The music most of us consume today often feels shaped by a sense of urgency. It seems compressed into shorter runtimes and built around instant hooks for virality. This shift is especially apparent in Tamil cinema songs today, which have steadily lost their length, and with it, maybe even the space for a gradual build up of music. Verses seem to be arriving faster while interludes appear lacking. Although composing such tunes, which aim for immediate emotional payoff, carries its own kind of creativity, it reflects a listening culture driven by speed and repetition. And so, the listeners of today are rarely asked to sit with a note, or even experience silence as a part of music.
Beyond this restless soundscape, there exists a more meditative musical world that asks for patience and depth. One such form of music is Dhrupad — one of India’s oldest classical traditions — where each note is placed with care, ragas are explored fully, and allowed to resonate in both sound and silence. In experiencing Dhrupad, the listener is invited to step outside modern time and rediscover music as the singer is accompanied by tanpura and pakhawaj, an ancient instrument that is understood as a precursor to tabla.
Bringing this experience to Chennai this weekend is Dhrupad performer Pelva Naik, who describes the essence of the oldest living raga-based tradition of North Indian classical music the way she practices, with clarity. “A detailed exploration of sound dynamics set on traditional syllable based grammar, age-old voice techniques, with emphasis on micro tones and deciphering of tonal scales so as to magnify sound and invoke the inherent nature of ragas is what defines the core of alap in Dhrupad,” she says, adding that alap is the hallmark of the Dagar School of Dhrupad Music in which she’s trained in.
The alap, as an abstract form, is understood by her as contemporary in nature, with the potential to convey intricate personal conditions of human existence while also revealing those that remain unseen and hidden. This is experienced as deeply freeing and serves, for her, as a vehicle of profound inquiry.
Pelva credits Pratima Trivedi, her music teacher in school, who introduced her to raga music as a style. Eventually, her teacher from high school, Kabir Jaitirtha, connected her with late Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar, who went on to become her Dhrupad guru. She says, “My late guru was one of the most influential figures in the modern revival of the form and his unmatched mastery was in tonal dynamics and exploring depth of sound through very original, savage intricacies. I was trained by him within a gurukul system for over a decade. Rudraveena exponent Baha’uddin Dagar too guided me periodically for a few years, sharing various technical and aesthetic knowledge.”
Although women have been integral in the creative evolution of Dhrupad across teaching, poetry, and alap, Pelva informs that they have largely remained anonymous. She explains, “My work demands listening more carefully to the past so that new sounds may be born, and to speak from within my body — its memory, history, and vulnerability as a woman practising a historically male-centered musical form, in the twenty-first century.”
Today, with her voice, she confesses to being interested in contemporising the Dhrupad tradition through performance, pedagogy, and an interdisciplinary artistic inquiry, adding that she is inviting listeners to a space where “sound becomes a form of presence and renewed perception.” “Above all, I wish to form a space that goes beyond joy, beyond knowledge, and speaks to us of things we may not understand otherwise,” Pelva concludes.
Pelva Naik along with Sanjay Agle (Pakhawaj), will perform as part of Baithak, a traditional concert series, on March 27, at Rukmini Arangam, from 7pm onwards. Passes are available at G5Afoundation.org https://g5afoundation.org/calendar/baithak-chennai/