(Pers.: ‘thought, fancy’). A type of vocal composition in North Indian art music and the style in which such compositions are performed (see India, §III, 5(i), (iii)(b). The song comprises two rhyming lines of verse, in Hindi, usually on secular themes. They are set to any of the more ‘serious’ classical modes (the lighter ones being more suitable for thumrī) and to an appropriate metre (see India, §III, 4(iv)). Performance does not normally begin with an elaborate ālāp (unlike in dhrupad) but with the composition itself, sung by a solo singer (male or female), accompanied by the drone lute tambūrā (or tānpurā), the paired kettle-drums tablā, and by the bowed lute sārangī or the harmonium; elaborate melodic and rhythmic improvisation may then follow. A slow-tempo khayāl may be followed by a fast khayāl in the same rāga. The style is more highly ornamented than that of dhrupad, with heavy use of gamak (see India, §III, 3(i)(c)), and florid passage-work (tān). The khayāl style is also rendered on a variety of instruments including the sitār, sarod and sārangī. Traditionally associated with the court of Hussain Shah Sharqi of Jaunpur (1457–76), khayāl was an established style in Delhi by the mid-17th century, and became the dominant style throughout North India during the 19th century. In the course of its development, techniques of improvisation were adapted from the ālāp and laykāri of dhrupad.
RICHARD WIDDESS