Swara
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The notes, or swaras, of Indian music are shadja, rishabh, gandhar, madhyam, pancham, dhaivat and nishad. Collectively these notes are known as the sargam. In singing, these become Sa, Ri (Carnatic) or Re (Hindustani), Ga, Ma, Pa, Da (Carnatic) or Dha (Hindustani), and Ni. (The word sargam takes the consonants of the first four swaras). Only these syllables are sung, and further designations are never vocalized. When writing these become, S, R, G, M, P, D, N. A dot above a letter indicates that the note is sung one octave higher, and a dot below indicating one octave lower. If a swara is not natural (shuddha), a line below a letter will indicate it is flat (komal), and an acute accent above a letter will indicate that it is sharp (tivra or tivar). In some notation systems, the distinction is made with capital and lowercase letters. R, G, D, and N may be either shuddha or komal; M may be either shuddha or tivra. Sa and Pa are immovable (once Sa is selected), forming a just perfect fifth.
Sargam is the Hindustani (North Indian) and Carnatic (South Indian) equivalent to the western solfege, a technique for the teaching of sight-singing. Sargam is practiced against a drone and the emphasis is not on the scale but on the intervals, thus it may be considered just intonation.
In certain forms of Indian classical music and qawwali, when a rapid 16th note sequence of the same note is sung, different syllables may be used in a certain sequence to make the whole easier to pronounce. For example, instead of "sa-sa-sa-sa-sa-sa-sa-sa" said very quickly, it might be "sa-da-da-li-sa-da-da-li" which lends itself more to a quick and light tongue movement.
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[edit] Classification of swaras
Although the sargam contains only seven kinds of notes, five of them (R, G, M, D and N) may designate up to two different pitches. The notes S and P, however, are fixed. The basic mode of reference is that which is equivalent to the Western Ionian mode (this is called Bilawal thaat in Hindustani music). All relationships between pitches follow from this basic arrangement of intervals. In any given seven-tone mode (starting with S), R, G, D, and N can be natural (shuddha, lit. 'pure') or flat (komal, 'soft') but never sharp, and the M can be natural or sharp (tivra) but never flat, making up the twelve notes in the Western equal tempered chromatic scale (but without Western pitch equivalencies like, for example, A# and Bb). When abbreviating these tones, the form of the note which is relatively lower in pitch always uses a lowercase letter, while the form which is higher in pitch uses an uppercase letter. So komal Re/Ri uses the letter r and shuddha Re/Ri, the letter R, but shuddha Ma uses m because it has a raised form-tivra Ma-which uses the letter M. Sa and Pa are always abbreviated as S and P, respectively, since they cannot be altered. If a note with the same name-Sa, for example-is an octave higher than the note represented by S, an apostrophe is placed to the right: S'. If it is an octave lower, the apostrophe is placed to the left: 'S. Apostrophes can be added as necessary to indicate the octave: for example, ``g would be the note komal Ga in the octave two octaves below that which begins on the note S (that is, two octaves below g). (In some cases, rather than apostrophes, a dot above the note is used to indicate upper octave and a dot below lower octave. In addition, sometimes upper- and lowercase letters are replaced with accent marks or lines above or below the letter indicating komal and tivra). The chart below assumes Sa to be at C, although the tone Sa is not associated with any particular pitch as it can be interchangeable. As in Western moveable-Do solfege, Sa refers to the tonic of a piece or scale rather than to any particular pitch.
| Full form (Carnatic) | Abbreviated form (Carnatic) | Full form (Hindustani) | Abbreviated form (Hindustani) | Western |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shadjam | Sa | Shadj | Sa | C |
| Shuddha Madhyamam | Shuddha Ma | Shuddha Madhyam | Ma | F |
| Prati Madhyamam | Prati Ma | Tivra Madhyam | M'a | F# |
| Panchamam | Pa | Pancham | Pa | G |
[edit] What The Swaras Mean
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Each shuddha swara (i.e., Sa, Re/Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha/Da, and Ni) is traditionally held to have originated in the sound of a different animal, and some have additional meanings of their own. Also, each swara is associated with one of the seven chakras of the body. Just as the swaras ascend through the saptak, so they are mapped onto the chakras in the body in ascending order. Komal notes are associated with the left side of each chakra; the left channel, Ida Nadi, is the side of emotion and intuition. Shuddha and tivra notes are associated with the right side; the right channel, Pingala Nadi, is the side of logic. Ragas, therefore, have more or less of an effect on a given chakra depending on the notes they contain.
| Swara | Expansion | Meaning | Animal | Chakra | God |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sa | Shadja (षड्जं) | Sagar | peacock | mūlādhāra मूलाधार (anus) | Brahman |
| Re | Rishabha (रिषभं) | bull | bull/skylark | svādhiṣṭhāna स्वाधिष्ठान (genitals) | Agni |
| Ga | Gandhara (गान्धारं) | Gagan | goat | maṇipūra मणिपूर (solar plexus and stomach) | Rudra (Shiva) |
| Ma | Madhyama (मध्यमं) | middle | dove/heron | anāhata अनाहत (heart and lungs) | Vishnu |
| Pa | Panchama (पंचमं) | fifth | cuckoo/nightingale | viśuddha विशुद्ध (throat) | Naarada |
| Dha | Dhaivata (धैवतं) | Dharti | horse | ājñā आज्ञा (third eye) | Ganesha |
| Ni | Nishada (निषादं) | outcast/hunter | elephant | sahasrāra सहस्रार (crown of the head) | Surya(Sun) |
[edit] Further reading
- Mathieu, W. A. (1997). Harmonic Experience: Tonal Harmony from Its Natural Origins to Its Modern Expression. Inner Traditions Intl Ltd. ISBN 0-89281-560-4. An autodidactic ear-training and sight-singing book that uses singing sargam syllables over a drone in a just intonation system based on perfect fifths and major thirds.
[edit] External links
- North India Sargam Notation System
- Sargam
- www.soundofindia.com Article on vivadi swaras, by Haresh Bakshi
- Swara in music
- http://www.ragopedia.com the first encyclopedia of ragas written and produced by Pandit Shiv Dayal Batish and Ashwin Batish. This book has almost 650+ ragas written in staff and Sargam notations. It has also spanned numerous other works by the Batishs. Please visit http://www.batish.com for more information on this.
- www.ragapedia.com , an online music notation editor for Sargam notation which also will create high quality western notation and midi from Sargam
