By Azera Rahman, IANS
New Delhi : It may not have as big a fan following as its more popular relatives – rock and pop. But Western classical music, the “deeper and more pure form of melody” as music aficionados call it, is slowly catching on among the Delhi-zens.
A glance at the last few months’ cultural events calendar of the capital and one can be sure that even if not at par, the number of Western classical music or even jazz concerts in Delhi is giving the head-banging rock music concerts a good competition.
And yes, they are attracting house-full auditoriums.
Rajendra Prasad Jain, retired professor of German at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and a music fan who has complied a DVD on Italian operas for the Italian Embassy in Delhi, said that the popularity of Western classical music is increasing for one simple reason – there’s more to offer on the platter.
“It would be wrong to say that people don’t like Western classical music. Because it’s not due to dislike, but ignorance of the music that people harboured. Unlike today, earlier there were hardly any classical music or jazz concerts in the capital.
“But today you see a string of such concerts happening all over Delhi. Thus more and more people are coming for these concerts and are actually following this genre of music,” Jain told IANS.
For instance, there were a string of jazz concerts in the capital last month, which included some that were a part of the European Union Cultural Week celebrations and Jazz Yatra, an annual musical extravaganza which attracted bands from Poland, Germany, Belgium, Norway and Britain.
Also, the famed Parma Royal Theatre Orchestra of Italy gave a scintillating performance at the Old Fort this month. All these events were big crowd pullers.
To define the different genres of music, popular or ‘pop’ is light while the classical is deeper and soul stirring, classified Western music.
Although Western classical music has a much older history, it’s the light music which made its way through the inland faster, becoming very popular with the youngsters.
But talking in today’s context, former attorney general of India and an ardent jazz fan Soli Sorabjee said that music genres like jazz have been mystified up to a great extent simply because there is a dearth of such music concerts.
“Frankly, jazz is much more sensible music than say rock or pop, and it is just mystified. There is a potential of a large number of people falling in love with jazz. What is lacking are some good concerts and festivals,” Sorabjee said.
Sorabjee, one of the frontrunners of the Jazz Yatra, earlier known as the Jazz Utsav, said he and others who share the same passion of music are trying to organise more jazz and Western classical music concerts.
“We know that we might not attract 2,000-odd people in a jazz concert like a rock concert does, but one thing is for sure those who come are a bunch of loyal fans,” he added.
Loyal they are, but no longer small in number. Just like Sorabjee, many old music enthusiasts of the capital are pleasantly surprised at the beeline of young college and office goers at the various Western classical music and jazz concerts.
Shobha Ray, an educationist and a regular at almost all the cultural events in the capital, said she has noticed a greater number of young people at jazz concerts.
“It’s good to see a greater number of young people at concerts and I don’t mean the rock concerts. It’s a welcome change.
“Of course, the fact that more is happening in terms of Western classical music concerts, which is familiarising everyone to this form of music, is one of the reasons for this change,” Ray said.
So even when some heart-thumping rock concert is making youngsters go crazy at some corner of the city, an orchestra somewhere else is hypnotising a loyal following.
(Azera Rahman can be contacted at [email protected])