ATS1346 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Hexatonic Scale, Pentatonic Scale, Heptatonic Scale
25 May 2018
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Week 4 – Classical Music of India
Raga
• The classical music systems in India are built around raga – a highly
developed, complex and powerful melodic modal system
• There are many genres of music that ‘cook’ this melodic systems in different
ways and for different affects
• ‘Improvisation’ is at the core of the creativity in raga music
• As practiced, Hindustani (north India) music is primarily a melodic soloist
tradition. The main genres to consider are:
o Dhrupad
o Khyal
o Thumri
• Each of these genres themselves accommodate a number of distinct vocal and
instrumental interpretations and styles
• Ragas are one component of a much wider music culture of modal melodic
practice found in the classical musics of many parts of the world.
Raga/Modal Melodic Systems and Harmonic Systems
• Folk music forms are built around modal melodic forms that are sometimes
equivalent or close to a classical raga and at other times modal or tune based
but not formalised into strict raga forms
• Popular Music forms, and there are countless varieties of them, can vary
anywhere between raga based Western harmonic forms. Experiments with
harmony have taken place since, at least, the early 19th century
• Western Classical, jazz and popular musics and other European musical
influences, have long been present in India
o Knowledge from colonies
Raga as Part of a Wider Practice of Modal Music in Asia and Elsewhere
• Raga music belongs to a wider system of modal music that forms the
traditional music systems from Indonesia, Japan and China in the East through
to Turkey and Greece in the West
o Modal principles
• Modal melodic approaches can be found in many other places on the planet
A South Asian perspective on the Different Between a Mode and a Scale
• A scale is a series of notes usually arranged in ascending order
o Pentatonic scale has 5 notes
o Hexatonic scale has 6 notes
o Heptatonic scale has 7 notes
• A mode is a series of notes arranged in ascending and descending order
• There can be different notes used in the ascending and descending
arrangements
o E.g. pentatonic ascent: 1 2 4 5 7 and heptatonic descent: 7b 6 5 4 3b 2
1
• Certain notes in arrangement are given more melodic weight, emphasis or
importance than others
• Microtonal variation in the tuning of notes is common as intonation is not
bound by Western melodic temperament
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