A typical vocal performance
All Indian music aspires to the condition of vocal
music. Usually when a singer takes stage he/she is
accompanied by a
harmonium or sarangi player,
tabla player, and one or two tambura players. After
the musicians have tuned their instruments, the
tambouras will provide the drone and the singer will
start the raga.
The most common style of singing is the kheyalstyle.
The singer will begin which an alaap with introduces
the raga but without stating all it's melodic
composition. During the alaap the singer will slowly
emphasise the main notes and will improvise in between.
Once the introduction of the raga is complete the first
full composition will start. Here the
tabla will enter with a slow tempo introducing the
tala. This part of the
tabla is called the jhor (medium tempo). After this
the tempo may get faster and the tala may change, the
tabla player will now be playing a fast beated tala
and is called the jhala (fast tempo) section of the
raga. The performance will now focus more on technical
achievement such as taans (runs) and gamaks
(ornaments).
After the raga is finished the singer may indulge in
some light classical music such as bhajans (hymns),
dhuns (folk tunes), ghazals (romantic poetry) and other
types of music. These usually vary moving quickly from
combinations of jhor (medium tempo) to jhala (fast
tempo). Usually in light classical music there is
emphasis on the text of the music rather then the raga
composition.
Dhrupad - Another style of Vocal
Performance
This is another classical style of singing known as
Dhrupad, which is rarely sung. This style pre-dates the
khayal style. Here the vocalist is accompanied by a
taboura and
pakhawaj player instead of a
tabla player. The alaap of the raga is usually long
and the style focuses more on the nuances of the raga
and less on technical feats.
Qawwali - Song of Sufism
This is another type of light classical music. They
are usually sung in Urdu or Persian and is related to
Sufism, which is a mystical school of Islam. The
performance will usually consist of one or two main
singers, a
harmonium player,
tabla and/or
dholak players.
An Instrumental Performance
When a musician takes stage he or she will, the
majority of the time, be joined by a
tabla player. The only exception to this is if the
raga is done in the Dhrupad style, here instruments
such as the bin and surbahar will be played accompanied
or unaccompanied by the
pakhawaj. Most musicians will use the tamboura, but
some sitar and sarod players will rely on their open
strings to provide the drone. First the instruments
will be tuned to suit their environment and the raga to
be played. After this the introduction of the raga will
start, the alaap. In instrumental music this is usually
fairly long. It concentrates on building the base
components of the raga note by note. Once the alaap is
complete, the raga will move onto the medium beated
tempo, jhor. As the tempo increases the raga will move
onto the fast tempo, jhala. Usually sarod and sitar
players will introduce the rhythmic phrases into the
drone strings.
For a
tabla player, once the alaap is complete, he/she
will start the tala, slowly building it up stroke by
stroke, inserting the main parts of the tala in. The
jhor section of the raga will be where the
tabla player will increase the amount of
improvisation and use the base tala as a reference
point. When ever a flight of improvisation is finished,
the player will always return to the raga composition
on the first stroke of the tala being played, called
sam. The composition will grow faster and faster until
the fast tempo is reached, jhala. This may be followed
by a second jhala to finish the raga.
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