This sound has been evolved from the murmur of the flowing rivulets, the whistle of the blowing wind, the hiss of the flames, the rumbles of the earth and thunder of the heavens as the fundamental of all music melodies.
All musicologists of the past and present will discover in this book only beauty and grandeur of rages and their implication on musical sounds having an in pleasing effect enjoyable to human ears. They will be well versed in theory and in practice of ragas. Thus suitable combinations of a raga should be remembered by all students of music on the basic their own ability.
Shri Bandyopadhyaya is an able member of the Faculty of Music and Fine Arts, University of Delhi and of the famous Bhatkhande Sangeet Vidyapith, Lucknow.
He was served the faculties of Music of the leading Universities either as a member or as an examiner, or both. He is a noted author of Indian Music through the Ages, Terminology of Musical Terms, etc.
In the ocean of Knowledge be it literature, art or science , music is not only the oldest but also the most universal of the arts in character and in it’s the appeal. It is the all-embracing languages of all ages, know only to those who are the seekers of the mysteries of nature, the keen observers or imitators of sounds and are admires of beauty. It is the most scared and secret motion of the heart that comes out from the mouths of those who are tranquil, expressive and gifted by Nature with the talents of artistic temperaments-qualities that can even be acquired to some extent through long perseverance, austerity and deep devotion only.
The transcendental value of music lies in the infinite power of spiritualization of the common man. A succession of melodious sounds with infinite beauty of rhythm and harmony is fit compose the most distracted mind and make it clam for the expression of joy, love and prayer. It links us to the Divine and lifts us to the region of eternal bliss. Music is, therefore, the soul of joy and solace for the suffering of all human beings.
The murmur of the flowing water, the whistle of the blowing wind, the hiss of flames, the rumble of the earth and also the thunder of the heavens, are the fundamentals of sound, from which numerous forms of speech and music have evolved and developed. Hence, the evolution of music, if not dating prior to the existence of all living beings of the world, must have originated with the evolution of mankind, and developed with growth of humanity fulfilling the physical and metaphysical needs of all people, irrespective of caste, creed ,sect community, and nationally. Evidently, all nationalities have their own form of music which is the living example of culture and heritage of their ancestors.
The history of mankind also tells us that all that the ancient countries of the world, namely Greece, Egypt, China and India had music and their own instruments of music. This is also supported by legends.
The origin of music can also be traced to the Vedas—the oldest scriptures of mankind.
Purpose of Music
Music must have an excellent effect on the body and mind alike to promote health. It should serve as a means of recreation and be able to revive the nerves which are tried through stress and strain. It further produces on the jaded brain the beneficial effect of a procreative and revitalizing stimulus, which besides being most effective also virtuous. It also has an educative value of high quality. It ennobles the emotional nature, and gives beauty and grace to it. It is a mirror of every individual and sensual life elevated into the region of beauty and charm. The effect of music upon mankind is ennobling, strengthening and elevating. Music is capable of developing the human personality in all its comprehensive aspects.
Rudiments of music
Music of any type—classical or folk—belonging to any country or continent, consists of sweet and agreeable sound and rhythm that pleases the human ears. It is, therefore, desirable to go into the details of sound and rhythm—the most essential property of all types of music. The great seers of ancient India were mot mere musicologists but they were also great philanthropists. They realized through meditation the unimaginable resources and the boundless power of the five elements of Nature—earth, water, fire, ether and sound.
The existence of everything in this world is due to the five elements; yet the effect of their union in any form and their proportions still remain unknown to the seekers of truth admirers of beauty even today. Otherwise they could have discovered the ways and means to save the lives of the millions and might also have found out many new things which could serve the welfare of mankind.
The majority of the sage musicians of India have, no doubt, realized Nature and its elements long before the beginning of the universe is bound to remain under the direct influence of sound, called by them as the “Nada Brahma” or eternal sound.
In the beginning the earth and the other heavenly bodies appeared and stared revolving; the hum of their motion was the eternal sound, which though unheard by the mortals was phenomenon familiar to the ancient scholars of music of India, commonly known as ri or the saints who called this specific sound as anahata nada. This particular sound neither comes under the preview queenly, this point has not been discussed here.
Causes of Sound
Sound is produced by the reverberation of air. When any elastic body is caused to vibrate, it acts upon the circumambient fluid of air and creates in it pulses, waves or undulations, which act or strike upon the tympanum or drum of the ears, communicates with our nerves and gives us the sense, of sound.
Sound is of two kinds, sangeetopayogi—meaning the musical, and sangeetanupayogi, the unmusical sound. The former is produced by kind of motion that has a certain suddenness and energy. As the motions of the sounding body are repeated regularly after very small intervals of time, the sound becomes more uniform, agreeable and pleasing to the human ears and is called the “musical sound”. The unmusical sound is produced by any kind of irregular and non-periodic motion in the air, which varies according to the nature of the exciting cause and is rarely capable of analysis. Such sound is known as noise. That is the movements caused by the vibrations in the air which are irregular both in respect of time and strength produce unmusical sound which is most commonly called as noise. It is very difficult for a common man to draw any clear distinction between a musical and an unmusical sound.
Different Aspects of Music Sound
A musical sound has three different expressions, i.e. Magnitude, Timbre and Pitch.
Magnitude
The degree of loudness of sound depends on the amplitude or extent of the vibrations and the corresponding intensity of the disturbance of the air in the transmitting wave. The longer vibrations will communicate greater intensity of motion, in compression and extension, to the particles of the air, and will thus cause an impression of greater force to be made on the nerves, of the ear. This will produce a louder sound. If the main string of a Sitar, for example, is stuck forcibly, it will make longer vibrations than when it is touched gently. This particular characteristic of sound is known as the magnitude, strength or intensity of sound.
Timbre The character or timbre of sound refers to the quality of tone produced by male or female voice. A flute, for example, gives a tone of different quality from that of a Guitar, Clarionet, Violin, and a Drum or Tabla. Similarly, the voices of males and female and also of the young and the old differ from each other, but can easily be recognized with no effort at all. This aspect of sound is termed as the timbre or character of sound.
Pitch
The word pitch, in its general sense, refers to the position of any sound in the musical scale of acuteness and quality. The distinction between them is called “high” or “low”. Each note of a Sitar is higher in pitch than its left hand neighbor and lower than its right hand one. The pitch of a musical sound is determined by the rapidity with which the vibration of the sounding body succeed each other The quicker the succession of the vibrations the higher is the pitch of the note, and slower the succession of the vibrations the lower is the pitch. The standard of musical sound, such as, high or low is called the “pitch of sound”.
Sruti—Microtonal Intervals of Sound
Sound of any quality or kind audible to all human ears is termed unanimously by all the scholars of music of this country as “sruti”. The word sruti comes from the root “sure” meaning “to hear”, and its root meaning would be any sound capable of being distinctly heard by the ears.
The great scholars of music, not only of the past but also of the present, are unanimous in respect of the exalt number of srutis, which according to them are only twenty-two. They have also attributed here, how and why the twenty-two sruits came into existence as no clarification is available in any work on music in any language, except in the Sanskrit work Sangeet Ratnakar. The statement given therein is certainly not meant for the beginners. But advance students and research scholars of music, may go into details of it and be benefited with the description based on the theory of production of sound on the basis of the histology of human body in terms of Yoga.
One must keep in mind the fact that the use of the sruits is not at all easy even for the professional artists and advance confined to rare masters who are capable of using them in some of their choicest Rags while regular practice either at home or at a public performance. The correct use of different sruits in various Rags is definitely essential without which the desired spirit of any Rag cannot be manifested.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
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