It is often a matter of debate among music therapists around the world as to what really makes a raga system for its emotional and as a consequence, its therapeutic value, which makes it stand taller before its other counterparts elsewhere. This short write-up here makes an attempt to answer these queries.
Indian music is subtle and soothing, but complex by its various components and constructs (1). A raga, in Indian classical music, is a melodic structure with fixed notes and a set of rules depicting a certain mood conveyed by a performer. It is often a matter of debate among music therapists around the world as to what really makes a raga system for its emotional and as a consequence, its therapeutic value, which makes it stand taller before its other counterparts elsewhere. This short write-up here makes an attempt to answer these queries.
The Comfort Levels in musical frequencies Indian classical music tradition offers the flexibility of choosing a comfortable frequency for the tonic scale called Shadja (2). Since the pitch scale is the very basis for the raga system, it is very essential. Thus any singer or a vocalist can determine his or her own comfort levels in rendering the musical frequencies – tones, semi-tones etc. to choose even before a workout for a song or a kriti.
Once a singer or vocalist finds his or her comfort levels, while rendering a song, then automatically the audience too gets synchronized to such a comfort state!
The Amount of Notes in an Octave
George Bernard Shaw had once remarked that music needs to get rid of temperament to be fully enjoyed. The Indian classical system, unlike its western counterpart, does not believe in writing down the well-defined notes or swaras and thus regulating the musical ‘reach’ for its connoisseurs.
Since the times of the musical genius, J.S. Bach, the West is wrapped up with the concept that 12 notes is an octave are more than enough for enjoying a musical piece, with its various possibilities such as permutation or combination.
This is in contrast to the age-old understanding in India that music exists as a psychoacoustical phenomenon, especially in the context of so-called Just Intonation (JI). The long traditions of Nada Yoga have injected this concept deeper into the psyche of Indian musicians as well! Though the Indian system approaches towards an octave (called saptak), being formed by seven major “expressive” intervals (swaras or notes), it is the power of expression as clothed in the selected note that comes handy to focus in evolving a raga scale, in tune with the human psyche. Not only that. The dire need of expression as well as appreciation — as craved by any performer of music- has also been taken into this formulation. The long period of development of Indian music (which is estimated to be over five millennia) has thus given birth to a unique scale, based on a large number of basic microtonal intervals (called shrutis), i.e smaller, standard intervals. Thus, the system helps in choosing any of the shrutis which supports the interval. It is interesting that there have been various opinions about the number of such shrutis, though in recent years, it is broadly agreed upon as 22 (if not 53 or 66) . However, there still exists a debate over these numbers and the exact ratio of the shruti intervals supporting each swara. In brief, due to the number of additional frequencies as available through shruti possibilities, Indian music can be enjoyed almost twice or even up to 6 times fuller than what is possible with a system of 12 equal divisions of the octave (I2EDO) — as in the West. (3) Once a singer or vocalist finds his or her comfort levels, while rendering a song, then automatically the audience too gets synchronized to such a comfort state!
Probabilistic Considerations in Pitch Stability
Due to its very structural form, an Indian raga accommodates five note possibilities: vadi, samvadi, anuvadi, alpvadi and vivadi, all of which contribute variously towards evolving the uniqueness found in a raga. It has been argued that this classification of five characteristics in notes merits probabilistic considerations in the sense that a note belonging to the first three groups is likely to have a relatively high probability compared to a note of the fourth group, which has a small probability. From entropy considerations, a note with a small probability, however, has a corresponding high surprise element. Since entropy actually measures the surprise element in a message (in this case, the realization of a note), it is possible to distinguish ragas based on note duration and this could be an answer as to how the ragas of the same that evoke contrasting emotions in the minds of its listeners. (3)
Non-word Repetition or Aalaap in Indian Raga Music
Aalaap or aalapana, a musical practice of expanding the musical horizon or space is a time-tested method, known for its therapeutic value. (4) In a recent research paper, it has been noticed that the children with special learning disability (SLD) performed poorly on the non-word repetition task compared to the typically developing children- especially as the length of the now-word in-creased (6). It is this author’s experience that routine musical training in non-word aalaap will address such deficiency efficiently and improve the performance level of such children Significantly. It is also a recent conclusion by the researchers that an oral music segment of only 30 seconds from the aalaap of a raga generally elicits a specific emotion and that the elicited emotion from different segments from the same raga has strong specificity. (7)
Voice-Centred Raga Music Culture
Indian music is human voice-centred. Human voice is an extraordinary phenomenon. It is capable of conveying not only complex thoughts, which dehors any human linguistic expression, but also a medium for communicating elaborate and subtle human emotion, aspiration and will. That’s how the human voice has been used in many a shamanic practices around the world and also. in the age-old practices of nada yoga in India. As the raga music is an off-shoot of the latter, the system is also evidently evolved with this nada background. In classical singing training, one of the goals has been developing a voice quality for singers. A recent study proved that the singing power ratio (SPR) increased as the number of years of training. (8)
Phonological Awareness (PA) and Verbal Working Memory (VWM)
Phonological experience (PA) is known to be linked to the development of reading abilities of children. A recent experiment (9) indicates that children receiving Carnatic classical musical training were in advantage for phonological awareness (PA) and verbal working memory (VWM) along with enhanced pitch perception abilities. It was also found that the children who had undergone longer duration of training showed better performance in these areas. It is inferred from this experiment that music training may enhance the reading abilities and memory function in growing children.
Enhanced Auditory Selective Attention (EASA), Reduced Auditory Fatigability (RAF) and Improved Speech-in-Noise Perception (SNP) in Musically Trained A recent research with musically trained has further reported the larger MOCB (Medial Olivocochlear Bundle) activity in both the ears, in case of musicians than in non-musicians. Though the perceptual implication of this finding is yet to be determined, in all probability, they might include enhanced auditory selective attention (EASA), reduced auditory fatigability (RAF) and improved speech-in-noise perception (SNP) in musically trained people.
REFERENCES
- Sairam, TV. 2006. ‘Melody and Rhythm: Indianness in Indian Music and Music Therapy’. Mu-sic Therapy Today, Vol VII (4) 876-891.
- Ranjani, HG et al, 2012, ‘On Sto-chastic Approaches to Speech and Music Signal Analysis’, Proc. FRSM 2012. 18-19 Jan 2012. KIIT College of Engineering, Gurgaon. Pp. 1-5.
- Datta, A.K. et al, 2006, ‘Experi-mental Analysis of Shrutis from Performance in Hindustani mu-sic’, Kolkata: SRD ITC SRA, pp 18-19. )
- Sairam, T V 2008. “Aalaap, a Sure Cure?’ Eternal Solutions, March 2008. Pp. 80-82.
- Chakraborty, S. et al 2011. ‘How do ragas of the same thaat that evoke contrasting emotions like joy and pathos differ in entropy?’ Philomusica Online, 10 (2011): 1-10.
- Shylaja, K. et al (2012) Won-word Repetition in Children with Specific Learning Disability’ Proc. FRSM 2012. 18-19 Jan 2012. KIIT College of Engineer-ing, Gurgaon. Pp. 34-38.
- Sengupta, R. et al 2012. ‘Emo-tion induced by Hindustani Music- A cross-cultural study based on Listeners’ Response’. PrOc. FRSM 2012. 18-19 Jan 2012. KIIT College of Engineering, Gurgaon. Pp. 49- 54.
- Aithal, S. et al. 2012. ‘Effect of Different Levels of Training on Singing Power Ratio and Singer’s Formant in Classical Carnatic Singers’, Proc. FRSM 2012. 18-19 Jan 2012. KIIT College of Engineering, Gurgaon. Pp. 85-90.
- Shrilekha, B. et al 2012. ‘Phono-logical Awareness and Verbal Working Memory Skills in Chil-dren with Music Training.’ Proc. FRSM 2012. 18-19 Jan 2012. KIIT College of Engineering, Gurgaon. Pp. 116-120.
This article was published in Ayurveda and All – May 2012- Pages 33 to 36
Edited by Geeta Shreedar, August 28, 2021