The Music of India

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Carnatic Music of India - Classical Music of South India

Story of Hindustani Classical Music

The Ensemble: Musical Texture

  • The Melodic Layer

    • The soloist dominates the ensemble

    • Violin, bamboo flute, plucked veena, the clarinet, the jalatarangam

  • The Scruti Layer

    • The drone

    • Tambura, Reed scruti box

  • The Percussion Layer

    • The bedrock of the ensemble

    • Double-headed barrel-shaped mridangam drum

    • Ghatam (clay pot)

    • Kanjira (tambourine)

  • Some include vocalist

Instruments of India

Raga sites

More on Indian Music and Art

Melakarta System - Indian Scales

"In Carnatic music all ragas relate to a melakarta, one of the 72 basic parent or generative scales" (sequence of tones arranged in ascending and descending order). This scale system is much more complex that the Western melodic system which primarily deals with major and minor scales only.

Seven steps of an Indian scale:

  • sa - ri - ga - ma - pa - da - ni

  • sa and na are fixed (the drone notes)

  • ri, ga, ma, da, and ni mutate to form a particular scale

Swaras

Shadjam (Sa)

Rishabam (Ri)

Gandharam (Ga)

Madhyamam (Ma)

Panchamam (Pa)

Dhaivatham (Da)

Nishadam (Ni)

A parent scale of notes possessing a definite melodic character, with each note bearing a particular relationship to a tonic note and retaining that characteristic in ascent and descent Full complement of seven notes are used in both the ascending and descending scales. There are seventy-two melakarthas emerging from the twelve notes of a full scale. This then becomes the basis from which a raga is derived. The character of a mela is so clear that the shortest section of its ascending or descending notes reveals the identity of the mela to the listener. Its Hindustani equivalent is the Thaat. The melas are seventy-two in number and the thaats are ten in number. The ragas are formed out of these melas as melodic units from which ragas are born. From http://www.carnatica.net/onlinedictionary/dicm.htm

Click the Audio Files from the Melakarta Chart on the web to hear the scales or chakras from the Music Handbook webpage. Listen to the difference between each melodic scales. Our western ears may find these scales very difficult to hear since we are accustomed to only major and minor scales.

Melakarta Chart

TALA -- RHYTHMICAL GROUPINGS OF BEATS

There is a perfect balance in the universe. This balance is the essence of Tala and therefore Tala is in classical music is an important factor. The Tala is the theory of time measure. It has the same principle in Hindustani and Carnatic music, though the names and styles differ. The musical time is divided into simple and complicated meters. When accompanying the dance, vocal and instrumental music, the Tala maintains the balance, which is the most essential function of music. Tala is independent of the music it accompanies: it has its own divisions. It moves in bars, and each beat in it is divided into the smallest fraction.

Rhythm has three aspects: Tala, Laya and Matra.

  • Tala is a complete cycle of Metrical phrase composed of a fixed number of beats. There are over a 100 Talas, but only 30 Talas are known and only about 10-12 are used.

  • The Laya is the tempo, which keeps uniformity of time span and it has 3 divisions -- Vilambit, Madhya and Drut.

  • The Matra is the smallest unit of the tala.

Tala is the most important aspect of classical music, and it can be considered to be the very basis or pulse of music. To appreciate the structure of simple and complicated divisions, the improvisations of Tala and its theory, one should listen to an accomplished solo drummer. A classical drum player requires at 8-10 years of methodical training and another 4-5 years of hard practice.

Websites on Tala

Tala: The Time Cycle

Tala patterns once again remind us that rhythmic organization in Indian Music is much more complex than what are accustomed to hearing in Western music - particularly in popular forms.

Texbook Glossary Definition of Tala: A recurring time cycle. Can be counted with fingers and hands.

Wikepedia Definition - "literally a "clap", is a rhythmical pattern that determines the rhythmical structure of a composition" (http://www.answers.com/topic/tala-music)

Some Common Tala (tintal and ektal being most commonly used)

dadra - 6 beats, 3+3

rupak - 7 beats, 3+2+2

kaharva - 8 beats, 4+4

jhaptal - 10 beats, 2+3+2+3

ektal/chautal - 12 beats, 2+2+2+2+2+2

dhamar - 14 beats, 5+2+3+4

dipchandi - 14 beats, 3+4+3+4

tintal - 16 beats, 4+4+4+4

The first beat of a cycle is known as the sam, and the counterbalance beat, which usually falls in the middle of the tala, is known as khali (the khali for rupak actually falls on the sam). Songs usually begin on the khali, and the tabla starts playing on the sam.

The sounds of the tabla are represented by syllables such as "dhin" and "dha" which are surprisingly close to the actual sound made; the pattern that the tabla would play for any given tala are memorized by the musician. For example, the pattern for medium-fast tintal is (a syllable per beat).

The tala, or the rhythmic cycle, is an abstract organization of time and it is expressed through mnemonic syllables that are generated on the drums such as the tabla. Although theoretically a large number of rhythmic cycles can be organized, in practice, a relatively small number of them are commonly used during a North Indian music recital. These include the following:

    • Dadra - a cycle of 6 beats, divided 3-3,

    • Rupak - a cycle of 7 beats, divided 3-2-2,

    • Jhaptal - cycle of 10 beats, divided 2-3-2-3,

    • Ektal - a cycle of 12 beats, divided 4-4-2-2, and

    • Teental or Treetal - a cycle of 16 beats, divided 4-4-4-4.

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