Mike's Oud Forums

Oud music in India or Pakistan

journeyman - 2-2-2004 at 10:11 PM

Does anyone know of and good oud players in the Indian music tradition? Or what about Pakistani players? I think it would be interesting to hear rags played on an oud. I know that there are some great sarod players from India, which is a fretless instrument, and I have been told by someone from India that there are lots or oud players there, but I have never heard of anyone.

David Parfitt - 2-3-2004 at 01:18 AM

Hi journeyman

I just returned from India a few weeks ago, and I have to say I found no evidence of the oud there whatsoever (I was mainly around the Delhi area in the north of the country though). To be honest, there did not seem to be much obvious interest in the sarod either - the CD store in Delhi with the largest 'classical' music selection had only half a dozen sarod CDs! I guess it is quite a special interest area, and like in many countries you have to know where to look for this sort of music - maybe a well-known sarod centre like Gwalior would have more activity?

I have also never heard of any oud players in the Indian music tradition. Not sure about Pakistan though - it is possible I guess, and I have certainly seen ouds in Iran, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, which are not that far away.

Look forward to hearing other people's views on this.

David

P.S. Journeyman, did you know that the oud players Simon Shaheen, Hussein el-Masry and Adel Salameh (and Rahim al-Haj soon!) have all collaborated with Indian musicians. Munir Bashir was also influenced by Indian music. You can find out more about their recordings on my website at

http://website.lineone.net/~david.parfitt/artists.html

i agree with david

nadir - 2-3-2004 at 01:26 AM

there is a significantly high population of indians and pakistanis in the UAE and the main instrument that they are familiar with is the sitar.

you would have a much better chance in finding a proper oud systematics in azerbaijan because they are originally turkish.

as for iran and uzbekistan... there are ouds there but they are not very popular, however you are able to find a large community of oud players in northern iran near azerbaijan and near iraq...

HI FELLOWS

ghassan bashir - 4-13-2004 at 06:26 PM

I AGREE WITH DAVID TOO,BUT REGARDIND PAKISTAN,I ASKED A PAKISTANI ABOUT THAT,AND HE SAID THAT THAY DO HAVE IT AND PLAY IT ,,I AM REALLY INTERRESTED IN FINDING OUT AND WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THAT....

TAKE CARE
GHASSAN BASHIR:wavey:

Zulkarnain - 4-13-2004 at 07:47 PM

Hi

Our Ghazal party here in Malaysia also use Indian instrument (Harmonium, Indian Tabla) beside the Oud as the main instrument.

Salam

Azerbaijani ouds.

wfspark - 4-13-2004 at 07:54 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by nadir
there is a significantly high population of indians and pakistanis in the UAE and the main instrument that they are familiar with is the sitar.

you would have a much better chance in finding a proper oud systematics in azerbaijan because they are originally turkish.

as for iran and uzbekistan... there are ouds there but they are not very popular, however you are able to find a large community of oud players in northern iran near azerbaijan and near iraq...
Hello Nader. do the Azerbaijani ouds resemble Turkish ouds?

William F. Sparks

chuckerbutty - 4-13-2004 at 11:59 PM

I know nothing about Azerbaijani ouds I'm afraid, but I'm fairly certain that the oud is completely unknown in India. I'm surprised that the oud is played in Pakistan - Ghassan, are you sure that this person doesn't mean the sarod?

Indian string instuments almost always have very long necks because the fingering patterns usually run along the strings and not across them, as in the oud. Sitar and vina players will play the melody on a single string as far as possible (I don't know much about sarod technique, but I suspect that this might be the case as well). This is partly because of the characteristic ornaments of Indian music which sometimes involve slides of upto an octave - this sort of thing would be almost impossible to do on the short neck of an oud.

You should also be aware that there are two very different classical traditions in the subcontinent. The first is the Hindustani tradition, the one that everybody is familiar with, Ravi Shankar, sitars and all that sort of thing, current in North India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The other is the Carnatic tradition that is restricted to South India and Sri Lanka, which preserves some features that have been lost from the Hindustani tradition following the Persianisation of North Indian music under the Mughals.

Cheers

Munir Bashir

Elie Riachi - 4-14-2004 at 02:51 PM

A while ago I purchased the 2 CD set "Mestopetania" by Munir Bashir and the first couple pieces I can detect an influence by Indian music.