Legendary Dhrupad singer Ustad Sayeeduddin Dagar passed away on Sunday, 30 July. The 78-year-old died at a private hospital in Pune on Sunday, following a brief illness. Dagar moved to Pune in 1985. His last rites will be performed in Jaipur.
Born in Alwar on 20 April 1939, he was the foremost performer of the Dhrupad style of music, propagated by Behram Khan Dagar of Jaipur.
Ustad Dagar hailed from a family well-known for this particular kind of singing. He belonged to the 19th generation of the reputed Dagar Gharana and was the youngest of the seven ‘Dagar Bandhus’. Famously known as Saaed Bhai, he began his training at the age of six under the tutelage of his father Ustad Hussainuddin Khan Dagar.
He also studied music under the tutelage of his uncles and brothers. Born in Alwar, Rajasthan on 29 April, 1939, he is survived by his wife, two sons and their families.
His sons – Nafeesuddin and Aneesuddin – who represent the 20th generation of the Dagar lineage, are taking the Dhrupad tradition ahead.
Dhrupad is the oldest surviving form of classical music in India. Although it originated in the chanting of vedic hymns and mantras, it gradually evolved into an independent art form with its own complex grammar. Dhrupad was originally sung in temples and later thrived under the patronage of Mughal and Rajput kings.
Dhrupad portrays a vast range of human emotions: serenity, compassion, sensuality, pathos, strangeness, anger and heroism and subtle shades of them all.
In Dhrupad of the Dagar tradition the notes are not treated as fixed points, but as fluid entities with infinite microtonal shades.
The Dagar style of Dhrupad is defined by 52 musical concepts or Arkaans (12 basic alankaras and 40 more).
(With inputs from news agencies.)
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