The World Within

Consequent to an earlier post on a Primer on Indian Classical Music, I set upon to learn about the music system. Given the hitherto ignorance of the principles of the revered music system, it took quite some time to follow the concepts and the terms of the system! However, it has been a wonderful learning experience and I give below a few concepts and the terms that I have learnt as part of my study.

Summary Notes

1. Sound has several features such as pitch, intensity, quality and duration.
2. The pitch is just the frequency of the sound vibration, given in hertz or cycles. The musical term for frequency is tone.
3. The intensity is the same as the loudness and is related to the amplitude of the sound wave.
4. The duration of the sound is simply the time during which the specific frequency or tone lasts.
5. When an instrument produces sound, you not produce one frequency, but also produce a spectrum consisting of several overtones. This is variously referred to as timbre or tone color. This constitutes the quality of that sound.
6. The audible range is divided into octaves. An octave is a frequency range from a frequency f1 to f2 such that f2 is twice that of f1 in terms of cycles or hertz. The audible frequency is then comprised of many, many octaves. We can choose any number to be our f1 (and f2 of course is 2 times f1) – we can define an octave from 10 Hz to 20 Hz or equally well another one, say from 15 Hz to 30 Hz.
7. The key frequencies are arranged in such a manner that they are in a geometric series with a common ratio as the twelfth root of two or 1.059. For example, typically, there is a white key in the keyboard set to 240 Hz. Then the adjacent key on the right, a black one as a matter of fact, is set to 240 X 1.059 = 254 Hertz.
8. The geometric arrangement of frequencies of the keys in an octave is called an equally tempered arrangement.
9. The Western music defines a standard octave called the middle C octave (also called the middle C scale) starting from the white key set to 240 Hz.
10. The eight keys in an octave are labeled starting with C through G, and then back to A and B. The five black keys in an octave have ambiguous labels, because each one of them has two labels. The first black key, for example, is called C sharp (C #) or D flat (Db).
11. Each key in an octave is supposed to be a semitone or half tone apart from its adjacent key. Thus, keys which are second nearest neighbors are considered a whole tone apart. For example, the first white key (C key) and the first black key (C#) are a semitone apart, whereas the first white key (C key) and the second white key (D key) are a full tone (whole tone) apart. Also, the C# and D keys are a semitone apart, as well.
12. The Indian word for frequency or pitch or tone is Sruti.
13. The basic reason for more than twelve srutis per octave in Indian music is that any form of Indian music, not just Carnatic music, flows through the frequencies, whereas a Western song seems jumpy.
14. In Indian music it is not enough to produce just twelve or even twenty two tones in an octave. One ought to produce even the intermediate frequencies. These intermediate frequencies, which do not have any keys to produce them, are called microtones and the Indian word for the microtone is gamakam.
15. The microtones or gamakams in Indian form of music tend to be clustered around the primary key frequency, although this need not always be the case.
16. The very heart of Indian music is a continuous flow or gliding through a continuum of frequencies or gamakam or microtonal excursions.
17. The Western music is harmony-based. Harmony is produced when several instruments play different melodies or pieces simultaneously like in an orchestra. Orchestration and harmony are absent in Indian classical music.
18. Indian classical music does not use chords, or pressing more than one key simultaneously. Chords are a major aspect of Western music and producing harmony via chords is a natural consequence of the equally tempered (geometric series) arrangement of the keys. If keys were arranged in a just tempered sequence, pressing more than one key at a given time might produce an unpleasant sound pattern resulting in what is called Besur (in Hindustani music) or Abaswaram (in Carnatic music).
19. One advantage of equal temperament of pianos and keyboards is that it makes it easier to tune them since each key is harmonically related to the other keys. In case of just tempered arrangement, since the key ratio between adjacent keys is not a constant, most keys will have to be tuned individually.
20. Also absent in Indian classical music is polyphony, where several instruments (melodies) come and go asynchronously instead of at periodically predictable times. Also, the western scales are standardized. The middle C octave ranges from 240 to 480 Hz.
21. In Indian music, you have the freedom to choose the frequency range of the octave from anywhere to twice anywhere. You can start at 230 Hz, if you wish.
22. In western classical music, most musicians have music notated on sheets of paper and read it when performing, while the Indian music is always played by ear.
23. A note is a primitive element of a musical phrase. An analogy will be the concept of a syllable in a spoken word or a letter in a written word.
24. The terms tone and note are different: tone is essentially a frequency, whereas the note is the smallest part of a melody and could last one tone plus possible microtones. The Indian word for note is swaram or sur.
25. These seven syllables – sa ri ga ma pa dha ni – are actually mnemonics to represent the notes or swarams in Indian music. They are referred to as the saptha swarams.
26. The complete names of the Indian notation are as follows: shadjam for sa, rishabham for ri, gandhaaram for ga, madhyamam for ma, panchamam for pa, dhaivatam for dha and nishaadham for ni.
27. In Indian music, the main octave is called madhya sthayi, the octave above it (higher) is called thara sthayi and the octave just below the madhya sthayi is called mandra sthayi. In terms of notation, the keys in the higher octave are labeled with a dot on top of the notes. The keys in the mandra (lower) sthayi are identified with dots below the solfege notes.
28. The twelve keys of the octave are divided into two halves: the four keys which are designated as ri and ga are called the bottom tetrachord (in Indian terminology, poorvaangam) and similarly the four keys corresponding to dha and ni are called the upper tetrachord or uttaraangam.
29. The starting frequency of your personalized octave relative to a standard octave determines the pitch of your voice.
30. Your signature pitch or sruti (or, the starting frequency of your octave) is measured in a sounding unit called kattai. A half kattai is a semitone and a full kattai is a whole tone. If your octave happens to start at 240 Hz then you have a four kattai sruti, by definition. If your voice is very low pitched then you can have lower than four kattai as in case of many males. Women and children are high pitched and can have higher than four (even six) kattai srutis and their octave will start at frequencies higher than 240 Hz. An approximate western equivalent of this is called register. In Indian classical music, the octaves are free floating, varying from person to person. The starting points are not pegged at 240 Hz.

Terms to remember

1. pitch
2. tone
3. duration
4. timbre
5. quality of sound
6. octave
7. equally tempered
8. middle C octave or middle C scale
9. semitone or half-tone
10. full tone or whole tone
11. sruti
12. microtone or gamakam
13. harmony
14. equally tempered
15. just tempered
16. polyphony
17. note
18. swaram or sur
19. mandra sthayi
20. madhya sthayi
21. thara sthayi
22. poorvaangam or bottom tetrachord
23. uttaraangam or upper tetrachord
24. half kattai
25. full kattai