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Wednesday, 16 July 2014
Raga
RAGAS
A Raga is
a combination of sounds or swaras having qualities that give pleasure to the listener. Every Raga has a peculiar quality of its own. To be acquainted with Ragas, a musician should bear in mind the following points :
1. Ragas must belong to a Thaat.
2. At least five notes are essential
for a Raga.
3. In a Raga the melody is very essential.
4.
A Raga must
have its own ascent, descent (Aroha and avaroha) and fixed notes (Nadi
& Sammdi).
5. The Sa Swara (C note) is the same note (fixed) in every Raga, and both Ma & Pa are not to be
omitted at the same time.
Parts of combination of a raga
There are 4 distinguished parts of a raga/composition/ song.
1.
Sthayi First part (face) or introduction.
2.
Antara Second part or
body.
3.
Sanchari Combination of notes of sthayi & Antra
4.
Abhog Some notes of the combination
played in the upper octave.
played in the upper octave.
Thaat
Thaat
Ordinarily a
Thaat
is a combination of seven Swaras or
notes capable of producing
Ragas.
All the notes played in thaat
are in ascending order starting from Sa ending at Ni, whether
natural, flat or sharp. There are basically ten
thaats
in Indian
music system.
The
Thaat
must qualify these three Basic conditions :
1. A
Thaat
must contain the seven
swaras
(notes) in the
regular form.
2.
The
Shuddha, Komal
or
Tiura Swaras
must appear
one
3.
It is a mere scale, a combination of notes. It does not
essentially need to please the
listeners ear.Saptak
SAPTAK (Octave)
According to the Indian theory of music there
are three ranges of the
human voice, which are low, medium and high pitch. These pitches when identified with notes in music called Saptaka or a group of seven Shuddha notes. These seven notes also includes four komal and one Tivra Swara. The human voice is differentiated under these three ranges:
1.
Madhya
Saptaka (Medium Octave) — When the sound naturally
comes out of the throat without any pressure, it is called the throat voice. The Medium octave or
Madhya Saptaka.
2.
Mandra
Saptaka (Lower Octave)
— When the sound comes out
entirely by the pressure of the lungs, it is called the chest voice or Mandra Saptaka (Lower
Octave). In this Saptaka the pitch of
the sound is lower than the medium octave.
3.
Taar Saptaka (Upper Octave) — When the sound is produced with the exertion of force on the
nostrils and head, called the head voice or Tar
Saptaka (Upper Octave). The pitch or sound is
higher than that of the medium
octave.