Iacobus Leodiensis [Iacobus de Montibus, Iacobus de Oudenaerde]

(b) Historical background.

The term ālāpa, meaning a genre of melody designed to exhibit the modal characteristics of a rāga in a systematic manner, and notated ālāpa melodies demonstrating different rāgas, appear in historical sources almost as early as the term rāga (see §II above). Rāga and ālāpa are closely related concepts, for it is through ālāpa (in which there are no metrical or textual constraints on the free flow of melody) that the fine distinctions between different rāgas, and the individual character of each, can be most clearly demonstrated. Notated examples suggest that in early (pre-13th-century) ālāpa, the melodic material of the rāga was expressed as an elaborate octave ascent and descent. This pattern, with some extension in the upper register, could be repeated with different melodic elaborations and in different rhythmic styles.

Although it is stated that the purpose of the ālāpa is to demonstrate all the features of rāga, there is no theoretical discussion of the method of doing so until the Sangīta-ratnākara (13th century), where the related term ālapti denotes melodic elaboration in general. It is defined as ‘making clear or manifest, unfolding [the rāga]’ (prakatīkarana), and it can be applied to the rāga alone (rāgālapti), or to a composition (rūpakālapti; see §5(ii) below). According to Sangīta-ratnākara 's description, rāgālapti comprised four stages, in which four successively higher pitch areas within the octave were developed in turn. Each stage departed from and returned to the tonic (sthāyī). The opening phrase of the first stage was called mukha-cāla, where cāla denotes a movement (of pitch) and mukha means ‘face’ (perhaps implying that part of the rāga by which the whole is recognized). The development of each pitch area focussed on a particular important degree of the rāga: in succession, a note in the lower half of the scale, the fourth or fifth, a note in the upper half of the scale, and the upper tonic. A number of brief examples are given in the Sangīta-ratnākara, and it is stated that the same procedure was applied to all rāgas (ex.11). In principle, the note-by-note expansion of melodic range within a central octave remains a fundamental process in Hindustani dhrupad, khyāl and instrumental ālāp. Śārngadeva's comment on the role of ornamentation and of pitch hierarchy in such improvisation applies equally to modern Hindustani and Karnatak music: ‘The establishment of the rāga should be effected by means of very gradual, clear, circuitous figurations (sthāya), pervaded by the vital notes (jīva-svara) of the rāga’ (chapter 3, p.196).

India, Subcontinent of, §III, 3(ii): Theory and practice of classical music., Melodic elaboration., i) Improvisation.

(c) The exposition of a Hindustani rāga.

Improvised exposition of the rāga ungoverned by a time cycle can be pulsed or unpulsed in both modern traditions. In performance styles other than the Hindustani slow khayāl, the ālāp is rendered without tāla. With Hindustani dhrupad (and usually with khayāl of the Agra gharānā), with the best known Hindustani instrumental styles and with south Indian pallavi exposition an ālāp always comes first; the rendering of kīrtanam compositions in south Indian concerts is also often preceded by an ālāpana of the composition’s rāga. In Hindustani dhrupad and plucked instrument items a second, pulsed exposition of the rāga follows the ālāp, called nom-tom or jor respectively. The south Indian equivalent before a pallavi exposition is tānam. In Hindustani instrumental music jor is usually followed by jhālā, rhythmic patterns arising from rapidly striking the playing string and side strings in various patterns.

The Sangīta-ratnākara ’s description of rāgālapti corresponds very closely in principle with the Hindustani ālāp; this is also true of ālāp in slow khayāl, with the proviso that returns are made to the mukhrā of a composition and aimed at an arrival point whose timing is controlled by a long time cycle. Given whatever restrictions may ensue in one rāga as opposed to another, the ālāp proceeds as the Sangīta-ratnākara says: it is built upwards registrally in sections, returning at the end of each section to the pūrvāng, which is marked each time by the mukhrā, a short pulsed cadential tag, sam dikhāne (‘for showing the sam ’). In principle each registrally determined section reaches one svara higher than the previous section. Ex.12 comprises the main part of an ālāp of rāga Pūriyā, along with fragments of jor and jhālā (see below), taken from demonstration samples in a modern sitār manual. (To see the structural relationship of this ālāp of Pūriyā to the abstracted configurations of the rāga, see Mode, §V, 3.) Owing to the didactic origins of ex.12, the melodic development is somewhat mechanical, and details of rhythm, articulation and ornamentation are missing.

The first four sections of ex.12(a) correspond to the first three sections of the Sangīta-ratnākara 's description, with section 1 equivalent to mukha-cāla; sections 5 and 6 of ex.12(a) correspond to the Sangīta-ratnākara 's section 4. There is a return to the lower tonic at the end of each section, making the ālāp an instance of the ‘back to the beginning’ principle of cyclic organization. Section 4 is particularly interesting in respect to the specific rāga structure and the general procedure of ālāp. It is the section establishing a, in due ascending order of degrees after the vādī degree e (section 2) and f (section 3). Taken by itself and out of context, much of section 4, with its emphasis on a, could suggest the rāga Mārvā (see Mode, §V, 3); only in the last three units, as it approaches its cadence, does the bhāva (‘feeling’) and chāyā (‘image’) of Pūriyā reappear. Two things, however, make this merely a neutral passage in which Pūriyā is temporarily tirobhāv (‘hidden’), rather than a destructive passage making rāga Mārvā ‘manifest’ (āvirbhāv). Firstly, although one of Mārvā's principal svara (a) is brought forth, Mārvā's characteristically strong d is very weak here. The d comes briefly at exposed initial positions but only in the middle of sets of progressively expanding approaches to a, from below (units 1 to 5 in section 4), and from above (units 6 to 8; for a comparison see Mode, §V, 3). Secondly, the chāyā and bhāva of Pūriyā has already been fully established in the preceding stages of the ālāp in ex.12, especially in section 2; and the one degree of the scale not used as an emphasized degree in the succession of upwardly extending sections is d, the characteristic degree for Mārvā.

It should also be noted that no section leading to a final b is included in the sample. Although b is the second most important degree in Pūriyā (after e), it is not usually an important phrase-final; its significance, rather, is as a phrase-initial, as an upper or lower sustained mid-phrase focus, and as a registral boundary.

Ex.12a demonstrates the two larger divisions of a typical ālāp; sections 1 to 4 establish the pūrvāng of the rāga, sections 5 to 6 the uttarāng. These larger divisions are often termed sthāyī and antarā respectively, after the sections of a composition, which are similarly distinguished by register (see §5(i) below). Ex.12a continues with a further section, not shown here, exploring the register below the system tonic (mandra), but in practice this register is normally developed at the beginning of the sthāyī.

Pulsed rāga exposition is illustrated in ex.12b and c. The jor is the type called ladī (‘chain’ or ‘string’), the basic variety, and is always presented first. It is made by building back from an ending; in the section shown here e, f–e and e–f–e build to a motif characteristic for the rāga. E–f–e then ends each unit until the final, cadential unit brings the line down. The second section follows the same procedure: c, B–c, B–d–c sets up a characteristic motif that can then conclude an ever-lengthening sequence of phrases building towards it. A second jor variety is guthāv (‘intertwining’), in which a small group of svara adjacent in the rāga (usually three) is permuted in all kinds of combinations; still another variety combines the principles of ladī and guthāv.

Ex.12c shows two fragments of jhālā, which follows jor in the succession of instrumental improvisations without time cycle. It is played with single plucks on the playing string (bāj) followed by one, two or three strokes at the side drone strings (cikārī). The alternation establishes a simple, recurring rhythmic pattern called a chand, as indicated by the syllables (bol) designating the two kinds of stroke: dā–rā–rā–rā/dā–rā–rā–rā for a simple 4 + 4 pattern, dā–rā–rā/dā–rā–rā/dā–rā for 3 + 3 + 2, these being the two most common chand. Any combination of twos, threes and fours may be used, however, and modern players make some very complex patterns. The chand may be freely combined, changed and interrupted, there being no larger time cycle controlling them when jhālā follows immediately upon jor. When used to provide a thrilling conclusion to a gat improvisation, jhālā conforms to the 16-beat Tīntāl, which is accelerated to the maximum possible speed.

The vocal equivalent of jor is nom-tom, sung in dhrupad ālāp: the pulsed units are sung with a small number of conventional meaningless syllables (ti, ta, rī, ra, na, nā, nom and tom), and the music is similar in style to jor, which was probably modelled on nom-tom. The last stage of nom-tom, equivalent to and probably modelled on the instrumental jhālā, is sung with the syllables ta–na–na–na ra–na–na–na and the like, making fast combinations like an instrumental chand, but with repeated notes. From time to time wide swoops in pitch of the order of an octave, made with closed or nearly closed lips, break the flow; they are onomatopoeically called hun-kāra (an old gamaka name coming from the 15 in the Sangīta-ratnākara). Other ornaments important in nom-tom include gamaka, lahak, hudak etc.

India, Subcontinent of, §III, 3(ii): Theory and practice of classical music., Melodic elaboration., i) Improvisation.