Iacobus Leodiensis [Iacobus de Montibus, Iacobus de Oudenaerde]

(b) Hindustani rāgas in practice.

The rāga Darbārī Kānadā illustrates many of the features of Hindustani rāga theory and practice. Its importance in the current repertory, its especially clear surface features and underlying structure and its close links with other rāgas make it a classic case. The underlying scale is one in which intervallic parallelism exists between the conjunct descending tetrachords c–b–a–g and g–f–e–d (the tonic is represented by convention as c).

While this structure is common to several rāgas, the parallelism is particularly emphasized in Darbārī Kānadā. It is reflected, for example, in Bhatkhande's identification of d and g, at the bases of the parallel tetrachords, as vādī and samvādī respectively. Others regard a and e, which are also important in the rāga, as vādī and samvādī. Both these notes are treated with a wide, slow oscillation that is distinctive for the rāga, but they can also both be omitted in certain contexts. The reason for the oscillation may be both structural and aesthetic. A is conspicuously not consonant with the prominent pitch d, and Jairazbhoy (1971) suggests that the wide oscillation implies an a or compensates for its absence. At the same time the gravity of these oscillations contributes to the serious (gambhīra) ethos of the rāga, which is also reflected in a slow pace and a concentration on the lower registers.

Fig.4 shows in outline the principal routes by which melodies in this rāga may ascend and descend from the lower tonic to the upper octave and back (the tonic, sa, is notated by convention as c). First, the simplest possible octave ascent-descent (āroh-avaroh) is shown and the underlying scalar parallelism indicated. The ascent and descent are then set out separately and in more detail. The ascending line divides into parallel segments, a₁ and a₂. The first ascends directly from the tonic to f, from which point it can return to d (skipping the e), or continue upwards to g. In the upper segment (a₂) the melody ascends in like manner from f to c' (or g). The oscillation on e is echoed by that on a. There is also a lesser oscillation on b and a tendency to sharpen this note when it functions as a leading-note to the upper tonic. This sharpening may also be applied to the corresponding degree in the lower segment, f, when it leads to g.

In contrast to the relatively direct ascent, the descending line is highly convoluted (vakra). Again there are two parallel segments, indicated as d₁ and d₂. D₁ features the oblique movement c'–a–b–g with the characteristic Darbārī oscillation again on a; the parallel movement in the lower segment is g–e–f–d. An alternative in this segment is shown at d₃ (in fig.4b), where the movement e–f is replaced by the corresponding interval of the upper tetrachord, a–b, transposed into the octave below (mandra). The beginning of the descent in d₁ is often embellished as shown at y₁. However, the resulting line b–c'–d'–a cannot be reproduced exactly in the lower segment without introducing an a that is foreign to the rāga (thus f–g–a–e). Instead, the configuration in y₂ is f–g–b–e, omitting the a altogether. A tendency to omit this note and its counterpart e is also reflected in the alternative ascending configurations shown at a₃ and a₄.

The octave ascent-descent pattern of a rāga constitutes a basic model that is realized in melody in an infinite variety of ways. Ex.1 shows the beginning of a vocal ālāp (see §3 (ii)(a) and (b) below) in rāga Darbārī Kānadā. It shows a first unfolding of the rāga, which in accordance with the serious ethos of this rāga takes place in the lowest octave of the vocal range (mandra), working downwards from the middle to the lower tonic. The descending configurations are therefore heard first in this example. Ascending phrases then follow, returning to the starting-point. The identity of Darbārī Kānadā is established by the phrase y₁, and confirmed shortly afterwards by d₁. The remaining descending and ascending configurations set out in fig.4 appear in due course. In both descent and ascent the arrival at the fifth (pa, g) is an important resting-point, marking the division between segments d₁ and d₂, a₁ and a₂. In the descending phase this resting-point is delayed by returning from a to c several times. Similarly the conclusion of the ascending phase at the end of the example is extended by repeated delays of the final return to the tonic. The exposition of any rāga in the same style and register could follow a similar course.

Ex.2 shows the same rāga rendered as a slow khayāl (see §5(iii) below) in the 12-beat time-cycle Ektāl. As in all compositions, the rāga is articulated in two contrasting registers, lower and higher, in the two sections of the melody, sthāyī and antarā respectively. Appropriately for this rāga, the tessitura of the first section is very low, emphasizing the strong pitch d and its consonant G in the lower (mandra) register, as well as the tonic and the characteristically oscillated a. At the end of this section the oscillated e is introduced for the first time. The second section emphasizes the same material an octave higher, rising to the upper tonic and peaking on d above that. It covers the whole of the middle octave in descent and ascent before returning to the low register of the sthāyī. The characteristic Darbārī flavour is at its richest in the passages ‘rī māī’ in the sthāyī (cf fig.4, y₁/d₁) and ‘tāke rośana’ in the antarā (y₂/d₂), where the distinctive pitch-sequences of the rāga are enhanced by the introductory flourish (tān) using heavy shakes (gamak), the slow oscillation of e and a, and the sliding fall b–g or f–d. The final return to the register of the sthāyī at ‘aura’ (d₁, d₂) epitomizes the descending line of the rāga. The alternative form of ascent, in which e and a are omitted (a₃, a₄), appears in the low register at ‘pīra mero’ of the sthāyī, where it prepares a high point at the introduction of e at ‘saco’. The same ascent in the antarā register at ‘cahu’ prepares the subsequent fall back to a and e in ‘aura’. A simpler example of the same sthāyī –antarā structure in this rāga is shown in ex.3a.

Darbārī is related to a number of other rāgas belonging to the Kānadā group. Adānā is almost identical to Darbārī in terms of its pitch material, except that a is more often omitted. What chiefly distinguishes it, as can be seen in ex.4a, is its rapid tempo and predominantly high register, as opposed to the slow tempo and low register of Darbārī. Other members of the same group differ in tonal material, differences that are interpreted by Jairazbhoy in terms of the underlying scale (fig.5). The substitution of a in Darbārī and Adānā for a in Sughrāī and Śahānā eliminates a tritone relationship between a and e, which is addressed in Sūhā and Śahānā by oblique movement and in Nāyakī Kānadā by omitting a altogether. A tendency to omit both a and e may be noted in all these rāgas. Powers's analysis of the same group (1981) stresses the motivic similarities that establish their relationship. Thus the phrase e–f–d is common to all and is the Kānadā ang (see below) of the Kānadā group of rāgas (see Mode, §V, 3, ex.37). The descending intervals b –g and f–d are also common to all and are shared with another group of rāgas, the pentatonic Sārangs; hence it is said that the Kānadās have the tinge or ‘reflection’ (chāyā) of Sārang.

Like the Kānadās, the Sārang family includes rāgas with different scale-types (fig.6), but all are pentatonic (1 2 4 5 7), all are midday rāgas, and all have the characteristic descending motif f–d–(c–d)–B–c. The use of both sevenths and both fourths can be understood in the light of leading-note functions and tetrachordal balance. Thus the tendency in all Sārangs to sharpen b in ascent to c' is transferred in Śuddh Sārang to f in parallel contexts.

A rāga can be viewed in terms of individual pitches and scale-type or in terms of melodic motifs and other sequences of pitch. The term ang (‘limb’) is used in both senses. It can mean a tetra- or pentachordal segment of a scale, as in Bhatkhande's usage, or a melodic phrase, as in mukhyānga or rāgānga (the identifying phrase of a rāga). Similarly pūrvāng and uttarāng (literally ‘prior’, and ‘consequent’ or ‘higher’ ang) can mean the tetrachords sa –ma and pa –sa respectively, or they can refer to more loosely defined, overlapping pitch-areas within which the characteristic phrases of the rāga evolve. The concept of pūrvāng and uttarāng in the latter sense is illustrated in exx.3–5.

In the Pūriyā compositions (exx.3b, 4b and 5) the opening phrase of the sthāyī establishes the characteristic thematic configurations based on the motifs f–e–d–c and B–d–c, in the pūrvāng range B–f (extended to the next available note in each direction, a), and emphasizing the vādī -samvādī pair B and e. In ex.2 the continuation of the sthāyī expands one degree upwards to b. In exx.3b and 4b the extension is downwards one degree to f. The interval f–a functions as a single degree step because Pūriyā has no g. Thematically the pūrvāng also includes the motifs B–d–e and its usual variant B–d–f–e; f–a–e–f–e; and at its highest and lowest points e–f–a–b and f–a–b. In the extension to the upper d' at the end of the third measure of ex.4(b), the upper c' is scrupulously avoided (although c is an important note in Pūriyā); this is so that uttarāng material is not anticipated.

The antarā sections of the Pūriyā examples establish the uttarāng material: the rising f–a–b–c' (the strong upper c' is part of the rāga as well as a requirement of the uttarāng in this case); the descending b–d'–b–(a)–f–a–e; and again the vādī -samvādī pair b and e are established as principal degrees. The antarā all conclude by turning back towards pūrvāng material in order to return smoothly to the beginning of the sthāyī. (For further discussion and examples see Mode, §V, 2(ii), exx.33 and 34.)

India, Subcontinent of, §III, 2: Theory and practice of classical music., Rāga.