When the Gramophone Company tried to draw upon the repertoire of the exponents of classical music, it invariably faced serious difficulties. The musicians were reluctant to share their knowledge with others and make their treasures accessible to the public. They refused to record and, if they were at all persuaded to do so, would stipulate such high fees that recording them ceased to be commercially viable. The company, therefore, focussed attention on the more popular singers. It was easier to persuade them to record and their discs earned large profits. In the initial period, along with the imported records, the company recorded and issued for sale discs made by these popular singers. Amongst these are many who are still remembered, for their sweet voices and attractive style of presentation. The names of Jankibai, Malkajan, Gauharjan, Mushtaribai, Kamala Jharia, Angurbala, lndubala, Dulari, Joharajan and Mehboobjan linger in our memories even today.

The other types of musician-artistes, who were accessible and whose discs had good sales potential, were the qawwali and ghazal singers and the performers of kirtanas and devotional songs. The naats (Muslim religious songs) and qawwalis of outstandingly popular singers like Pearu Quwal, Kaloo Quwal, Bhai Chhela, Master Rohit, K. C. Dey, Ashraf Khan, Fakiruddin Quwal, Aga Faiz, Ali Hussain Pyara Sahib still evoke affectionate response from listeners.

For centuries the poet-saints of India propagated their teachings through devotional songs. Tulsidas and Surdas in the north, Kabir in the Punjab, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Bengal, Narsi Bhagat in Gujarat, Meerabai in Rajasthan, Dnyaneshwara, Eknatha, Namdeva, Tukarama in Maharashtra wrote hundreds of devotional songs which have been preserved with reverence for centuries by devotees. These compositions provided artistes with rich and varied poetic material which found an immediate echo in the hearts of audiences. The Gramophone Company took the decision to record a large number of such devotional compositions and amongst the artistes projected in this section were Juthika Ray, K. C. Dey, Dilip Kumar Roy, Master Vasant Amrut, Vishnupant Pagnis, Abhram Bhagat, Dula Bhagat, Phulaji Buwa, Bai Sunderabai. Excerpts from the Guru Granth Sahib and Shabad written by Guru Nanak and Guru Govind were immensely popular with the Sikh community.

I have confined my remarks so far to the North Indian scene partly because I have worked in the North for many years and my concern has been mostly with the Hindustani tradition, and partly also because the Hindustani system covers a much wider area and population. But the impact of the gramophone in the South has been considerable from the very early days.

Lovers of Carnatic music speak nostalgically of the records of Coimbatore T hayi and Bangalore Nagaratnam, of the recordings of the incomparable Veena Dhanam and a 78-rpm disc of Shanmukhavadivu (the mother of M. S. Subbulakshmi). Some of the great classical musicians of the early decades of this century—Veena Sheshanna, Bidaram Krishnappa, Ponnuswami Pillai and Ramaswami Pillai (nadaswaram vidwans)—have all left behind samples of their musicianship. The South, too, had its quota of stage stars—S. V. Subbia Bhagavathar, S. G. Kittappa, K. B. Sundarambal—all of whom recorded extensively. Of the classical renderings of the 1930s, a very popular pressing was the rendering of Nagamomu by Musiri Subramania lyer. Many of his contemporaries—Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Maharajapuram Santhanam, G. N. Balasubramaniam, Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu (violin), Rajamanickam Pillai (violin), T. Chowdiah (violin), T.N. Rajarattinam Pillai (nadaswaram)—have all left the imprint of their art on discs, though few of them recorded extensively.

In more recent days, we have had LPs from such distinguished singers as D. K. Pattamal, M. L. Vasanthakumari; also from very distinguished instrumentalists like the great Palghat Mani lyer (mridanga), K. S. Narayanaswami (veena), T. R. Mahalingam (flute), Ramani (flute), S. Balachander (veena), T. Viswanathan (flute), M. S. Gopalakrishnan (violin). This is by no means a complete list but will give an idea of the wide representation of Carnatic music on discs. Finally, there is M. S. Subbulakshmi who has cut more titles than any other exponent of the Carnatic tradition. There are the unique suprabhatams, a wide range of varnams and kritis, and a variety of bhajans.

Of the many playback singers of the screen, Yesudas is undoubtedly the biggest today. Narratives from the epics, mythological and historical episodes were recorded by Goswami Narayan, Ramanand Sharma, Kathavachak and others and were in great demand. In Maharashtra, Shahirs P. D. Khadilkar, Nanivadekar, Piraji Sarnaik and others recorded powadas (ballads) capturing significant moments in the history of the Marathas. They adhered to a traditional style adopted 300 years ago to awaken the heroic sentiment of Maratha warriors and rouse them to fight the repressive rule of the Mughals.

The phonograph often proved to be a trendsetter in the field of music and determined public taste in large measure. In Maharashtra, the immense popularity of stage music paved the way for interest in classical music. The great artistes of the period recorded by the Gramophone Company include masters like Rahimat Khan, Faiyaz Khan, Abdul Karim Khan, lnayat Khan, Nissar Hussain Khan, Allauddin Khan, Amir Khan, Bade Gulam Ali Khan, Ahmadjan Thirakwa, Ramkrishnabuwa Vaze, Narayanrao Vyas, Vinayakrao Patwardhan, Kesarbai Kerkar, the Dagar brothers, Mogubai Kurdikar, Omkarnath Thakur, Gangubai Hangal, Mallikarjun Mansur and Hirabai Barodekar. In recent years, this large repertoire has been further enriched by the LP recordings of outstanding artistes like Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Vilayat Khan, Bismillah Khan, Pannalal Ghosh, Bhimsen Joshi, Kishori Amonkar, Allarakha, D. V. Paluskar, Ram Narain, Kumar Gandharva, Pandit Jasraj and Jitendra Abhisheki.

Various companies have also recorded, with great advantage, many light classical, minor modes and folk songs from different regions of India. Akhtari Faizabadi, better known in later times as Begum Akhtar, won unprecedented acclaim with her renderings of ghazals and dadras on Megaphone and later on the H.M.V. labels. Rasoolanbai, Siddheshwari Devi, Girija Devi and others became popular with their recordings of thumris, tappas and dadras. Jankibai, Gauharjan, Malkajan and others (who have been mentioned earlier) had also recorded horis, chaitis, sawanis, dadras and ghazals. Small companies in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan even recorded songs containing the mutual abuses showered with gusto during weddings by the mothers of the bride and bridegroom. These gali songs delighted listeners in villages.

After 1930, the bhavageets in Maharashtra opened an era of ‘lyrical’ music. The writer of this article is given the credit for pioneering and popularising lyric-singing in Maharashtra. Compositions of eminent poets like B. R. Tambe, Madhav Julian, N. G. Deshpande, Anil, Yeshwant, Girish Borkar, Kusumagraj and others were recorded by him and others carried on the work. These records proved to be so popular that even stage music had to change its pattern on the lines of bhavageets. In recent times, poems of well-known poets like G. D. Madgulkar, Mangesh Padgaonkar and Shanta Shelke have been recorded by Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Manik Verma, Sudhir Phadke, Arun Date and other newcomers and these have all found favour with listeners.

Film music 

Between the years 1930 and 1940, there was much advance in the technique of f ilm production. Once again, Bengal and Maharashtra led the way, producing pictures of high quality. New Theatres in Calcutta and Prabhat Film Company in Poona established a distinctive style in music through their films. The names of music composers Raichand Boral, Timir Baran, Anupam Ghatak of Bengal and Master Krishnarao, Keshavrao Bhole, Dada Chandekar, Sudhir Phadke of Maharashtra are associated with the chaste, classical-based music which they scored for many a successful film. The songs of actor-singers—like K. L. Saigal, Pahari Sanyal, K. C. Dey, Kanan Devi, Shanta Apte, Shanta Hublikar, Shahu Modak, Govindrao Tembe, Vishnupant Pagnis—left a lingering flavour, which still has its own appeal. It was V. Shantaram who in 1934 first introduced songs on discs from his film Sairandhari. These records fascinated listeners and the Gramophone Company was besieged by demands for songs from other films. It had to go all out to secure contracts from film producers for exclusive rights to record the songs from their films.

In those days, transfer from a film track was unheard of. The actor-singers on the screen had to re-record the songs in H.M.V. Studios and the procedure continued for nearly 20 years. In the first few years of the talkies, producers paid more attention to the production of pictures in regional languages like Bengali, Marathi, Telugu and Malayalam, and Hindi films were made on an experimental basis. As the inter-provincial market for film expanded, film producers found it more profitable to make pictures in Hindi and ensure an all-India appeal. Bombay soon became known as the Hollywood of India and a crop of film companies appeared, the better known among them being Prabhat, Bombay Talkies, Filmistan, Prakash, Ranjit Studios, Sagar Films, Minerva Films, etc. This led to a sudden demand for new voices, for musicmakers and musicians. This was the time when Devika Rani, Ashok Kumar, Arun Kumar, Pradeep, Motilal lshwarlal, Kantilal, the comedian Charlie, Leela Chitnis, Snehaprabha, Sitara Devi, Nasimbanu, Sheela, Savita Devi and Maya Banerji became popular on discs. At the same time, the period coincided with the discovery of the very fine musical talent of Noorjehan, Khursheed, Suraiya, Amirbai Karnataki, Wahidan Bai and other artistes. Ghulam Haider, Shyam Sunder, Rafiq Gaznavi, Naushad, Khemchand Prakash, C. Ramchandra and Anil Biswas composed and directed music for films which soon won immense acclaim for their f ine musical scores. New styles appeared, leading to fast-changing trends in music composition and soon their market appeal brought about a fusion of varied modes which might perhaps be described as a kind of national integration.

The introduction of playback singing around the year 1950 opened a new chapter in film music. The technique of lending voice to non-musical heroes and heroines offered opportunities to a large number of male and female artistes possessing voices suitable for the mike. Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Suman Kalyanpur, Arati Mukerjee, P. Susheela, Mohammed Rafi, Manna Dey, Mukesh, Hemant Kumar, Kishore Kumar and Talat Mahmood and newcomers Yesudas and Vani Jairam are now legendary figures and the number of their individual recordings has surpassed all expectations.

Lata Mangeshkar’s achievement is indeed phenomenal. She holds a world record for the number of songs rendered for films. They are estimated to be more than 20,000. She has sung in almost all Indian languages and in addition to film songs, she has recorded devotional music and lyrics. Her voice is familiar in every corner of the country and popular in distant parts of the world.

The enthusiasm for rock, beat, pop music in the West also influenced the “composition” and presentation of film music in India. Large orchestral ensembles of Indian and Western musical instruments have become essential ingredients for the recording of a film song, resulting quite often in a crude fusion of the East and the West.

The demand for Indian discs in the international market has increased steadily. The India-made gramophone record finds its way to every corner of the world, the main markets being the UK, US, East European countries, Middle East, West Indies, East Africa, Malaysia, Singapore and Fiji. The orders from outside India for these records are so great that the Gramophone Company could register a phenomenal rise in its export trade.
For the broad mass of the Indian people, who are still burdened by poverty, the phonograph is still an item of luxury. Its educational potential has yet to be utilised. But its value as a mode of entertainment is generally recognised. After all, a phonograph brings to the owner music of his own choice and of the kind which is always at his command. It is undoubtedly true that the invention of Thomas Edison and Charles Cros has brought indescribable happiness to countless homes in this country.