What is Raga?
Raga: its structural features
Raga classification
Ragamala
Ragas in performance
Talas in performance

Ragas in performance

Hindustani music is essentially solo music and invariably performed with a drone, usually provided by the tanpura. The tanpura player does not participate in either the exposition of the raga or in maintaining the rhythm, but must keep the drone going independently. Usually the two middle strings of this unfretted long lute are tuned to the tonic and the outer strings to the low fifth and the low tonic (P. S S S.). Instead of Pa, the first string can be tuned to the natural fourth (M. S S S.) when Pa is omitted or weak; or to the natural seventh (N. S S S.) when there is an augmented fourth; or sometimes even to Dha or Ga.
Each of the recordings on the CDs represents a raga performance in miniature. Performing a raga involves a number of movements such as a non-metrical introduction (alap), one or more compositions (a vocal bandish or instrumental gat), rhythmic improvisation (layakari) and fast passages (tana). The order in which these are presented, and the emphasis placed on them, depend largely on the vocal or instrumental genre as well as the individual style of the performer.

Vocal dhrupad recitals usually begin with an alap, a fairly extended section without rhythmic accompaniment. In this part, a musician methodically explores the raga through a concentration on distinct phrases, patterns and movements. Also, in the alap a musician discloses his knowledge of the details which make up the raga he performs, as well as his musical and improvisatory skills. The exposition starts around the middle tonic, Sa, moves slowly into the low octave, gradually works its way up to the middle and high octaves, and then finally returns to middle Sa. Thus the raga is delineated in the three main octaves.

The alap has no text and is therefore the ideal medium for expressing and manifesting the salient features of a raga. One way of performing vocal alap is to use abstract syllables such as te, re, na, ta, nom, tom. This is referred to as nom-tom. An example of this type of alap can be heard on the recording of raga Hindol by Vidyadhar Vyas. It serves traditionally as an introduction to a dhrupad or dhamar song. An instrumental performance may also commence with an elaborate alap to develop the raga. On the CD recordings, both Hariprasad Chaurasia and Buddhadev DasGupta present a condensed version of the alap before they play and elaborate the composition with tabla accompaniment.

The slow, non-metrical alap, devoid of a clear pulse, may be followed by movements called jod ('joining') and jhala. These introduce a rhythmic pulse. The jod is played in medium tempo, and the jhala in fast tempo, building up to a super-fast speed. In instrumental jhala, the left hand plays a slow melody while the right hand creates complex rhythmic patterns on the main and drone strings, in a spectacular display of speed and virtuosity.

Ragas are known to musicians primarily through traditional compositions in genres such as dhrupad, dhamar, khyal, tappa, tarana and thumri. Good compositions possess a grandeur that unmistakably unveil the distinctive features and beauty of the raga as the composer conceived it. A song (bandish or chiz) or instrumental composition (gat) may be relatively short, but it plays a vital role as a recurring theme in the performance. It should have at least two parts, sthayi ('standing, constant') and antara ('intermediate'). The sthayi portrays the raga's main features in the first part of the middle octave and part of the lower register, and the antara covers the higher part of the middle octave to high Sa and beyond.

In khyal, most singers explore the alap within the bounds of the composition in meter, accompanied by tabla. In this type of alap, called vistar or badhat, it is common to use either the long vowel 'a' (akar) or the words of the composition (bol alap). To commence the performance, the khyal singer may sing just a few phrases to give an indication of the structure and flavour of the raga (known as auchar) before the tabla player joins in. This is the pattern followed by Shruti Sadolikar-Katkar and Vidyadhar Vyas on the recordings, although Vyas also prefaces his introductions with the ascent-descent of the raga.

In the first and main part of a khyal performance (usually referred to as vilambit or bada khyal), the artist chooses a slow or medium tempo song in which the raga is gradually unfolded. A short section of this composition, taken from the first line of the sthayi, is used as a refrain to conclude each cycle of the vistar. This refrain is referred to as the mukhda ('signature') and leads up to the first beat (sam) of the rhythm cycle. In other words, after each improvisation the sam is a point of culmination and resolution.

After the vistar has been completed, some rhythmic improvisations (layakari) may be introduced before going into tana sequences. Such melodic extensions and patterns can be sung with the words of the song (bol tanas), with the long vowel 'a' (in akar) or with the names of the notes (sargam). Rapid tanas become more prominent in the medium to fast composition (chota khyal) which concludes the presentation of a raga.

A special variety of chota khyal is the tarana. This medium to fast composition uses apparently meaningless syllables such as ta, na, de, re, dim. The recording of raga Gorakh kalyan by Vidyadhar Vyas demonstrates a tarana; here, the singer also uses nom-tom syllables to improvise around the composition.

In the highly expressive and ornamented light-classical thumri genre, the predominant motif of the song lyrics is erotic or mystical love. Thumri compositions usually consist of a sthayi and antara, and are mainly sung or played in particular ragas, including Bhairavi, Kafi, Pilu, Khamaj, Desh, Tilang, Tilak kamod, Jogiya, Sohini, Jhinjhoti and Pahadi. These ragas allow the musician the freedom to introduce accidental notes and passages from other ragas. The recording of Pilu by Hariprasad Chaurasia is a typical instrumental thumri.

The lyrics (pad) of vocal compositions cover a wide range of themes, from religious, devotional and philosophical subjects to eroticism and love (especially concerning the amorous exploits of Krishna and the yearnings of the milkmaids), as well as a description of nature, the seasons and music itself. Most khyals and thumris are composed in Braj bhasha, the western literary dialect of Hindi; others in Avadhi, its eastern counterpart, and Punjabi. Braj bhasha is the language spoken in the area of Mathura, where the Hindu god Krishna is said to have spent his childhood. From the 16th up to the late 19th century it was the most prominent literary language, and even today it is frequently used in song lyrics, although not in its original form.

In India, vocal music has traditionally been allotted a primary position. To a certain extent, instrumental music has tried to follow in its footsteps. Due to their capacity to produce sustained sounds, instruments such as the sarangi and harmonium were (and are still) used for accompanying the voice. When the sarangi gained a solo status, either the vocal repertoire was faithfully maintained or there was a borrowing from other instrumental genres and styles. Possibly because of their limited scope for imitating the voice, plucked instruments like the bin, sitar and sarod (the instrument played by Buddhadev DasGupta) evolved their own style of playing (baj), and major instrumental genres were developed for them.

A composition for sitar or sarod is known as a gat. Those in slow or medium tempo are based on fixed stroke patterns and are called masitkhani gats, named after Masit Khan, a late 18th century pioneering sitar player-composer. Following on the slow or medium speed gat, a fast composition is played which has its origin in the razakhani gat, named after the mid-19th century sitar player Ghulam Raza Khan. The structure and lively tempo of these gats are more conducive to rendering tanas: first short ones, and then gradually expanding in length and variety. A fast instrumental composition may conclude with jhala movements, commencing at a fairly high speed which continues to accelerate.
What is Raga?
Raga: its structural features
Raga classification
Ragamala
Ragas in performance
Talas in performance