vallath@ucbcad.UUCP (04/28/85)
The theory of the effect of music on the emotion is very elaborate in Indian classical music. Indian music is based on ragas, which can loosely be defined as modes (?). Each raga has its own specific notes taken from an octave divided into twelve semitones. In addition, specific kinds of ornamentation, intonational differences, melodic phrases, range of notes etc. characterise a raga. Every composition or improvisational piece is done "in a raga". The mood/emotion of a raga is specified. There are variations on this depending on the musician or musicologist consulted, but by and large there are agreements. Each raga also has a time of day associated with it. Performances of a piece in a raga are done only at that time of day, especially in North India. This might mean that it is possible to perform in a certain raga can only at dawn, for example, but this is not that great a problem since there are all-night concerts in India. In addition, there may be more than one permissible time associated with a raga. For example, a composition in Malkhauns, an early evening raga, might have as its text a young woman waiting at her doorway for her lover to visit her. A composition in Bilawal, a morning raga, might describe the sounds, sights and smells of a new day. The text is supposed to only complement the already existing mood of the raga; purely instrumental performances are also theorised to recreate the moods. The tonic is the most important note, and stays constant throughout a piece, and the other notes are referred to this. The pitch ratios of other notes to the tonic are indeed associated with certain moods too, and ragas employing certain pitches have components of these moods (bhavas) inherent in them. This is just a brief description of the theory of rasa, or emotion, in Indian music. If you have a record of Indian classical music, look at the back, and very often the mood and time of day associated with the raga will be specified. Vallath Nandakumar ucbesvax.vallath@berkeley.arpa, ucbvax!ucbesvax!vallath
jeffw@tekecs.UUCP (Jeff Winslow) (04/30/85)
Most of my (very limited) Indian music listening has been to North Indian music; reading this article made me recall some strong impressions of it. Some of my favorite pieces were to ragas which primarly used the notes of a scale (pardon my mixing of Eastern and Western constructs) which is dissonant with the drone, so I'm not sure how much of a "tonic" it is. For example, F# major scale (or A or E) against a C drone. My understanding was that these tend to be used at sunrise or sunset, when nature is most fluid and unsettled. On the other hand, in other pieces I have heard, the fifth above the drone was used in a dominant fashion, and the fourth also (but less often) seemed to have special importance. So it all depends on the raga being used, as you might expect. Another observation I have made is that, at least in North Indian music, the melodic lines seem to "follow" the "rules" of Western counterpoint. In particular, the rule that a melodic leap in one direction is to be followed by stepwise motion in the opposite direction seemed strong. A powerful illustration of this (for me) was this: In one class I took, a piece of vocal music was played in which, in a rhythmically climactic part, the singer sang Db-F-B (ascending both times) against a C drone. Practically the entire class gasped. Needless to say, these three notes were part of the raga (although not with that contour), but the (very) unusual melodic motion combined with the delicious dissonance thus created had an electric effect. (They way the notes were sung helped, too, but I don't want this to get too long...) Jeff Winslow
med@astrovax.UUCP (Mark Dickinson) (05/01/85)
Re article by: > Vallath Nandakumar > ucbesvax.vallath@berkeley.arpa, ucbvax!ucbesvax!vallath Thanks for the discussion of ragas. Now could someone perhaps explain the rhythmic idea of "tala"? Any other mildly technical discussions of form and content in Indian musics would also be appreciated. Mark Dickinson