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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
