Listening to Ustad Faiyaz Khan's renditions of Raaga Darbari Kanada - Part 3 of 4

Image 03 - Ustad Faiyaz Khan

True musicianship is not only about command over the form, but about the ability to transform the very space one sings into.

Ustad Faiyaz Khan was a "master of maahol "- a term Pt. Kumar Prasad Mukherjee uses while speaking about his music. 1

This quality perhaps comes through most strikingly in his Darbari.

There are multiple  recordings of Khan sahab’s Darbari available today. In fact, some of the longest surviving recordings of his are in this raaga.

One of them, close to an hour in length, comes from a private baithak in the late 1930s. (Longer Version - Track 01 Ustad Faiyaz Khan - Raag Darbari | Private Baithak | Late 1930's

However, the sound quality is noticeably better in another Darbari nom-tom alaap of about thirty minutes, available in two parts. 

Track 02 - ( Part 1 of alaap) -

19-05 Darbari Alap (1)

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Listening to this particular nom-tom alaap is a multifold experience.

One feels overwhelmed, humbled, awestruck, almost shaken to the core, by the profundity of what is unfolding. 

I happened to hear this version of  Darbari before the longer baithak recording, and after listening to it, I found myself unable to study any other Darbari for quite some time. I am therefore sharing a few observations from this version in particular, also because of its relatively better sound quality.

Also most importantly, this recording retains the opening portion of the nom-tom alaap, which is usually missing in most available recordings of other raagas.

Right from the very beginning, even the Sa carries the scent of Darbari. 

What stands out repeatedly through this recording is, first, the way he builds immense anticipation around a phrase - only to work against it, keeping it unpredictable.

Second, multiple tonal colours and shades of the same swaras , and throughout, the meends display extraordinary control and precision, sometimes with different degrees of curvature. And then there are the breathtaking pukaars.

Working abundantly with the Re–Sa–Ḍha phrase, he builds a pulsating, powerful Shadja. Reinforcement of Sa is a common feature across many of his recordings and here he himself points out the  open Sa and a closed Sa , almost as if there is a pin-pointed, concentrated Sa at the core, from which a strong, open Sa radiates outward (around 3.45 min).

The mandra saptak phrases, laden with gamak, feel deeply reverberant.

Around 7.30 min, anticipation is built so strongly that one is almost certain a Sa’ will follow, but it never arrives.

One also hears a slightly higher shade of Ni employed consistently through the alaap. At around 9.18 min, he even  demonstrates multiple shades of Ni almost  in the same space. 

There is yet another moment of suspended anticipation between 10.15min and 11.16 min, where one keeps expecting a Ga. When Ga finally appears, it seems like it is almost merged with Re (11.25–11.44 min). 

Soon after, the Ma–Sa movement is deliberately slowed down, and the effect is profound. At around 12.04 min, it feels like a final masterstroke.

As Pt Shrikrishna Babbanrao Haldankar ji notes ² - Each section of this recording feels like a complete small composition in itself, the larger alaap seems to be a sum of many such fully formed musical ideas.

Track 03- (Part 2 of alaap) -

20-04 Darbari Alap Pt 2 (1)

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The second part of the alaap only deepens this experience. Here again, the playfulness in anticipation stands out clearly.

There are several unpredictable octave shifts - around 1.56 min (Ma-Pa-Dha-Ni, Ṇi-Sa-Re-Ga), again at 2.06 min with repeated Ni-Ṇi phrases, and at 2.17 min (Ma- Pa- Dha-Ni, Ṇi- Sa). 

A similar moment appears at about 3.32 min, where one strongly expects a Sa’, but instead encounters an octave change.

What is striking is that even up to around 4.20 min, Sa’ has still not been introduced. Context after context is built, until Sa’ finally arrives , with tremendous intensity. 

Between roughly 5.45 and 7.40 min, Khan sahab works extensively with his signature pukaar, resulting in an emotionally charged outpouring that is deeply stirring.

The intentional  use of silence around 7.30 min is particularly telling

Around 10.40 min, strong, faster gamak-laden phrases appear, adding yet another dimension to the unfolding.

Finally, the analysis and timestamps begin to  feel inadequate , they recede into the background, like there is nothing left to say about this recording - only to listen and absorb it.

Perhaps nothing sums up Khan sahab’s music, and this Darbari in particular, better than a comment I came across by Ahmed Anwer under one of his Darbari recordings as in Track 01 mentioned earlier.

“Ustad Faiyaz Khan's gayaki, to my mind, stands alone and distinct in one critical respect. There are of course all those elements of impressive formal mastery: the authoritative display of quintessential raaga features, the thoroughbred traditional grammar, the noble exposition and grand structural architecture of the raaga vistar, the magisterial authority and imaginative beauty of Khan sahib's nom-tom alapkari. 

Yet even all this wouldn't quite suffice to make him immortal in that unique way to which he lays claim. 

Beyond all this, or rather superadded to them, what raises his art to an absolute and overpowering sublimity is the unleashed power, passion, and full-throated opening up of heart, soul, and those un-paraphrasable emotional layers that ring forth - precisely and paradoxically -through the very discipline and rigour of masterly control, structure, and ustadi. 

This immediately communicative ‘higher dimension’ of Ustad’s vocal art is truly nothing short of miraculous: the fact that he, a sovereign classical virtuoso, truly sang with soul.”

Continue reading here - Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 4 .

Here is a list of all references.

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1. Music of Ustad Faiyaz Khan Saheb Compared by Shri KUmar Prasad Mukherjee  AIRNP, 19888

2. Haldankar, Srikrishna. Aesthetics of Agra and Jaipur Traditions. Popular Prakashan, 2001