Faiyaz Khan

GHARANA

Agra

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Ustad Faiyaz Khan was a doyen of the Rangile gharana, a branch of the Agra gharana. He was born in 1886 at Sikandara near Agra, the son of Safdar Hussain Khan, who died three months before his birth. He was raised by his maternal grandfather, Ghulam Abbas Khan (1825-1934), who taught him music up to the age of 25, and he also studied with his father-in-law, Ustad Mehboob Khan "Daraspiya". He specialised in dhrupad and khayal but also sang thumri and ghazal. Musicologist Dr. Ashok Ranade, former Director of the Music Centre, University of Bombay, said, "There was no chink in his armour." He performed often at music conferences in Lucknow, Allahabad, Calcutta, Gwalior, Bombay and Mysore and at princely concerts. He was long the court musician of Sir Sayaji Rao Gaikwad, the Maharaja of Baroda, where he was awarded the title "Gyan Ratna" (Gem of Knowledge); the Maharaja of Mysore gave him the title "Aftab-e-Mousiqui" (the Sun of Music). He composed several bandishes under the pen name 'Prema Piya'. His students include Dilip Chandra Vedi, Shrikrishna Narayan Ratanjankar 'Sujaan', Sohan Singh and Asad Ali Khan, and family disciples Khadim Hussain Khan, Vilayat Hussain Khan, Latafat Hussain Khan, Ata Hussain Khan and Sharafat Hussain Khan. After typhoid in 1945 followed by tuberculosis, he lowered his pitch from C sharp and C to B and B flat; his available recordings are almost all from these years. He died at Baroda, reputed as one of the most influential vocalists of the century.