Coloured notes
Coloured notes
Music and colour have for long enjoyed a companionship, particularly when it comes to the use of cross-sensory references in descriptions of music. Remember the occasions when you have heard or read about a “dark” track or “bright” notes. References to colour when describing music are by no means new or uncommon, but they do invite a closer look. Similar references to colour can be found in the context of Indian music too. For example, in describing a hugely successful concert, Hindustani musicians and music lovers will invariably use the term “rang jamaa diyaa”. What does this actually mean? Does it indicate that the concert was colourful? Or was it the raga that was a colourful one? Like other culture-specific usage of language, this phrase defies translation. Possibly it means that the music was presented with such brilliance and artistry that it virtually drenched the ambience and all those who were present in its unique colours.
Kar diide maina-e-raagi khwaan rang-e-sadaa gashte ‘iaan
Waz naghma-e’aab arghuwaan dar juuyi takraar aamde
Shud vaqt-e-Holi baakhtaan baa rang-o-buu pardaakhtaan.
(If one hears themainasing, colourful sound manifests itself
And the song of the purple water repeatedly occurs,
At the time ofHoli I lose myself in the colours and aroma.)
Another wonderful association between colour and music is seen in the music of the Sufis, in which Sama’a gatherings often include the traditional forms called Qaul and Rang. Rang, as part of the Sufi repertoire, is usually a composition featuring verses on the theme of colour, sung in the moving and ecstatic style so typical of qawwali, always anchored in tradition and discipline and yet straining towards the surrender and trance-like abandon that the music seeks to establish. The Internet offers many examples of Rang, performed by a huge variety of singers. One that I particularly enjoy is Aaj rang hai ey Maa, rang hai ri performed by the Shankar-Shambhu duo decades ago, possibly for a television show.
Some say Hazrat Amir Khusrau recited the lines from this Rang in the presence of his mother when he returned home after his first meeting with Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya in the late 13th century. He had searched high and low for a murshid, or spiritual master, and when he finally met Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, his joy at finding his master is expressed in the lines “Main Pir paayo Nizamuddin Auliya, jag ujiyaaro, jagat ujiyaaro…” and “main to aiso rang aur naheen dekhyo sakhi ri”. The last line is equally true of the impact of music, which colours our lives in a way that nothing else can.
Write to Shubha at musicmatters@livemint.com
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First Published:9 Mar 2012, 09:43 PM IST
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