Khayal

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KHAYAL

KHAYAL Khayal (Arabic-Persian, "lyric" or "imagination") is perhaps the most important vocal genre in the Hindustani sangīt paddhati, or musical tradition. The origins of khayal are often associated with the famous musician Amir Khusrau. (1253–1325).

The sultans of Jaunpur—notably Mohammad Sharqi (1401–1440) and Hussain Sarqi (r. 1458–1499), who were contemporaries of the Mughal emperor Babur—were patrons of musicians who developed khayal. In that era, the genre was "ornate and romantic," most popular with Muslim musicians, and reflected the growing dominance of Islamic power.

Khayal grew in importance in seventeenth-century Jaipur and found a prolific champion in Sadarang (Niyamat Khan), a musician in the court of Muhammad Shah (r. 1719–1748) and a descendant of Tansen. Sadarang was a dhrupad (he composed praise and/or Hindu devotional music) singer who apparently adopted the musical techniques of qawwālī (Sufi devotional music) musicians to create a genre that was both artistically sophisticated and a compelling vehicle for virtuosic performance. Because he and his nephew Adarang were officially dhrupad singers, the performance of this new genre was not part of their duties. However, others could perform khayal, especially if they were disciples, not in direct line with Sadarang and Adarang. Khayal thus offered a contrast to the more austere dhrupad.

Chronicles of the seventeenth-century Delhi-Agra rule of Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658) mention khayaliyās(singers of khayal) among the royal performers. In eighteenth-century northern India, hereditary musicians consolidated their power by fostering musical knowledge within their families. The khayaliyās of the mid-eighteenth century came from families who specialized in either dhrupad or qawwālī. However, they came to focus increasingly on khayal as their primary performance medium. The earliest performers were primarily Muslim. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, performers further developed khayal, and this style of singing became the predominant vocal genre in the improvisatory system of North Indian music.

A full performance of khayal is organized of two main parts—badā khayal and chotā khayal—and each of these has at its core a musical theme, the cīz (Persian, "thing, idea"). The melodic structure of a cīz serves as the framework around which performers improvise. Sometimes, the melody is the framework upon which the singer creates elaborate melodic detail. At other times, the singer presents the cīz in a simple, unadorned form, contrasting the fixed composition with elaborate extemporizations.

In the badā khayal (Hindustani, "big" khayal), a singer performs in very slow tempo (ati vilambit lay). Tīntāl, Ektāl, and Jhūmrā are the most common tālas (in 16, 12, and 14 beats respectively). The badā khayal also serves as a parallel to the ālāp (free-time melodic introduction) of dhrupad in that the performer has considerable rhythmic freedom. The tempo of the badā khayal slowed considerably in the twentieth century, notably through performances by Ustad Amir Khan.

The cīz consists of two parts: sthā'ī (composed in mandra sthān [lower octave] and the bottom half of the madhya sthān [middle octave]) and the antarā (composed in the upper half of the madhya sthān and the lower half of the tār sthān [upper octave]). The former is the more important, recurring regularly as a refrain, while the latter generally has more text content.

In the badā khayal, the sthā'ī and antarā imitate the structure of the rāg ālāp found in other South Asian forms. In the badā khayal, the singer often refers only briefly to the original cīz, singing just the mukharā (face) of the composition.

The cīz in the chotā khayal (Hindustani, "small" khayal ) is in fast tempo (drut lay), commonly set in Tintal, and is more plain than in badā khayal. Here, the focus of the singer is on virtuosic extemporization, featuring fast melodic figures and difficult rhythmic elaborations.

Khayal texts can be of a variety of types, ranging from historic poems to contemporary creations by musicians or patrons. Their subjects can be advice, religious devotion, deities (e.g., Krishna), praise of patrons, or descriptions of seasons. Love, both divine and human, is a common theme.

Although the badā khayal replaces the ālāp of other forms in the Hindustani sangīt paddhati, some similarities remain. The rūpak ālāpti (Sanskrit, "shape" or "form" ālāp) is an ālāp-like section of the badā khayal, sung to the preexisting shape of the cīz and set metrically rather than in free time.

Most of the musical attention in khayal focuses on the various kinds of tan, fast melodic figures of a virtuosic nature. These commonly include ākār tāns (Hindustani, literally "to do 'a'"; elaborations in which the singer uses only the syllable "a"), gamak tāns (gamak, Hindustani, "syllable"; elaborations using a heavy glottal shake), and bol tāns (bol, Hindusani, "syllable"; elaborations intended to expand upon the meaning of the words of the text).

A number of these improvisations are common to both khayal and dhrupad. Examples include bol bānt (Hindustani, "syllable distribution"; the use of the cīz bols for purposes of rhythmic play [laykārī], such as the creation of tihā'īs using the text), sārgam (Hindustani, sā-regā-mā; elaborations using the mnemonic pitch syllables sa-re-ga-ma, etc.), and nom-tom (elaborations with a rhythmic pulse created through the use of syllables like "nom,""tom," and "ta-ra-na").