Maharashtra HSC Vocal Classical Music case studies
Maharashtra HSC Vocal Classical Music · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The Maharashtra HSC Vocal Classical Music examination is the Higher Secondary Certificate subject in Hindustani vocal music offered through the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education. It is taken by Class 12 students who have studied music as an elective, and it also interests candidates preparing for university music degrees or pursuing performance seriously. The Maharashtra HSC Vocal Classical Music case studies are 5 cases and about 4,716 words.
1Twelve minutes at 9:40 a.m.: choosing a raga under samay, range and accompanist constraints
At a district-level HSC preparatory competition a student is given a twelve-minute slot that begins at 9:40 a.m. The rules demand one khayal with a short vistaar, one bandish, and a sixty-second spoken introduction naming the raga's thaat, jati and samay.
879 words, about 4 min2Where does a 19-matra tihai actually begin?
A student will close his Teentaal khayal with a tihai built from a single five-matra phrase. He wants the phrase played three times, with a two-matra pause between repetitions, the last note of the third repetition landing exactly on sam.
1,009 words, about 5 min3Correcting a handwritten Jhaptaal notation before the fair copy
A student submits this handwritten opening line for a Bhoopali bandish in Jhaptaal: S R G M P D P G R S Above it she has written × over matra 1, the figure 2 over matra 5, and 0 over matra 7, explaining that khali comes 'a little after the first clap'. Her teacher knows the bandish actually has a one-matra pickup before sam, so what she has written on matra 1 is really the anacrusis and everything after it has shifted one place.
965 words, about 5 min4Thirty-five minutes at a Ganesh Utsav: sequencing a semi-classical set with a dholak
A first-year HSC vocal student is booked for thirty-five minutes at a neighbourhood Ganesh Utsav. The stage has a dholak and a harmonium, no tabla, and one microphone; the audience of about two hundred is Marathi-speaking, mostly unfamiliar with khayal, and will drift away if the opening is slow.
928 words, about 5 min5Hoarseness ten days before the practical
Ten days before her HSC practical a student reports that her voice is hoarse by 7 p.m. Her range, normally two octaves from G3 to G5, loses everything above D5 by late afternoon.
935 words, about 5 min