MUMBAI: Along with her extensive accomplishments in Indian musical theater and Bollywood playback singing, Mumbai-based vocalist Pratibha Singh Baghel has devoted herself to the art of classical Hindustani music in a forward-looking, internationally minded modern vein.

Her new collaborative album, Inheritance, with virtuoso violinist and multifaceted Indian music authority Deepak Pandit, reflects the singer’s musical vision and her soaring, exquisite singing voice.

Inheritance – also their second release for the UK-based, South Asian-focused music media platform Sufiscore – is an ode to the romantic spirit of thumri.  

The album released on February 14, 2022. You can listen to it here.

On Inheritance, framed by Indian traditional instruments as well as piano, synthesizer colours, crisp electronics, and the broad canvas of the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Pratibha lends her singularly expressive character to a selection of thumris (19th-century romantic melodies), bringing these widely-known themes into vibrant contact with Western elements before a worldwide audience.

Pratibha’s previous outing, Bole Naina, was a collection of Pandit’s original compositions, brought to life by her winning voice and featuring the legends Zakir Hussain, Gulzar Sahab and more. Inheritance, by contrast, draws on traditional thumris — material in the public domain, passed down among the generations, with melodies that are “very popular among the nation and very musically rich.”

The first single from the album, ‘Babul Mora’, was penned by Nawab Wajid Ali Shah – the last nawab of Awadh – and this 19th century song is a popular thumri that has been sung in raag Mishra Bhairavi.

While ‘Babul Mora’ sings of bidai, ‘Saiyan Bina Ghar Soona’ sung in raag Mishra Pahadi talks about missing the beloved. ‘Lakhon ke bol sahe’ covers the playfulness in teasing and complaining and was made famous by popular ghazal master Ustad Ghulam Ali while Begum Akhtar’s rendition of ‘Hamri Atariya’ is a favourite of many.

They are a form of mildly erotic poetry in which “the words are not very important,” Pratibha explains, adding, “The music and the nuances are way more important. You cannot change the tune — you stick to the tune as it was composed, but then you can improvise it the way you want and add your own elements. There is newness in the same thumri or ghazal every time you sing them, and are a great canvas for a singer like me.”

Over five years of working together, Pratibha and Pandit have nourished their likeminded sensibilities and created something special, reflected as never before with Inheritance.

“Pratibha has an abundant knowledge of Indian and Western Classical music,” says Pandit, adding, “and her versatility makes it easy because she can readily sing all the leads and all the improvisations that I envision. In order to stand out from what musicians have been doing with thumris and ghazals for the past century, I’ve made the use of synths combined with modern orchestration, and we’ve added harp, dulcimer and the standout bluegrass instrument, banjo, in combination with the dotara, saz and dumbak. It all comes together through the subtle use of synth pads and arpeggiators. I’ve only added the electronic sounds where necessary, never overdoing it or taking away from the traditional impact of these tunes.”

Throughout, elements of Western chordal harmony are laid down by pianist Gaurav Vaswani (serving as co-producer to Pandit), to combine and synergize with the propulsive rhythms of Prashant Sonagra on tabla and the string tapestries of Tapas Roy as well as Pandit himself on violin (the instrument on which he’s renowned). In addition, Pandit crafted large-scale orchestrations and sent them abroad for rehearsal and eventual recording by the master musicians of the Budapest Symphony Orchestra — an involved but richly rewarding process that brought the music of Inheritance into a bigger sonic space.

Inheritance releases on Sufiscore on February 14.