Hindustani Classical Music - My little understanding - Part 5 (Meend)

In the previous article we discussed the types of "Alankaars" or ornamentations in the Hindustani Classical Music. In this article we will discuss in details on one of the most important ornamentation known as "Meend" (मींडْ).

"Meend" is essentially a glide from one note to another note.  The notes are not required to be next to each other. They can span multiple notes. "Meend"s can occur both ways i.e. Upwards or Downwards. That is one can glide from a starting note "Sa" to "Ma (Teevra)" as well as glide down from "Ma (Teevra)" to "Sa".

There are different forms of "Meend"s within this basic definition. One such type is one during which the glide from the starting note to the destination note may require (by the rule of the "Raag") to rest or touch the intervening notes in between. The duration of rest and the intervening note to rest on is dictated by the "Raag" in question. In another type there is a "wave" like movement where in there is both the upward and the downward movement combined while transiting from one note to the other.

"Meend"s are not playable on instruments like the harmonium. However stringed instruments like the Sarod, Sitar can play them nicely. So generally, fretted instruments play "Meend"s. "Meend"s are definately also a very important part of vocal singing.

There are two online resources that I found very useful. First is of course the "ITC Sangeet Research Academy". They have categorized different forms of "Meend"s along with examples. The other is the http://raag-hindustani.com website. This site is created by Ms. Sadhana. Browse to the section on Ornamentation. It contains good description of "Alankaars" and also some examples.

To help the readers get a greater understanding I will present some examples along with their frequency analysis.
The first example is from the raag-hindustani website. Ms. Sadhana first demonstrates the ordinary "m P D g" and then as it is sung in Raag Bageshree ("m P D g"), employing "Meend"s. The figure below is the time-frequency plot of both the clips.

Click on the image to enlarge the view.

Notice the first set of "m P D g" is totally "flat". There  is no "glide" seen when changing from one note to the other. In the second, observe the "glides" when moving from one note to the other. The glide to "Pa" from "Shudh Ma" upwards (slightly touching "Shudh Dha") and then a glide to "Shudh Dha" from "Pa" and then a final long smooth glide downwards to "Komal Ga". Now listen to the combined piece, along with the movements on the notes in real time in the video below. Switch to full screen view and select the HD mode. This will enable you to view the notes being sung in real time that are displayed in the extreme lower right corner. The video has the notes annotated "in-place" for easy reference too.

One can go through the rest of the examples on the website. They are really well explained. I am grateful to Ms. Sadhana for allowing me to use her recordings on her website http://raag-hindustani.com/Embellishment.html for the examples above. It allows me to show in greater details as to how "Meend"s look like and can be "detected" by the less trained ears of casual music lovers.

To close, let us also see on example of "Meend" from the great Ustad Amir Khan. In this example, he traverses the whole octave from "mandra saptak Ni" to "natural saptak  Ni" during one of his renditions of Raag Yaman Kalyan. Watch the glide, he does not stop anywhere in between during the glide.

As usual, switch to full screen view and select the HD mode. This will enable you to view the notes being sung in real time that are displayed in the extreme lower right corner. The video has the notes annotated "in-place" for easy reference too.

That is all for today. I will keep posting such analysis from time to time. I find it is easy to grasp these complex concepts when one is able to see the waveform visually along with the musical movements involving the notes.

The next article shall finally introduce the concept of a Raag. You might be One might wonder why Raags were not introduced earlier, but believe me without these basic chapters on classical music, it is very difficult to understand the concept of Raag. Hopefully my explanation would make sense then!

Hindustani Classical Music - My little understanding - Part 4 (Alankars)

In the previous article we discussed about the concept of Taals. We shall now discuss one of the most important aspect of Hindustani Classical Music, known as Alankar (or ornamentation). To do justice to this topic I shall have to split it into multiple posts. A single post would be too long for readers to read in  one go, and too short to justify the richness of the topic.

Therefore, this article will talk about the general concepts of Alankars. It will also list the some common alankars in use today and provide their meaning. Subsequent posts shall pick up one of the types and explain in detail with examples and frequency analysis of the examples to better understand the concept  and visually view the ornamentation in use!

The word "Alankar" means ornamentation. Of course in our context, we use alankars to decorate the musical notes or swars. How do we do that? Remember from our first article that our music is "analogue" in that that our notes are not staccato notes (in Raag music). So every note being sung is in "some way" connected to the note sung previous to this one and the note to be sung after this. This "some way" is actually decorating the note in question and there are many ways to do this in Hindustani Classical Music. Some earlier works suggest that Hindustani Classical Music had 33 different types of Alankars. Much few are in regular use today.

The importance of Alankars in Raag music cannot be overemphasised. Though we are yet to discuss about Raags as a topic, it is assumed that readers would be aware of the basic concept. There are some Raags that share the same set of swars, but it is the use of Alankars decorating some notes in a particular way that distinguish Raags sharing the same notes. Apart from this use of Alankars, they are often used by vocalists (and instrumentalists) to bring about different colours to their presentations. Thus in some situations use of Alankars are 'mandated' due to the rules of a Raag, and in some other cases it is the mastery of the performer to use them to bring about a flavour or colour to the presentation. It must be emphasised here that overuse or incorrect use of Alankars can be jarring.  It requires great skill (as a vocalist or instrumentalist) to use Alankars and a  sense of music education as to when and where to use it or not use it. This is one of the reasons why learning classical music under the guidance of a 'guru' is very essential.

Below is a table of Alankars commonly in use today. Please note that the list is not exhaustive or the meanings to be taken as the final definition of the Alankars.

Some rich information about Alankars are found at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy, here.  It has an exhaustive list with examples of each.

I will take up a few types in the subsequent articles and discuss in details about them.

Hindustani Classical Music - My little understanding - Part 3 (Taal)

The previous article talked about the intonation in the Hindustani classical music. In this article I talk about the concept of "Taal" or rhythm in our music.

The concept of "Taal" is relatively easy to experience. There are a set of beats which get repeated in time. Like the sound of ticking of a clock. We hear a "tick (or beat)" every second. Similarly our heart "beats" at a specific rate. Also, note that when we get excited the same heart starts to beat faster, but still there is a rhythm. Once our excitement or anxiety subsides, the heart gradually stabilizes to a moderate rate. So heart can be considered as a natural bio-percussion instrument.

The main percussion instrument in Hindustani classical is the "tabla".  It consists of two drums, the "dayan (or tabla)" (played with the dominant hand) and the "bayan" (the larger of the two, played with the other hand). It is the "dayan" that is generally tuned to the main melodic player (say vocal, sitar or bansuri). The "bayan" on the other hand is used to produce the bass sounds in the rhythm. There are other percussion instruments in Hindustani classical namely the "dholak" and the "pakhawaj". Dholak is used in light classical music forms such as the "qawwali" or "ghazals" while pakhawaj is used in the "dhrupad" style of hindustani classical.

Apart from the concept of "taal" there is a concept of "lay" or speed of the "taal". I can play the stokes of a "taal" slowly (meaning the time duration between each beat is lengthened) or very fast (meaning the time duration between each beat is shortened). One can measure this using in an unit called "beats per minute" (BPM) but that would be too mathematical for our sort of music. We instead use the terms "vilambit lay" (slow), "madhya lay" (medium) and "drut lay" (fast). We can append the adjective "ati" (very) to the terms above to increase or decrease the intensity of the speed further.

Like vocal, tabla has a set of "notes (strokes)" or "bols" that help in understanding and practice of the tabla players. These notes also help listeners in identifying a "taal" easily. Some of the strokes are "dha", "tin", "na", "ta", "tin" etc. These are generated by striking different areas of the "dayan" or "bayan". A "taal" will be a combination of these notes.
The sequence of the strokes in a "taal" are referred to as the "theka" of the "taal".

Here is a "theka" for a very popular "taal" known as "Ektaal":

Dhin Dhin | DhaGe TiRaKiTa | Tun Na | Kat Ta | DhaGe TiRaKiTa | Dhin Na|

Few points to note above,

• There are 12 "beats" in the "theka" above.
• There is a "|" symbol separating the notes. These are sections or "vibhag" of the "taal" in which the strokes are divided.
• The "Ektaal" is divided into six "vibhag".

Below is a sample of "Ektaal" in which the "lay" of the "taal" is gradually increased from "vilambit" to "drut".

(Play Full Screen by clicking on the icon at bottom right) Also, note from the above video, that some strokes are combination of notes. For example "DhaGe" is a combination of two notes "Dha and Ge", whereas "TiRaKiTa" is a combination of 4 notes.

There is also a concept of denoting the "taals" using the "Clap" and "Wave" combination. You can read about it here.  The article also has links to most commonly used "taals" and it is good to go through them. In the article referred you will come across a term "Sam" and this a very important concept and the last in this article.

"Sam" is the first beat of the cycle (or the next cycle). And this beat is usually the "stressed" beat. By "stressed beat" we mean that the "tabla" player will make a special effort to play this beat. This is so because Hindustani classical music resolves to the "Sam". The main melodic line will always come and meet at this beat, and both the melody and the rhythm will stress at this point. In fact, one of the main aspect of our music is the ability of the performer to "wander hither and thither" but ultimately come back in time for the "Sam". It is difficult to explain in words, so I will provide a very short example below.

In the video below, I use the great Ustad Amir Khan's rendition of the Raag Hansadhwani (Lyric: "Jai Maat Vilaamb, Taj de; Maangun guna De"), that he performed in Ektaal. In this rendition he specifically makes it a point to stress on the first beat (the "Dhin") of "Ektaal". In order to help us understand better, I have an "EkTaal" loop playing for a few cycles all alone on the right channel. Then we have Ustad Amir Khan joining us on the left channel. He joins us exactly at the "Sam" of the "EkTaal". He then repeatedly "meets us" at the "Sam". In fact the "Sam" is at "Vi--" of the word "Vilaamb" and he demonstrates that repeatedly. Notice, it is not necessary to stress the "Sam" at the beginning of every cycle. For example, he does not stress the "Sam" that appears between "Maangun" and "guna De".

I have used the two channels, and deliberately kept the volume of the tabla loop a lot higher than that of the vocal so that we can understand and detect the "Sam" and its stress clearly. Since both channels are unbalanced in the audio, use of headphones is strongly recommended for greater clarity and understanding. (Play Full Screen by clicking on the icon at bottom right)

You will also notice that in the video, I have "fitted" the vocal exactly at the start of the loop cycle. This is for our learning only. Generally in real performances, the main melodic line will start first and then the tabla will join to match it. That is why, you will invariably hear the vocal (or any main instrument) starting first and then the tabla joining in at the "right time", rather than the other way round as in our video above.

That's all for this article. In the next article I will discuss about few "ornamentations" and "specialities" of Hindustani Classical music.

Hindustani Classical Music - My little understanding - Part 2 (Intonation)

In the previous article I gave a very basic introduction to Hindustani Classical Music. In this article I will talk about the "spacing" between the notes in Hindustani Classical music. "Spacing" means the difference of frequency between each successive notes. This is a bit complex to explain. I will keep it very simple. Let us begin!

"Intonation" is the word used to describe what I remarked above as "spacing". Intonation in music can be classified broadly as "equal tempered" or "just intonation". (This is a vast research topic. Just Google it!)

In equal tempered, the notes are spaced by a constant factor. That means, if say the constant is "1.059463", and the frequency of "Sa" is selected as 440 Hz, then the "Komal Re" will be (440 Hz *  1.059463 = 466.163 Hz). Similarly if I want to get "Shudha Re" then we multiply with a factor of  (1.059463 * 1.059463) to 440 Hz. Now, what is so special about "1.059463"? It is the 12th root of 2. There are 12 notes in an octave and the 13th note should be double the frequency of the 1st note. 440 Hz is what most western instruments tune to (as their note A4). Why the special treatment? You can read more about this here and here.

Please note, the notes in Hindustani Classical are not tuned (equally spaced) like how it is mentioned above. Though, if one uses a keyboard or (even a harmonium) they would "not" be playing the exact "re" if they played the key after the chosen "Sa" key. (There are other limitations of equal tempered instruments that do not adjust well with the Hindustani classical music. "Andolan (gentle oscillations around a note)", "Meend (slide from one note to another note)" cannot be performed in these instruments. More on these in a later post.) So how are the notes in Hindustani Classical spaced? Come, "just intonation".

Just Intonation, uses the concept of "ratios" between each notes. One broader way to define the ratios between each note in Hindustani Classsical is given below:

One possible ratios for Hindustani Classical notes

Please note that, there exists no single ratio system in Hindustani Classical listed in our texts that can be taken as final. In fact, in certain "Ragas" the ratios are definitely altered. But the above table does help us to get a working assumption (and a very closed assumption too). In fact, there is research done that specifies the ratios between all the 22 shrutis. Check here.

So assuming the above table, if we select 440Hz as our "Sa", then "re" would be 440 Hz * (16/15) =  469.333 Hz. "Re" would then be 440 Hz * (9/8) = 495 Hz. And "Pa" would be 440 Hz * (3/2) = 660 Hz. And "Sa." (of the next Saptak/octave) would be 440 Hz * (2/1) = 880 Hz.  Similarly, .Sa (of the lower octave) will be 440 Hz * (1/2) = 220 Hz. It should be noted that whatever be the ratios, "Pa" is always 1.5 times the frequency of "Sa" in an octave. There is some good reason too for the ratios in this fashion. You can read it here.

Enough of theory! Let us try something practical. So, below, I have an audio clip, where the singer sings all the 12  notes of the sargam in an octave. We will try to verify that the ratios that we have defined are actually true, when the performer performs. For this, I will use a software, called Sonic Visualiser.  The screen can be intimidating at first. So some explanation is required. Consider the figure below:

Right click and open the image in separate window to view the text

This is a screen grab from Sonic Visualiser. The screen above shows the fundamental frequency of the audio clip and its harmonics. We will concentrate only on the fundamental frequency spectrum here (The lowest frequency spectrum in the above graph, in orange). The X-axis is time an the Y-axis is the frequencies. As expected, since the singer is singing from "Sa" to "Ni" the frequency graph is seen in an ascending graph. I have written a software code that works upon this layer in S.V. and calculates the Hindustani Note using the ratios in the table above at any instance of time. This Hindustani note can be viewed in the lower right corner along with the corresponding western note. The "Sa" in this case is at 130 Hz.
Below presenting the video grab of the S.V. output. As you listen to the "AAaa"s of the singer, keep an eye on the lower right corner to check the Hindustani Note that is detected  based on the table of ratios I shared  above. My software code allows for a deviation from 2% in the frequencies. So with the above "Sa" at 130 Hz, I will report a "Sa" for any frequency between 127.4 Hz to 132.6 Hz. We need to allow a small deviation to take the human factor into consideration.

In the next post I will describe the concept of "Taal" in Hindustani Classical music.

Hindustani Classical Music - My little understanding - Part 1

I have been trying to read  about and understand the Hindustani Classical Music for some time. Note that I am not trying to learn to sing Hindustani Classical Music. I am not quarter of the fraction talented for that. I aspire to understand the finer points of the art and identify them when I listen to the great singers of the art. I will try to keep it as simple as possible here at the beginning. Please pardon me for any mistakes. I am just a beginner willing to learn and understand the art. Please feel free to "beat and bash me" for the mistakes I make here.

So, with the disclaimer and clarification over, let us start.

Classical music in our country is divided into two forms, Hindustani and Carnatic. Hindustani Classical is dominant in the North and Carnatic in the South. There are lots of similarities and dis-similarities between the two. I am not dwelling into them in this post. However, whatever I mention here is specific to Hindustani classical.

The basic thing to keep in mind in our music (Hindustani or Carnatic) is that it is very analogue in nature. This is the main reason we sense a sense of continuity in our music when we listen to it, unlike western music.

We all know that our Music is made of the 7 swars (surs, or notes). They are
"Sa", "Re", "Ga", "ma", "Pa", "Dha" & "Ni".
These are the "Shudh" (pure) form of the notes. (All of the above have a long name version too, for example "Sa" is actually the short of "Shadja", "Re" is "Rishabh" and so on.) Note when you sing the 7 swars, you tend to "raise your pitch" a little higher when you sing the next in the sequence. Meaning, you sing "Re" at a higher frequency than "Sa"... which means the sequence of the notes matter. Each of the notes in the above sequence is at a higher frequency that than the one preceding it.

As I  said that our music is analogue, we divide this scale a bit more by adding more notes in between so that our music does not seem to jump from one note to another. (Remember, the sampling theorem?) So let us  introduce  more notes in the sequence above. The new sequence of 12 notes now looks like this:
"Sa", "re", "Re", "ga", "Ga", "ma", "Ma", "Pa", "dha", "Dha", "ni" and "Ni"

The new notes: "re", "ga", "dha" and "ni" are the "Komal" (softer, lower frequency) version of their "Shudh" (pure) forms. Whereas the note "Ma" is the "Tivra" (sharper, higher frequency) version of the "Shudh" "ma". So note that all "shudh" notes are written with capital letters, except "ma". This is to indicate that for "ma" there exists no "komal ma" but a "tivra Ma". This is the convention I follow to denote the notes.

One more important consequence of the above is that the notes "Sa" and "Pa" exist only as "shudh" and are never "komal" or "tivra". They are thus "fixed" notes. (Ever wondered what the disciples play on the "Tanpura" behind the performing artist? They generally play a combination of "Sa"-"Pa"-"Sa" and of course it is not without a reason. More on that in a later post)

It is said that our forefathers (and foremothers) further divided the scale above to define more notes in between to give even smoother transitions from one note to another. So in all they came up with 22 "shrutis" (or 22 notes). Though of much importance, we will not tend to divide our scale further than the one done above with 12 notes.

We now come to the last topic of the post. And that is the "Saptak" definition. So in school when we were taught music, we always sang "Sa Re ....Ni and ended in Sa".... what is this "Sa" after the "Ni"? This is the "Sa" of the next saptak or the "taar saptak". This is twice the frequency of the "Sa" you sang at the beginning. Like wise you can have a "Ni" before your first "Sa", and that would be the "Ni" of the "mandra saptak" which would be half the frequency of the "Ni" in your original "Ni".

So, now we have something like:

(Mandra Saptak): .S .r .R .g .G .m .M .P .d .D .n .N        (Your voice's natural (or middle) saptak): S r R g G m M P d D n N      (Taar Saptak): S. r. R. g. G. m. M. P. d. D. n. N. (Ati taar saptak) S.. r.. and so on

Note that, I define the notes in Mandra Saptak with a dot (.) before the note letter, and after the note for Taar Saptak notes. One can stretch the scale on either side "as much as possible" .

"As much as possible" is the next point. In our music, the frequency of  "Sa" in the natural saptak is not fixed. It is determined and selected by the performing artist (vocal or instrumental) as per his or her convenience. So the frequency of my "Sa" for me may be the frequency of "Ga" for you. So if you and I are to sing together, we have to tune ourselves, so that when we sing together and we do not sound out of tune. Our system is thus very fluid (again analogue). This is in contrast to western music. They have sort of standardized their scales, in that they have a one-to-one mapping between their note and frequency. So, for instance in one of their standards, A#4 is fixed at 440 Hz and everything follows thereafter. Check here. Of course there are general conventions in our system, so singers generally choose the frequency of C4 or C#4 as their "Sa". However, note this only an easy convention. There are lots and lots of performers who simply chose a frequency of their choice and convenience as "Sa". Generally, vocal artists train their voices so that their voices span across one "saptak" above and one "saptak" below their natural "saptak", and this what I meant by "as much as possible".

Since the "Sa" in our music is not fixed (in terms of frequency), whenever a classical piece begins the performer will make every effort to establish the "Sa" first. He or she will do so by singing the notes around "Sa", the "Sa" itself or some characteristic phrases, so that the listener (and the performer too) have the "Sa" fixed in their minds. It is also required to periodically refresh the "Sa" during the performance, and hence the use of Tanpura playing the two fixed notes, "Sa" and "Pa" throughout. (Note there is more to the drone instruments, will post later)

Well, that's all for today. In the next post I will discuss a little about the "gap in frequencies" between each note and  a little mathematics around it!

Jagjit Singh albums on iTunes

So, the community has decided to release the master's unreleased gems on the internet from now on. Recent launch releases and the unwillingness of the music companies these days to release pure-audio albums (since they get ripped off almost instantaneously) was the major reason why this was decided.

Mr. Raja Sehgal, the "official" sound engineer for Jagjit Singh's concerts the world over,  is leading this initiative. He is collaborating with Chitra Singh, for all the copyrights and legal issues surrounding the releases. The albums are being released on all major online music platforms like iTunes, Google Music, Amazon and Nokia. Raja maintains a facebook page by the name Jagjit Singh Tribute and all the information I shared above can be got from there.

As of today 5 albums are already out. More are in the pipeline and one can visit the facebook page or the YouTube Channel to listen to the teasers.

Enjoy!

The Voice From Beyond - Jagjit Singh

The name of the new album of JS. Released by Universal Music India Ltd, this album is available now for pre-order online almost on all retail websites. It will be released on 10th of October 2013 in "The Legend Lives On" a tribute concert at Nehru Center Mumbai, by Chitra Singh.

The striking feature of the album is that 4 out of the 7 tracks are of the same beher, khafiif musaddas makhbuun mahzuuf maqtuu. This is a 10 syllable beher with the pattern 2122-1212-22. I have already remarked at times, that Jagjit Singh is a master composer of small beher, and this album is a testimonial to that. The tracks on this beher are: "Ek tere qareeb", "Rasm-e-ulfat", "Aashiyane ki baat" and "Dard halka hai".

First listen, and I am immediately drawn to the following tracks: "Rasm-e-ulfat sikha gayaa koyi (Daag Dehlvi)", "Ek tere qareeb aane se", "Zindagi jaise tavaqqu thi nahin, kuch kam hai (Shahrayar)" and "Aashiyane ki baat karte ho (Javed Qureshi)". I am not sure of all the poets as I have to check the inlay card for details. Jagjit Singh foundation lists the following poets additionally: Nida Fazli, Saeed Rahi, Nasir Kasmi and Gulzar. It says one by "unknown" so I guess it is the one by Javed Qureshi. The other tracks are "Dhadkan dhadkan dhadak raha hai (Nida Fazli?)" and "Khuda ke waaste apnaa hisaab".

Also, "Aashiyane ki baat karte ho" is a very popular Noor Jahan ghazal. Jagjit Singh has done full justice to its rendition. "Rasm-e-ulfat" too is a very popular Begum Akhtar ghazal and Jagjit's rendition is typical of his style and "dard".

Detailed analysis from the books of the poets will definitely follow, but first glance, Jagjit seems to have reversed "misra-e-oola" and"misra-e-sani" in "Ashiyane ki baat karte ho". In  "Zindagi jaise tavaqqu thi", Jagjit uses "tamanna" instead of "tavaqqu" which is understandable due to its ease of use. Jagjit takes a lot of liberty in "Rasm-e-ulfat". "basaa" instead of "mein chaa" and "udaas" instead of "ujaad". As always, the meter of the ghazal is maintained in perfect.

Needless to say, this album is a collection of very very good ghazal rendition from the master. His mastery in composing short meter ghazals is the true gem of this album. Wonder why these were never released by him.