Indian Music: A Magical World of Melody, Rhythm, and Improvisation

Indian Music is one of the most popular and respected music systems in the world. It is also one of the most variegated systems, populated by a brilliant variety of genres, styles, systems, traditions, artistic lineages, and institutions.

The 20^th century saw sweeping changes in India’s musical terrain—the advent and super growth of film music, the spread of classical music deep into the middle class through music clubs, associations, music festivals, radio, and the gramophone record. Finally, the growth of private television channels and the internet further transformed the landscape.

Indian Music is one of the most popular and respected music systems in the world. It is also one of the most variegated systems, populated by a brilliant variety of genres, styles, systems, traditions, artistic lineages, and institutions.  

The 20^th century saw sweeping changes in India’s musical terrain—the advent and super growth of film music, the spread of classical music deep into the middle class through music clubs, associations, music festivals, radio, and the gramophone record. Finally, the growth of private television channels and the internet further transformed the landscape.

From classical to Bollywood music, Indian Music enjoys an international market today. With access to the internet, the younger generation is richly exposed to international systems, genres, and artists. Inevitable changes have always been an aspect of art history, but have taken rapid strides in the last 100 years. Yet, Indian Music has remained Indian—that core of something that makes it stand apart from all of the world’s music.

This article is an enquiry into what makes Indian Music what it is. What is its essential appeal? What is that distinctive identity and power that enables Indian Music to enhance the quality of life for millions of music lovers?

India – Where Life is Musical and Music is Life

Indian music has always existed in the life of Indians, far beyond the entertainment space. Music is life. Emotions of every occasion are expressed in words and music – from the birth of the child, through festivals and marriages, through the seasons, till death. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from Kutch to Nagaland, you will find a mind-boggling variety of musical genres, instruments, and performance practices. 

Every region, every language and dialect, every ethnicity and caste, every faith, every aspect and layer of life has some distinct music of its own. 

• From Tribal Music to Classical Music
• From Bhajans to Film Music
• From Occupational Music of the Village communities to Indie Pop and Fusion
• From the 7-note chants of the Sama Veda to Soz sung by professional Ustads during Ramzan.
• From the Shabad of the Sikh faith to the Tevarams of Tamil Nadu.
• From Bihu songs of Assam to Sopana Sangeetam of Kerala.
• From Maand of Rajasthan to Rabindra Sangeet and Raagprodhan of Bengal.

The list can go on.

The ‘Indian’ in Indian Music

Is there something in all this variety that makes it identifiable as Indian Music? Is there an objective ‘Indianness’ to Indian music genres?  There are broadly two distinct characteristics in general about music that just not emanate from India, but sound typically ‘Indian’. They can be called the ‘Aah factor’ and the ‘Waah factor’. These are aspects commonly recognized in the classical music world, but they apply to all music that is ‘Indian’ – from folk and film to classical.

The Aah factor

‘Aah’ or ‘Oh’ is that reaction one gives instinctively when something utterly soulful touches and stirs our heart, giving us goose bumps. In fact, having the ability to give goose bumps to a listener or viewer is considered the peak of artistic success for any artist in any art form across Indian culture.

What is it in Indian songs and music that can give us goose bumps, and give us those moments that can bring tears to our eyes, ignite deep emotions and send us almost into a trance for moments.

The primary factor is the ‘melodious’ quality of the most sought-after Indian genres and songs. We all use that word ‘melodious’ – we know what melodious feels like, we can identify a melodious number, but we need to objectively qualify that which is ‘melodious’.

From alaap and alapana of classical music, to ghazals, folk melodies, bhajans and melodies of film music, the Aah factors are the Soul of Indian Music that every musician aspires to bring to his or her art at some time in the journey.The most celebrated of musicians through known history are the ones who are, and have been, masters at being ‘melodious’, and have been at the pinnacle of their genres in their time. Such names include M S Subbulakshmi, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Amir Khan, Lata Mangeshkar, P Susheela, Kishori Amonkar, Mehdi Hasan, K J Jesudas, Jagjit Singh, S P Balasubramanian, K S Chitra, Shreya Ghoshal.

Objective Qualities That One Will Find in Melodious Songs

‘Melodious’ songs have most of the following objective qualities.

• Flow – the tunes flow like rivulets. (We will understand this aspect more technically later in this article.)
• Elegance – a feminine quality that is referred to as Lasya in Indian dance. Flow is elegant, and elegant behaviour has a flowing quality to it. 
• Sweetness – a word taken from the world of cuisine. The Indian palate adores sweetness in food. That is a quality we look for in voices, in songs, in words, in attitudes, in speech, in behaviour. 
• Softness – This is again part of our behavioural DNA and expectation. We associate love with softness, romance with shyness, seasons with the soft breeze of spring, the rustle of leaves, and the soft drizzle during monsoons. Etiquette in behaviour (tehzeeb) has an aspect of softness. We speak softly to elders and to those we hold in awe. That quality we find in melodious music.
• Lyrical quality – a quality that is delicately beautiful, alluring, like the sound of chimes 
• Artistic quality – a quality that has a visual connotation – seen in alpana, rangoli, and mandala art forms of Indian culture. 
• Emotional Intensity – the ability of the music to capture intense emotions in lyrics
• Autonomous, intense feel in Swaras – the notes. The ability of the Indian composer and musician to manifest that innate power within notes that can stir our emotions, without the aid of words. 

The Waah (Wow) Factor

This is that quality in Indian Music that can dazzle, surprise – a manifestation of what sounds superhuman, impossible, and unfathomable to the listener. This is achieved by aspects and techniques in Indian Music such as :

• Speed, especially of runs – taan–s and briga-s, ornamentations – murki-s, zamzama-s, sangati-s, and swara mnemonics 
• Range of voice, especially high notes
• Vocal and musical complexities, innovative thinking, and flights of fancy in melodic and rhythmic improvisation
• Creativity – pushing the envelope of intelligence 
• Rhythmic syncopation in improvisation (will be discussed in an article on Tala)

However, the Aah factors are what give Indian Music its sublime and sublimating power. A student of music has to be able to resonate with and understand the aah factors, and evolve as a musician and performer to be able to stir the hearts of listeners. 

Melodious Music and Melodic Music

However, it is important that we understand the distinction between melodic music and melodious music. Not all melodic music is necessarily meant to be just melodious. Melodic music has many colours.

What is a melody? A melody is simply a sequence of notes, a ‘tune’ as we call it in India, that is musically enjoyable. All of us keep humming some ‘tune’ to ourselves or in our minds, often or all the time. Every song is a tune, and therefore is a melody. Without any orchestral support, they entertain us in our minds, or can regale a small group of friends and family members in any impromptu musical gathering or private soiree.

Apart from the ‘melodious’ songs, even modern, peppy, rhythmic pieces of Indian music – including the disco songs of Bappi Lahiri and Ilayaraja, the Blues style songs of A R Rahman, or Indie Pop and Independent Music numbers – are all essentially strong melodies. While modern Indian Music has adopted the backdrop of Western musical orchestration from the early days of Indian film music, the music itself continues to be in the form of melodies that can stand on their own and entice us without the aid of the ‘background music’ as it has come to be called in India – BGM!!

Just recollect any Indian song of any style that you are familiar with and you will realize how enticing, impactful and beautiful these popular melodies and tunes are, even without orchestration!! 

A melodic music system is one where the music is essentially built on melodies, not on the basis of chords and polyphony. 

The unique power of Indian melodies lies in broadly two characteristics. 

Gamaka-s – The Trajectories From Swara To Swara 

Indian songs, by and large, tend to employ elongated vowels moving across multiple notes, enabling or causing the voice to traverse the span of vowels with the aid of beautiful vocal inflexions.

Thus, the songs flow like beautiful flower-laden creepers in a garden, or like rivulets of sparkling water flowing down a hill. The melody is not a sequence of notes, but flowing lines that curve, quiver, sweep, and undulate between notes. 

These lines, with inflexions that flow across or through notes, are called gamaka-s (as per the generic meaning of gamaka and not as specifically applicable in the two classical systems, though the connotations are interconnected, as we shall see later.)

And one of the types of rivulets that Indian Music is renowned for is the taan (as known in the North) and the briga, as referred to in Carnatic Music. 

Samvada

The second aspect of Indian songs arises from how melodic music adapts to the scientific principle of consonance, which is called Samvada in Indian Musicology – literally meaning conversation. (Refer to INTRODUCTION TO SWARA). 

As you can see in the article, the principle of consonance generates scales—7-note, 6-note, and 5-note scales. The lesser the notes in a scale, the higher the cumulative consonance. 

That is why many 5-note (audava) scales are dominant in Indian folk music (Pahadi and Bhupali). These basic scales are the bedrock of the Raga experience. Raga is the most sublime aspect of Indian Musical evolution, finding the zenith of its manifestation, exploration, and aesthetics in Indian classical music. 

The Four Pillars of Indian Music 

Indian Music is manifested through four essential phenomena –  the Song form, Raga, Tala, and Improvisation. 

Raga – A Language of Melodic Possibilities

Raga in Indian music is much more than just a scale. It is a language that confines itself to a particular scale. A raga is a vocabulary of phrases and gamaka-s that enables compositions and improvisation to emerge from the aesthetic minds of creative musicians. 

Technically, the gamaka-s are continuous lines or curves that connect sequential notes. But that is a dry definition. The gamaka is, in fact, a path created when the mind and sound of an artist are drawn by the power, the intense attraction, that lies within the next Swara.

Every Swara in the Indian Musical experience is an entity that compels the mind and heart to merge into it – like falling into the all-encompassing embrace of a mother. 

That merging is what the heart or soul seeks, and is referred to as Yog or Yoga in Indian thought. This is the principle why music is revered in India as Nada

Yoga – a path to seek Union with the Supreme or the Universal One. 

It is this phenomenon that makes the music of great Indian musicians send their listeners into a trance, including great instrumental maestros as Bismillah Khan, Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Vilayet Khan, Lalgudi Jayaraman, T. R. Mahalingam, Amjad Ali Khan and Hariprasad Chaurasia, among others. 

Rhythm of Indian Music – The Cycles of Theka and Tala

Let’s move to Indian rhythm. The core of Indian rhythmic sensibility lies in the rhythmic cycles—the cyclical units of rhythmic metres—called theka, which evolved into the more expansive cyclical concept and structure of the Tala. 

What is theka, and what is so special about it? While Indian rhythm has evolved into Tala in the classical systems, the theka continues to be the bedrock of rhythmic accompaniment to song in all other traditional music, including devotional music. The theka is the rhythmic groove played on all percussion instruments – from folk to classical, across India, and gives Indian songs their composite character. 

Theka is a pattern of not just sounds of beats, but of sounds that flow and swing between beats. To achieve this, predominantly, the playing surfaces of percussion instruments are stretched animal skins, the tension on which can be manipulated by parts of the hand, to give the sounds undulations of pitch. 

From folk to classical, the theka on a percussion instrument integrates with the innate pulse in the melody to give the performer and listener an integrated experience of flowing melody and pulsating rhythm.

We will go through a step-by-step journey to understand what the concept of Raga really is and how these grooves, the theka-s, evolved into the Tala-s, the systems of Tala-s, and techniques and methods of rhythmic play and syncopation—all of which have come to give Indian Music its universal appeal, and Indian classical music its complex grammar. 

Improvisation In Indian Music – Creativity within Structure and Form

Finally, we come to the fourth pillar – improvisation. Indian Classical Music is internationally renowned, well-researched, studied, and understood as an art form that stands on the power of on-the-spot, on-stage improvisation by any artist. A better term for improvisation, in my view, is the art of creating melodic and rhythmic variations around nuclei of ideas and motifs. 

What is not known, noticed, or realized is that improvisation is not the sole preserve of classical systems. Improvisation is in the blood of the Indian musician, actor, dancer, and poet. We have a DNA of improvisation—of taking an idea and looking at it, expressing it from different points of view, and exploring different shades of meaning, emotion, intention, and impact. 

In traditional theatre, a small scene from the Ramayana can be extended into an entire play. In Kavi Sammelans, or poetic soirees, a poet will improvise on the spot – in response to a couplet presented by another poet, exploring another dimension or shade in the seed of the concept – which can be anything – love, faith, pain, joy, regret, suspicion, valour, bravado, foolishness, pique, patriotism, envy, motherhood – you name it, the Indian poet has delved into it in brilliant depth and variety. 

In traditional music, which has come to be called folk music, and is the precursor of classical music, one can witness classically unschooled children improvising on tunes of a song with brilliant flights of fancy and voice. 

This seed of improvisation and creation of variations has evolved into a grand art and science that defines Indian classical music. The capacity to create veritable essays of melodic and rhythmic improvisation is what determines the worth of an Indian classical musician. 

The entire training system of Indian Classical Music is a long and arduous journey. It can take years to develop the improvisational toolkit, and decades of organic growth for myriad melodic, rhythmic, and scripting skills and techniques to be internalized and practiced until they mature into reflexive mode. 

The mind of a seasoned, brilliant Indian musician moves so fast that he or she is sometimes surprised by what happens in the moment! 

The demand on the capacity of the musician is to not just essay random improvisation in a concert of several hours, but to create an atmosphere of a Raga, to script a mesmeric alaap for an hour or more, to create magical rhythmic syncopation in countless ways – all of it finally being an utterly aesthetic and not an intellectual experience. 

It is for this reason that Indian classical maestros are revered and sought after by musicians of different cultures who want to learn these brilliant and complex improvisational methods. These methods do not just enable performance; they enhance the fundamental musical senses and skills of any musician—they widen his/her palate and deepen their perception of musical elements.

We will understand improvisation more deeply only when we delve further into Raga, Tala canvases, and compositions in subsequent articles.

Learning Indian Music – A Path to Self-Development and Joy

I will remain eternally grateful to my parents for enabling me to learn Indian Classical Music from childhood. I cannot imagine what my life would have been, without this life-long journey of just being meaningfully with music, of learning under so many Gurus, understanding this great Art and Science in depth, and of being able to meet and listen to so many stellar musicians and appreciate the depths of their art.

Learning this music and building oneself as a performer can of course be a path that can lead to glory, fame, fortune and adulation. But far more than that, learning the Science and Art of Indian Music can transform one’s inner world and holistic experience of life. 

Firstly, it is only through learning music that music can become eloquent for us. Learning is a journey that can take us from a place of just admiration to intense engagement with the mysterious language of music that can absorb the mind and heart interminably. 

Music challenges and develops the intellect, hones the senses, empowers memory, enriches creativity, develops discipline, single-mindedness, focus, and generates peace. 

Learning Indian Music has a particular advantage. It enables a person to transform into a solo musical machine. A mature Indian Musician needs just a tanpura or any drone to keep him company. He or she can create music endlessly, delve into ragas that have infinite aesthetic possibilities. 

Raga music is like the divine Akshaya Patra, the inexhaustible vessel, where food never depletes. And just singing the brilliant compositions of generations of geniuses, with in-depth understanding, can earn us limitless joy and emotional sustenance. 

Music is Man’s birthright. If we can hear, cognate, and appreciate music, it means that we have a musical wiring in our brain and heart. It logically transpires that we have inborn musical senses. 

Every human being has a right to learn music. It is not just for the musically gifted.  

So – learn music. You will never ever regret it.