S-R-gG-m-P-dD-nN-S

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Perhaps the most emblematic thumri raga, Pilu’s highly permissive melodic framework functions more like an alliance of amorous folk tunes than a ‘rigorously codified’ form (Bhatkhande recounts that some artists of his early 20th-century era resisted Pilu’s classification as a raga altogether). While relatively rare as a ‘main’ khayal feature, it enjoys wild popularity across a swathe of semi-classical styles, invoking both variants of Ga, Dha, & Ni to animate love tales and Krishna bhajans with a heart-on-sleeve romanticism (Chandrakantha: “The list of film songs in Pilu has become unmanageably long, so we have divided it into multiple pages…”). Despite the raga’s broad melodic flexiblilties, komal ga and shuddha Ni tend to be prominent as nyas – set amidst expressive meend and expansive phrases such as PNSg, gRSN, NS. Compare to the overlapping Gara, Jungala, Hanskinkini, and Pancham se Pilu (‘Pilu from Pa‘, i.e. a murchana rotation) – as well as the Carnatic Kapi.

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Aroha: PNSgmPNS

Avroh: SnDP, mgRS, NSgRS

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Chalan: e.g. PN; SgmPNS; SNS; DnD; PmG; mPdP; mgRSnS (Bor)

–Shahid Parvez (2018)–

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“Pilu alternates between phrases which stress hope and joy…and phrases where the same hopes are dashed and recede into sadness…Skilled musicians invent myriad ways of portraying this struggle. I was once told by an audience member that Pilu feels like a conversation, where someone is telling the story of their love…” (Rahul Bhattacharya)

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—Context—

Origins, myths, quirks, & more

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I couldn’t help but share this particularly vivid imagining of the raga, lifted from renowned musicologist G.N. Joshi’s original liner notes to Call of the Valley: the famous 1968 trio album by Shivkumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia, & Brijbhushan Kabra, which soon became one of the first raga albums to sell widely in the West. Also read Joshi’s equivalent depictions for the rest of the record – a true Hindustani classic – which, together, form a full narrative sequence, essentially a ‘concept album’ (1: Ahir Bhairav, 2: Nat Bhairav, 3: Pilu, 4: Bhupali, 5: Desh, and 6: Pahadi):

 

“The last movement on this side begins with the lilting notes of Raag Pilu on the guitar, and then on the santoor, heralding the arrival of the belle to join her beau. Bursting with happiness, she is excited at the expectancy of her meeting him, and is in a very happy mood. However, as she draws near him, she is suddenly gripped with a feeling of trepidation – the fear of being observed by someone. She looks around, and, feeling secure, advances confidently to where he is sitting. And, he is a naughty boy, in a teasing mood – he feigns anger at her late arrival, and wants to know why and how she could keep him waiting for so long. His pretence of anger, however, soon melts away, and he too starts making advances. She now musters courage, A dialogue then ensues between the two, which relieves the tension of the atmosphere. The sudden entry of the notes from the flute disturbs the happy couple, as some warning of an intrusion comes to them – the girl looks around, and finds to her dismay that she is the target of prying eyes. She is now in a panicky state, she starts running away, the boy tries in vain to stop her, but she hurries away, giving him a hopeful promise of meeting again in the evening on the outskirts of the village, near the temple. She makes a safe getaway, and the hero is left alone to fret and fume, now in dismay and gloom at the sudden end to a romantic beginning. Listeners are witness to the engrossing drama, as the notes of Pilu are interwoven into tintal, casting a spell…”

 

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–Call of the Valley (1968)–

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[MORE SOON: click here to hasten the project’s expansion, so all 365+ raga pages can eventually look more like these]

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—Phraseologies—

Melodies, movements, characteristics…

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[coming soon]

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—Parichay demo (2022)—

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“Pilu is, in essence, a dhun, [among] the least structured ragas, which means all the 12 swaras have visitation rights. But this is not to say that it is an indiscriminate gangbang: there is a definite kernel available on which to sew supporting melodic threads…The sequence [PNSg, gRSN, NS] constitutes the kernel, and the nyas on ga and mandra Ni are genetic markers…” (Parrikar)

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—Listen—

A brief selection of superb renditions

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–Kamal Sabri (2015)–

• Senia sarangi (5m): a streetside alap which spans the serene to the impassioned – filmed on location by Darbar with birdsong in the background, and intricate close-ups of the sarangi’s strange playing mechanics (among other quirks: the main string is not ‘fretted’ by pressing it against the fingerboard, but instead rests on the cuticles of the fingers, allowing for a uniquely vocalistic array of slides and glides):

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[alap, e.g. 0:01] PNS R/g, g, g, g(RgS), SRgm g(mgRg) R(gRS) N(SNRS) N(DP), P(SN) S m(R) mRP, P, P(DPDPmP) D(nDP) m(GP) m(Gm)R m\g g(R) g(RgRS), g(RgRSRgm) m(gRg) R(S) g(RgRS) N(SNRS) N…

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–Sahana Banerjee (2015)–

• Senia-Rampur sitar (6m): another Darbar location shoot, showcasing the raga in its natural early evening timeslot – featuring superb dynamic control and a fine balance of the double-Ga and Ni positions in an unaccompanied alap–jor–jhalla (Harish Mankodi: “This rendering made me realise the significance of the inner prakriti of a raga…a conflunce of deep pathos and the flow of life…”):

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[alap, e.g. 0:30] NSR G(PmGmg) g, g, g, R(g) R(g) R(gm) R(mg), R(SN)S, N, N; S(G)R G(m) G, G, G(mGmGRS) S m(RPm) m(gRg), g, (R)g, R(gm) R(mg), R(SNS) N(SN), N; P(ndPdPm) P(N), N, NSRmP n(Dn), n(DnDPm) m(gRg), R(SNS), N, S, S…

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–Further Recordings–

• Debu Chaudhury (7m): an intriguing experiment, with Sa re-set to his sitar‘s ma fret (also see Pancham se Pilu and Meladalan)
• Ajoy Chakraborty (9m): an AUTRIM pitch-graph (“Oh Krishna, go away. With a pack of lies, why do you wish to fight with me?”)
• Alam Khan (10m): performing a mishra dhun and tintal gat at Darbar 2001, over Anubrata Chatterjee’s lively accompaniment
• Bismillah Khan (11m): among North India’s best folk song interpreters, coloured by interjections from his students
• Ravi Shankar & Yehudi Menuhin (14m): a duet from their 1967 West Meets East album (later picked up by Anoushka)
• Amjad Ali Khan (15m): a gliding thumri in dadra (also see Jungala, a Pilu-adjacent form linked to his father’s lineage)
• Shivkumar Sharma (15m): showcasing his ultra-precise approach to sruti tunings, with Aneesh Pradhan on tabla
• Venkatesh Kumar (16m): singing the Piya Bidesh Gayo thumri with Bharat Kamat’s tabla and Suyog Kundalkar’s harmonium
• Budhaditya Mukherjee (17m): a 2018 Paramparik concert in Kolkata with longtime tabla accompanist Soumen Nandy
• Vilayat Khan (22m): a 1963 show with Samta Prasad, with long, winding chromatic passages of curious structure (e.g. 7:11)
• Nikhil Banerjee (54m): fascinating gats in rupak, deepchandi, and tintal from a 1975 Stockholm show with Anindo Chatterjee
• Ravi Shankar & Ali Akbar Khan (56m): a jugalbandi from Carnegie Hall in 1982, featuring both Alla Rakha and Zakir

• Experiments •

Novel interpretations of the raga’s essence…

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—Joe Harriott Double Quintet (jazz)—

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“Indo-Jazz Suite (released in 1966) freeze-framed something in Indo-jazz fusion that was unique to Britain. The States may have had ‘happening’ notables like Don Ellis, but never a John Mayer or a Joe Harriott. Mayer was a Calcutta-raised composer-violinist, equally at home in Hindustani classical and Indian vernacular forms as he was in Western classical and popular music forms. Jamaica-born altoist Harriott was a jazzer who took the jazz path rather than the jazz-into-ska route…” (Jazzwise)

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• Guitaragas •

My attempts to capture the raga on electric guitar (see more of these clips)

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—West Meets East gat (electric guitar)—

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The famous Raag Pilu composition from Ravi Shankar & Yehudi Menuhin’s 1967 ‘West Meets East’ album (one of the first Hindustani pieces I ever heard!)

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• Classifiers •

Explore hidden inter-raga connections: swara geometries, melodic features, murchana sets, ragangas, & more (also see the Full Tag List):

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Swaras: -4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10+

Sapta: Audav | Shadav | Sampurna

Poorvang: SRGM | SRG | SRM | SGM

Uttarang: PDNS | PDS | PNS | DNS

Varjit: Re | Ga | Ma | Pa | Dha | Ni

Double: rR | gG | mM | dD | nN

Thaat: 10 | 32 | Enclosed | Inexact

Chal: All-shuddha | All-komal | Ma-tivra

Gaps: Anh. | Hemi. | 3-row | 4-row | 5-row

Symmetries: Mirror | Rotation | Palindr.

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Aroha: Audav | Shadav | Sampurna

Avroh: Audav | Shadav | Sampurna

Jati: Equal | Balanced | Av.+1 | Av.+2

Samay: Morning | Aftern. | Eve. | Night

Murchana: Bhup. | Bihag | Bilaw. | Charu.

Raganga: Bhairav | Malhar | Kan. | Todi

Construction: Jod | Mishra | Oddball

Origin: Ancient | Carnatic | Modern

Dominance: Poorvang | Uttarang

Prevalence: A-list | Prachalit | Aprach.

• Prakriti: (none found)

–Proximate Forms–

Gara = ‘Pilu only Dha‘

Jaijaiwanti = ‘Pilu only Dha‘

(n.b. these are just ‘scalar similarities’, with nothing particular implied about phraseological overlap)

–Swara Geometries–

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• Core form: S–R–gG–m–P–dD–nN–S

• Reverse: SrRgGmPdDnS (=Khat)

• Negative: 7-5

• Imperfect: 1 (Ni)

• Detached: none

• Symmetries: mirror (gG—Dn)

• Murchanas: Khat (on Pa)

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• Quirks: ‘maximal‘ (swaras are optimally ‘spread out’)

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–Global Translations–

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• Carnatic: ~Kapi

S-R₂-G₂-G₃-M₁-P-D₁-D₂-N₂-N₃-S

• Jazz: Aeolian + Ionian

1-2-b3-3-4-5-b6-6-b7-7-8

• Pitch classes (‘fret-jumps’):

0-2-3-4-5-7-8-9-10-11-0

(2–1–1–1–2–1–1–1–1–1)

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o • o o o o • o o o o o o

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• Tanpura: Sa–Pa (+ga)

• Names: Pilu, Piloo

• Transliterations: Hindi (पीलू); Bengali (পিলু); Urdu (پیلو); Kannada (ಪೀಲೂ)

—More—

Further info: links, listenings, learnings, etc

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• Raag Pilu: [coming soon]

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• Header audio: Sitar–sarod jugalbandi by Ravi Shankar & Ali Akbar Khan (1982)
• Header image: ‘Radha and Krishna in Discussion’, Gita-Govinda of the Basohli school (c.1730)

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