Whether it is to accompany the groom on the baraat, to welcome the bride and guests, or to provide music for dancing, the Brass Band gives you something special, with striking costumes and dynamic presentation.
A distinctive feature of most of the weddings in India is the Barat; the procession from the groom’s house to the home of bride. This procession is frequently accompanied by lights, fireworks, music and dance. In urban India, most common musical accompaniment for the barat is the brass band. These multicultural ensembles are relevant to wider areas of cultural changes and interaction in the socity. The pattern of folk music activity like Brass band , in an urban setting truly represents the traditions, change and mass media in Indian wedding music.
A typical wedding Brass band’s featiures : During the British Raj, marching bands were considered one of the primary ways of imposing the “civilizing” force of European culture on the Indian populace. In the days before wireless communication, the bagpipes were the only way that thousands of troops could immediately be informed of their commander’s orders. Each bagpipe melody was a signal with a specific military meaning, such as halt, attack, retreat, etc. And military parades, with thousands of soldiers marching in lockstep to the sounds of brass bands, were an effective way of expressing the power of the British Empire.
For this reason, thousands of Indian men and boys were taught to play a variety of western band instruments: bagpipes, trumpets, clarinets, tubas, snare drums. And when homesick British soldiers wanted to hear something to remind them of England, these same musicians could be pressed into service to perform at dances and Sunday concerts in the park. When they performed they wore uniforms that combined elements of both English and Indian military finery: brass buttons, gold braid, along with silk sashes and turbans!
Today the British military presence in India is only a memory, but surprising manifestations of the old marching bands’ influence can still be found.
But by far the biggest impact has been the persistent popularity of what are often called “band parties.” Traditionally public celebrations were accompanied by the music of folk drums and Indian wind instruments—the shehnai in the north and the nadaswaram in the south. But now almost every important occasion in India especially during the wedding , is accompanied by a large aggregate of brass and reed players, who march through the streets letting everyone know by sheer volume and enthusiasm that something important is going on. These bands are considered an indispensable part of most Indian weddings.
Since the departure of the Raj, British spit and polish has been replaced by the Indian entrepreneurial spirit. In any large Indian city there will be up to 100 brass bands competing for business. They tend to be in a particular area of the city and each has its own shop, which is basically a small room opening onto the street that displays pictures of the band and uniform choices. The band itself however, is an extremely amorphous unit, whose membership and size fluctuates depending on who is available and how much the customer is willing and/or able to pay. The person who manages the band is the most accomplished player, and owns the uniforms, which have the same Anglo-Indian military style as the old army bands. The manager usually plays improvised lines on clarinet or saxophone, and is often a fairly accomplished musician. But the rest of the players are picked up for each individual job, and often have to be supplied instruments by the manager. In fact, in the larger jobs many of the “musicians” can’t play at all, but only carry instruments to give a sense that a really big band is playing.
The Jaipur Kawa Brass Band is in a different class altogether, featuring performers who have played together for years. Admittedly their arranged unison lines are not always perfect. But their rhythm section has powerful and tight interactions between bass drums and cymbals, and the horns and reeds have a wild expressive vibrato reminiscent of the gamak used by khayal singers. It isn’t classical music, but it has an authentic intensity that could have arisen nowhere but in India. Understandably, this music has started to appeal to lovers of Western brass band music, and the Jaipur Kawa band is now one of many such groups that has been well received in England and Europe.
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