We all love listening to music from the golden era of Indian cinema and playback singing. The tunes of legends like Lata Mangeshkar, S.D. Burman, Manna Dey and Shamshad Begum still remain timeless, as music-lovers of even younger generations search for their music and listen to it.
But have you ever wondered, before the advent of Popular music through Hindi cinema, what was the first-ever song ever recorded in the country?
It happened back in 1902 – more than 100 years ago from now, when a classically trained folk artist, by the name of Gauhar Jaan put her glorious instrument on a recording device.
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That was the time of pre-independence British India, 20-something years after a record device had been invented internationally.
Born in the year 1873 in Azamgarh, Gauhar Jaan was chosen for the recording when sound engineer Frederick William Gaisberg ‘found’ her through a local agent, while working for an Indian subsidiary of the EMI record company, known in India then as – Gramophone company.
Although it isn’t known for certain, some sources say that Gauhar Jaan, who was a renowned singer in Hindustani Classical and was trained by the likes of Kale Khan, Ustad Vazir Khan, and Ustad Ali Baksh, was paid an amount of 3,000 for the recording.
The recordings took place in Kolkata in a hotel room and Gauhar Jaan, who was in her 30’s then, sang live with some instrumentalists in the ‘make-shift studio room’, as her voice was captured and recorded by Gaisberg, who then went on to send it to Hannover, Germany for creation and distribution of multiple copies.
The recording is still available today and you can marvel at it below:
While some argue that before Gauhar Jaan, a handful of other recordings had been made around that same time by other musicians, but that remains debatable.
Either way, Ms. Jaan’s recording is definitely one of the firsts, if not the first – capturing the beauty of Indian music at that time.