Short Written Assignment: Styles and Practices

Short Written Assignment Prompt:

Based upon the reading for this module and the below video discuss the use of the raga in Indian Classical Music. You need to cite one specific example from the module reading and two others from the below video (include in-text citations). This assignment should be a minimum of 250 words in length and your thoughts and opinions. This assignment is submitted via VeriCite and will be checked for plagiarism using a database of previously submitted assignments. Make sure to include your references at the end of your submission in MLA, APA or Chicago formats (use what you are the most familiar with). See the linked Purdue OWL site for examples and for proper formats.

Short Written Assignment Submission using MLA format:

Word Count: 425

Short Written Assignment #1: The use of Raga in Indian Classical Music

Indian classical music has two major traditions: Hindustani, which is the North Indian tradition, and Carnatic, which is the South Indian tradition. Each tradition constitutes its own system of musical theory and composition but both share the fundamental element known as raga. Raga in the Indian classical musical is said to consist of a set of melodic tones. Ragas can also be considered as the formulas for the melody in the Indian classical music. Our textbook on Music of India explains raga to be a set of melodic patterns which are characterized in part by specific ascent and descent (2). The Textbook also states that certain other characteristics such as King (Vadi) , Queen (Samvadi) notes and a unique note phrase (pakad) which helps to differentiate one raga from other (3). Other important and interesting information retrieved from the text is that each raga has its natural register (Ambit) and glissando (Meend) rules; the raga structure of each raga has different styles and compositions (3).

Ravi Shankar explains in the video that the raga is based on one of the 72 different octave scales and each note within the rage can be improvised by the musician. Because of this, there exist many different ragas in classical Indian music (5:14). The importance of a note can make one raga completely different from other. He showed this by an example of two ragas – Raga Bhupali and Raga Deshkar (12:32). They both had similar and almost same notes but they differ in certain

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importance of notes, for example. Raga Bhupali had its 3 ascent or descent would be on the two notes. In Raga Deshkar the importance was given on the 6 note thus changing the whole raga. Shankar discusses how important the notes and pakad are to tell the actual raga. He explained how difficult it is to guess the raga without disclosing the name or pakad of raga.

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I think that Indian classical music is very complex and interesting. Indian music is so distinct from Western music and because of its scale, it is easy to recognize. I think that Indian classical music is very unique sounding and it seems a lot more difficult to compose than Western music. It also seems a lot more difficult to play and sing because of the importance of emphasis on and the descent and ascent of certain notes. I found it very interesting that there are numerous ragas in classical Indian music but they all can be based on the same format.

References

"Music of India." New World Encyclopedia, 16 Dec 2014. Accessed 15 May 2018,

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Music_of_India&oldid=985717.

Shankar, Ravi. “Raga: a personal introduction by Ravi Shankar.” YouTube, uploaded by

krimkari, 2 Sep. 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0fSUOiar0k.