons of this Gharaana here for a reason. We know this is a long list, but there is hardly any resource available anywhere one can get a complete list of the pioneers and proponents of this music system. So for any one who really want to know the pioneers in a chronological order, we made a list starting from the past history written for this Gharana as we know. Here are the names in a chronological order.

Pioneers:

Nathan Pir(Peer) Bakhsh

Nathu Khan

Haddu Khan

Hassu Khan

Ustad Qurban Hussain Khan

Bade Inayat Hussain Khan

Rehmat Ali Khan

Krishnarao Shankar Pandit

Raja Bhaiya Poonchwale

Balakrishnabuwa Ichalkaranjikar (1849–1926, brought Gwalior gharana style to Maharashtra)

Vishnu Digambar Paluskar – (1872–1931, disciple of Balakrishnabuwa Ichalkaranjikar, founded Gandharva Mahavidyalaya)

Anant Manohar Joshi – (1881 – Unknown), disciple of Balakrishnabuwa Ichalkaranjikar and Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardee in 1955.

Gururao Deshpande – (1889–1982)

Vinayakrao Patwardhan – (1898-1975, Padma bhushan awardee in 1972)

D. V. Paluskar – (1921-1955, child prodigy of  great V. D. Paluskar, and disciple of Vinayakrao Patwardhan. See below some original recordings of him from You tube)

Abdul Rashid Khan – oldest exponent of the gharana, disciple of Chhote Yusuf Khan. Bharat bhushan (2013) and Sangeet Natak Akademi (2009) awardee.

Malini Rajurkar – disciple of Vasantrao Rajurkar, acknowledged master of Tappa and Tarana, Sangeet Natak Academy Awardee (2001).

Pandit Vinayak Torvi – disciple of Pandit Gururao Deshpande, also influenced by Kirana, Agra and Jaipur gharanas.

Veena Sahasrabuddhe – also influenced by Jaipur and Kirana gharanas.

Ghulam Hassan Shaggan (1928-2015)- renowned khayal singer, disciple of his own father Ustad Bhai Lal Muhammad, Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Order of Excellence) awarded in 2000 from the Government of Pakistan.

Neela Bhagwat

Meeta Pandit

Shashwati Mandal Paul

Manjusha Kulkarni-Patil

Arman Khan (1988–present) – son of Niyamat Khan belongs to the family of Tansen’s daughter, is musical composer & one of the finest lyricist of Gwalior Gharana.[citation needed]

Ustad ShahJahan Khan – (1990–present), versatile singer/artist and brother of Arman Khan, did research work on Eastern, Western, Classical & Modern Singing styles.He introduced & brought Qawwali singing, for the very first time in this Gharana.

Vasundhara Komkali – wife of Kumar Gandharva and a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and the Padma Shree.

That is a long list of musicians who dedicated their life and career to propagate and nurture as we all hear and enjoy this system of Hindustani music (2) today.

Short History

The rise of the Gwalior Gharaana may be associated with the reign of the great Mughal emperor Akbar. His court musician Tansen came from the town of Gwalior and the genius of this singer, composer and the aura associated with him made the Gharaana system he propagated to became one of the most known all across India. His name is inseparable from every other Gharaanas that exist today.  Gwalior’s Kings, starting from Tomar dynasty to Scindias all nurtured music and musicians of this Gharana in a big way. The Gwalior singers, first experts of Drupad style, started experimenting with Khayal style over a time period of their performances in the King’s courts. This changes i singing styles are mainly attributed to Ustad Nathan Peer Baksh whose style was later expanded and taken to much more extended manner during the Ustads Hassu-Haddu-Nathu Khans (all different people). Nathan Peer Baksh and Nathu Khan originally moved from Lucknow to Gwalior to escape some sort of family fight; in a family feud his son or son in law was murdered (no historic record referenced here, word of mouth). Escaping for life he brought with him his two grand kids Haddu and Hassu Khan eloping to Gwalior. In most likely case these are the famous duo (3 &4) as historians say ornate the Gwalior King’s court.

All the Ustads of this Gharaana were singers at the court of Gwalior. Haddu and Hassu Khan were liberal teachers and they taught and propagated their styles through their famous disciple Shahdad Khan. More importantly this gharana produced a string of very illustrious disciples from Maharashtra led by Balkrishna Bua Ichalkaranjikar, Vasudev Joshi and Baba Dixit. Balkrishna Bua who trained the legendary Vishnu Digambar Paluskar who literally carried the flag of Gwalior gharaana to Bombay, Pune, and Maha­rashtra (4). The Pandits who also learned the system and some of the direct lineage from Pandits is today’s famous young proponent, Meeta Pandit. She wrote a book to give us a lot of stories that were passed through generations; as these stories stayed inside the Ustad families (see the book reference here at he end).

Style of Singing

This subject of Gwalior gharaana had been repeatedly described in various complicated ways in many of the web based accounts we referenced. We found an explanation provided to us by Dr. D. R. Bakshi seems very straight forward and can be followed easily. So as he told us here is the explanation of the style of singing. Use the technical word list at the end of this essay to understand this section better. (3)

“The distinctive feature of the Gwalior style of singing has been noted as “it’s lucidity and simplicity”. Others have also stated that this gaayaki is characterized by its serious outlook and slow swinging pace. A strong emphasis in simplicity of its presentation is fundamental to the aesthetics of this gharaana. This gharaana first and foremost choose familiar and well known raagas such as Alhaiya Bilawal, Yaman, Bhairav, Saarang, Multani, Shree, Bhoop, Kaamod, Hameer, Basant, Paraj, Gaud malhar, Shankara etc. The characteristic feature of simple and straight – forward melodic movements of these raagas make them the ‘bade raaga’, meaning they provide ample opportunity for expansion, thus holding a greater appeal to the listener.

The second feature of the Gwalior gharana is that it pays great attention to singing khyaal-s using the traditional bandish-es. The gharana holds the view that it is the bandish which is of greater importance than the rules that delineate a raaga, as it is the bandish which incorporates the raaga and manifests its full melodic form. It is the bandish which provides the guidance, as to how the raaga should be sung, since it specifies which are the important notes as well as the note-combinations to be used and lays down the manner in which the taal and the melody should be combined and balanced. Knowing 15 or 20 bandishes in the same raag was not considered as something extra-ordinary in this gharana, as a singer’s repertoire usually consist of a much larger number.

So how does a singer go about singing and stick to these rules? In all the practice point, singing the sthayi fully, followed by an antaraa to present the whole raaga is typical. Unless the two (sthayi and antaraa) are sung, the artist is not permitted to introduce variations or make any other contribution of his own. After singing the antaraa, the artist commences the improvisation (swara vistaar) by singing the notes in aakaar in vilambita laya. These are known as behlaav that form an important part of the presentation. Then, combinations of the notes forming the raaga are taken in groups and are sung at a faster pace but without changing the basic tempo of the tablaa thekaa. This is known as ” dugun ka aalaap “

After this section of aalaap, the “bol aalaap” is commenced, in which the meanings of the words of the bandish are brought out, as different word combinations are sung to different notes, thus varying both, the words and the note-combinations. These are followed by taans and bol taans. Bol taans are sung at a faster pace using the words of the bandish. Gwalior style is particularly noted for its straight and simple taans, created with the use of double notes and aarohi avarohi sapaata taans. The Gwalior gaayaki is also marked by extensive use of mind, to provide continuity between the words of composition, and this gives a distinctive melodic shape to the singing. Usually most of the badaa khyaal-s in this gharaanaa are sung in tilwaadaa, jhoomaraa, aadaachau taals or ek taal while drut bandish-es are normally in teen taal or ektaal.”

And that is pretty much one need to keep in mind when listen to any of the great singers of this gharana ssytem. Then you will see how different proponents do things differently.

Here a sampoorna raaga by Ustad Rashid Khan sahib. We here add a Bandish in Raag Todi. “Langar Kankariya maaro” by Ustad Rashid khan. What he sings here is Miyan ki todi (Miyan Tansen) and Shudh todi

Bandish – Langar kankariya na maaro – Raag Miyan ki Todi

The young and prodigal child of Paluskar who passed away very young is the next video embed here. This angel came to earth to sing some of the best Bhajan’s made in this Gharaana style. Enjoy this. Tumak Chalat Ramachandra. A profoundly influential bhajan sung by him.

Pt. Omkar Nath Takur singing Vande Mataram on the eve of India’s Independence. The disciple of great Paluskar, Pandit Omkarnath Thakur, was invited to sing this National song of India by Jawaharlal Nehru, first Prime Minister of independent great India on the eve of India’s independence from the shameful era of British Raaj forced upon a great culture. Thaat: Khamaj, Avarohana: Sa ni Dha, Pa Dha Ma Ga Re, Pa …
Arohana: Ni Sa Re, Ma Pa Ni, Sa, Time of day: Late night, 12–3

Important References:

1. India’s heritage of Gharana Music: Pandits of Gwalior, by Meeta Pandit
2. http://www.meetapandit.com/gwalior-gharana-styles-of-singing/
3. http://www.soundofindia.com/showarticle.asp?in_article_id=1166287199
4. Gwalior Gharana of Classical Music, By Vinay Kapoor
5. http://www.meetapandit.com/gwalior-gharana/

Acknowledgements: Our special thanks to Miss Jyoti Nair (free lance correspondent of the news paper “The Hindu” on Music and Culture and Dhara Ruchir Bakshi for sharing valuable sources of his work during the preparations of this feature.

Technical words used in the article:

gharaana: A school of music (vocal/instrumental/dance)

Gaayakii : It is the style of singing.

Khayaal : Khayaal (imagination), is a form as well as the style of singing in Indian Classical Music, with an expansive and systematic elaboration/improvisation of the combination of swara, taal and lyrics – with the basic intention of presenting the aesthetics of the raaga.

Raaga : It is the abstract melodic framework of included notes (swaras)

vilambita (laya): The slow (tempo).

behlaava: Improvisation.

Taal : Taal is a cycle of a specific number of beats, represented by a specific set of bol-s.

Thekaa: The basic cycle of a taal, played on the tabla to accompany the performer (singer/instrumentalist).

aalaap: Improvisation singing aaa…..

bol aalaap: Improvisation using the words of a composition.

taan: a (faster) passage of notes.

bol taan: a taan using the words of a composition.

Bandish: It refers to a musical composition in a raaga, set to a taal.

drut bandish: a composition in fast tempo.

Sthayi: The first part of composition is known as sthaayi, which typically remains within the lower and middle octaves.

antaraa: The second part of composition is known as antaraa, which typically covers the middle and higher octaves.

Qawwaals: Qawwaali is a form of singing, meaning ‘a song in praise of God’. The singers of qawwaali are called the qawwaals.

Final Thoughts

It was such a great time and experience writing this feature here. We think that every bit of our efforts will be effective if one youngster decide after reading this feature to learn Hindustani to perfect their singing. Keep coming back for more expanded features on India’s music every week. Thank you all.

This feature is exclusively written for the blog by Padayatti PS PhD.