Music of South Asia: India and Pakistan

Introduction to South Asia

• Geographic Scope: Chapter five examines music from South Asia, specifically India (both North and South) and Pakistan.
• Cultural Division: The Southern Peninsula of India is divided into the Hindustani (North) and Karnataka (South) cultural regions. Bombay (Mumbai) and Bhubaneshwar are considered North, while Hyderabad is part of the South.
• Pakistan: Was part of India until $1947$ and borders India to the Northwest. In $1971$, its Eastern portion became the independent country of Bangladesh.
• Population: South Asia is one of the most populous regions globally, with over $1,600,000,000$ people, accounting for roughly $16\%$ of the world's population. India alone has more than a billion citizens.
• Languages: The two primary languages are English and Hindi, but there are over $1,600$ different dialects. India has $16$ official languages alone. Other major languages include Farsi, Persian, Urdu, and Punjabi.
• Religions: Hinduism predominates in India. Islam is prevalent throughout South Asia, particularly in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Buddhism is influential in Nepal and Bhutan. Christianity, Baháʼí Faith, Jainism, and Sikhism also have significant followers.
• Climate: The monsoon season runs from July to September, often causing flooding in lowland areas like Bangladesh. Temperatures can exceed $120^ ext{o} ext{F}$ ($49^ ext{o} ext{C}$) in many regions, but winters in the North (Himalaya Mountains) can be quite frigid.
• Colonial History: The British colonized much of South Asia in the $1800s$. India and Pakistan gained independence in $1947$.

Indian Political and Social Context

• Mumbai: The second-largest city in the world, with a population of $13,000,000$ and a metropolitan area exceeding $21,000,000$, making it the fifth-largest metro area globally.
• Mahatma Gandhi: A key political figure of the $20^{th}$ century, renowned for his nonviolent protest against British rule. He inspired leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and was pivotal in India's independence from Great Britain. The movie "Gandhi," starring Ben Kingsley, is highly recommended as an introduction to his life and India during that period.
• Government: India's democracy is modeled on the British system. No single political party dominates, requiring parties to form coalitions to advance political agendas, which often complicates policy enactment.
• Caste System: This was India's primary social structure for centuries and remains a significant cultural influence, strongly associated with Hinduism. The classes, in descending order, include:
  • Brahmins: Priests and teachers.
  • Kshatriyas: Warriors and rulers.
  • Vaishyas: Farmers, merchants, and artisans.
  • Shudras: Laborers.
  • Untouchables: These are below the formal caste categories, considered "polluted laborers." They are descendants of conquered peoples and traditionally performed "unclean jobs" such as cleaning sewage, cremating bodies, or tanning leather. Although legally abolished, the caste system still exerts a strong influence on social mobility and class prejudice.

Hindustani Raga (North Indian Classical Music)

• Complexity: Hindustani raga is considered one of the most complex classical music traditions globally, often likened to the "deep end of the pool" when learning world music.
• Ensemble: A typical ensemble usually features a small number of instruments, often just $3$ or $4$. Although the chapter reviews $3$ sites from India, it is a small sample of the region's vast musical diversity.

First Impressions and Distinguishing Characteristics

• Tamboura: Focus on its distinctive buzzing timbre as a key identifier of Indian music. It is present in almost all Indian classical traditions and creates a dreamlike, ethereal atmosphere.
• Tabla: The "boing" sound, particularly the rising pitch produced on the large baya drum of the tabla set, is characteristic of Hindustani classical traditions.

Basic Elements of Instrumental Raga Performance

An instrumental raga performance fundamentally consists of three elements:

1. Melody
2. Rhythm
3. Drone

• In the provided example, the sarod serves as the main melodic instrument, the tabla as the primary drum in Northern classical music, and the tamboura provides the drone.

Instruments

• Tamboura (Tanpura):
  • A fretless plucked lute.
  • Buzzing Timbre: Achieved by placing small threads under each string of the bridge, causing the strings to vibrate against the bridge when played. This sound is continuous throughout the performance.
  • Tuning: Provides the fundamental tones (pillar pitches) for the performance, representing the tonic and dominant of the raga's scale. It is typically tuned to sound $1-5-5-5$ (with a lower $5$).
  • Aural Analogy: The tamboura's sound is like the incense smell of a Hindu temple or the curry smell of an Indian home/restaurant; it creates a background mood that characterizes the event as Indian.
  • Pedagogical Role: Often played by shisha (students) due to its minimal skill requirement, allowing them to sit on stage with the guru (teacher) and participate. Vocalists also frequently use it to accompany themselves.
  • Modern Alternative: Electronic tone devices, known as shruti boxes, are often used as a substitute for the drone element in modern raga performances.
• Sitar:
  • A fretted plucked lute equipped with seven primary strings (typically $4$ for melody and the rest for drone or rhythm). The drone/rhythm strings are sometimes called jala strings when emphasized during the jala section, or more commonly, chikari. They can articulate rhythmic patterns.
  • Sympathetic Strings: Features $11$ to $15$ sympathetic strings that vibrate involuntarily, creating an echo-like sound. Most musicians primarily use $2$ or $3$ melodic strings in addition to the chikari strings. A vivid demonstration of sympathetic vibration is shouting or whistling into a piano with the sustain pedal depressed; sound waves cause the piano strings to vibrate without direct touch.
  • Construction: Has a wood face and a gourd resonator, producing a distinct timbre compared to membrane-faced Hindustani instruments like the sarod or sarangi.
  • Stylistic Features: Its fretted neck allows for elaborate melodic ornamentation, including slides between narrower intervals than fretless instruments. While capable of bending a pitch up to an octave, it usually stays within a fifth.
  • Distinction: Hindustani chordophones typically include sympathetic strings, whereas Carnatic chordophones, such as the saraswati vina, do not.
• Tabla:
  • A pair of hand drums central to Hindustani raga performance.
  • Smaller Drum (Tabla): Its tuning is adjusted by wooden cylinders placed under the leather straps.
  • Larger Drum (Baya): Produces the characteristic rising pitch or "boing" sound. The musician controls the pitch by pressing on the drum face with the heel of their hand, altering tension.
  • Bols: Various sounds produced on the tabla correspond to verbal syllables, a type of solfege (e.g., "da").
  • Teika: A complete set of bols that represent a full cycle of beats (tala).

Raga (Mode/Composition Kit)

• Definition: The term raga is more complex than a Western "key" (e.g., C major). It is better described as a "mode" or a "composition kit," providing a set of rules for performance and composition that define the correct style (e.g., a jazz solo sounds out of place in a heavy metal song).
• Musical Elements: A raga encompasses various elements, including a specific scale, unique ornamentations, melodic patterns, and a hierarchy of pitches.
  • Hierarchy of Pitches: The hierarchy can differentiate ragas even if they use the same pitches. For example, an A minor scale and a C major scale use the same pitches, but their differing tonic (central tone) shifts the hierarchy, altering the mood (minor sounds sad, major sounds happy).
  • Specific Ornamentations: These can also distinguish ragas even with identical basic scales. For instance, a trill on the second degree of one raga might differ from a trill on the sixth degree of another, even if the underlying pitches are the same.
• Associations and Timing: Some ragas are prescribed for specific times of day or occasions (e.g., playing "Happy Birthday" at a funeral would be inappropriate). Many ragas hold specific associations, and their appropriateness relies on the correct timing or occasion.
• Believed Powers: Some ragas are believed to possess magical capabilities, such as melting metal or healing the sick.
• Rasa (Mood/Emotion): Rasa (explained later in detail) translates to the emotion or mood associated with a raga.
• Microtones: Unlike the Western tuning system with $12$ pitches per octave, the Indian system is said to have $22$ pitches before reaching the octave, meaning some notes fall between the keys of a piano. These are known as microtones (or semitones/halftones).
• Example: Raga Ahir Bhairav is a daybreak raga.

Raga Performance Structure

An instrumental raga performance typically follows a multi-section structure:

• Alap: This is the exploratory, improvised opening where the performer establishes the rasa (mood). Its length varies greatly, from $5$ minutes to over an hour, though typically around $20$ minutes. The music progressively emphasizes the upper range of the instrument. The drone strings of the melodic instrument become increasingly prominent, eventually transitioning into a steady pulsation.
• Jor: This section marks the fragile, tentative regularization of the beat following the alap.
• Jhala: Concluding the opening segment, the jhala is characterized by high rhythmic density. The drone strings (known as jala strings) dominate the melody during this peak. The tension is then dramatically released by a sudden decrease in rhythmic density.
• Gat Section: This section repeats the process of ascending through the melodic range and increasing rhythmic density, but now adheres to a basic meter (tala) and uses one or more skeletal melodies (gat) as frameworks for improvisation. The gat section is marked by the entry of the drum (tabla in Hindustani music, mridangam in Carnatic). Often, multiple gats (e.g., a slow gat followed by a fast gat) may be performed, each conforming to the metric cycle.

Tala (Rhythmic Cycles)

• Concept: Tala (or tal) is conceived as a rhythmic cycle rather than a simple meter.
• Audience Participation: The audience is expected to follow the cycle's pulsations along with the drummer. Emphasized beats are marked with a hand clap, while intentionally deemphasized pulses are indicated with a wave of the hand.
• Example: Tin Tal: This $16$-beat cycle would be articulated with hand claps on beats $1$ and $5$, a wave on beat $9$, and another clap on beat $13$.
• Musician's Role: The musician not only articulates the cycle but also improvises within it, using rhythmic compositions and improvisations to stretch or shift the feel of the basic cycle, thereby increasing or releasing tension.
• Emphasis: For the drummer, the most important pulse to emphasize is the start of the cycle (pulse $1$), rather than its end. Thus, the tin tal example would conclude by emphasizing the first beat of the next cycle.

Guru-Shisha Relationship

• This traditional relationship is akin to a marriage. A student undergoes an initiation ceremony to become a guru's disciple.
• Lessons are taught by rote, without written notation, establishing this music as an oral tradition.

Rasa (Mood/Emotion)

• Concept: Rasa is a prominent concept in Indian artistic endeavors, with strong ties to Hinduism, representing a mood or emotion.
• Visual Arts: In visual arts, colors are often associated with particular rasas. Some rasas are personified or have stories, which are depicted in paintings known as ragamala.
• Musical Connection: Each musical raga possesses a corresponding rasa that the musician aims to invoke during a performance, particularly highlighted in the opening alap section.
• Explicit Invocation: While Western music uses major/minor keys for implied moods, the mood of a raga is explicitly invoked through its specific musical elements.
• Types: There are nine primary rasas and numerous secondary rasas.
  • Example: Sringara (Erotic Rasa): Its primary mood is love. Secondary Sringara rasas can include longing, anxiety, raving, insanity, fever, stupor, and even death. This rasa is associated with the Hindu god Vishnu and his incarnation Krishna.

Notable Performers

• Ravi Shankar: An iconic musician of the $1960s$, he is arguably India's most famous musician internationally. Hindustani music, like popular music worldwide, has its stars, who are celebrated for their virtuosic musical skills and their ability to evoke rasa through their performances.

Performance Expectations

• Start Time: Audiences attending Indian concerts should not expect them to start punctually; late beginnings are common, and Indian audiences are typically accustomed to waiting.
• End Time: The duration of a performance is flexible, with musicians ending at an unspecified time. A single raga performance can last anywhere from $15-20$ minutes to two, three, or even more hours.

Carnatic Music (South Indian Classical Music)

• Cultural Context: The southern cultural region of India, known as Karnataka, is considered to have been less influenced by other traditions due to historically less outside cultural contact compared to North India. Consequently, religious pluralism is less prevalent here.
• Hindu Deities: Hinduism recognizes three primary deities representing the life cycle of birth, life, and death:
  • Brahma: The creator.
  • Vishnu: The preserver.
  • Shiva: The destroyer.
  • Other Hindu deities are often considered incarnations of these three primary gods. More information on Hinduism can be found via a quick internet search (e.g., Wikipedia).

First Impressions and Distinguishing Characteristics

• Tamboura (or Shruti Box): The buzzing drone, even if from an electronic shruti box as pictured in the example, instantly orients the listener to Indian music.
• Violin: The violin is used to imitate the melodic contour of the vocalist. While a similar melodic approach is found in Northern vocal traditions (where the sarangi is more common), singing is significantly more prevalent in Southern classical performances.
• Mridangam Drum: This drum produces a