Raga1
Raga
A
raga
(Sanskrit
rāga
राग
, Tamil
irāgam
இரகம்
, Telugu "Raagam"
రాగం
, Kannada "Raaga"
ರಾಗ
, Malayalam
rāgam
രാഗം
literally "colour, hue" but also "beauty, melody"; also spelled
raag
,
raaga
,
ragam
)
[1]
is one of themelodic modes used in Indian classical music.A raga uses a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is constructed. However, it is important toremember that the way the notes are approached and rendered in musical phrases and the mood they convey aremore important in defining a raga than the notes themselves. In the Indian musical tradition, rāgas are associatedwith different times of the day, or with seasons. Indian classical music is always set in a rāga. Non-classical musicsuch as popular Indian film songs and ghazals sometimes use rāgas in their compositions.Joep Bor of the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music defined
Raga
as "tonal framework for composition andimprovisation."
[2]
Nazir Jairazbhoy, chairman of UCLA's department of ethnomusicology, characterized ragas asseparated by scale, line of ascent and descent, transilience, emphasized notes and register, and intonation andornaments.
[3]
Terminology
The Sanskrit word
rāga
is defined as 'the act of colouring or dyeing' (the mind and mood/emotions in this context)and therefore metaphorically means 'any feeling or passion especially love, affection, sympathy, desire, interest,motivation, joy, or delight.' Therefore, the word is used in the literal sense of 'the act of dyeing,' and also 'color, hue,tint,' especially the color red in the Sanskrit epics, and in the figurative sense of 'something that colors one'semotions.' A figurative sense of the word as 'passion, love, desire, delight' is also found in the Mahabharata. Thespecialized sense of 'loveliness, beauty,' especially of voice or song, emerges in Classical Sanskrit, used by Kalidasaand in the Panchatantra.
[4]
The term first occurs in a technical context in the
Brihaddeshi
(dated ca. 5th to 8th century),
[5]
where it is describedas "a combination of tones which, with beautiful illuminating graces, pleases the people in general".
Rāginī
(Devanagari:
रागिनी
) is a term for the "feminine" counterpart or "wife" to a rāga. The rāga-rāgini scheme fromabout the 14th century aligned 6 "male" rāgas with 6 "wives."
Raga2
Nature of rāga
Raga Shree recital to Krishna and Radha, Ragamala paintings, 19thcentury
योऽसौ ध् वनिविशे षस् तुस् वरवर् णविभू षितः ।
रञ् जको जनचित् तानांस च राग उदाहृ तः ।।
"That which is a special
dhwani
(tune), isbedecked with
swara
(notes) and
varna
and iscolorful or delightful to the minds of the people,is said to be
rāga
"
- Matanga in the Brihaddeshi.The basic mode of reference in modern Hindustanipractice (known commonly as the
shuddha
- basic -form) is a set which is equivalent to the Western Ionianmode (the major scale)
—
this is called
Bilawal thaat
in Hindustani music (the Carnatic analogue would be
Sankarabharanam
). In both systems, the ground (ortonic), Shadja, Sa, and a pure fifth above, Pancham, Pa,are fixed and essentially sacrosanct tones. In theHindustani system, in a given seven-tone mode, thesecond, third, sixth, and seventh notes can be natural(
shuddha
, lit. 'pure') or flat (
komal
, 'soft') but neversharp, and the fourth note can be natural or sharp (
tivra
)but never flat, making up the twelve notes in theWestern equal tempered chromatic scale (Westernenharmonic pitch equivalences like, for example, A♯and B♭ do not apply; e.g. Re tivra may, to a Westernmusician appear enharmonic to Ga shuddha in that system, but in practice is not.) A Western-style C chromatic scalecould therefore theoretically have the notes C, D♭, D, E♭, E, F, F♯, G, A♭, A, B♭, B.The Carnatic system has three versions
—
a lower, medium, and higher form
—
of all the notes except Sa, Ma andPa. Ma has two versions (lower and higher), while Sa and Pa are invariant. Rāgas can also specify microtonalchanges to this scale: a flatter second, a sharper seventh, and so forth. Tradition has it that the octave consists of (adivision into) 22 microtones ("shrutis"). Furthermore, individual performers treat pitches quite differently, and theprecise intonation of a given note depends on melodic context. There is no absolute pitch (such as the modernwestern standard A = 440 Hz); instead, each performance simply picks a ground note, which also serves as thedrone, and the other scale degrees follow relative to the ground note. The Carnatic system embarks from a muchdifferent shuddha (fundamental) scalar formation, that is,
shuddha
here is the lowest-pitched swara.By comparison, using the common tonic "C" for a western musician:
Raga3
Carnatic SwaraCarnatic NotationHindustani SwaraHindustani NotationWestern E.T.
SaSSaSCShuddha RiR1Komal RerD♭Chatusruti RiR2Shuddha ReRDShatsruti RiR3D♯Shuddha GaG1E♭♭Sadharana GaG2Komal GgE♭Antara GaG3Shuddha GaGEShuddha MaM1Shuddha MaMFPrati MaM2Teevra MaM+F♯PaPPaPGShuddha DhaD1Komal DhadA♭Chatusruti DhaD2Shuddha DhaDAShatsruti DhaD3A♯Shuddha NiN1B♭♭Kaisika NiN2Komal NinB♭Kakali NiN3Shuddha NiNB
Rāgas and their seasons
Vasant Ragini, Ragamala, Rajput, Kota,Rajasthan. 1770. Vasant is the raga of spring. Thepainting depicts Hindu god Krishna dancing withmaidens.
Many Hindustani (North Indian) rāgas are prescribed for the particulartime of a day or a season. When performed at the suggested time, therāga has its maximum effect. For example, many of the
Malhar
groupof rāgas, which are ascribed the magical power to bring rain, areperformed during the monsoon. However, these prescriptions are notstrictly followed, especially since modern concerts are generally heldin the evening. There has also been a growing tendency over the lastcentury for North Indian musicians to adopt South Indian rāgas, whichdo not come with any particular time associated with them. The resultof these various influences is that there is increasing flexibility as towhen rāgas may be performed.
Notations
Although notes are an important part of rāga practice, they alone do notmake the rāga. A rāga is more than a scale, and many rāgas share thesame scale. The underlying scale may have five, six or seven tonesmade up of
swaras
. Rāgas that have five swaras are called
audava
(
औडव
) rāgas; those with six,
shaadava
(
षाडव
); and with seven,
sampurna
(
सं पू र् ण
, Sanskrit for 'complete'). Those rāgas that do not follow the strictascending or descending order of swaras are called
vakra
(
वक् र
)('crooked') rāgas.
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Raga- western Equivalent to sa re ga, ma
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