Indian Ragas!
A raga is the fundamental melodic structure that is used in Indian classical music. Each raga has a distinctive flavour or attribute, and it is the nuances of the raga itself that determines the moods and emotions evoked by a certain song. Every song is based on at least one raga that propels that song forward, and evokes a specific response from the listener. However, one must always follow the often strict rules of how a raga must be rendered, and certain notes may not be permitted within a certain raga framework, and neither will certain forms of embellishments. Yet, these restrictions allow musicians to explore the ragas further and creatively exploit the rules of the raga to create sometimes surprising and unexpected combinations of notes and embellishments. Musicians are most creative when there are constraints!
The ragas are classified in a very systematic manner. Firstly, they can be divided based on their origin: Hindustani or Carnatic (roughly, North Indian or South Indian music). However, both schools of Indian Classical music adopt a hierarchical approach to classify the ragas.One first creates fundamental parent scales (known as a ‘Melakarta’ in Carnatic music or a ‘Thaat’ in Hindustani music). These scales are heptatonic, with 7 notes (swarams).
For instance, take Shankharabharanam.
Shankharabharanam, for instance, is the 29th Melakarta in Carnatic music. A melakarta raga from Carnatic music. Its scale is as follows:
S R2 G3 M1 P D2 N3
There are 7 main notes in Indian music, referred to as Sa (S), Ri (R), Ga (G), Ma (M), Pa (P), Da (D) and Ni (N). Each of these notes corresponds to a specific range of frequencies, which can be immediately identified by the listener. The range of frequencies pertaining to each note can be further subdivided and we obtain R1, R2 and R3 as the subdivisions of Ri; G1, G2 and G3 as the subdivisions of Ga; M1 and M2 as the subdivisions of Ma; D1, D2 and D3 as the subdivisions of Da; N1, N2 and N3 as the subdivisions of Ni. Sa and Pa are not subdivided as they correspond to a single frequency only. More confusingly, R3 and G2 are equivalent (and so are D3 and N2), and R2 and G1 are equivalent (and so are D2 and N1). This equivalence can lead to the generation of some very interesting ragas (vivadi ragas) as we shall see later.
Back to the scale of Shankharabharanam, we see that it has all the 7 notes. This scale corresponds to the major scale in Western music. However, we can derive other ragas from this scale by removing certain notes.
For instance, removing M1 and N3, we get:
S R2 G3 P D2
This is a pentatonic scale, and corresponds to the raga, Mohanam. This derived scale is also known as a Janya raga (in Carnatic music) or simply as a derived raga. With such options, we can create nearly infinite number of derived scales. Some derived scales may even use ‘foreign’ notes from other parent scales. Additionally, we can change the order of notes (such as a ‘zigzag’ S G3 R2 G3 instead of S R2 G3) to create a new flavour.