The two main constituents of Indian classical music are melody and rhythm. The combination of these two forms the raga about which you will read later in this section. This article is an introduction into the concept of melody and rhythm that Indian classical music follows. After you have read this, you will be able to better comprehend the section on ragas which is where the theory of Indian music is thoroughly explained.
Melody
Melody in Indian classical music is composed out of a seven swaras or notes. These are Shadhja, Rishab, Gandhar, Madhyam, Pancham, Dhaivat, Nishad. Together they form the saptak or the seven note scale of sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha and ni. These notes are in ascending range of pitch and are quite similar to the Western do re me fa..
Tte eighth note is the first note sung at a higher scale and so on and so forth. If one were to represent the scale on a musical instrument like the harmonium or even the piano, you will notice that between two notes there is a key which produces what can be described as an intermediate note. These notes are referred to in Indian classical music as vikrit swaras or altered notes. There are only five vikrit notes, for between certain notes in the scale one does not get a distinct vikrit. Indian classical music does not stop at this level, it even deals with microtones or shruti's. These are minute intervals between notes that a skilled vocalist or instrumentalist is able to recreate. While in theory there would be an infinite number of shruti's there are only twenty two of them in use. Indian classical music also has another concept in its melody, that of the drone. Since the concept of melody in Indian classical music is based on the relationship of the fixed and varying notes, the drone serves as the fixed note. The drone is a constant note and is important in clearly brining out the varying notes. Finally we shall talk about the octaves. Indian classical music has three main octaves which are mandra (low), madhya (middle), tar (high). An extremely skilled artiste will be able to sing in all three octaves in one raga.
Rhythm
Rhythm is the arrangement of time in music. Like in most forms of music, Indian classical music also represents rhythm with the concept of beats. It however follows a fairly complex concept of rhythm as compared to some of its counterparts. As mentioned earlier, Indian classical music has a highly developed system of sub-division of music and this extends into the sphere of rhythm. The results of this are very interesting, for unlike a constant beat amongst sub divisions that is common with several forms of music, Indian classical music can have a unique beat cycle for each of the subdivisions in a piece that is being presented. The concept extends further, not only are there different beats in the subdivisions, but even the beats in a subdivision have a number of ways of being represented. For instance when musicians move from one sub division to the other, they emphasize the first sequence of beats in a sub division to signify the change. There are therefore three main types of beats, these are
- Sam: Emphatic Beat
-Khali: Empty or rest beats
-Tali: All other beats
These have been arranged in sequential order for they are almost always structured in the sam-khali-tali form.