Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common practice period.

European music is largely distinguished from many other non-European and popular musical forms by its system of staff notation, in use since about the 16th century. Western staff notation is used by composers to prescribe to the performer the pitch, speed, meter, individual rhythms and exact execution of a piece of music. This leaves less room for practices such as improvisation and ''ad libitum'' ornamentation, that are frequently heard in non-European art music (as in Indian classical music and Japanese traditional music) and popular music.

The term "classical music" did not appear until the early 19th century, in an attempt to "canonize" the period from Johann Sebastian Bach to Beethoven as a golden age. The earliest reference to "classical music" recorded by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is from about 1836.

Characteristics

Given the extremely broad variety of forms, styles, genres, and historical periods generally perceived as being described by the term "classical music," it is difficult to list characteristics that can be attributed to all works of that type. Vague descriptions are plentiful, such as describing classical music as anything that "lasts a long time," a statement made rather moot when one considers contemporary composers who are described as classical; or music that has certain instruments like violins, which are also found in other genres. However, there are characteristics that classical music contains that few or no other genres of music contain.

Literature

The most outstanding and particular characteristic of classical music is that the repertoire tends to be written down. Composers and performers alike are typically highly literate in understanding notation and the written quality of the music has, in addition to preserving the works, led to a high level of complexity within them.

Instrumentation

The instruments used in most classical music were largely invented before the mid-19th century (often much earlier), and codified in the 18th and 19th centuries. They consist of the instruments found in an orchestra, together with a few other solo instruments (such as the piano, harpsichord, and organ). The symphony orchestra is the most widely known medium for classical music. The orchestra includes members of the string, woodwind, brass, and percussion families.

Electric instruments such as the electric guitar appear occasionally in the classical music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Both classical and popular musicians have experimented in recent decades with electronic instruments such as the synthesizer, electric and digital techniques such as the use of sampled or computer-generated sounds, and the sounds of instruments from other cultures such as the gamelan.

None of the bass instruments existed until the Renaissance. In Medieval music, instruments are divided in two categories: loud instruments for use outdoors or in church, and quieter instruments for indoor use. The Baroque orchestra consisted of flutes, oboes, horns and violins, occasionally with trumpets and timpani. Many instruments which are associated today with popular music used to have important roles in early classical music, such as bagpipes, vihuelas, hurdy-gurdies and some woodwind instruments. On the other hand, instruments such as the acoustic guitar, which used to be associated mainly with popular music, have gained prominence in classical music through the 19th and 20th centuries.

While equal temperament became gradually accepted as the dominant musical temperament during the 19th century, different historical temperaments are often used for music from earlier periods. For instance, music of the English Renaissance is often performed in mean tone temperament. Keyboards almost all share a common layout (often called the piano keyboard).

Form

Whereas the majority of popular styles lend themselves to the song form, classical music can also take on the form of the concerto, symphony, sonata, opera, dance music, suite, étude, symphonic poem, and others.

Classical composers often aspire to imbue their music with a very complex relationship between its affective (emotional) content and the intellectual means by which it is achieved. Many of the most esteemed works of classical music make use of musical development, the process by which a musical idea or motif is repeated in different contexts or in altered form. The sonata form and fugue employ rigorous forms of musical development.

Technical execution

Along with a desire for composers to attain high technical achievement in writing their music, performers of classical music are faced with similar goals of technical mastery, as demonstrated by the proportionately high amount of schooling and private study most successful classical musicians have had when compared to "popular" genre musicians, and the large number of secondary schools, including conservatories, dedicated to the study of classical music. The only other genre in the Western world with comparable secondary education opportunities is jazz.

Complexity

Performance of classical music repertoire demands a significant level of technical mastery on the part of the musician; proficiency in sight-reading and ensemble playing, thorough understanding of tonal and harmonic principles, knowledge of performance practice, and a familiarity with the style/musical idiom inherent to a given period, composer or musical work are among the most essential of skills for the classically trained musician.

Works of classical repertoire often exhibit artistic complexity through the use of thematic development, phrasing, harmonization, modulation (change of key), texture, and, of course, musical form itself. Larger-scale compositional forms (such as that of the symphony, concerto, opera or oratorio, for example) usually represent a hierarchy of smaller units consisting of phrases, periods, sections, and movements. Musical analysis of a composition aims at achieving greater understanding of it, leading to more meaningful hearing and a greater appreciation of the composer's style.

Society

Often perceived as opulent or signifying some aspect of upper-level society, classical music has generally never been as popular with working-class society. However, the traditional perception that only upper-class society has access to and appreciation for classical music, or even that classical music represents the upper-class society, may not be true, given that many working classical musicians fall somewhere in the middle-class income range in the United States, and that classical concertgoers and CD buyers are not necessarily upper class. Even in the Classical era, Mozart's opere buffe such as ''Così fan tutte'' were popular with the general public.

Classical music regularly features in pop culture, forming background music for movies, television programs and advertisements. As a result most people in the Western World regularly and often unknowingly listen to classical music; thus, it can be argued that the relatively low levels of recorded music sales may not be a good indicator of its actual popularity. In more recent times the association of certain classical pieces with major events has led to brief upsurges in interest in particular classical genres. A good example of this was the choice of ''Nessun dorma'' from Giacomo Puccini's opera ''Turandot'' as the theme tune for the 1990 FIFA World Cup, which led to a noticeable increase in popular interest in opera and in particular in tenor arias, which led to the huge sellout concerts by The Three Tenors. Such events are often cited as helping to drive increases in the audiences at many classical concerts that have been observed in recent times.

History

The major time divisions of classical music are the early music period, which includes Medieval (500–1400) and Renaissance (1400–1600), the Common practice period, which includes the Baroque (1600–1750), Classical (1750–1830) and Romantic (1815–1910) periods, and the modern and contemporary period, which includes 20th century (1900–2000) and contemporary (1975–current).

The dates are generalizations, since the periods overlapped and the categories are somewhat arbitrary. For example, the use of counterpoint and fugue, which is considered characteristic of the Baroque era, was continued by Haydn, who is classified as typical of the Classical period. Beethoven, who is often described as a founder of the Romantic period, and Brahms, who is classified as Romantic, also used counterpoint and fugue, but other characteristics of their music define their period.

The prefix ''neo'' is used to describe a 20th century or contemporary composition written in the style of an earlier period, such as Classical or Romantic. Stravinsky's ''Pulcinella'', for example, is a neoclassical composition because it is stylistically similar to works of the Classical period.

Roots

The roots of Western classical music lie in early Christian liturgical music, and its influences date back to the Ancient Greeks. Development of individual tones and scales was done by ancient Greeks such as Aristoxenus and Pythagoras. Pythagoras created a tuning system and helped to codify musical notation. Ancient Greek instruments such as the aulos (a reed instrument) and the lyre (a stringed instrument similar to a small harp) eventually led to the modern-day instruments of a classical orchestra. The antecedent to the early period was the era of ancient music from before the fall of the Roman Empire (476 AD). Very little music survives from this time, most of it from Ancient Greece.

Early Period

The Medieval period includes music from after the fall of Rome to about 1400. Monophonic chant, also called plainsong or Gregorian Chant, was the dominant form until about 1100. Polyphonic (multi-voiced) music developed from monophonic chant throughout the late Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, including the more complex voicings of motets. The Renaissance period was from 1400 to 1600. It was characterized by greater use of instrumentation, multiple interweaving melodic lines, and the use of the first bass instruments. Social dancing became more widespread, so musical forms appropriate to accompanying dance began to standardize.

It is in this time that the notation of music on a staff and other elements of musical notation began to take shape. This invention made possible the separation of the composition of a piece of music from its ''transmission''; without written music, transmission was oral, and subject to change every time it was transmitted. With a musical score, a work of music could be performed without the composer's presence. The invention of the movable-type printing press in the 15th century had far-reaching consequences on the preservation and transmission of music.

Typical stringed instruments of the Early Period include the harp, lute, vielle, and psaltery, while wind instruments included the flute family (including recorder), shawm (an early member of the oboe family), trumpet, and the bagpipe. Simple pipe organs existed, but were largely confined to churches, although there were portable varieties. Later in the period, early versions of keyboard instruments like the clavichord and harpsichord began to appear. Stringed instruments such as the viol had emerged by the 16th century, as had a wider variety of brass and reed instruments. Printing enabled the standardization of descriptions and specifications of instruments, as well as instruction in their use.

Common Practice Period

The Common Practice Period is when many of the ideas that make up western classical music took shape, standardized, or were codified. It began with the Baroque era, running from roughly 1600 to the middle of the 18th century. The Classical era followed, ending roughly around 1820. The Romantic era ran through the 19th century, ending about 1910.

Baroque music

Baroque music is characterized by the use of complex tonal counterpoint and the use of a basso continuo, a continuous bass line. Music became more complex in comparison with the songs of earlier periods. The beginnings of the sonata form took shape in the canzona, as did a more formalized notion of theme and variations. The tonalities of major and minor as means for managing dissonance and chromaticism in music took full shape.

During the Baroque era, keyboard music played on the harpsichord and pipe organ became increasingly popular, and the violin family of stringed instruments took the form generally seen today. Opera as a staged musical drama began to differentiate itself from earlier musical and dramatic forms, and vocal forms like the cantata and oratorio became more common. Vocalists began adding embellishments to melodies. Instrumental ensembles began to distinguish and standardize by size, giving rise to the early orchestra for larger ensembles, with chamber music being written for smaller groups of instruments where parts are played by individual (instead of massed) instruments. The concerto as a vehicle for solo performance accompanied by an orchestra became widespread, although the relationship between soloist and orchestra was relatively simple. The theories surrounding equal temperament began to be put in wider practice, especially as it enabled a wider range of chromatic possibilities in hard-to-tune keyboard instruments. Although Bach did not use equal temperament, as a modern piano is generally tuned, changes in the temperaments from the meantone system, common at the time, to various temperaments that made modulation between all keys musically acceptable, made possible Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.

Classical period music

The Classical period, from about 1750 to 1820, established many of the norms of composition, presentation, and style, and was also when the piano became the predominant keyboard instrument. The ''basic'' forces required for an orchestra became somewhat standardized (although they would grow as the potential of a wider array of instruments was developed in the following centuries). Chamber music grew to include ensembles with as many as 8–10 performers for serenades. Opera continued to develop, with regional styles in Italy, France, and German-speaking lands. The ''opera buffa'', a form of comic opera, rose in popularity. The symphony came into its own as a musical form, and the concerto was developed as a vehicle for displays of virtuoso playing skill. Orchestras no longer required a harpsichord (which had been part of the traditional ''continuo'' in the Baroque style), and were often led by the lead violinist (now called the concertmaster).

Wind instruments became more refined in the Classical period. While double reeded instruments like the oboe and bassoon became somewhat standardized in the Baroque, the clarinet family of single reeds was not widely used until Mozart expanded its role in orchestral, chamber, and concerto settings.

Romantic era music

The music of the Romantic era, from roughly the second decade of the 19th century to the early 20th century, was characterized by increased attention to an extended melodic line, as well as expressive and emotional elements, paralleling romanticism in other art forms. Musical forms began to break from the Classical era forms (even as those were being codified), with free-form pieces like nocturnes, fantasias, and preludes being written where accepted ideas about the exposition and development of themes were ignored or minimized. The music became more chromatic, dissonant, and tonally colorful, with tensions (with respect to accepted norms of the older forms) about key signatures increasing. The art song (or ''Lied'') came to maturity in this era, as did the epic scales of grand opera, ultimately transcended by Richard Wagner's Ring cycle.

In the 19th century, musical institutions emerged from the control of wealthy patrons, as composers and musicians could construct lives independent of the nobility. Increasing interest in music by the growing middle classes throughout western Europe spurred the creation of organizations for the teaching, performance, and preservation of music. The piano, which achieved its modern construction in this era (in part due to industrial advances in metallurgy) became widely popular with the middle class, whose demands for the instrument spurred a large number of piano builders. Many symphony orchestras date their founding to this era. Some musicians and composers were the stars of the day; some, like Franz Liszt and Niccolò Paganini, fulfilled both roles.

The family of instruments used, especially in orchestras, grew. A wider array of percussion instruments began to appear. Brass instruments took on larger roles, as the introduction of rotary valves made it possible for them to play a wider range of notes. The size of the orchestra (typically around 40 in the Classical era) grew to be over 100. Gustav Mahler's 1906 ''Symphony No. 8'', for example, has been performed with over 150 instrumentalists and choirs of over 400.

European cultural ideas and institutions began to follow colonial expansion into other parts of the world. There was also a rise, especially toward the end of the era, of nationalism in music (echoing, in some cases, political sentiments of the time), as composers such as Edvard Grieg, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Antonín Dvořák echoed traditional music of their homelands in their compositions.

20th century, modern, and contemporary music

Modernism (1905–1985) marked a period when many composers rejected certain values of the common practice period, such as traditional tonality, melody, instrumentation, and structure. Composers, academics, and musicians developed extensions of music theory and technique. 20th century classical music, encompassing a wide variety of post-Romantic styles composed through the year 1999, includes late Romantic, Modern and Postmodern styles of composition. The term "contemporary music" is sometimes used to describe music composed in the late 20th century through to the present day.

Significance of written notation

Modernist view of the significance of the score

The modernist views hold that Classical music is considered primarily a ''written'' musical tradition, preserved in music notation, as opposed to being transmitted orally, by rote, or by recordings of particular performances. While there are differences between particular performances of a classical work, a piece of classical music is generally held to transcend any interpretation of it. The use of musical notation is an effective method for transmitting classical music, since the written music contains the technical instructions for performing the work. The written score, however, does not usually contain explicit instructions as to how to interpret the piece in terms of production or performance, apart from directions for dynamics, tempo and expression (to a certain extent). This is left to the discretion of the performers, who are guided by their personal experience and musical education, their knowledge of the work's idiom, their personal artistic tastes, and the accumulated body of historic performance practices.

Criticism of the modernist view

Some critics express the opinion that it is only from the mid 19th century, and especially in the 20th century, that the score began to hold such a high significance. Previously, improvisation, rhythmic flexibility, improvisatory deviation from the score and oral tradition of playing was integral to style of music. Yet in the 20th century, this oral tradition and passing on of stylistic features within classical music disappeared. Instead, musicians use the score to play music, yet even given the score, there is considerable controversy about how to perform the works. Some of this controversy relates to the fact that this score-centric approach has led to performing styles that emphasize metrically strict block-rhythms (just as the music is notated in the score).

Some quotes that highlight this criticism of modernist overvaluing of the score:

''[...]one of the most stubborn modern misconceptions concerning baroque music is that a metronomic regularity was intended'' (Baroque Interpretation in Grove 5th edition by Robert Donington)

''Too many teachers, conditioned to 20th Century ideas, teach Bach and other Baroque music exactly the wrong way. This leads to what musicologist Sol Babitz calls "sewing machine Bach."'' ''[...] tendency to look alike, sound alike and think alike. The conservatories are at fault and they have been at fault for many years now. Any sensitive musician going around the World has noted the same thing. The conservatories, from Moscow and Leningrad to Juilliard, Curtis and Indiana, are producing a standardized product. [...] clarity, undeviating rhythm, easy technique, "musicianship". I put the word musicianship in quotes, because as often as not, it is a false kind of musicianship – a musicianship that sees the tree and not the forest, that takes care of the detail but ignores the big picture; a musicianship that is tied to the printed note rather than to emotional meaning of a piece.The fact remains that there is a dreadful uniformity today and also an appalling lack of knowledge about the culture and performance traditions of the past.'' (Music Schools Turning out Robots? by Harold C. Schonberg)

Improvisation

Improvisation once played an important role in classical music. A remnant of this improvisatory tradition in classical music can be heard in the cadenza, a passage found mostly in concertos and solo works, designed to allow skilled performers to exhibit their virtuoso skills on the instrument. Traditionally this was improvised by the performer; however, it is often written for (or occasionally by) the performer beforehand. Improvisation is also an important aspect in authentic performances of operas of Baroque era and of bel canto (especially operas of Vincenzo Bellini), and is best exemplified by the ''da capo aria'', a form by which famous singers typically perform variations of the thematic matter of the aria in the recapitulation section ('B section' / the 'da capo' part). An example is Beverly Sills' complex, albeit pre-written, variation of ''Da tempeste il legno infranto'' from Händel's ''Giulio Cesare''.

Its written transmission, along with the veneration bestowed on certain classical works, has led to the expectation that performers will play a work in a way that realizes in detail the original intentions of the composer. During the 19th century the details that composers put in their scores generally increased. Yet the opposite trend – admiration of performers for new "interpretations" of the composer's work – can be seen, and it is not unknown for a composer to praise a performer for achieving a better realization of the original intent than the composer was able to imagine. Thus, classical performers often achieve very high reputations for their musicianship, even if they do not compose themselves. Generally however, it is the composers who are remembered more than the performers.

Another consequence of the primacy of the composer's written score is that this has led to the state, where today improvisation plays a relatively minor role in classical music, in sharp contrast to musicians who lived during the baroque, classical and romantic era. Improvisation in classical music performance was common during both the Baroque era and in the nineteenth, yet lessened strongly during the 2nd half of the 19th and in the 20th centuries. Recently the performance of such music by modern classical musicians has been enriched by a revival of the old improvisational practices. During the classical period, Mozart and Beethoven often improvised the cadenzas to their piano concertos (and thereby encouraged others to do so), but they also provided written cadenzas for use by other soloists. In opera, the practice of singing strictly by the score i.e. ''come scritto'', is famously propagated by Maria Callas, who called this practice 'straitjacketing' and implied that it allows the intention of the composer to be understood better, especially during studying the music for the first time.

Relationship to other music traditions

Popular music

Classical music has often incorporated elements or material from popular music of the composer's time. Examples include occasional music such as Brahms' use of student drinking songs in his ''Academic Festival Overture'', genres exemplified by Kurt Weill's ''The Threepenny Opera'', and the influence of jazz on early- and mid-20th century composers including Maurice Ravel, exemplified by the movement entitled "Blues" in his sonata for violin and piano. Certain postmodern, minimalist and postminimalist classical composers acknowledge a debt to popular music.

There are numerous examples of influence in the opposite direction, including popular songs based on classical music, the use to which ''Pachelbel's Canon'' has been put since the 1970s, and the musical crossover phenomenon, where classical musicians have achieved success in the popular music arena.

Folk music

Composers of classical music have often made use of folk music (music created by musicians who are commonly not classically trained, often from a purely oral tradition). Some composers, like Dvořák and Smetana, have used folk themes to impart a nationalist flavor to their work, while others (like Bartók) have used specific themes lifted whole from their folk-music origins.

Commercialism

Certain staples of classical music are often used commercially (either in advertising or in movie soundtracks). In television commercials, several passages have become clichéd, particularly the opening of Richard Strauss' ''Also sprach Zarathustra'' (made famous in the film ''2001: A Space Odyssey'') and the opening section "O Fortuna" of Carl Orff's ''Carmina Burana''; other examples include the ''Dies Irae'' from the Verdi Requiem, Edvard Grieg's ''In the Hall of the Mountain King'' from ''Peer Gynt'', the opening bars of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, Wagner's ''Ride of the Valkyries'' from ''Die Walküre'', Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee", and excerpts of Aaron Copland's ''Rodeo''.

Similarly, movies and television often revert to standard, clichéd snatches of classical music to convey refinement or opulence: some of the most-often heard pieces in this category include Mozart's ''Eine kleine Nachtmusik'', Vivaldi's ''Four Seasons'', Mussorgsky's ''Night on Bald Mountain'', and Rossini's ''William Tell Overture''.

Education

Throughout history, parents have often made sure that their children receive classical music training from a young age. Some parents pursue music lessons for their children for social reasons or in an effort to instill a sense of self-discipline. Some believe that knowledge of important works of classical music is part of a good general education.

During the 1990s, several research papers and popular books wrote on what came to be called the "Mozart effect": an observed temporary, small elevation of scores on certain tests as a result of listening to Mozart's works. The approach has been popularized in a book by Don Campbell, and is based on an experiment published in ''Nature'' suggesting that listening to Mozart temporarily boosted students' IQ by 8 to 9 points. This popularized version of the theory was expressed succinctly by a ''New York Times'' music columnist: "researchers... have determined that listening to Mozart actually makes you smarter." Promoters marketed CDs claimed to induce the effect. Florida passed a law requiring toddlers in state-run schools to listen to classical music every day, and in 1998 the governor of Georgia budgeted $105,000 per year to provide every child born in Georgia with a tape or CD of classical music. One of the co-authors of the original studies of the Mozart effect commented "I don't think it can hurt. I'm all for exposing children to wonderful cultural experiences. But I do think the money could be better spent on music education programs."

See also

Notes

References

Kennedy, Michael (2006), ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'', 985 pages, ISBN 0-19-861459-4

Further reading

Copland, Aaron;(1957) – ''What to listen for in music''. McGraw Hill.-10: 7018981026 (paperback).

Grout, Donald Jay; Palisca, Claude V. (1996) – ''A History of Western Music'', Fifth Edition. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-96904-5 (hardcover).

Hanning, Barbara Russano; Grout, Donald Jay (1998 rev. 2009) – ''Concise History of Western Music''. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-92803-9 (hardcover).

Johnson, Julian (2002). ''Who Needs Classical Music?: Cultural Choice and Musical Value''. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-514681-6.

Kamien, Roger (2008) – ''Music: An Appreciation'' Sixth Brief Edition ISBN 978-0-07-340134-8

Lihoreau, Tim; Fry, Stephen (2004) – ''Stephen Fry's Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music''. Boxtree. ISBN 978-0-7522-2534-0

Scholes, Percy Alfred; Arnold, Denis (photographer) (1988) – ''The New Oxford Companion to Music''. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-311316-3 (paperback).

Taruskin, Richard (2005, rev. Paperback version 2009) – ''Oxford History of Western Music''. Oxford University Press (USA). ISBN 978-0-19-516979-9 (Hardback), ISBN 978-0-19-538630-1 (Paperback)

External links

Historical classical recordings from the British Library Sound Archive

Category:European music

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Chitresh Das (Devanagari: ) (born November 9, 1944) is a classical dancer of the North Indian style of Kathak. Born in Calcutta, Das is a performer, choreographer, composer, and educator. He was instrumental in bringing Kathak to the U.S. and is credited with firmly establishing Kathak amongst American dancers and the Indian diaspora. In 1979, Das established the Chhandam School of Kathak and the Chitresh Das Dance Company in California. In 2002, he founded Chhandam Nritya Bharati in India. Today, with over ten branches of Chhandam worldwide, Das continues to teach dance as a way of life, a path for attaining self-knowledge and as a service to society.

Pandit Das continues to perform and teach to audiences across the globe, frequently touring through India, North America and Europe. He is well known for his virtuosic footwork, rhythmic adeptness, compelling storytelling, as well as his own innovation of “Kathak Yoga”.

Early life and background

Chitresh Das was born in Calcutta, West Bengal to parents Nrityacharya Prohlad Das and Smt. Nilima Das. His parents founded “Nritya Bharati,” one of India’s first institutions for dance that housed teachers of several classical and folk styles. Prohlad Das, himself a dance scholar and choreographer, used traditional dance forms to express modern issues, such as in his revolutionary work “Abhyudaya” (meaning “awakening”) staged before Indian Independence in 1947. Das frequently cites his mother, Nilima Das, on having a profound impact on his life as a dancer, often stating, “mother is the first guru”.

Growing up in his parents' dance school in Calcutta, Nritya Bharati, Pandit Das was surrounded by great literary artists, poets, dancers, and gurus of the times. He has fond memories of iconic dancers such as Rukmini Devi Arundale, Uday Shankar, Balasaraswati and the legendary Shambhu Maharaj coming to visit his home.

With encouragement from his mother, Das began his study of Kathak at age 9 under Kathak guru, Pandit Ram Narayan Misra, a well-known disciple of Shambhu and Acchchan Maharaj. Das was schooled in both major Kathak traditions, embodying each in his artistry: the graceful and sensual elements of the Lucknow school combined with the dynamic and powerful rhythms and movements of the Jaipur School.

Das was a child prodigy in India who quickly attained national fame, performing at age 11 with the legendary tabla maestro Samta Prasadji and in a special concert for the great Indian dance icon Uday Shankar. Das graduated from Rabindra Bharati University in Calcutta and earned his M.A. in dance from Prayag Sangit Samiti in Allahabad.

Teaching career

Chitresh Das was brought to the United States in 1970 on a Whitney Fellowship to teach Kathak at the University of Maryland. In 1971, Pandit Das was invited by Ustad Ali Akbar Khan to the San Francisco Bay Area to teach Kathak and establish a dance program at the Ali Akbar College of Music (AACM) in San Rafael, California.

By 1979, he left the AACM faculty to form his own dance school called Chhandam; his “Chitresh Das Dance Company” (CDDC) was incorporated in 1980. In 1988, Das formed the first university accredited Kathak course in the U.S. at San Francisco State University; several current dancers of CDDC began studying with Das in the SFSU program. Das was also a guest faculty member at Stanford University.

His own school of Chhandam has continued to grow with branches in San Francisco, Fremont/Union City, Berkeley, Mountain View, San Jose, Sacramento, and Los Angeles. His disciples, Joanna De Souza and Gretchen Hayden went on to establish branches of Chhandam in Toronto (1990) and Boston (1992), respectively. Today, Chhandam currently has 550 students enrolled at branches across North America.

Through the years Das would return annually for several months to India in order to teach and perform. In 2002, Pandit Das reopened his parents’ school of Chhandam Nritya Bharati in Calcutta, India. In 2010, Pandit Das inaugurated the second branch of his school in India, Chhandam Nritya Bharati, in Mumbai. While in India, Pandit Das continues his work with the New Light Foundation teaching Kathak dance to the children of sex workers of the Kalighat red light district in Calcutta, as a part of a program to help them break free of the cycle of exploitation.

As he was trained by his Guru, Pandit Ram Narayan Misra, Das trains his own students, both in the US and India, within the guru-shisya parampara (the tradition of master and disciple). A Guru is “one who removes the darkness” through direct knowledge and training. Das remains committed to preserving the traditional one-to-one transmission of knowledge between guru and shisya in today’s society; he has trained many disciples who have gone on to become solo artists in their own right.

Performing career

Pandit Chitresh Das has performed extensively throughout America, India and Europe, touring both as a solo artist, in collaborative productions, as well as with the Chitresh Das Dance Company. Das consistently tours and performs throughout India. Select performances within India include the Surya festival (1982); Pandit Ravi Shankar’s Rimpa Festival in Benares (1983), representing his home state of West Bengal in tours throughout India (1998, 1999), Dover Lane Conference, Kolkata (1979, 1982, 1984, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2003); National Kathak Festival in New Delhi (2003), Fort William, Kolkata (2005) where he performed before 4,000 Indian soldiers, UMAQ Festival, New Delhi (2004, 2006, 2007), U.S. Consulate 50th Anniversary in Mumbai (2008), Karamatullah Khan Festival in Kolkata (2008), Mumbai Festival (2008), 50th Anniversary Festival, IIT Kharagpur, India (2009) amongst others.

Das has performed extensively though out the United States since the early 70s. In 1984 Das was selected to perform in the Olympic Arts Festival during the Los Angeles Olympic Games. Other select American performances include the Lincoln Center (1988), International Kathak festival in Chicago (2004), American Dance Festival (2004, 2006), and the American Folk festival (2008). In the San Francisco Bay Area, Chitresh Das and his Dance Company have been a mainstay of the local dance season and his company’s home season has included such masterpieces as “Gold Rush” (1990), “Sadhana” (1991), “East as Center” (2003), and his most recent award winning collaboration with tap dancer, Jason Samuel Smith, “IJS: India Jazz Suites” (2005 to present). The original IJS collaboration was selected as the number one dance performance of 2005 by the San Francisco Chronicle as well as receiving the Isadora Duncan Ensemble of the year award (2005). Since IJS has toured extensively, including four tours to India, performances across America, including Hawaii, and Australia.

In 2006, the Chitresh Das and Chhandam organized a festival of Kathak dance in San Francisco, the largest Kathak festival ever to take place outside of India; it brought together Kathak dancers from all over the world. Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco inaugurated the festival by proclaiming Sept 28th “Kathak Day”.

In earlier years, Das also performed throughout Europe, including Bonn and Aachen International Dance Festivals (1983), Logan Hall in London (1984), and Nijmegen and Arnhem, Holland (1984). In the late eighties, he also performed throughout in Germany, Poland, and Hungary with Tanzprojekt.

On Screen

In 2004, Pandit Das was featured on a national PBS program, and in a BBC series “Eighty Treasures Around the World”; the program featured Pandit Das performing in a historic court in Calcutta. He was also featured in the PBS series “Indians in America”. In January 2005 and 2006, Pandit Das’ solo performances were featured on national Indian television. In 2007, he was featured on PBS station KQED’s performing arts profile show Spark.

Das’s collaboration with Jason Samuel Smiths is the subject of an upcoming national documentary, ‘Upaj’ to be nationally broadcast on PBS in 2011. Das also appeared on the popular Indian talk show “Oye! Its Friday” show filmed in Mumbai in 2009.

Style and Contributions

“Freedom comes through refined discipline with responsibility”.

In the early years, Das was known for his distinctively athletic style: fast and powerful emphasizing footwork and swift turns. Today, Das teaches in this rigorous style with focus on tayari (readiness of technique, speed, and stamina) and laykari (virtuosity of Indian classical rhythmic system), but equally emphasizes khubsurti (beauty) and nazakat (delicacy and refinement). Dancers must become adept at abhinaya (expression) and learn to masterfully portray the concept of 'Ardhanariswara' (the embodiment of the masculine and feminine) in their dance.

Das’s teaching and performance also emphasize Upaj, or improvisation. Whilst Das has choreographed many group pieces, he and his students continue to present traditional full-length Kathak solos, requiring the dancer to improvise on stage with live musicians for up to two hours.

One of Das’s most important contributions to his school and to the larger field of Kathak is his development of “Kathak yoga”. Kathak yoga involves the practice of simultaneously dancing, singing, and often, playing an instrument. In Kathak yoga, the dancer recites a chosen taal (rhythmic cycle), sings the melody and the theka (language of the drum) of the taal, while practicing precise complicated footwork. Kathak yoga is based on the fundamental yogic concept of integrating the mind, soul and body and was the subject of a doctoral dissertation at Harvard University by Dr. Sarah Morelli. Das himself has demonstrated Kathak yoga by dancing, singing, and playing tabla simultaneously. His company also exhibits the practice of Kathak yoga by adding the playing of instruments to their dance. The dancers simultaneously perform three contrasting concepts – complex rhythmic compositions with the feet and body, continuous singing of the rhythmic cycle, and playing an instrument (harmonium or manjira).

Selected Awards

In 1987, and then again in 2003, Das was awarded the Isadora Duncan Dancer of the Year Award. In 2004 Pandit Das received the inaugural lifetime achievement award from the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. In 2005, he was named a “Dance Icon of the West” by the San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum. In 2006 Pandit Das received the Goldie Lifetime Achievement Award from the San Francisco Bay Guardian. In 2007, Das received an award from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, a national arts institution inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi in India in 1938, for outstanding contribution in the field of Kathak dance.

In 2009, Pandit Das was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship, the highest honor bestowed on a traditional artist by the U.S. Government. Das received the award, signed by President Obama, at a ceremony at the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill.

Many of Das’s productions have also received numerous awards, including Isadora Duncan Awards for his productions ‘East of Center’ (2003), India Jazz Suites (2005) as well as a special award for presenting the largest Indian classical dance festival outside of India, Kathak at the Crossroads (2006).

Pandit Das has also received numerous grants including from the Olympic Arts Festival, National Endowment for the Arts, National Dance Project, California Arts Council, Rockefeller Foundation, Irvine Fellowships in Dance, among others.

Serving Society through the Arts

Since 2003, Das has worked closely with the New Light Foundation, a Kolkata-based NGO that works to free the children of red-light district workers from the cycle of prostitution and abuse through support services, education and care. Das and the teachers of Nritya Bharati are teaching the children of the New Light Foundation Kathak dance as a means for cultural and self-awareness and empowerment. Recently, the New Light group was invited by the German Ministry of Culture and International Cooperation to be a part of Kinder Kulture Karavane; in 2008, the New Light children travelled to Germany for a 6-week performing tour. Das has also worked with the Calcutta Blind Opera (or Shyambazar Blind Opera), teaching Kathak to visually challenged performers through emphasis on its rhythmic and musical components.

In Das’s teachings, he emphasizes the concepts of ‘tyaag aur seva’ (sacrifice and selfless service). Das himself, as well as the students of Chhandam, are encouraged to adopt the values of selflessness and sacrifice. These values must manifest both within the context of their study of Kathak and also permeate in other aspects of their lives by giving back to their communities and the society by and large.

References

Further reading

Morelli, Sarah. 2007. “'From Calcutta to California': Negotiations of Movement and Meaning in Kathak Dance.” Ph.D. dissertation, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.

External links

Official Chitresh Das Dance Company and Chhandam School of Kathak Website

Kathak Yoga, A New Dimension in the Evolution of Kathak

San Francisco Chronicle chooses India Jazz Suites as #1 Dance Performance of 2005

Category:Indian choreographers Category:1944 births Category:Living people Category:Kathak exponents Category:People from Kolkata Category:Rabindra Bharati University alumni Category:Dance instructors Category:Indian classical dancers Category:Indian emigrants to the United States

Coordinates	53°52′″N21°18′″N
Name	Birju Maharaj
Background	non_performing_personnel
Born	February 04, 1938 Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
Origin	India
Genre	Indian classical music
Occupation	Classical dancer
Website	http://www.birjumaharaj-kalashram.com/main.asp
Past members	}}

Brijmo Mishra popularly known as Pandit Birju Maharaj (born February 4, 1938) is currently the leading exponent of the Lucknow ''Kalka-Bindadin'' gharana of Kathak dance in India.He is a descendant of the legendary Maharaj family of Kathak dancers, including his two uncles, Shambhu Maharaj and Lachhu Maharaj, and his father and guru, Acchan Maharaj. Even though dancing is his first love, he also has an excellent command over Hindustani classical music and is an accomplished vocalist as well. He took Kathak to new heights by choreographing new Kathak dance dramas. He has toured extensively across the globe, given thousands of performances and held hundreds of workshops for kathak students.

After working along with his uncle, Shambhu Maharaj at Bhartiya Kala Kendra, later the Kathak Kendra, New Delhi, he remained head of the latter, for several years, till his retirement in 1998 when he opened his own dance school, ''Kalashram'', also in Delhi.

Early life and background

Birju Maharaj was born in the house of noted Kathak exponent, Jagannath Maharaj, popularly known as Acchan Maharaj of Lucknow Gharana, who served as court dancer in Raigarh princely state. Birju was trained by his uncles, Lachhu Maharaj and Shambhu Maharaj and his father, and he gave his first recital at the age of seven. On 20 May 1947, his father died when he was nine . After a few years of struggle, his family moved to Delhi.

Career

Birju Maharaj started teaching the dance form at the young age of thirteen, at the Sangeet Bharti in New Delhi. He then taught at the Bharatiya Kala Kendra in Delhi, and at the Kathak Kendra (a unit of the Sangeet Natak Akademi) where he was Head of Faculty, and Director, retiring in 1998 after which he opened his own dance school, ''Kalashram'', also in Delhi. He composed the music, and sang, for two dance sequences in the Satyajit Ray's Shatranj ke Khilari, and choreographed the song Kaahe Chhed Mohe from the 2002 film version of Devdas.

He has three daughters and two sons, of whom Mamta Maharaj, Deepak Maharaj and Jai Kishan Maharaj are Kathak dancers. He also has a Grandson Tribhuwan Maharaj.

Awards and honours

Birju Maharaj has won many accolades, including Padma Vibhushan in 1986, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and the Kalidas Samman. He also received honorary Doctorate degrees from the Banaras Hindu University(Varanasi) and the Khairagarh University.

He was the recipient of the Lata Mangeshkar Puraskaar in 2002.

Filmography

Music composition and choreography

Shatranj Ke Khiladi, 1977

Dil To Pagal Hai, 1997

Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, 2001

Devdas, 2002

Trivia

He was spoofed in the 2007 film Apna Sapna Money Money with the name Sarju Maharaj Benaraswaale. He was played by Sanjai Mishra and his impostor was played by Riteish Deshmukh.

See also

Kathak

List of Kathak dancers

Māni Mādhava Chākyār

Apna Sapna Money Money

References

External links

Pandit Birju Maharaj (Official Website)

Kathak maestro Birju Maharaj on top Indian dancers

Category:1938 births Category:Living people Category:Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan Category:Kathak exponents Category:Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Category:Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship Category:Indian choreographers Category:Indian film choreographers Category:People from Lucknow Category:Dance instructors Category:Indian classical dancers Category:Indian classical choreographers

gu:બિરજુ મહારાજ hi:बिरजू महाराज kn:ಬಿರ್ಜೂ ಮಹಾರಾಜ್‌ (Birju Maharaj) te:బిర్జూ మహరాజ్

Sir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE (born 19 January 1955) is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since 2002 has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic (BPO).

Early life

Rattle was born in Liverpool, the son of Pauline Lila Violet (Greening) and Denis Guttridge Rattle, a Commander in the Royal Navy. He was educated at Liverpool College. Although Rattle studied piano and violin, his early work with orchestras was as a percussionist. He entered the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1971. There, his teachers included John Carewe. In 1974, his graduation year, Rattle won the John Player Conductor Competition. After organising and conducting a performance of Mahler's Second Symphony whilst still at the Academy, he was talent-spotted by the music agent Martin Campbell-White, of Harold Holt Ltd. (now Askonas Holt Ltd.), who has since managed Rattle's career. He spent the academic year 1980/81 at St Anne's College, Oxford studying English Language and Literature. He had been attracted to the college by the reputation of Dorothy Bednarowska, Fellow and Tutor in English. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of St Anne's in 1991. He was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Music ''honoris causa'' of the University of Oxford in 1999.

UK career

In 1974, he was made assistant conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. His first Prom at the Royal Albert Hall, conducting the London Sinfonietta, was, according to the BBC Proms Archive web-site, on 9th August 1976. The programme included Sir Harrison Birtwistle's Meridian and Schoenberg's First Chamber Symphony. In 1977 he became assistant conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

His time with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) from 1980 to 1998 drew him to the attention of critics and the public. In 1980, Simon Rattle became the CBSO's Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser, and in 1990, Music Director. Rattle increased both his profile and that of the orchestra over his tenure. One of his long-term concert projects was the series of concerts of 20th century music titled "Towards the Millennium". One other major achievement during his time was the move of the CBSO from its former venue, Birmingham Town Hall, to a newly built concert hall, Symphony Hall, in 1991. The BBC commissioned film director Jaine Green to follow him in his final year with the CBSO to make ''Simon Rattle—Moving On''.

Rattle was awarded a CBE in 1987 and made a Knight Bachelor in 1994. In 1992, Rattle was named a Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE), along with Frans Brüggen. Rattle now has the title of Principal Artist with the OAE. In 2001, Rattle conducted the OAE at Glyndebourne in their first production of ''Fidelio'' with a period-instrument orchestra.

Rattle strongly supported youth music. He led two attempts at gaining the record for the World's Largest Orchestra, both designed to raise awareness of youth music in schools. The first, in 1996, was unsuccessful. The second, in 1998, did succeed and the record held at nearly 4,000 musicians until it was broken in 2000 by a group in Vancouver.

In May 2006 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Arts. In 2011, the Royal Academy of Music presented him with an Honorary Doctorate.

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Rattle made his conducting debut with the Berlin Philharmonic (BPO) in 1987, in a performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6. In 1999, Rattle was appointed as successor to Claudio Abbado as the orchestra's principal conductor. The appointment, decided on in a 23 June vote by the orchestra's members, was somewhat controversial, as several members of the orchestra were earlier reported to have preferred Daniel Barenboim for the post. Nevertheless, Rattle won the post and proceeded to win over his detractors by refusing to sign the contract until he had ensured that every member of the orchestra was paid fairly, and also that the orchestra would gain artistic independence from the Berlin Senate.

Before leaving for Germany and on his arrival, Rattle controversially attacked the British attitude to culture in general, and in particular the artists of the Britart movement, together with the state funding of culture in the UK.

Since his appointment, Rattle has reorganised the Berlin Philharmonic into a foundation, meaning its activities are more under the control of the members rather than politicians. He has also ensured that orchestra members' wages have increased quite dramatically, after falling over the previous few years. He gave his first concert as principal conductor of the BPO on 7 September 2002, leading performances of Thomas Adès' ''Asyla'' and Mahler's Symphony No. 5, performances which received rave reviews from the press worldwide and were recorded for CD and DVD release by EMI. Early collaborative projects in the Berlin community with Rattle and the BPO involved a choreographed performance of Stravinsky's ''The Rite of Spring'' and a film project with Mark-Anthony Turnage's ''Blood on the Floor''. He has also continued to champion contemporary music in Berlin. The orchestra has established its first education department during Rattle's tenure.

Criticism of Rattle's tenure with the Berlin Philharmonic began to appear after their first season together, and continued in their second season. The German critic Klaus Geitel was reported in 2004 to have described Rattle as "the weakest musical director of the Berlin Philharmonic he's ever seen". Rattle himself stated in 2005 that his relationship with the BPO musicians could sometimes be "turbulent", but also "never destructively so".

In 2006, a new controversy began in the German press as to the quality of Rattle's concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic, with criticism from the German critic Manuel Brug in ''Die Welt''. One musician who wrote to the press to defend Rattle was the pianist Alfred Brendel. In 2007, the BPO/Rattle recording of Brahms's ''Ein deutsches Requiem'' received the Classic FM Gramophone best choral disc award.

Rattle was originally contracted to lead the BPO through 2012, but in April 2008 the BPO musicians voted to extend his contract as chief conductor for an additional ten years past the next season, to 2018.

UNICEF appointed Rattle and the BPO as Goodwill Ambassadors in November 2007.

Conducting in North America

Rattle made his North American debut in 1976, conducting the London Schools Symphony Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl. He first conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) in 1979 during the music directorship of Carlo Maria Giulini, and was their Principal Guest Conductor from 1981–1994. He also guest-conducted the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Boston Symphony Orchestra. His New York City debut was with the LA Phil in 1985.

In 1993, Rattle made his conducting debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra. He returned for guest conducting engagements in 1999 and 2000. The musical relationship between Rattle and The Philadelphia Orchestra was reported to be such that Philadelphia wanted to hire Rattle as its next music director after Wolfgang Sawallisch, but Rattle declined. However, Rattle continues to guest-conduct with The Philadelphia Orchestra, including appearances in 2006 and the Philadelphia Orchestra's first performances of Robert Schumann's ''Das Paradies und die Peri'' in November 2007.

Musical styles and recordings

Rattle has conducted a wide variety of music, including some with period instruments (musical instruments whose design is similar to that of instruments commonly in use at the time the piece was composed - or the actual historical instrument itself), but he is best known for his interpretations of late-19th and early 20th century composers such as Mahler, with a recording of Mahler's Second Symphony winning several awards on its release and being regarded by some music critics as Rattle's finest recording to date. He has also championed much contemporary music, an example of this being the TV series ''Leaving Home'', where he presents a 7-part survey of musical styles and conductors with excerpts recorded by the CBSO. His newest recordings with the Berlin orchestra (as of 2006) have, on the whole, been favourably received, notably his recordings of the Dvořák tone poems, Mahler's Symphony No.9 and Debussy's ''La Mer''. The ''Gramophone Magazine'' praised the latter as a "magnificent disc" and drew favourable comparisons with interpretations of the piece by Rattle's immediate predecessors, Claudio Abbado and Herbert von Karajan. He has also worked with the Toronto Children's Chorus. Rattle and the BPO also recorded Holst's ''Planets'' (EMI), which was the ''BBC Music Magazine'' Orchestra Choice. In addition, Rattle's acclaimed complete 1989 recording of George Gershwin's opera ''Porgy and Bess'' was used as the soundtrack for the equally acclaimed 1993 television production of the work. It was the first made-for-television production of ''Porgy and Bess'' ever presented. Rattle's 2007 recording of Brahms' ''Ein deutsches Requiem'' received praise from ''BBC Music Magazine'', as "Disc of the Month" for April 2007, "as probably the best new version of the ''Requiem'' I've heard in quite some years." Rattle and the BPO have also released recordings of Bruckner's Fourth Symphony, ''Romantic'', and Haydn's Symphonies Nos. 88-92 and Sinfonia concertante, and Mahler's Ninth Symphony.

Simon Rattle's recording of Brahms' ''Ein deutsches Requiem'' with the BPO received the Choral Performance Grammy Award in 2008. He has won two other Grammy Awards, one Choral Performance Award for a recording of Stravinsky's ''Symphony of Psalms'' in 2007, and another for Best Orchestral Performance, for a recording of Mahler's unfinished ''Symphony No. 10'' in 2000.

Personal life

Rattle's first marriage was to Elise Ross, an American soprano, with whom he had two sons; Sacha, who is a clarinetist, and Eliot. They were divorced in 1995 after 15 years of marriage. His second wife was Candace Allen, a Boston-born writer. This second marriage ended after Rattle and the Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená began a relationship. Kožená and Rattle have two sons, Jonas and Milos.

Rattle is a fan of Liverpool F.C.

Books

Kenyon, Nicholas (1987) Simon Rattle: The Making of a Conductor. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0571146708.

Discography

References

External links

Simon Rattle official website

Berliner Philharmoniker website

Simon Rattle Recordings on EMI Classics

Website of the film and education project "Rhythm is it!

The Planets microsite

Phillipa Ibbotson, "He won't play the game". Essay from ''The Guardian'', 19 June 2006.

Norman Lebrecht, "Rattle has a battle on his hands". ''La Scena Musicale'', 23 August 2006.

Ed Vulliamy, ''Simon Rattle: bringing Berlin home to Liverpool,'' The Observer, 31 August 2008

Television Interview with Simon Rattle from C Music TV.

theartsdesk Q&A interview, 30 July 2010

Category:Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:English conductors (music) Category:Fellows of St Anne's College, Oxford Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Old Lerpoolians Category:Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Musicians from Liverpool Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

bg:Саймън Ратъл ca:Simon Rattle da:Simon Rattle de:Simon Rattle es:Simon Rattle fr:Simon Rattle ko:사이먼 래틀 is:Simon Rattle it:Simon Rattle he:סיימון ראטל la:Simon Rattle lv:Saimons Retls nl:Simon Rattle ja:サイモン・ラトル no:Simon Rattle pl:Simon Rattle pt:Simon Rattle ru:Рэттл, Саймон simple:Simon Rattle fi:Simon Rattle sv:Simon Rattle zh:西蒙·拉特尔

Coordinates	53°52′″N21°18′″N
name	Subramanian Swamy
Office1	President, Janata Party
Term start1	1989
Office2	Minister of Commerce and Industry
Primeminister2	Chandra Shekhar Singh
Term start2	1990
Term end2	1991
Office3	Minister of Law and Justice
Primeminister3	Chandra Shekhar Singh
Term start3	1990
Term end3	1991
Office4	Member of the Rajya Sabha
Term start4	1988
Term end4	1994
Term start5	1974
Term end5	1976
Office6	Member of the Lok Sabha
Term start6	1980
Term end6	1984
Term start7	1977
Term end7	1979
Birth date
Birth place	Mylapore, Chennai, British India
Party	Janata Party
religion	Hindu
alma mater	University of DelhiIndian Statistical InstituteHarvard University
profession	EconomistProfessorAuthorPolitician
spouse	Dr. Roxna Swamy }}

Subramanian Swamy (born 15 September 1939 in Chennai, sometimes spelt Subramaniam Swamy) is presently the President of Janata Party. He is a politician.

Early life and education

Subramanian Swamy was born in Mylapore, Chennai, India, into a Hindu Brahmin family. His father originally is from Madurai, Tamil Nadu, and his mother is from Tamil speaking family from Trichur, Kerala.

He attended Hindu College, University of Delhi, from where he earned his Bachelor Honours degree in Mathematics. He studied for his Masters degree in Statistics at the Indian Statistical Institute. He then went to study at Harvard University on a full Rockefeller scholarship. He was awarded a Ph.D. in Economics by Harvard University (Class of 1965).

For some time, while completing his dissertation in 1963, he worked at the United Nations Secretariat in New York as an Assistant Economics Affairs Officer. He subsequently worked as a resident tutor at Lowell House at Harvard.

Academic career

In 1964, Swamy joined the faculty of economics at Harvard and since then has taught in the Department of Economics. He began as an assistant professor, and in 1969 became an associate professor. He regularly teaches economics courses in summer session at Harvard.

From 1969 to 1991, he was a Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He was removed from the position by its board of Governors in the early 1970s but was legally reinstated in the late 1980s by the Supreme Court of India. He continued in the position until 1991 when he resigned to become a cabinet minister. He served on the Board of Governors of the IIT, Delhi (1977–80), and on the Council of IITs (1980–82).

He is the chairman of School of Communication & Management Studies in Kerala, a business institute in India.

Comparative study

He is accounted by some to be an authority on the comparative study of India and China and is also well-versed in the Mandarin Chinese language.

Political career

Role played during Indian Emergency

He first came into the spotlight for protesting against the emergency imposed in 1975. He went underground for a period of 6 months to avoid being arrested by police. Under the instruction of Jayaprakash Narayan, Swami escaped to US so that he could mobilise overseas Indians and world media against the emergency.

Elections contested

He was one of the founding members of the Janata Party and has been its president since 1990. He was elected Member of Parliament 5 times between 1974 and 1999. He has twice represented the city of Mumbai North East during 1977 and 1980, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the Parliament.

He was also a member of the Planning Commission between 1990 and 1991. Between 1994 and 1996, he held the position of "Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade" (equivalent to the rank of a cabinet minister) under the P. V. Narasimha Rao government. Dr. Swamy has been subject to several defamation cases. He is known to argue these cases himself without the agency of lawyers. In October 2004, he along with other members of the erstwhile Janata Party established the Rashtriya Swabhiman Manch to oppose the policies of the ruling UPA.

Minister of Commerce and Law of India

Economic Reforms in India

During the period 1990 to 1991 when Swamy was Cabinet Minister of Commerce and Law of India he created the blueprint for economic reforms in India under Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar Singh which was later carried out in 1991 by Manmohan Singh, then Finance Minister under leadership of Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. The current Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh recently stated that Dr. Swamy was the first to envisage and articulate the need for reforms in India.

Political views

International relations

China and India

He is known for his efforts in normalizing relations between China and India. In 1981, he persuaded Deng Xiaoping to open the Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet to the Hindu pilgrims from India. He became the first Indian on the reopening to visit Kailash and Mansarovar in 1981. In 1990-1991, he was a minister in the Chandra Shekhar cabinet and was in charge of the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Law and Justice.

Israel

In his speeches and articles, Dr Swamy has expressed his admiration for Israel, and has credited its retaliatory capacity for its ability to survive in a hostile Arab environment. He made pioneering efforts at establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.

2G spectrum scam

In November 2008, Subramanian Swamy wrote the first of five letters to PM Manmohan Singh seeking permission to prosecute A. Raja in regards to the 2G spectrum scam. However, Singh took no action, leading Swamy to file a case on his own in the Supreme Court of India regarding the matter, which then asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to produce a detailed report on the matter. He further called on the Indian government to re-auction the 2G spectrum without the involvement of Communications Minister Kapil Sibal.

Swamy has raised allegations that that Sonia Gandhi's two sisters Anushka and Nadia have received sixty percent of the kickbacks in the 2G spectrum scam, amounting to Rs.18,000 crores each. On 15 April 2011, he filed a 206-page long petition with PM Singh seeking permission to prosecute Gandhi. In the petition, he claimed to have strong evidence of corrupt acts committed by Gandhi as early as 1972; he also raised doubts regarding her acquisition of Indian citizenship. At a lecture on corruption given on 29 May 2011, he again repeated his allegation against Sonia Gandhi, saying she has Rs.1 lakh crore stashed abroad. Most of Swamy's letters to the prime minister regarding this matter are not supported by proof, but he is not defensive about his allegations, stating: "I am writing to the prime minister, I am not holding a press conference. The PM has agencies available to him, they can investigate. My job is to bring things to his notice." Also, "They say I have no proof. Rubbish! As if on other things, they always have proof."

Reaction to 2011 Mumbai bombings

In response to the 2011 Mumbai bombings, he wrote an editorial in ''Daily News and Analysis'' (''DNA'') claiming that "Muslims of India are being programmed by a slow reactive process to become radical and thus slide into suicide against Hindus". He then set out a programme for dealing with this alleged threat, including repealing Article 370 of the Constitution of India (which granted special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir), removing the Gyanvapi Mosque at Kashi Vishwanath Temple and other mosques at Hindu temples, disenfranchising non-Hindus who refuse to acknowledge their Hindu ancestry, prohibiting conversion from Hinduism to other religions, and annexing part of Bangladesh in retaliation for Bangladeshi illegal immigration in India.

Negative reactions

His column provoked a variety of reactions. His house was attacked by people alleged to be Congress party workers . Minorities Council of Maharashtra Vice Chairman Abraham Mathai and National Commission for Minorities chairman Wajahat Habibullah accused him of violating Indian Penal Code Section 153A. New Delhi law student Shehzad Poonawala attempted to lodge an FIR against him at Defence Colony police station, but was disallowed by the officer on duty. ''DNA'' published two hostile response columns by Rakesh Sharma and Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr. calling him a "Hindu Taliban", "maverick", and "Zionist" in response to his views.

Reaction at Harvard

Some students at his alma mater Harvard University, where he also teaches economics in the summer school, accused him of stoking communalism and circulated a petition calling on the university to fire him and publicly repudiate his remarks. Adam Kissel, on behalf of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, wrote in a letter to Harvard that a disciplinary investigation against him would be inappropriate for an academic institution dedicated to intellectual freedom, represented a threat to free speech, and could lead to self-censorship by other faculty members.

In response to the petition, Donald H. Pfister, dean of Harvard Summer School, stated that the school would "give this matter our serious attention", but the school decided to stand by its instructor .

Tamil Nadu

He is well known for his critical views against the Government of Tamil Nadu and against the rationalist views of E.V.R. Ramaswamy. He is a constant fighter for the revival of Hindutva in Tamil Nadu.

He is staunch detractor of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

He obtained Supreme Court Stay against the implementation of Sethu Samuthiram Shipping Channel project (SSSCP). He believes that this shallow land connecting between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka was built by Rama approximately 1,260,000 years ago. He strongly opposes the implementation of SSSCP citing that implementing this scheme may affect the sentiments of Hinduism. He wrote letters to Prime Minister of India in June 2009 asking him to stop the project.

Personal Life

Swamy is married to Dr. Roxna Swamy (a Parsi .), an advocate at the Supreme Court of India. He has two daughters, Gitanjali Swamy and Suhasini Haider, the latter a journalist at CNN-IBN. His brother-in-law is Jewish, his son-in-law Muslim, his sister-in-law Christian and his wife Parsi.

Books, Research Papers and Journals

Books:

Economic Growth in China and India, 1952-70 (Publisher: University of Chicago Press; ISBN: 9780226783154)

Indian economic planning;: An alternative approach (Publisher: Barnes & Noble; ISBN: 9780389042020)

Building a New India: An Agenda for National Renaissance (Publisher: South Asia Books; ISBN: 9788185674216)

India's Labour Standards and the WTO Framework (Publisher: Konark Publishers; ISBN: 9788122005851)

India's economic performance and reforms: A perspective for the new millennium (Publisher: Konark Publishers; ISBN: 9788122005943)

Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi: Unanswered Questions and Unasked Queries (Publisher: Konark Publishers; ISBN: 9788122005912)

India's China perspective (Publisher: Konark Publishers; ISBN: 9788122006063)

Financial Architecture and Economic Development in China and India (Publisher: Konark Publishers; ISBN: 9788122007183)

Trade and Industry in Japan: A Guide to Indian Entrepreneurs and Businessmen (Publisher: Prentice-Hall of India; ISBN: 9788120307858)

Sri Lanka in Crisis: India's Options (Publisher: Har Anand Publications; ISBN: 9788124112601)

Hindus Under Siege (Publisher: Har Anand Publications; ISBN: 9788124112076)

Rama Setu: Symbol of National Unity (Publisher: Har Anand Publications; ISBN: 9788124114186)

Terrorism in India: A Strategy of Deterrence for India's National Security (Publisher: Har Anand Publications; ISBN: 9788124113448)

Corruption and Corporate Governance in India: Satyam, Spectrum & Sundaram (Publisher: Har Anand Publications; ISBN: 9788124114865)

2G Spectrum Scam (Publisher: Har Anand Publications; ISBN: 9788124116388)

References

References

External links

Biography on Janta Party site

Kashmir Hindu Foundation interviews Subramaniam Swamy

Subramaniam Swamy's views on the influence of Hinduism

Subramaniam Swamy in Janata Party's website

An article by Dr. Subramanian Swamy on how to face defamation litigation

Basic Islam for Hindu Dhimmis - Subramanian Swamy

The Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi: unanswered questions and unasked queries

Category:1939 births Category:Living people Category:People from Chennai Category:Indian Hindus Category:Tamil Brahmins Category:Indian economists Category:Indian politicians Category:Tamil Nadu politicians Category:Maharashtra politicians Category:Members of Parliament from Maharashtra Category:6th Lok Sabha members Category:7th Lok Sabha members Category:University of Delhi alumni Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Indian Institute of Technology Delhi faculty Category:Harvard University faculty Category:English-language writers from India

hi:सुब्रमणियन स्वामी ta:சுப்பிரமணியம் சுவாமி