How And Why I Fell In Love With Classical Music And You Will Too!
I was drifting off to sleep when Papa said, “The Sarangi sounds so beautiful”. Just like every Saturday, we were driving back home from music school and listening to old Hindi songs on the radio.
I made a hmm sound in agreement. The Sarangi kept playing for another 10–20 seconds and that caught my attention. It sounded familiar, it was on the tip of my tongue and I suddenly said, “Don’t tell me this is Chalte Chalte”. As if on cue, the ghungroo beat started and I turned to my Dad who was also surprised that it was. I clapped like a child who’d seen fireworks for the first time. My Dad was in awe of the fact that 20 seconds into the song I could recognize it. I said, “Are you kidding me? It’s my favourite song of all time. I’ve watched Meena Kumari’s dance to this song a gazillion times”.
I hummed along with my father to the song simply because I couldn’t stop myself from doing it. And that’s saying something because I hardly ever sing in front of others, not even my family. I’m insecure about my vocal skills because I’m aware they’re not great. My sister refers to me as the Anu Malik in our family, who has great musical acumen but severely lacks vocal capabilities.
After the song ended, we delved into a discussion about how great the entire movie was. A musical marvel through and through!
Some of the best songs written and composed by some of the best musicians in Bollywood like Chalte Chalte yunhi koi mil gaya tha, written by Kaifi Azmi and composed by Ghulam Mohammed, Thare Rahiyo and Inhi Logo ne. If you haven’t watched the movie, I would strongly urge you to do so, just for the music and breathtaking Kathak choreography performed by Meena Kumari.
Music has bonded my father and I in a different way in the past few months. Somehow, the musical bug bit us both. Even though I started playing the keyboard on my own 2 years back, I had no teacher and no formal training. I decided to change that this year and enroll myself for piano lessons. And yes, for that, I did upgrade to a Piano.
At the same time, my father enrolled himself in harmonium lessons because we already owned it. I was always sure I wanted to learn Western Classical music. I made that decision in 2020 when I first started listening to famous piano compositions and that decision was sealed when I fell in love with “the poet of the piano” himself, Chopin.
So now my father learns the harmonium and is getting way better at his instrument than I am getting at mine. For obvious reasons, his foundation is on Hindustani classical music and mine on Western classical music. But that’s the beauty of music, it transcends boundaries, languages and styles. We learn from each other and sometimes find similarities in our learnings. I tell him about Chopin, why a Steinway really costs as much as it does, the frustration I feel at not getting better at sight reading, why Bach’s music is actually intended for the Harpsichord & not the Piano, why Pagini is every violinist’s worst nightmare and why Mozart is a genius but Beethoven is actually the greatest musician who ever lived.
He tells me that most Bollywood songs are actually based on Raag Bhairavi and raag Bilawal which he’s learning right now, on which scale is his vocal placement, and throws fun facts at me like Mohammed Rafi used to sing in B flat major scale (really not sure about this one), verbiage like aroh and avroh, and how he’s learning to take harkats now.
This is the part of my life that I refrain from sharing. Sometimes, I feel sharing parts of myself with people taints my feelings towards that particular thing. And I didn’t want that for music, which is truly the only thing in my messed up adult life that keeps me going. Yes, there are days when I despise the beautiful instrument sitting in my living room but there are days when I’m in awe of its presence in my life.
Now that I am a classical music geek, I would love to dole out recommendations because I would like you to get on the bandwagon too. If you, for some reason, are also interested in western classical music, then I have some great recommendations.
A great introduction would be Canon in D by Pachelbel (you’ll find that this sounds quite similar to a Maroon 5 song Memories because they sampled Canon in D!).
Next Up…Eine Klaine Nachtmusik by Mozart (because you’ve heard this in an ad commercial or meme by now)
Turkish March by Mozart
Some other great recommendations- Moonlight Sonata Movement I & Movement III by Beethoven, Paginini’s Caprice No. 24 (Violin), Vivaldi’s Four seasons (listen to Spring first though) and L’estro Armonico Op. 3 No. 10 (don’t know why there’s hype around Vivaldi’s Four Seasons when this gem exists).
Coming to Chopin, his Nocturne in C Sharp Minor and Nocturne in E Flat Major (Op. 9 No. 2 ) are a must listen and trust me, you will not be disappointed. Nocturnes are musical compositions that reflect the moods and feelings of night time. Nocturnes are a style of music that existed even before Chopin, but Chopin popularised it by way of perfecting his pieces to such an extent that Chopin’s nocturnes are considered the gold standard in which all other nocturnes must be measured.
As a bonus piece, a really simple and beautiful piece that will heal your heart is “River flows in you” by Yiruma. There’s no way that you will not like it in one go.
If you give all of these pieces a listen, I kid you not, you probably would never like to go back to Pop music. My brilliant friend Bhupika, once told me she doesn’t listen to music and I was appalled at that. Initially, I did judge her but then decided against it because it was the same as me telling someone I don’t like Batman or that I don’t even consider Iron man a real superhero! There, I said it.
Music for me is the only way I truly feel things and process my emotions. My playlist is a reflection of how I feel that day. It’s a dream, an escape, a safe haven, a routine and a journey.
