Strings: A Sarod Concert with a Reflection on Traditions

As a part of the Indian Classical Music at Oxford series, and produced in association with Bristol Baithaks, an Arts Council England National Lottery funded project, join us for a beautiful performance of the repertoire and profound expression of raga on sarod that Ustad Irfan Muhammad Khan has become known for. This will be followed by a discussion with Prof. Nandini Chatterjee about the musical and historic contributions that are woven along the strings of the Lucknow-Shahjahanpur Gharana's practices, which Ustad Irfan Muhammd Khan has nurtured over a lifetime.

Sarod is a string instrument of South Asia that bears traces of connection across present-day nation states, and across time. Adapted from the Afghan Rubab, evidenced in use in South Asia from at least the fourteenth century CE, the sarod was created by removing the frets, attaching a steel plate to the fingerboard and changing the gut strings for steel strings, in the 1850s.

Ustad Irfan Muhammad Khan’s family and musical lineage (the Lucknow-Shahjahanpur gharana) are an essential part of that story of historical continuity and change; of musical and instrumental innovation, as well as the nurturing of tradition. Ustad Irfan Muhammad Khan’s great-great-grandfather, Ustad Niamatullah Khan was a musician in the Lucknow court of Wajid Ali Shah, the last king of Awadh — a major kingdom of northern India before it was overtaken by the violence of colonialism. Ustad Niamatullah Khan trained with the Seniya musicians of the court, Basat Khan and Pyar Khan and joined these musicians in the king's company when he was banished to the colonial city of Calcutta (now Kolkata).The repertoire and musical knowledge Ustad Niamatullah Khan attained at this time reflects one of three strands running through the Lucknow-Shahjahanpur Gharana. The second strand comes from another line of sarod players who were originally rubab players who gained training from Seniya musicians, based in Shahjahanpur. The third strand comes from a little known lineage of veena players originating in Kalpi.

Exponents of the Lucknow-Shahjahnpur Gharana have been authoritative representatives of Hindustani music in India and internationally for several generations. They have written treatises in several languages and given some of the earliest recitals of Hindustani music in Europe (including the first performance in the UK, to Queen Victoria, for her 40th Jubilee celebrations). As the current inheritor and figurehead of such a crucial musical lineage, Ustad Irfan Muhammad Khan has remained steadfast in sustaining the knowledge of his forebears. He has been recognised as possibly the last surviving hereditary sarod player in India to have received, in detail, the method of developing a raga as practised by the late nineteenth century Seniya instrumentalists.

This event forms part of the series Indian Classical Music in Oxford. Instituted in 2026, this series offers public-facing performances rooted in the rich field of South Asian musical knowledge and practice, and relates this to research and teaching on the subject at the University of Oxford. Ustad Irfan Muhammad Khan has kindly offered to lead an informal one-hour workshop on the morning of 16 June; basic knowledge of Indian classical music required.

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