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Raga literally means that which
affects the mind with a particular feeling, passion or
emotion. The structure of each raga and the melodic
movement within its framework are governed by definite
and extensive rules laid down in ancient treaties on
music written much before the Christian era. There are
about twenty two notes and microtones in the octave of
the Indian music. The technique of the raga consists of
the use of certain fixed notes and microtones, within
its framework. But there is unlimited scope for
improving within this fixed framework. Each artist can
have his own individual interpretation and vision of a
particular raga. No two renderings of the same raga by
the same singer or player may be exactly the same. There
is also no written composition in the Western sense for
them.
Emotion is the raw material with
which the Indian musician works. There is no narration
or image-making. Each note in the octave has a definite
expression and emotional value which is determined by
its relation with the tonic. The particular groups of
notes are combined to produce the phrases with some
emotional expressions. The enjoyment of a particular
emotional flavour of music is called Rasa. Indian ragas,
which form the main body of classical music deals with
four Rasas. These Rasas are the erotic, the pathetic,
the beatific and the heroic. There are about 200 ragas
which falls within one of these four categories. These
ragas are common to the two main music systems in India,
the Hindustani and the Carnatic music which are
prevalent in the North and the South India,
respectively. The basic framework of Indian music is the
melody. The voice never isolates individual notes from
the melodic line, but glides over the intervals that
separate them. The constant accompanying rhythm,
explicitly and prominently beaten out on a percussion
instrument, is a feature of Indian music which every
Indian takes for granted but which strikes others as
extraordinary. Slow, medium and fast tempos are used in
accordance with the mood of the musical passage. There
are a very large number of rhythmic patterns, most of
them of great intricacy, within which the performer
moves with perfect ease. The Folk music is more popular
than the Indian Classical music in India in many areas
of the public entertainment, and seldom loses touch with
the classical.
Different Mode of Indian Classical Music
During the past 40 years, there has been growing
interest among the young people in America and Europe in
the Indian music. The classical and the pop singers have
seriously experimented with the different modes of music
outside the usual Western tradition. Various pop singers
have followed the lead given by the Beatles group and
have used various instruments like the Sitar and Shehnai
for exploration of eastern themes. John Mechaghlin and
Dr. Zakir Hussain have created the Indo-Jazz fusion
music. |
