Nor have the traditional Indian melodies, known as “ragas’ greatly changed since that time. “Raga” means “mood” or “feeling” and there are several different types.
Music in the Morning, Music in the Evening
One kind is hymn-like and meant for playing in the morning. There are jolly ragas for an evening’s entertainment and soothing ragas for playing at night. Each king has its own tempo, its own kind of melody and its own atmosphere.
Most ragas are meant to be sung. The melody is called “amaha” and is usually confined to a tetrachord, or group of four notes. The vocalist can give variety to the music by lengthening or shortening the various notes, or by using “aruti” or quartertones.
A quartertone is very slightly higher or lower than the note that is played before it, and gives the impression that the singer is slurring the note a little.
The Scale in Indian Music
Although Indian music sounds very different from the more “mathematical” music of Europe, the scale of notes is almost exactly the same.
The Indians call their scale “septaka” or “scale of seven” and the only difference is that the sixth note is very slightly sharper, or higher, than its equivalent in the European scale.
All music has rhythm, and in Indian music, the drummers provide a great variety of rhythms, many of which take years to learn because they are so complex.
Rhythms on the Drums
The most common types of drums are the “tabla” and the “dhol”. The tabla comprises two small drums which the drummer holds between his knees, while the dhol is a single drum that is slung around the neck. Both kinds of drum are played with the hands.
Indian drummers are very fond of complicated patterns of rhythm. These are called cross-rhythms and sometimes mean that each of the drummer’s hands is playing in a different time. HIs right hand may play bars of seven beats, while his left plays bars of ten beats.
Whatever the rhythm, though, it is played over and over again and the drummer has to listen at the same time to the rhythm of the other instruments to make sure that they all finish on the same beat.
From time to time, drummers give solo performances, playing on a drum named a pakhawaj. This has a frame made of clay and the musician uses sticks as well as his hands.
Compared to a European symphony orchestra, an Indian orchestra is very small. Apart from singer and drummer, there may be only two or three other musicians.
Playing the Vina
The most important of these is he vina-player. A vina sounds very much like a guitar and is played in the same way. It has seven strings which are usually made of steel and brass.
One end of the instrument rests on the player’s left shoulder, and the other on his right knee. The left hand “stops” or presses down, the strings to produce different notes, while the right hand plucks them.
A vina player may have very long fingernails on his right hand, but more often he wears specially painted covers on his fingers with which to pluck the strings. The vina makes a soft, almost mournful sound, as is used to provide a “drone” or deep bass note above which the other musicians play or sing.
The Sitar and Other Instruments
The sitar, an instrument which is particularly popular in northern India, is very much like a vina, but its tone is louder. These two instruments provide the accompaniment for the singer. The tembura, which has four strings, supplies the harmonic background, following the melody and playing chords with the notes sung by the voice
Although stringed instruments are the most common in Indian music, there are several other kinds. The surnai is a reed instrument much like an oboe, but with a deeper and louder sound. For this reason, military bands are often made up of surnai players.
There is also the qanum, a simple type of piano, which is popular in the Punjab of northwest India, the moghuq, or bagpipe, which belongs to northern India and the sankha or conch-shell which is played in Hindu temples.
Notation in Indian Music
When it comes to writing down Indian music, two types of notation are used - ecphonetic or group notation and pitch notation. In ecphonetic notation, a figure, letter of some other symbol is used to show that a certain group of notes should be played. Pitch notation is more exact, using certain letters to show the musician which note to use.
However, neither types of notation shows the time value of each note, so that Indian musicians must improvise the rhythm of the music they are playing.
Sources
- Bakshi, Haresh: 101 Raga-s for the 21st Century and Beyond: A Music Lover's Guide to Hindustani Music (Bloomington, Indiana: Trafford Publishing, 2006) ISBN-10: 141204677/ISBN-13: 978-1412046770
- Shankar Ravi:Raga Mala: Autobiography of Ravi Shanker (New York, NY: Welcome RainPublishers, 2001) ISBN-10: 1566492173/ISBN-13: 978-1566492171
- Overview of Indian Classical Music
Brenda Ralph Lewis - My interest in history dates from childhood. I am presently the author of 120 books and hundreds of articles, all on historical ...
