About

Created and Edited by:

Jade Tadeo

Pola Panganiban

Maxidy Sumera

Avegail Bataan

Khatlyn Borlado

• Grade 9 – Garnet

 

All rights reserved © unless stated otherwise. No blog posts may be reproduced or used without permission. Please don’t claim them as your own or use them without giving credit.

 

INDIAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

instruments The most often heard instruments in Hindustani, or North Indian classical music. The violin, which is also used in Europe, is not included on this page, although its (non-tempered) structure is perfectly suitable for playing authentic Indian Classical Music based on vocal music. Those instruments, which are rarely heard on stage (eg. jaltarang, dilruba etc.) were also left out of the list, as well as the folk instruments (eg. khung, murchang, dhol etc.), which can be a lot of fun for the traveller of the Indian countryside, who meets musicians on their way. The following instruments are discussed on the site: bansuri aerophone material: bamboo with six or seven  holes Krishna’s favourite instrument. There is reference to the flute in the Vedas (‘transversely blown instrument’). Also, there is a whole chapter on this instrument in the book of Bharata, titled Natyashastra, which was written around the beginning of our era. Thus the bansuri is one of the most ancient Indian instruments. However, the classical musical stages were only conquered by this instrument with the play of the legendary Pannalal Ghosh. Hariprasad Chaurasia   harmonium aerophone 3-3 1/4 octave register instrument, which can be played on with a hand operated bellows at the back and with a keyboard of course. Probably it was brought to India from Europe by the Christian missionaries. It couldn’t get established as a solo instrument, even with many modifications (the use of more whistle systems etc.), since being a tempered instrument, it cannot produce one of the basic features of Indian music the meend (the “bending” between two notes). Beside the sarangi it is the accompanying instrument of the khyal vocal performances, and of the qawwali. Mehmood Dholpuri   pakhawaj membranophone The material of the body: sesamewood the leather: camel, goat or deer skin Beside the southern mridangam this is one of the oldest rhythmical instrument. Its technique is partially based on the rhythm of reciting of the Vedas. Usually it is the accompaniment of dhrupad (vocal and instrumental) performances, but it can also be heard as a solo instrument. While the tabla is struck with the fingers to make the sound, on the pakhawaj the different parts of the hand (palm, edge of the hand, etc.) are used by the player. According to a legend, a broken pakhawaj gave the idea for the making of the first tabla. Chartapati Singh   rudra-vina chordophone It has 8 strings (S P, M, S, P,, S,, P, G,) the material of the body: teak-, or tunwood (an Indian cedar type) the material of the resonators: gourd (similar to the calabash-gourd, but this type of gourd is especially grown to make an instrument) a typical dhrupad instrument In the book of Bharata, titled Natyashastra there is an entire chapter, writing about the vina. An instrument, which can be recognized on many ancient depictions (coins, paintings, statues), and which obtained its present form only a century ago. Zia Mohiuddin Dagar   santur chordophone Shiv Kumar Sharma style santur there are 94 strings altogether, on 31 bridges the material of the body: teakwood Bhajan Sopori style santur there are altogether 123 strings, on 41 bridges the material of the top: teakwood the material of the body: mulberrywood it is characterized by the use of the kharaj (low-pitched) strings, on which, similar sound can be produced as on the rudra-vina. Shiv Kumar Sharma style santur Bhajan Sopori style santur sarangi chordophone It has 4 main (S P, S, S) and 36 resonant strings the material of the body: tunwood the material of the main string: animal gut (goat, or cat gut) It is an instrument which typically resembles the tone of the human voice, for this reason it is often used as a solo instrument, and as the accompaniment of khyal performances. The sarangi is played on with a bow. The gut strings give a warm sound, and the great number of resonants ensure the richness of the overtones. It is probably a really ancient instrument, since one of its variants (sarinda, chikara, kamaicha, ravanhattha, etc.) can be found in the music of all the ethnical groups of India. Sabir Khan   sarod chordophone There are two basic structures. Ali Akbar Khan style sarod, which has 10 main strings (M S P, S, N, R G S S’ S’) and 15 resonant, and the Amjad Ali Khan style sarod, which has 8 main strings (M S P, S, S S S’ S’) and 12 resonant strings. the material of the body: teak or tunwood the cover of the resonator: leather It is played on with a plektrum (a so called java), which is traditionally made of coconut shell, while the player uses his nail on the neck to slide from one note to the other on the strings. The sarod is one of the unequivocally recognizable Indian instruments on the oldest paintings. One hundred years ago metal replaced the wooden one on the neck, thus making the vocal like elements (meend, gamak etc.) easier to produce, while the taraf strings added in the past century, give the richness of the overtone, so typical of Indian instruments. Amjad Ali Khan shehnai aerophone A double reed (sometimes quadruple reed) windwood instrument the material of the body: mulberry wood the material of the reed: reed (pala grass) the material of the cone: copper, silver, or maybe gold It came into consideration as a classical instrument only in the last century. There are two reasons for this. Earlier less meend technique was used on it, thus there was not such a shehnai player, who could make shehnai playing acceptable on classical stages, not to mention that the reed is in connection with the saliva of the player, and since saliva is considered unclean in India, the instrument itself was considered unclean until finally the shehnai playing of Bismillah Khan opened the doors to the classical stage. Bismillah Khan sitar chordophone Vilayat Khan style sitar (Imdad Khani Gharana) It has 6 main (M S, G P S S’) and 12 resonant strings the material of the body: teakwood or tunwood the body of the resonator: gourd an instrument with a typically wide sound spectre The Vilayat Khan style sitar playing is based on the khyal style. Ravi Shankar style sitar (Maihar Gharana) It has 6 main (M S, P,, S,, S S’) and 12 resonant strings the material of the body: teakwood or tunwood the material of the main resonator: gourd it is an instrument, which is typically lower-pitched, yet less rich in overtones. On the neck an extra sound-box can be found which resembles a gourd but is actually made of wood. The Ravi Shankar style sitar playing is based on the dhrupad style. The sitar has gone through a lot of changes in the past centuries. The previously three-string instrument (probably its name comes from the Persian sehtara, that is ‘three-strings’) received the chikari, and the set of high-pitched contrastrings (in the case of the Vilayat Khan style sitar P S S’, while in the case of the Ravi Shankar style sitar: S S’), and the taraf (resonant strings) to ensure the tinkling sound. The quality of the baj (the main melody string) enabled the player to produce the vocal techniques. The two main forms of the instrument used today only obtained their present form in the past century. Vilayat Khan style sitar Ravi Shankar style sitar surbahar chordophone It has 7 main (M S, P,, S,, P S S’) and 11-17 resonant strings the material of the body: teakwood or tunwood the material of the resonator: gourd It resembles the rudra-vina in its voice and the sitar in its structure. However, it is a lower-pitched instrument (4-12 notes) than the latter one. According to some measurements it can produce sounds even below 20 Hz. The surbahar obtained its present form about a century ago. It is probably an instrument invented by Sahabdad Khan által kitalált, and later further developed by Imdad Khan (the founder Imdad Khani Gharana), the specification of which is that it became an instrument with the tone of the rudra-vina used in the dhrupad style, but still enables playing in the style of khyal. Nowadays the surbahar can be heard as the solo instrument of both the khyal and the dhrupad. Balaram Pathak tabla membranophone the bayan (left -low-pitched- side) made of: redcopper or bronze the dayan (or: tabla, right –high-pitched-side) the material of the body: rosewood the leather: camel, goat or deerskin the material of the shyahi or akh (black eye): a mixture of ash, metal gratings etc. The structure of the tabla and the playing style is the result of Muslim influence. Numerous schools are known, but only one of these (the Benares Gharana) originates itself from the ancient pakhawaj playing, where the sounds are produced with the palm, whereas in other schools the virtuoso playing with the fingers is typical. The use of the fingers resulted in the speed of tabla playing, thus enabling the player to play several new bols, or even to play a set of bols typical of his own play. Ahmad Jaan Tirakwa tanpura chordophone vocal tanpura — – – – instrumental tanpura The material of the body: teakwood or tunwood the material of the resonator: gourd or wood The basic instrument of Indian classical music. Although it is only an accompanying instrument, it is a characteristic of all performances. Its function is to play the ragas main notes (drones) continuously. This way, all notes played during the performance will be relative to this whirling of sound. There are types for vocal and instrumental performances. An unequivocally recognizable instrument on the ancient paintings, the variants of which are also known outside of India.

INDIAN TONAL SYSTEM

 

Indian classical music is the art music of the Indian subcontinent. The origins of Indian classical music can be found in the Vedas , which are the oldest scriptures in the Hindu tradition dating back to 1500 BCE. The Samaveda was derived from the Rigveda so that its hymns could be sung as Samagana. These hymns were sung by Udgatar priests at sacrifices in which the Soma ritual drink, clarified and mixed with milk and other ingredients, was offered in libation to various deities. This chanting style evolved into jatis and eventually into ragas. Indian classical music has also been significantly influenced by, or syncretised with, Indian folk music. Bharat’s Natyashastra was the first treatise laying down fundamental principles of dance, music, and drama.

Indian classical music is both elaborate and expressive. Like Western classical music, it divides the octave into 12 semitones of which the 8 basic notes are, in ascending tonal order, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa for Hindustani music and Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa for Carnatic music, similar to Western music’s Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do. However, Indian music uses just-intonation tuning, unlike most modern Western classical music, which uses the equal-temperament tuning system. Also, unlike modern Western classical music, Indian classical music places great emphasis on improvisation.

Indian classical music is monophonic in nature and based on a single melody line, which is played over a fixed drone. The performance is based melodically on particular ragas and rhythmically on talas. Because of the focus on exploring the raga, performances have traditionally been solo endeavours, but duets are gaining in popularity.

TALA

Tala , ( Sanskrit: “clap”) in the music of India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, a metric cycle with a specific number of beats—from 3 to 128—that recur in the same pattern throughout a musical performance. Tala might generally be equated with rhythm or metre, although the tala procedure has no precise counterpart in Western music. The concept of tala is found in rather different forms in northern (Hindustani) and southern (Karnatak) Indian music. In the north, beats appear in groups of two, three, or four and include strong as well as “empty” beats. The character of the beats and their subdivisions is represented by rhythmic syllables that are recited for practice and sometimes in performance; these syllables correspond to various types of strokes with the finger on the appropriate drum. Southern Indian talas consist of units of one (anudrutam), two (drutam), and three to seven (laghu) beats.

Among the most often used Hindustani talas are tintal (4 + 4 + 4 + 4 beats), rupaktal (3 + 2 + 2), and jhaptal (2 + 3 + 2 + 3). Among the most widely used Karnatak talas are adi, which is by far the most common (4 + 2 + 2); misra capu (3 + 4); and jhampa (7 + 1 + 2); among the most complex are ata (5 + 5 + 2 + 2) and druva (4 + 2 + 4 + 4). While the basic tala is always in a performer’s consciousness, one of the principal methods of creating excitement in a performance is to play rhythmic patterns that contradict the tala but eventually return to its fundamental scheme. While singing, musicians often “keep tala” by elaborate waves and hand clapping; at concerts in South Asia, audience members sometimes participate by making these hand gestures.

Just as the raga (melodic framework) gives the performer a basis for melody, the tala provides the undeviating framework for rhythmic improvisation. Generally, the tala is given expression by an accompanying drummer, yet the rhythmic cycles are maintained in the mind of the melodic soloist in any case and are ever present, whether or not audibly performed.

CHARACTERISTICS OF INDIAN MUSIC

  

What are the general characteristics of Indian music? What is the role of Indian Music? What are the main instruments of India? Who are the traditional musicians of India, and who are popular…

Indian music consists of folk, classical (Hindustani and Carnatic) and pop music, among others.  The Classical music is characterized by microtones (or shruti), notes (or swara), ornamentations (or alankar), melodies improvised from grammar (or raga) and rhythmic patterns used in percussion (or tala).

Indian music has played a significant role in the development of patriotism through songs like “Jan Gan man…” (national anthem) and “vande mataram” (national song, often used as a slogan). The music has positively influenced national integration and feelings of unity within diversity. Indian music has also played a key role in sustaining and developing religious practices and is a part of India’s socio-religious life.

A large number of instruments are used in Indian music and some of the key ones are the Sitar, Veena, Dhol, Tabla, Harmonium, Shehnai, Bansuri, etc.

Some of the famous traditional/classical musicians of India include Tyagaraja, MS Subbulakshmi, Zakhir Hussain, Bismillah Khan, etc.

Some of the popular crossover Indian musicians include, A R Rehman, Bally Sagoo, Malkit Singh, Ravishankar, Anoushka Shankar, etc.

 

Current Indian music is a little different from Western music in that most Indian songs are made for films. They are written to either further the plot, serve as a break from the drama, emphasize a romance, etc.