WHAT IS RAAG IN INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC
WHAT IS RAAG:
Raag is a group of notes randomly taken from Seven or twelve notes. It gives you the flavour, you can take minimum 5 or 7 maximum notes. If you use the same 5 notes or 7 notes in a different way or put emphasis on some notes it changes the raag. So if we take first part of the saptac which is Sa-Se-Ga and give emphasis to Ga (gandhar) it becomes Raag Bhoop. In raag Deshkar emphasis is given on the second part of the saptac. So Dha-Ga indicates raag Deshkar. The emphasis on Pa-Ga would make it raag bhoop. So chalan is very characteristic in performing raag. It must be pleasing to the ears, thats most important. The structure of notes that entertains you is called raaga. With the combination os 5, 6 or seven notes many structures can be formed like 40,000 or more but all of them cannot be sung. The structures that are accepted by the people or musicians are sung for entertainment. Each raag has a Aroha and Avroha, which is very important for the performer to know. Well Aroha is the asending order from madiya Sa to taar sa in a specific design where as Avroha is the decending order from taar Sa to madiya Sa. Vadi is the most important note of the raag around which all the other notes move whereas the samvadi is the note that assists the vadi note and we can call it the second important note of the raag. There has to be a coordination between vadi and samvadi notes to give beauty and to the melody. Now the question arises , are there any other characteristics to know while singing the raag. Well Sa can not be omitted from any raag however in some raags Sa is given less importance like raag puriya. Ma and Pa which are the middle notes of the saptac, they both can not be omitted at the same time in a raag as per the rule. These are all the theoretical aspects when it comes to the concept of raag. Most of you must be having an other question in mind, what about the person who goes to listen to the performer, should be be acquninted with the theory of the raag or otherwise? Well the answer is "no" the listener must be necessarily acquainted with raag but the performer must know or have the knowledge of the raag that he is performing becuase a small mistake or variation can take him to the different raaga. The prevailing trend is that the performer must start with a slower tempo and the progress slowly to the faster or the fastest tempo to entertain the listeners. So we can say that now a days the indian classical music is recognised with khyal. We start with bara khyal or the slower tempo, it is expressed through bandish which is a composition this is for the vocalists but for the musicians it is different, it is starts with the elaboration of the raag , the composition or bandish enters. Every composition has two parts, the first part is called Astayi and the second part is called Antra. I feel thats enough for the time being, we shall learn more in the following articles.
Raag is a group of notes randomly taken from Seven or twelve notes. It gives you the flavour, you can take minimum 5 or 7 maximum notes. If you use the same 5 notes or 7 notes in a different way or put emphasis on some notes it changes the raag. So if we take first part of the saptac which is Sa-Se-Ga and give emphasis to Ga (gandhar) it becomes Raag Bhoop. In raag Deshkar emphasis is given on the second part of the saptac. So Dha-Ga indicates raag Deshkar. The emphasis on Pa-Ga would make it raag bhoop. So chalan is very characteristic in performing raag. It must be pleasing to the ears, thats most important. The structure of notes that entertains you is called raaga. With the combination os 5, 6 or seven notes many structures can be formed like 40,000 or more but all of them cannot be sung. The structures that are accepted by the people or musicians are sung for entertainment. Each raag has a Aroha and Avroha, which is very important for the performer to know. Well Aroha is the asending order from madiya Sa to taar sa in a specific design where as Avroha is the decending order from taar Sa to madiya Sa. Vadi is the most important note of the raag around which all the other notes move whereas the samvadi is the note that assists the vadi note and we can call it the second important note of the raag. There has to be a coordination between vadi and samvadi notes to give beauty and to the melody. Now the question arises , are there any other characteristics to know while singing the raag. Well Sa can not be omitted from any raag however in some raags Sa is given less importance like raag puriya. Ma and Pa which are the middle notes of the saptac, they both can not be omitted at the same time in a raag as per the rule. These are all the theoretical aspects when it comes to the concept of raag. Most of you must be having an other question in mind, what about the person who goes to listen to the performer, should be be acquninted with the theory of the raag or otherwise? Well the answer is "no" the listener must be necessarily acquainted with raag but the performer must know or have the knowledge of the raag that he is performing becuase a small mistake or variation can take him to the different raaga. The prevailing trend is that the performer must start with a slower tempo and the progress slowly to the faster or the fastest tempo to entertain the listeners. So we can say that now a days the indian classical music is recognised with khyal. We start with bara khyal or the slower tempo, it is expressed through bandish which is a composition this is for the vocalists but for the musicians it is different, it is starts with the elaboration of the raag , the composition or bandish enters. Every composition has two parts, the first part is called Astayi and the second part is called Antra. I feel thats enough for the time being, we shall learn more in the following articles.
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