My Name is Gauhar Jaan!: The Life and Times of a Musician
My name is Gauhar Jaan!- the life and times of a musician’ (Rupa& Co) is the biography of Gauhar Jaan, India’s first classical musician to record on the gramophone. The book has won great appreciation across India and abroad by eminent personalities including Vice President of India Mr. Hamid Ansari, Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Mr. Shyam Benegal, Pt. Jasraj, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and other musicians, musicologists and aficionados of music. It has also been translated into Bengali and Marathi.
In 2011 the book won the prestigious ARSC International Award for Excellence in Historical Research in Music, 2011 by the Association of Recorded Sound Companies (ARSC), Los Angeles as the first Indian book to make it. In February 2012, the highest literary body of the country and the National Academy of Letters, the Sahitya Akademi, awarded its first Yuva Puraskar to Vikram for ‘My name is Gauhar Jaan!’
"My Name is Gauhar Jaan!" - The earliest recordings of Indian music are distinguished by this high-pitched and flirtatious announcement, made towards the end of the rendition. This declaration of the singer seemed to epitomize a milestone in the history of Indian classical music, one that would change forever its content, structure and style of presentation.
The music scene in India at the turn of the 20th century witnessed tumultuous changes. The traditional custodians of the art form - the devadasis of the South and the nautch girls and tawaifs of the North, who had nurtured the art for centuries, became victims of the morality laws of the British government and the prudery of an 'enlightened' and educated Indian elite. However, Gauhar Jaan (1873-1930), eminent Hindustani/North Indian classical vocalist, symbolizes the resurgent women musicians of the time.
A Christian who later converted to Islam, she was a naturally gifted musician with a wide repertoire. Hers was the first Indian voice to be recorded in 1902, cutting close to 600 records in her illustrious career. She had the rare distinction of performing in front of Emperor George V in the famous Delhi Durbar in 1911.
This book traces the story of her life with all its attendant myths, legends and folklore, some of which are recorded, some apocryphal; as well as the times during which she lived and made exquisite music. Through her music an attempt is made to analyze the different genres of Hindustani music that Gauhar and singers like her popularized, namely the Thumri, Dadra, and Ghazal. The book also describes briefly the socio-cultural context of the time, evolution of the recording industry in India and its impact on Indian music, theatre and social life. It comes along with a CD of digitized versions of some of Gauhar Jaan’s original 78 RPM gramophone recordings.
Agent: Anuj
