India (bhārat gaṇarājya)

India is a country with more than 1.5 billion people and 447 languages are spoken. While there are dominant cultures and shared characteristics, any amount of study will be inadequate.

North Indian Sufi Music - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

⚠️ VOCAB:

Qawwali = a form of Sufi devotional music
Punjab= a state in India, a region, and a culture of people. Dating back to 3000 BC.

⚠️ Qawwali Instrumentation A group of qawwali musicians, called a party (or Humnawa in Urdu):

Lead Singer
1-2 Side Singers
2 Harmoniums = a reed based keyboard instrument with a billow.
Tabla = two bowl drums with skin across the top
Dholak = a double headed drum
Small Chorus + Hand Clapping

Qawwalis tend to begin gently and build steadily to a very high energy level in order to induce hypnotic states both among the musicians and within the audience. Almost all Qawwalis are based on a Raga from the Hindustani classical music tradition.

⚠️ Shahbaz Qalandar (Lal Meri Pat Rakhio) - Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - OSA Official HD Video (18:22)
Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn Live

⚠️
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - "Dhyahar-Eh-Ishq Meh" from the album "Shahbaaz"
Listen to the mix of musical characteristics in this song: Western hiphop-like back-beat, typical Hindustani instrumentation, arabic islamic lyrical themes, Jazzy improvised solos and variations with comping support from the harmoniums
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - "Dhyahar-Eh-Ishq Meh"

Meshuggah Rhythm Concept

Meshuggah, a metal band from sweden, provides a useful stepping stone of understanding to the complexity of Indian Music

Meshuggah's Levels of Complexity

Simple syncopation across 4/4 in 4, 8, 16, or 32 bar phrases
Same as above, with intentional variants introduced into the texture
Displacement of the framing to create new kinds of intentional variations
Additional levels of complexity: 12-bar phrases, more melodic syncopation, octave leaps, etc.

Yogev Gabay 'Do Not Look Down' by Meshuggah
Our transition to Indian starts here
Yogev Gabay: 'Do Not Look Down' by Meshuggah

Explaining Meshuggah using KONNAKOL (Stengah)

South Indian Music

⚠️ Vocab

⚠️ Bhajan = A religious devotional song
⚠️ karnataka sangeeta = "Carnatic Music", south indian classical music
Bhurata Natyam = A form of dance
nattuvanar = the time keeping role using the small metalic instruments
jathi = the verbal recitation of the dance steps

Jathi Recitation with Nattuvangam

⚠️ mridangam = double headed drum
⚠️ tala / talam / thala = "Rhythmic Cycle" A concept of meter plus concepts of emphasis added as well

South Indian Rhythmic Concept

⚠️MridangamDuet.mp3

⚠️SolukattuDuet.mp3

there are very many 'talas' (175):
http://carnatica.in/sangeet/layanubhava2.htm

Understanding the tala system:
explain the talas

How to clap Adi Tala (Chaturashra (4) Jathi Triputa Thala)

Thalanga = Laghu (I) - Dhruta (0) - Dhruta (0)

CLAP - pinky - ring - middle - CLAP - wave - CLAP - wave

Keel Kaala = "Tha Dhi Thom Nam" (1 syllable per beat)

Madhyama Kaala = "Tha Dhi Thom Nam" (2 syllable per beat)(eigth notes)

Mel Kaala = "Tha Dhi Thom Nam" (2 syllable per beat)(eigth notes)

Speak the subdivision of "sixteenth notes" Chaturasra Nadai4 x 8 = 32 notes per cycle
"Thakadhimi - Thakajunu"

Solkattu

AKA konnokol

Solkattu is the art of using oral drum syllables to create rhythmic patterns in time. The term 'sol' refers to a word used in this art form, and just like in any language, strings of sols can be used to create meaningful sentences, paragraphs, and essays.

There are sols which comprise of different numbers of syllables. While there are countless number of sols, below you will find some of the most common ones for 1-10 syllables.

1: Tha
2: Thaka
3: Thakita
4: Thakadimi
5: Thaka Thakita
6: Thaka Thakadimi
7: Thakita Thakadimi
8: Thakadimi Thakajonu
9: Thakadimi Thaka Thakita
10: Thaka Thakita Thathikithathom

If you noticed, once we get to 5 syllable sols, we can start counting them as a compound of smaller sols. (eg. 5 = 2 + 3, 10 = 2 + 3 + 5) Hence for the exercise in this lesson, we simply start with reciting sols with syllables up to four.

Note: Most Carnatic music performances translate these drum syllables onto sounds produced on percussive instruments such as the mridangam, ghatam, and kanjira. The art of performing such drum syllables orally is known as konnakol. While konnakol is rarely performed in concerts, the concept and understanding of solkattu is the essential foundation of all Carnatic rhythms, and learning this art will greatly improve your sense of rhythm in any genre as it did for me.

Tala:

Tala is similar to time signature in Western music, which refers to a fixed number of beats (aksharas) that repeat in a cycle, organising the music in time. The most common tala used in Carnatic music is Adi Tala, an eight beat cycle.

Talas are kept by a series of hand gestures known as 'angas'. The three angas we will learn are:

Anudhrutam ( X ) : A single hand clap - duration of 1 beat

Dhrutam ( 0 ) : A single hand clap followed by a wave - duration of 2 beats

Laghu ( I* ) : A single hand clap followed by finger taps starting from the little finger to thumb - variable duration

Adi Tala can be written out as "I4 0 0 ", comprising of a 4-beat laghu followed by two dhrutams.

⚠️ The book requests we listen to an example of a Bhajan from a film. I'm not sure which of this is the specific song that is being requested for us to listen to:

Understanding this phrase in a religious context:

What We Think When We Sing "Mere To Giridhara Gopal"

We sometimes fancy that it would please God to hear that we consider Him our own. But in fact we say so to please ourselves. We believe God is a VVIP, and it would immensely benefit us if we are close to Him. We would like God to be our own like several other things we call our own - our property, position, ambition, our family, and many such add-ons. Since God is like a father, mother, friend, etc. God should have no difficulty in sharing space with them!

Then we think since He becomes a kind of family head it becomes His responsibility to ensure the safety of our add-ons, for He has promised that He would take care of us. So to remind God of His special duty towards us, we offer Him special aradhana, celebrate birthdays of Avatars, and do some daily rituals. This, we hope, would put us in a special category in the book of God, ‘those who love God’, mere to giridhara gopal.

"Krishna Nee Begane" Dance piece
Krishna Nee Begane Baro- Higgins

Understanding South Indian Melodic Concept

see Indian "solfege" on page 308

⚠️Vocab

⚠️Swara = a note, a pitch in a scale
⚠️Melakarta = a scale system, not as simple as the western concept of scale (see pg 314)
⚠️Shruti = a layer of the music that provides the anchor swaras in the form of a drone. (Tamboura or Shruti Box)
⚠️Raga= A set of melodic content / a scale / a set of pitches with rules associated with how the notes are ornamented or approached.
⚠️ Kriti= A song form for South Indian Classical music.

⚠️Example from the book for a song in Kriti: DeviNiyeTunai.m4a

(see the lyrics text on pg308 )
-Each line is repeated several times with successive variations
-Raga in Kerrvani, tala in Adhi Tala. Song form(pg 309):

⚠️Alapana - introduces the raga
⚠️Pallavi - song and tala begin, each part is sung twice
⚠️Anupallavi - lyrical development
⚠️Charanam - singer improvises
⚠️Mora - 3 times repeated material in the mridungam closes the song

⚠️A great explainer video introducing the complexity of the melodic concept:

#1 = Swaras: Know your Swaras | Raga Mohanam & Sivaranjani

#2 = Gamakas: How to sing Gamakas? | VoxGuru ft. Pratibha Sarathy

#3 = Ragas:
Hamsadhwani
Vasantha
ABHOGI

The tremendous complexity of the melodic concept: carnatica site

Ghatam

multi-instrument ensemble in a church
TM Krishna feat. Vikku Vinayakram: Live at Afghan Church

Polyphonic ghatam performance!
Amazing Ghatam Performance by Sukanya Ramgopal | Ghatam Instrumental Music

Ranganayaki Rajagopalan performance from the book:
sarasiruha.html

Performance by Ranganayaki Rajagopalan
Veenai Ranganayaki Rajagopalan

Some notes

The language of this music is Tamil
⚠️Veena = The plucked string instrument played by Ranganayaki Rajagopolan
Ranganayaki Rajagopalan was very gifted from a young age
⚠️Gurukula system = apprenticeship system
extreme rigor, no friends, no playing, just practice and corporeal punishment for mistakes
by her teens she traveling the world
Alapana = non-metered, introducing the flavor of the raga
Tanam = the exposition of the raga, no Tala but there is a beat
Kriti = a composed song in tala
Kalpana = improvised section
Tani Avartanam = drum solo
Korvai = a composed or improvised musical idea that is based on a concept of repeating ideas 3 times.