Where did the East meet the West? In Musical Mysore for sure!

12/28/2019

In 2015, while I was doing my Masters in Contemporary Music at the New England Conservatory, a colleague of mine said ‘The Beatles discovered Raaga music and showed it to the world’. This irritating cliché of the West handpicking traditional gems in the East for global consumption, (oh, so oriental of him!) somehow annoyed me. Where and when did Western art music meet India and Indian music for the first time? Where were the very first of these Carnatic Encounters? These questions gripped me. The very first encounters of Carnatic music happened not in the 20th century with bands like Shakti or in the Ravishankar era - but back in the hay days of Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar and in the culturally fertile soils of Mysore! The 'Indian Orchestra' and the "English Band' of the Mysore court tell the stories of these very first and very significant encounters of Western and Indian music.

10 Comments

Navaratna Sudheer

3/12/2020 10:54:36 am

Was it not that the first encounters of Carnatic Music with Western music happened even earlier during Chamaraja Wodeyar reign in 1880's?

Understand, Vidwan BASAPPA SHASTRI composed Kayou Shree Gouri in Sanskrit on Chamaraja Wodeyar's request in 1883. It was adopted as State Anthem of Mysore Kingdom. Set to tune in Dheera Shankarabharana and notations in C Major by Vanika Shikhamani Sheshanna and Maharaja's Band Master Bartels.

I also believe it was Tagores neice Saraladevi Ghoshal who visited Mysore in 1992 learnt to sing this song and in turn taught Tagore. He composed Anandaloke Mangalaloke in 1893 based on the same tune in Tatsama Bengali. ( Ref; Gitabitan which credits that this was based upon Mahishuri Bhajan)

You may check and correct me if I am wrong.

Navaratna Sudheer

3/12/2020 11:00:41 am

Correction. Sarala Devi visited Mysore in 1892 and not 1992. Error regretted.

R.RAJA CHANDRA

3/12/2020 11:52:59 am

A guide to the records in the Divisional Archives, Mysore- part -1 (The Palace Departments) : a publication Divisonal Archives office, Mysore of 1991 describes as follows:

An English band was entertained in the Palace Establishment from the days of Krishnaraja Wodeyar III. At the Settlement 1868, the English Band was merged with the Kille Kacheri. In 1903, it was again formed into an independent branch with a Band Master. In the beginning it had a Reed Section, a String Section, a Bag-Bag-pipe Section and miscellaneous section; and it functioned under the control of the control of Kille Kacheri Bakshi. From 1921, a Karnatak Band with an Assistant Band Master came to be added to it.

The band used to play at the Neshat Bagh in Mysore, the Lal-Bagh and the Market Square in Bangalore on certain days to entertain the public. They were deputed to play at the Garden Parties of Their Highnesses the Maharaja and the Yuvaraja at Bangalore, Ooty, Sakleshpur, etc. On special occasions like the visit of the viceroy and other high officers of the Government of India, the Rulers of Indian States, etc., also the band was deputed to entertain the guest and gatherings.

The Palace Band, which had earned a unique place in hearts of the people of Mysore through its glorious past, excellent training and proficiency, came to be attached with required strength to the new unit of Mysore armed Reserved Police (MARP) Palace Guards and placed under the control of the Superintendent of Police of that unit, and under the overall authority of the Inspector General of police from 1951.

R.RAJA CHANDRA

3/12/2020 12:03:44 pm

It is equally interesting to quote from the famous painter Richard caton woodville's book: Random Recollections. He was at Mysore and painted one of the famous paintings of Maharaja Chamarajendra Wadiyar. This is what he says about the Maharaja:

Daily at noon an A.D.C. would call to inquire if I desired a band to play during dinner, and the performance of the musicians was distinctly as good as could be desired. The Maharajah himself was a musician above the average, and his compositions, both European and native, as good as those of many a professional musician of high standing. ...

About a palace room in the old palace:

One of its rooms, though, was a curiosity. In it were no fewer than five orchestrions, in which His Highness delighted, and used to set going all at once for the edification of his native visitors. The noise in a room of about sixty feet by thirty was something terrific, and from the contented sighs and expressions on the faces of the benighted and pleasantly astonished natives the entertainment was something worth hearing.

Deepti Navaratna

4/13/2020 06:28:04 am

You had sent me this document to read, what a fascination memoir! He notes that 'The Maharajah himself was a musician above the average, and his compositions, both European and native' - I want to find his compositions. Once this lockdown is over, the digitization of the band library is my first project.

R.RAJA CHANDRA

3/12/2020 12:07:51 pm

Another description of Woodville of the arrangements made deep in the forest for when for H.R.H. the Duke of Clarence and Avondale, Prince Albert Victor of Wales visited Mysore shows the passion of the young maharaja and his attention to detail:

What we saw was a beautiful clearing, which only little more than a week ago had been forest and wilderness, with a village of huts all of large size, pitched in an orderly manner in rows, surrounded by flower beds and grass plots all tastefully arranged, with street lamps in every direction, a bandstand in the centre. In fact, it looked as if the whole thing had stood there always. After a bath and change, we were soon ready for our dinner, which was cooked and served as in a first-class hotel, and accompanied by the music of one of the Maharajah of Mysore's regimental bands

R.RAJA CHANDRA

3/12/2020 12:38:23 pm

I would be very happy if you can do some research on the French musician Charles-Valentin Soualle who was in Mysore and enjoyed Mummadi's patronage and after conversion to Islam became famous as Ali Ben Sou Alle. He is credited with the invention of saxophone. some records claim that he directed the Raja's orchestra, and was, at the same time, awarded the title of Royal Knight of Mysore.

I believe the genesis to the question where did he east met west can be traced to his experiments in Mysore which may have ultimately made saxophone a very much a part of Carnatic music ! But during Nalvadi's period one Lakshminarasimhaiah was famous as saxophone Lakshminarasimhaiah and influenced Kadri Gopalnath to take it up and achieve what he ultimately did .

It would be fascinating to unearth more on Ali Ben Sou Alle and what he did in Mysore !

Navaratna Sudheer

3/12/2020 09:35:31 pm

Dear Mr. Rajachandra,

Very many thanks for your posts in response to one of mine.

As to Charles Valentin Soualle, following may interest you.

https://scroll.in/magazine/839406/ali-ben-sou-alle-was-this-19th-century-frenchman-the-pied-piper-of-mysore

https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/19911/11/JAMIS44_13_Cottrell.pdf

R.RAJA CHANDRA

3/13/2020 12:20:26 pm

Dear Mr. Navaratna Sudhir,

Read this article:

https://serenademagazine.com/features/the-forgotten-voyager/

Deepti Navaratna

4/13/2020 06:24:16 am

The idea of military bands is said to have originated from the 'Mahters' of the Ottoman Turks, whose Janissary music struck fear and panic in the hearts who heard them! In the 17th & 18th centuries, Turkish military music influenced both art music (read up on Turquerie-influenced Western music, ex: Ronda Alla Turca by Beethoven) and English military bands. As early as 1813, M. Scott the Military Secretary to the Commander in Chief of Fort St. George notes: 'our musick not being in much repute among the Natives of India". He urged that military bands in the native regiments of East India Company be initiated, so that, European Culture and music is better appreciated. His memoir further notes that the starting of military bands in all native states followed this. As Rajachandra ji said, one can find the salaries and emoluments given to the band in Kille Kutcheri records as early as the time of Mummadi (one can find references to this in the work of Aya Ikagame on Princely Mysore).

It was not until the starting of the intellectual movement of the Philharmonia Societies in London, that a similar philharmonic orchestra was started in 1921 by Nalwadi. Unlike the English bands already existing or even that of Serfoji, the Orchestra was envisioned with a different purpose – new music. Also, it was better institutionalized - had a bandmaster, commissioned new music, had signature repertoires and most importantly – it kickstarted a renaissance of instrumental music which looked at the Western classics and world music for inspiration at once.

Carnatic Encounters

Where did the East meet the West? In Musical Mysore for sure!

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