India

Classical music of India – In General

Two main music cultures
Classical music of both may be instrumental or vocal but
North (Hindustani) trends more instrumental
South (Carnatic) trends more vocal

Music usually centers around a solo star performer –

Go to concerts to hear a “star” rather than a set composition by a composer
Very virtuosic – music of great difficulty requiring a high skill level
Very specialized
Most music is improvisational – made up on the spot by the star performer
The music develops at a leisurely pace – one song may last 15 minutes to 2 hours

What musical elements do you hear – what layers of sound are there?
- The Sitar and the tabla
What classification/types of instruments are there?
Cordophone and a membraphone
Describe the main timbre of the solo instrument?
Twangy
How do you feel – Do you feel lost or can you follow what’s happening in the music?
In the beginning, I didn’t understand, but then when the Tabla joins, the beat starts to pick up , and I understood what was happening.

Main Timbres –

Wavery sounds, wah wah sounds,
Twangy
Boingy sounds (water drop) of drum

Solo Instruments (What the “stars” play) –

The Sitar

Classification – Chordophone - lute type, fretted, plucked
Very long neck
Deeply fretted, 20 metal frets are moveable
Main playing technique – pulling the string – bends the pitch to give it a “wah-wha” type of sound

The Sarod or Sarode

Classification – Chordophone – lute type, no frets, plucked
Long flat triangular neck
Fingerboard covered with steel
Main playing technique – sliding fingers up and down the neck between notes (glissandi)

The Drums –The Tabala

The Tabla – the set of two drums used in Indian classical music
Classification – Membranophone percussion
Head covered with three layers of goat skin laced to the body of the drum
Body was originally chiseled out log – now made out of metal or clay
In pairs – contrasting sizes – bigger and smaller drums have different pitches
High tension – tunable to specific notes
Unique “water drop” sound
Black spot on the head – the gab – allows for resonance – from a paste of iron powder, rice, water
Played with fingers and heel of hand

The Tanpura [tambura]

Plays the drone
The tanpura is the most common source of a drone in Hindustani concerts.
It is a long-necked lute (similar in shape to a sitar), without frets.
It usually has four to six strings, which are strummed continuously throughout the performance.

The drone in traditional Indian music symbolizes:

The drone symbolizes the universe's eternal, unchanging essence.

Following a Raga improvisation (Northern Hindustani)

Three layers of sound –

Melodic layer – played by a solo instrument (what the "stars" play) such as a sitar or sarode – governed by raga
Drone layer – played by the tanpura – plays the home pitch
Drum layer played by the tabla – governed by tala

Non-musical meaning of Raga:

“Color,” “hue,” or “that which colors the mind.”

In Sanskrit, rāga originally meant emotion, passion, or mood, which is why in music it refers to a melodic framework intended to evoke a specific feeling or atmosphere.

We will discuss each of these layers

The Melodic Layer and the Raga

In Western music we use scales to organize the pitches in an ascending and descending order. In India they use ragas.
A raga is what is used to organize the notes for the melody
A raga is a set of notes with a set of rules attached to them that are used to direct an improvisation of a melody – there are many different ragas

Ravi Shankar – great sitar player and guru (master teacher) of several generations of sitar players – explains with music examples

Ravi Shakar says:

Ragas are not precise melodic forms –
Each raga has its own ascending and descending movement
Use microtones (in-between pitches or bending pitches)

The Raga governs the melody –

Gives an ascending and descending way of moving through the pitches
Each raga has its own set of pitches and its own ascending and descending movement – a way of moving through the pitches going up and going down
The raga governs up and down (ascending and descending) movement – it tells what pitches to linger over and where to put the wah-wah or wavery tones
It tells what notes to stress or emphasize with wavery tones
Particular notes are stressed going up and others going down with wavery wah-wah microtones
Microtones = the pitches from bending/pulling the strings
The wah-wah tones (microtones) are used to ornament and linger over the tones – super important

More on the Raga

Ragas tell what notes to stress or emphasize with wavery tones
Have strong (pillar tones) and weak notes
Certain pitches of the raga have different functions – beginning pitches, ending pitches, “life giving tones” – the pitches to dwell on
Each raga will have typical melodic figures
Ragas also have non-musical meanings attached to them –
The word raga means “color” or “atmosphere” - that which colors the mind
Feelings, moods, time of day, even magical powers are attached to the various ragas

The Art of the melody player –

They have to know how to ornament the raga with wavery wah-wah tones according to the prescribe rules–
Their art is the art of embellishing the notes of the raga with wavering tones and ornamentation
This is improvised in a performance
Every performance is different

The drone layer –

The continuous constant unchanging tone
Its sound symbolizes the ancient «OM,» or first sound of universe that is the vibration of everything.
Its drone plays he “sa” or tonic – your home pitch – the one you always come back to – the melody is not complete until it returns to the home pitch
The four strings of the tanpura represent four divine energies and create a mood of meditation and contemplation.
As the soloist improvises on the raga over the drone there is a movement of tension and relaxation as the melody moves close to and away from the raga – and a sense of arrival as the drone and melody finally meet.
Listen to the first minute or so of the piece
Focus on finding the drone tone.
Listen for how the melody moves to and from the drone tone – rather like a jelly fish floating up and down in the water

[The soloist (in this example—the sitar) Does a free improvisation over the drone—free (rhythmically) improvisation is called ala]

Then tala starts—tala organizes the metric structure (meter) and beats of the music

The drum layer and the tala –

The drum layer is governed by tala
The tala directs how the music moves through time – meter, pacing, rhythmic density
The drummer plays according to the patterns of the tala but also improvises many rhythms within the framework of the tala
The melody player improvises on the melody according to the raga but also follows the pacing and rhythmic patterns of the drummer within the tala
The melody player and the drummer improvise a rhythmic conversation during the performance

Typical plan of improvisation in performance –

Even though rhythms and melodies are improvised the performers follow an outline
Drone always plays
Start with melody – free-rhythm exploration of the raga (high, middle, low)
Then drum comes in – add pulse
Tala starts with the drum – has a beat, drummer does different and faster rhythms, with increasing density of sound
Summary of plan – Free rhythm beginning with certain melodic ideas, add beat/tala, get faster, shorter rhythmic patterns, build density of sound to climax, end

Listening Observation 1 – Anoushka Shankar playing Panchem se gara

Now that you know the game plan – can you follow the music better this time?
Can you hear patterns of sound?
Can you hear repeated melodic ideas and phrases?
Can you sense movement to and from the drone layer – a sense of tension and relaxation in the music and finally arrival as the melody meets the home tone of the drone?
Can you follow the rhythmic conversation between the soloist/melody and the drummer?

Remember –

Raga – melody
Tala – time
Drone – home

Do Assignment Listening Observation 1

Listening Observation 2 – The Beatles – Within You Without You

Question – What elements of India classical music do they use in the Beatles “Within You Without You”?

Southern (Carnatic) Tradition – vocal music

Classical vocal kriti –

The kriti is a vocal genre of devotional song
The song uses a type of Hindu language poetry also called kriti
These are mostly composed songs – but only the main pitches are written down
The singer improvises ornamentation around the main notes – the ornamentation is determined by oral tradition
Still have raga for the notes of the melody
Might have a bowed lute chordophone shadowing the singer

FYI - The drone in the Southern (Carnatic) tradition is often played on a shruti box or harmonium (types of bellows pumped reed aerophones)

FYI – The Southern (Carnatic) tradition often uses a double-headed drum called the mridangam instead of the tabla

What are the musical differences between the first set of videos and the last video – what different instruments have been added, what instruments/elements have been removed, what rhythmic differences are there? What is similar? How is this last video more “modernized” in sound or appealing to modern audiences?
The mouth harp they are using and the mridangam instead of the tabla. They have the main vocalist and drone, but the last video is more modern, more bombastic, and less slow-paced than the others.

Bollywood Film – Eastern tradition meets Western influence

A genre of movie musical from Hindi-language film industry
English being used more – Hinglish
Name is a mixture of Bombay (Mumbai) and Hollywood
Movie plot – excuse for extended and spectacular music video sequences
Actors sing and play parts – but they lipsync the songs
Cover artists prerecord all the music – soundtrack can make or break the movie

Music –

Mix of old tradition and western influence
Western influence – harmony, melody and harmony working together, shorter meter (4/4 meter), shorter phrases, instruments from European military tradition – brass instruments and different drums, pop music instruments
Old tradition – vocal/singing style, incorporation of traditional dance styles, language, use some traditional instruments

Dancing –

Combines Indian classical dance, folk dance, courtesan dance with Western Broadway and pop styles

Other Bollywood Conventions –

Often have unrealistic and instantaneous shifts of location, costume between verses of a song
Leads usually have a troupe of supporting singers/dancers
If leads sing a duet – usually beautiful grand natural surroundings or architecturally grand settings (showing the grandness of their emotions)