Growing into Music Films

Beyond Text: Growing into Music was a project hosted by SOAS, University of London between 2009 and 2012. We studied music transmission and childhood music acquisition in Cuba, Venezuela, Mali, Senegal, Azerbaijan and India. It was a longitudinal study—where possible, we observed the same children "growing into music" over three years, documented mainly through the medium of video. I was reponsible for research and filming of Indian classical musicians, Sufu Qawwali musicians and Rajasthani Langa and Manganyar folk musicians. I also did some filming in Azerbaijan. I published seven films which are presented below, but first I want to share four shorter "work-in-progress" films that were completed earlier in the project. These films have somewhat different focul points, but there is some overlap in the material presented. All films © Nicolas Magriel

Introductory Films

1) Growing into Music in Hindustan, Rajasthan, and Azerbaijan (14 minutes)

This film surveys the diverse modes of music transmission in these three musical cultures.

2) Growing into North Indian Art Music in Delhi, Banaras and Bhopal (32 minutes)

This film surveys some of the families of Indian classical musicians that I worked with in these three cities.

3) Growing into Music in Hamira, Rajasthan (26 minutes)

Here we have an introduction to the rich musical culture of the Manganiyar families in the village of Hamira in Western Rajasthan. Manganiyar Childhood below, a film of more than two hours, looks at many aspects of this culture in detail.

4) Observing Children's Musical Progress in Hindustani and Manganiyar Families (32 minutes)

This film highlights the longitudinal aspect of the study, focusing on a few children's musical growth.

Published Films

The following seven films were researched, filmed and edited by Nicolas Magriel. They comprise the Growing into Music in North India series. All films ©Nicolas Magriel and SOAS, University of London 2012 and 2013. For further background see www.growingintomusic.co.uk.

1) Talim aur Riyaz (Instruction and Practice): Pundalik Bhagwat and his Sons 2009, 2010, 2011 (70 minutes)

Pundalik Bhagwat is a Maharashtrian Brahman whose family has been settled in Banaras (Varanasi) for four generations. He is an excellent tabla player and singer and is teaching both tabla and vocal music to his sons Purnish and Pushkar. This film is about a thoughtful, articulate and intensive approach to childhood musical transmission—a well-rounded and relatively linear approach which contrasts with the conventions of the hereditary milieu.

2) Talim aur Riyaz (Instruction and Practice): Ravi Shankar Mishra and his Sons 2009, 2010, 2011 (66 minutes)

Ravi Shankar is one of the foremost Kathak dancers of Banaras (Varanasi) and also an excellent tabla player. He learnt tabla from his father Panch Maharaj and dance from the great Alakananda Devi (elder sister of Sitara Devi) and her brother Durga Prasad Mishra (Pande Mahraj). The film depicts him teaching his sons Aditya (tabla) and Abijit (dance) and discussing the teaching process and his own growing into music and dance. We view the passionate intensity of practice sessions in one of the great musical households of Banaras.

3) Sangeet ka Khel (Music as Play): Sarwar Hussain and his sons 2009, 2010, 2011 (57 minutes)

Sarwar Hussain Khan is the grandson of the renowned sarangi player Ustad Abdul Latif Khan. This film is about Sarwar and his sons Amman and Arman, 3 and 4 at the beginning of the film. It follows their massive exposure to music in the home, and their spontaneous imbibing of a wide variety of musical behaviours. The fun element of early learning is highlighted. This is the hereditary musical tradition, alive and vibrant, a prime example of growing into music in North India.

4) Dukh ki Talim (Transmission in the Wake of Suffering): Vidya Sahai Mishra and his Grandsons 2010 and 2011 (33 minutes)

This film is about Vinayak and Krishna, the grandsons of Vidya Sahai Mishra, a senior sarangi player of Banaras (Varanasi). They are learning sarangi and tabla respectively—from their grandfather—as their father Prabhu Sahai Mishra, to whom the film is dedicated, met his end tragically on railroad tracks in 2009. The film offers ambiguous insights into the prevailing attitudes and methods of music transmission in the hereditary musical community of Banaras.

5) The Guru-shishya Parampara: Kanhaiyalal Mishra and his Students (33 minutes)

Kanhaiyalal Mishra is the senior disciple of the illustrious Pandit Hanuman Prasad Mishra of Banaras (Varanasi). He is one of the most prominent living sarangi players of Banaras. This film shows him teaching sarangi to his students and talking about the teaching process. It juxtaposes discussion of his disciplinarian approach to teaching (probably with considerable exaggeration) with one student's unreserved expressions of devotion and gratitude towards Kanhaiyalal. Riyaz (practice) is a focal point of discourse; both its necessity and the obstacles to actually doing it are discussed.

6) Dekhiye, Sikhiye, Parakhiye (Watch, Learn and Understand), Islamic mysticism and musical enculturation (45 minutes)

The Nizami Brothers are one of the foremost Qawwali groups of South Asia. Ghulam Sabir, Ghulam Waris, Mohammad Akbar and Mohammad Yusuf, are the four sons of Abdul Aziz Nizami, who was 104 when I met him in 2011. This film is about the intense interplay between faith and music in the Qawwali tradition. Sufism, Islamic mysticism, sees music as a spiritual path. In this family, the children learn Qawwali while also studying the holy Koran and attending school. I filmed them in January 2010 and July 2011. Since that time, Faisan and Nishan, the stars of this film, have gone on to become distinguished young Qawwals.

Most of the songs in this film are devotional—praising great Sufi saints such as Moinuddin Chisti (1141-1236 ce), Lal Shabhaz Qalandar (1177-1274 ce), Nizamuddin Aulia (1238-1325 ce) and Amir Khusro (1253-1325 ce). In their day-to-day discourse the Nizamis identify deeply with this tradition. Their practice room is suffused with history and faith.

The film depicts Ghulam Sabir and Mohammed Akbar Nizami teaching several boys of the family interspersed with interview footage of the two brothers which gives an intense glimpse of how their Sufi faith and a sense of musical and spiritual history inform their life and music.

7) Manganiyar Childhood (140 minutes)

The Manganiyar people of Western Rajasthan are hereditary Muslim musicians and genealogists, patronised by upper-caste Hindus for whom they perform and recite genealogies on festive occasions and life-cycle events such as births and marriages. Music is passed on from generation to generation orally and aurally.

This 140-minute film offers a rare opportunity for immersion in the musical life of children in the Manganiyar community—for sharing in their own immersion in music. The film begins by portraying three 18-month-old toddlers' participation in community musical life. We then see a wide variety of peer-learning situations—children making music together as play and recreation. A chapter on Manganiyar girls follows. Then several chapters deal with individual instruments, especially the quintessential Manganiyar instrument, the bowed kamaicha. Next we get an intensive look at the jajmani (patronage) system-we see children, following literally in their elders' footsteps, visiting patrons' houses to perform at marriage ceremonies. Sections on genealogical recitation and on duha, the deep and emotive un-metred aspect of Manganiyar music, follow.

Manganiyar children absorb music mainly by osmosis, by being surrounded by music making from infancy. So a long chapter on adult interventions in the learning process comes later in the film, as do two chapters which address more modern and articulate modes of music transmission. The penultimate chapter is about schooling—examining the difficulties of reconciling modern education and city life with the Manganiyars' traditional artistic lifestyle. Finally a chapter on change surveys the uncertainty arising as Manganiyar ethos and music are threatened by the attractions of urban life and the gradual erosion of the jajmani system.

Filming took place during three stays in Rajasthan in 2009, 2010 and 2011, and the sections on peer learning, kamaicha, dholak (a double-headed barrel drum), and teaching are presented chronologically so as to highlight childrens' musical maturation. Unlike in the learning of Indian classical music, there are few specific markers of progress. Children learn music much as they learn language. No one applauds the learning of repertoire or the perfection of technique—these are seen as natural functions of growing up.

On the DVD of this film, an eighteen-chapter menu makes speciality interests instantly accessible. Please contact us if you would like a copy of this DVD.

Growing into Music