- Thumri
Thumri (
Devnagari : ,Nastaliq : ٹھمری) is a common genre of semi classical Indian music from theHindustani classical music of North India.The text is romantic and devotional in nature, and usually revolves around a girl's love for
Krishna . The language is adialect ofHindi calledBraj bhasha . This style is characterized by a greater flexibility with the "rag".Format
Most commonly used rags are "Pilu", "Kafi", "Khamaj", "Tilak Kamod", "Bhairavi" etc. The compositions are usually set to "kaherava" of 8 beats, "addha tal" of 16 beats, "dipchandi" of 14 beats or "jat" of 16 beats.
Origins
Thumri arose in popularity during the 19th century in the Lucknow court of navab
Wajid Ali Shah . At that time it used to be a song sung by courtesans accompanied by dance. That was the "bandish ki thumri" or "bol bant ki thumri". When this style of thumri went out of vogue, a new style became more popular, which is known as "bol banao", sung in Varanasi.Noted Thumri artists
Purab Ang
Famous artists of the 'Purab Ang' thumri' of the
Benares gharana or Banaras gayaki are Badi Motibai "Rasoolan Bai",Siddheshwari Devi ,Girija Devi andPandit Channulal Mishra .Gaya Ang
This style of Thumri originated in Bihar and is hence also known as Bihar style .
Classical Thumri
Other famous singers of thumri are
Gauhar Jan ,Begum Akhtar ,Shobha Gurtu , and even the Pakistani melody queenNoor Jehan . The bol banao style has a slow tempo and is comcluded by a "laggi", a faster phase where thetabla player has some freedom of improvisation.Another stalwart in the genre of thumri was
Naina devi , who was married to a royal family but later devoted her life to the singing of the song of Tawaifs. For a member of the royal family to take such a step in those days meant fighting countless social stigmas that had enough power to totally alieanate someone from the society. But she had the support of her husband.
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