Context Rag Desh is a well-known example of Indian classical music, which is quite different to the bhangra mentioned earlier. The Indian classical tradition is one of the oldest musical traditions in the world, and its origins are largely the stuff of legend. What is clear is that Indian culture has been shaped by the development of this important genre of music, which in turn has been influenced by the rich variety of cultures present in the subcontinent over the ages. Indian classical music can be found in the form of vocal music, instrumental music and dance. There is a great difference between traditional classical music of Northern India (called Hindustani) and Southern India (Carnatic). Rag Desh comes from the Northern Hindustani tradition. The melodies are based upon the rag, and the rhythms are based on the tal. Rag is a little like the western scale or mode – a „line‟ of five or more notes from which the melody is constructed or improvised. The word comes from the ancient Sanskrit language and means both „colour‟ and „beauty‟, suggesting that different rags „colour‟ the listener‟s mind with different emotions. A rag has a selection of notes, which are structured in a modal way known to Indian musicians as that. Like a scale, the rag ascends and descends, and has some notes that are more important than others, like our key notes. Additionally, a rag can be associated with a time of day (Rag Desh is a night-time rag) and sometimes a season (Rag Desh is associated with the monsoon season). The tal (sometimes seen as „tala‟ or „taal‟) has no real equivalent in western music, but is a rhythmic cycle that comprises a number of rhythms based around repeating patterns. The word itself means „clap‟, and each section or „measure‟ is indicated by a clap or a wave of the hands. These sections (known as vibhag) are like our bars in that they contain a set number of beats, called matras. The strongest beat is the first beat of the rhythmic cycle, and is called sam. The most common and famous instruments associated with Indian classical music are the sitar and the tabla. The sitar is plucked like a guitar, and has a long neck with over twenty strings, many of which are not plucked but simply resonate in sympathy with those that are played. The playable strings either provide a drone or play the melody. The sitar has moveable frets (allowing very fine tuning of the strings) and two bridges that cause a large number of harmonics to sound as the strings vibrate, giving the sitar its characteristic „jangly‟ sound.8
The tabla is the most common percussion instrument, found in almost all Hindustani classical music. It consists of two hand drums of different sizes, played by the fingers, palm and „heel‟ of the hand to create a large variety of sounds. The smaller drum (called the dayan or tabla) is tuned to the most important note of the rag being played, and the larger drum
8
There are a number of good videos on YouTube which show the sitar and tabla being played.