Hindi Film Sangeet Selections from the Golden Age
On this page you will find music for some of my favourite Hindi film songs in standard western notation. The music gives the main melody line - the vocal part and the main instrumental interludes. All repeats are written out, and the lyrics are overlaid for all vocals. No attempt has been made to create chords, although sometimes when two melodic lines are heard simultaneously both are notated. The pieces are not in the original keys - I've transposed them into keys that readily allow playing on the flute, since that is the main instrument I play... this means they should suit well "western" flutes (modern orchestral flute, baroque and classical flutes, alto recorders) or a bansuri in D. They should also be fairly singable in these keys for most people, given that the flute approximates the range of the soprano / tenor voice (with the tenor sounding, of course, an octave lower).
The music is in the form of GIF graphics, so you don't need any special software for it - just save the images to your hard-disk and print them later with any graphics package (or you can even print the music directly from your browser - just right-click on the music image and select 'View Image' from the pop-up menu so you're looking at just the music itself without the rest of the page, then select 'Print' from your browser's File menu - then hit the 'Back' button in your browser to return to the page).
I have quite a bunch of these... some years ago I printed up 8 booklets of them. I'll start out by putting up some of my favourites, and then we'll see how it goes... hopefully, as we go along, I'll post more. If you have a special favourite, I may be able to do it for you - but I'm afraid any requests must be from my 'golden age'... and even then I can't promise.
Please pardon my errors. These pieces were notated simply by listening to recordings and tootling around. There are probably errors in the music, and I'm sure, given that Hindi is not my first language, that there are probably some glaring errors in the lyrics. If you have any corrections to recommend, I'd be grateful if you'd email me at xorys@ idirect.ca. I'd also be interested in hearing how playable / singable you find them.
By the way - when putting the music up here I wanted to make the downloads fast, and also to make the music easily readable in your browser, so you can play a bit from the screen and see if you want to save it... so I reduced the page images to 90 dots per inch.
**New feature - MIDI files** - I had a request from a correspondent asking that I include MIDI files for the songs... so I've done so - you'll find links to the MIDI files under each song in the list below. These MIDI files are very small and easy to download - however, don't expect them to sound anything like the actual music from the film, since they only include the basic melody line. What they may be useful for is just to remind you of the melody of the song (as I've managed to capture it)... and also, if you have your own music notation package, then you will be able to import the MIDI files and create your own notation, in whatever key you wish etc.
Aa Jao Sanam from Chori Chori, Music: Shanker-Jaikishan, Lyrics: Shailendra (
4 pages)
Ai Dil Hai Mushkil from C.I.D. Music: O.P. Nayyar, Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri (5
pages)
Do Sitaaron Ka Zameen Par Hai Milan from Kohinoor, Music: Naushad, Lyrics:
Shakeel Badayuni (3 pages)
Na Jao Saya from Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, Music: Hemant Kumar, Lyrics: Shakeel
Badayuni (3 pages)