Monday, September 19, 2016

Introduction

Hi friends,

I have started this site in order to share some data I have compiled on Hindi film songs and the ragas on which they are composed.

I have been compiling this data over some years purely out of personal interest and without any intention to publish anywhere. But lately I find that the interest in Hindi film songs, particularly old film songs, is on the rise thanks to media and internet. So, I decided to make my compilation available to all who are interested in this subject.

I am giving few explanatory notes on the subject so that the reader can better appreciate the data.

  1. The ragas belong to Hindustani Classical Music. A Raga is identified based on its structure (i.e. Sa Re Ga Ma) and melodic flow (called Chalan). Both are equally important. There are  ragas that have the same structure but a different melodic flow, in which case they are considered distinct from each other. The identification of the raga of a film song becomes all the more complicated because the composer enjoys the freedom of experimenting with structural deviations in a raga. No doubt the end result is often a sweet and memorable melody. So, while identifying the raga of a song I have based my judgement on the dominant structure and the melody of the song. Where the reader differs in his opinion, I shall welcome discussion.
  2. I came across some publications containing similar information, which I have selectively used in my compilation. While I claim no originality on the data, I believe my presentation is more comprehensive. In the publications I referred to, I had noticed what were in my view some errors in identification of the raga of a song. To avoid such confusion I have added information on the Note of the musical scale with which the song starts. The selection of the songs is my subjective choice and I admit there are many more melodies that can be included.

  3. The musical notes are referred to by symbols as given below
The natural scale (shuddha swara of Mid octave)    S   R   G   M   P   D   N
The flat (komal) notes of the scale                               r    g         d     n  
The sharp (teevra) notes  of the scale                                     m  
                      
The note is suffixed with U if it belongs to upper octave (tar saptak)
The note is suffixed with L  if it belongs to lower octave (mandra saptak)
Students of classical music will, I hope, find this useful.


Such a voluminous and laborious compilation cannot be claimed to be free from errors. I shall gratefully acknowledge if readers point out the same.
The content is tabulated by song, in alphabetical order.  Due to technical limitations of this publishing platform I was forced to split up the content into several pages. 
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