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(c) Gamaka in Hindustani music.
Whereas Karnatak music hardly ever prolongs a svara without a shake, Hindustani music emphasizes steady and sustained tone. The heavily oscillating āndolan, corresponding to the south Indian kampita, is used only in very special circumstances, such as on the sixth degree of rāga Hamīr (the rāga being thereby identified), on the third and sixth degrees of rāga Darbārī Kānadā (see exx.1 and 2 passim), or the third degree of raga Mīyā kī Mallār. Hindustani music is especially characterized, however, by the mīnd, a slow portamento from one degree to another, like the Karnatak jāru. In an ālāp or slow khayāl in a serious rāga such as Darbārī Kānadā, virtually every svara is approached or left with mīnd. On an instrument such as the sitār, mīnd is made by ultā mīnd (deflection) or paltā mīnd (release of a deflected string). The fingerboard is especially wide for just this purpose, and slow mīnd of half an octave or more can be made. The same effect is achieved on unfretted instruments such as the sārangī by sliding along the string (sūt).
The smooth glissando of mīnd and sūt contrasts with the rapid articulation of discrete pitches in krintan (a fingered turn) and ghasīt (the finger slides rapidly along the sitār string touching all the intermediate frets; see §6 below).
The general term in Hindustani music for a single appoggiatura or acciaccatura is kan-svara. The general class of turns is called murkī. A chain of mordents on successive svara is called zamzamā.
Hindustani musicians generally use such terms as uccār (‘pronunciation’) rather than gamak to denote how a svara is treated in context. Gamak as a specific ornament in Hindustani music is a fast and heavy shake from each of a number of degrees in passage-work, in which the pitches of the degrees themselves may become ambiguous. Instrumentally the Hindustani gamak is particularly effective on fretless string instruments such as sarod or sārangī, where the sliding left hand can be jerked vigorously from position to position along the wire or string.
Ornamentation is particularly important in Hindustani music as an indicator of stylistic identity. The major vocal genres and their instrumental equivalents are distinguished by their ornamentation (as well as by rhythm and other characteristics). Mīnd, āndolan and gamak are the principal ornaments in dhrupad; gamak and kan-svara are applied with rapid throat movement in khayāl; murkī is the hallmark of thumrī, and zamzamā of tappā. Similarly, the bānī of dhrupad and the schools (gharānā) of vocal and instrumental music define their musical identities partly in terms of specific ornaments and other techniques. Thus the sitār/sarod school of Alauddin Khan cultivates both fingered and pulled or sliding ornaments (krintan and mīnd), whereas the school of Vilayat Khan (the Imdād Khān gharānā) has developed pulled/sliding techniques to the virtual exclusion of fingered ornaments.
India, Subcontinent of, §III, 3: Theory and practice of classical music., Melodic elaboration.
(ii) Improvisation.
(a) Principles.
(b) Historical background.
(c) The exposition of a Hindustani rāga.
(d) The exposition of a Karnatak rāga.
India, Subcontinent of, §III, 3(ii): Theory and practice of classical music., Melodic elaboration., i) Improvisation.
(a) Principles.
Improvisation with the elements of a rāga and within its structural framework plays the major role in performance, although in Karnatak music the rendering of compositions has been taking an ever larger share of total performance time. Improvisation, of course, does not mean assembling individual degrees in random order: even in its most free form it entails combining and elaborating motifs and phrases. Melodic elaboration can take the form of varying and extending a particular phrase, through stretching and compressing of motivic elements and through prefixing, suffixing or inserting motivic elements from within the same phrase or from other phrases. It also entails the combination of different phrase types within a particular register (pūrvāng, uttarāng etc.) and their extension into adjacent registers.
There is no single general term for improvisation. Melodic elaboration, whether improvised or not, may be referred to by such terms as ‘discourse’ (ālāpa), ‘expansion’ (vistār, barhat), ‘invention, fancy’ (upaj) and by more specific terms for particular techniques. The fundamental principle by which different types of elaboration are distinguished in theory and organized in performance is rhythm: rhythm with or without clear pulse, with or without metre (tāla), and at different tempos and levels of rhythmic density (see §4(i) below). In performance, unpulsed rhythm leads to pulsed, unmetred to metred and slow to fast (or less dense to more dense). At different stages of the performance different ornaments, vocal or instrumental techniques and types of melodic and rhythmic improvisation become appropriate. The consequent richness of stylistic variety enables the musician to elaborate a single rāga for an hour or more.
Table 9 summarizes the principal improvisatory styles in relation to their rhythmic organization. The theoretical terms nibaddha and anibaddha respectively denote music that is ‘constrained’ or ‘unconstrained’ by song-text and/or tāla. They correspond to two major categories of improvisation, that which occurs during the rendition of a metrical composition, and that which is independent of both composition and metre. Nibaddha improvisation styles will be discussed in more detail below (see §5(ii)–(iv)). Table 9 not only classifies the repertory of improvisatory styles but also maps their sequential organization in performance. Most genres proceed down the first column (non-metrical improvisation, first without and then with clear pulse) then, after introducing a metrical composition, down the second column. The Hindustani khayāl, though the dominant vocal style in north India, represents an exception in that little attention is normally paid to the first column. The performance usually begins with the composition or with only a short, unpulsed ālāp.
India, Subcontinent of, §III, 3(ii): Theory and practice of classical music., Melodic elaboration., i) Improvisation.
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