Pramita mallick biography of williams

The word wild pops up often in colonial descriptions of the tappa, a dazzlingly fast-paced, quirky music form that revels in the art of the unpredictable. “Wild but pleasing when understood,” says 18th-century music collector William Hamilton Bird in Oriental Miscellany (1789). Says Sarah Plowden, another 18th-century chronicler of Hindustani music, “A sort of wild, harsh music without any air.”

How the tappa travelled east, transformed into the toppa, and became a widespread part of popular music in Bengal is a fascinating story of cultural and social shifts spanning over four centuries.

As the name suggests, the northern tappa, believed to have been inspired by the songs of the camel drivers of Punjab-Sindh, literally trips and skitters over notes, words and beats, but with the singer in absolute control of the creative rein.

“The play of notes, phrases and the use of aada taal [

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