Harmony and carnatic music
V. S. Sridharan
There was some discussion earlier on the subject and someone mentioned that carnatic music does have chords, and it is the drone. This is worth exploring further, I think.
More and more artists are squelching the Pa while singing Pa-varjya ragas. Some change it to Sudha Ma while singing ragas like Hindolam. We ought to extend the concept for singing other ragas to enhance the harmony.
For ragas that do have Pa, it would be hard to improve the harmony with any notes other than the standard drone (sa-pa-sa). For the Pa-varjya ragas, it would be neat to know what the nyasa swaras (resting notes) are and pick the most harmonious one to form the drone (as with sa-Ma-sa in Hindolam). Ranjani for instance would be interesting to explore. The choice may be Ga or Da.
Just sharing some thoughts...
Sridhar
Krishna Kunchithapadam
vssr...@aud.alcatel.com (V. S. Sridharan) writes:
:
: There was some discussion earlier on the subject and someone
: mentioned that carnatic music does have chords, and it is the
: drone. This is worth exploring further, I think.
: [...]
:
: For ragas that do have Pa, it would be hard to improve the
: harmony with any notes other than the standard drone (sa-pa-
: the nyasa swaras (resting notes) are and pick the most
: harmonious one to form the drone (as with sa-Ma-sa in
: Hindolam). Ranjani for instance would be interesting to
: explore. The choice may be Ga or Da.
: [...]
:
I heard from a friend of mine at IIT-Madras that Bhimsen Joshi
once performed a concert (or perhaps just one item?) with his
tanpura tuned to "ga". This was considered, shall we say,
"highly experimental" (i.e. "I don't like it") by the cognoscenti
in the audience.
The story may or may not be true, but the reaction of the
audience is (something I consider to be) almost a trivial truism.
Speaking for myself, in these days of electronic drones, one
should not feel constrained to stick to the 4-note "sa-pa-Sa-Sa"
accompaniment. Vivadi ragas, for example, should be supported
with the drone set to "sa", perhaps "pa", and all the vivadi
svaras of the raga. That would serve to highten the vivadi
effect---something which is necessary if people are to get used
to these ragas and to start treating them as legitimate musical
objects. Prati-madhyama ragas should be supported by a drone set
to "sa-ma'-Sa-Sa". Prati-madhyama vivadi ragas, a combination of
the above, and so on.
However, should we call the drone a "harmonic" or "chordal"
phenomenon in Carnatic music [*]? I think not.
In the first place, chords mean not just the simultaneous playing
of 2 or more notes---it is more than that. If, for example, the
melodic line of a piece consists of:
N1 N2 N3 N4
the Ni being various notes, and if Ci are different chord
patterns (i.e. different series of harmonizing note combinations)
then, I would consider the following: (where Ni(Cj) means that
note Ni is played in chord Cj)
N1(C2) N2(C2) N3(C1) N4(C3) ...
to be chordal music, but not:
N1(C1) N2(C1) N3(C1) N4(C1)
i.e. a melodic line which consists not of a single note, but of
the _same_ chordal template is not really chordal or harmonic
music. If it were, then _all_ music is chordal/harmonic since
almost no musical instrument produces pure sinusoidal tones---the
tones are all composed of a rich array of harmonics (which would
constitute chords in the above sense).
There is nothing which prohibits Carnatic or Hindustani music
from being polyhonic, harmonic, chordal (or whatever you want to
call it)---it is just that non-monophony is not part of the
aesthetic of Indian classical music, i.e. Begada is Begada
because of the melodic aspects of a performance, not because the
melodic line was sung in harmony.
Aesthetic also drives expectation. Most people would identify
"blues" music, to take an example, as a specific 12-chordal
progression. I "identify" blues music as the use of a specific
melodic sequences---even if the chord patterns do not repeat in
cycles of period 12 or the specific sequence is not the
"standard" blues pattern. I simply cannot appreciate the chord
pattern as the primary aesthetic of the music.
I am also willing to venture that if I were to take a piece of
legitimate carnatic music, and electronically enhance it to make
use of chordal patterns, most people attuned to the aesthetics of
carnatic music would not even _recognize_ that the piece they are
hearing is "harmonic". The carnatic brain hears just the melody
and typically lets the harmony slide by.
--Krishna
[*] A little digression:
I once attended a SPIC-MACAY lec-dem by S.Balachander. He made
the point very clear that the use of a drone in Indian classical
music was to identify the tonic (and nothing more than that).
The clear identification of the tonic helps the performer adjust
as needed to the tonic (i.e. adjust to the "sruti", in this weak
sense). It also helps the audience follow the melodic
progression better.
Also, I think the tonic signature is not a single note (i.e.
"sa"), but a cyclic progression ("sa-pa-Sa-Sa") to avoid the
phenomenon of the brain "tuning-out" a constant note after a
short period of time.
Clearly, people have attended concerts where they have "tuned-
out" the constant drone of a nearby electric-fan motor. A cyclic
pattern will not be tuned out by the brain and will make the
tonic signature quite unambiguous.
WARVIJ
I really enjoyed this post, and look
forward to responding at greater length if
time permits. I leave for India on Friday...
Krishna writes:
>I heard from a friend of mine at IIT-Madras
>that Bhimsen Joshi once performed a concert
>(or perhaps just one item?) with his tanpura
>tuned to "ga". This was considered, shall we say,
>"highly experimental" (i.e. "I don't like it")
>by the cognoscenti in the audience.
Ga is not likely; the Pancham string of a standard
male vocal tamboura would be unacceptably flabby
if tuned down to Ga.
Bhimsen *always* sings with the tamboura tuned
to the harmonium's shuddh nishad. This is sometimes
attractive and sometimes merely bizarre -- as in
his renditions of raags like Malkauns and Darbari,
which use the komal nishad exclusively.
It is my experience that the nishad tuning was first
used for the tivra-ma/no pa raags like marwa, gujri
todi, etc. Many listeners responded to the tuning's
hypnotic effect, especially as rendered by Kirana
gharana singers -- and it became more and more
popular.
Personally, I vacillate. I've heard it used well, and I've
heard it used badly. Madhav Gudi explained to me that
on at least one of Bhimsen's Malkauns recordings, he
used a pair of tambouras with shuddh madhyam and
shuddh nishad respectively. I asked Madhav how this
was possible, given the raag's komal ni.
He shrugged, and replied "Guruji says you must *become*
malkauns. Then the tamboura doesn't matter."
Hmmmm. Food for thought.
Again, a very interesting post, Krishna. Thanks!
Warren Senders
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Hindustani vocal music -- Khyal & Thumri --
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that lets the ears lie back in an easy chair."
-- Charles Ives --
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Warren Senders
PO Box 38-1634, Harvard Square
Cambridge, MA 02238-1634
V. S. Sridharan
In article p...@spool.cs.wisc.edu, kri...@calico.cs.wisc.edu (Krishna Kunchithapadam) writes:
>
> N1(C2) N2(C2) N3(C1) N4(C3) ...
>
> to be chordal music, but not:
>
> N1(C1) N2(C1) N3(C1) N4(C1)
>
> i.e. a melodic line which consists not of a single note, but of
> the _same_ chordal template is not really chordal or harmonic
> music. If it were, then _all_ music is chordal/harmonic since
> almost no musical instrument produces pure sinusoidal tones---the
> tones are all composed of a rich array of harmonics (which would
> constitute chords in the above sense).
>
I have higher hopes with the carnatic music listeners than you suggest in recognizing and appreciating harmony. The elementary octave shift attempted by MS and Radha while singing 'Sambo Mahadeva' or the first swaram in the charanam of 'Duduku Gala' has a very pleasing effect. I would suggest to the duet singers to take braver steps. Indian film music is seeing some success also of late. (Ooooh lalalla.)
Although it makes sense, I have my hesitations about adding Prati Madyamam to the drone. At a central ratio of 45/32 which doesn't converge with the sa but eight times a second typically in the vocal range, it may not sound very pleasing.
I am encouraged by the Bhimsen Joshi experiments. It would be great to hear from others with such experiences.
Sridhar
Ashok
In article <696i2l$p...@spool.cs.wisc.edu>, kri...@calico.cs.wisc.edu says...
>
>However, should we call the drone a "harmonic" or "chordal"
>phenomenon in Carnatic music [*]? I think not.
>
>In the first place, chords mean not just the simultaneous playing
>of 2 or more notes---it is more than that.
>--Krishna
Actually, by definition, a chord is THREE or more simultaneous
notes.
Counterpoint involving two melodies is, however, interesting
and your discussion should apply.
Thanks for an interesting post.
Ashok
WARVIJ
>Actually, by definition, a chord is THREE
>or more simultaneous notes.
Er... whose definition?
Warren
Ashok
In article <19980113034...@ladder02.news.aol.com>, war...@aol.com says...
Among other things, many English dictionaries, e.g, Merriam-Webster.
Ashok