Maharashtra HSC Vocal Light Music flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Sthayi in bhavgeet

The opening refrain of a bhavgeet, sung first and repeated after every antara; it establishes the raga, tala and mood of the composition.

Antara in bhavgeet

A subsequent stanza of a bhavgeet that moves into the upper register and develops the lyric's meaning; two to four antaras are common.

Bol-bant in thumri

A thumri technique in which the lyric is split into syllables and recombined rhythmically; it shows the singer's command of tala and bhava.

Laggi in light classical

A fast, rhythmic passage in keherwa or dadra, usually played on tabla at the close of a thumri or dadra to bring the item to a crescendo.

Khamaj thaat

Bhatkhande thaat with shuddha Ni; raga Khamaj uses shuddha Ni in ascent and komal Ni in descent, a pattern common in light music.

Kafi thaat

Thaat with komal Ga and komal Ni; raga Kafi, Pilu and Bhimpalasi draw on it, and it is common in thumri, dadra and Marathi bhavgeet.

Rupak tala

Seven-matra tala divided 3+2+2; its sam is khali, which is unusual, and the first vibhag carries three matras.

Deepchandi tala

Fourteen-matra tala divided 3+4+3+4, with khali on matra 8; widely used for thumri and dadra accompaniment.

Sam in swaralipi

The first matra of a tala cycle, marked 'x' in Bhatkhande notation; it is the point of resolution where phrase and cycle coincide.

Khali in notation

A 'wave' or empty section of a tala, marked '0'; it usually falls in the second half of the cycle and is not accented.

Bhatkhande notation

Swaralipi system using S R G M P D N, with marks for komal and tivra notes and dots above or below for register.

Transcribing a melody

Fixing Sa from a reference, identifying the raga and tala, then writing each phrase with matra numbers and lyric syllables aligned.

Shakuntal 1880

Annasaheb Kirloskar's Marathi musical play, generally treated as the starting point of sangeet natak, using Hindustani ragas for theatre songs.

Geet Ramayan

Sudhir Phadke's 1955 radio series of 56 Marathi songs on the Ramayana, written by G.D. Madgulkar; a landmark of bhavgeet.

Bhavgeet golden era

The 1950s and 1960s, when radio, gramophone records and Marathi films made bhavgeet a distinct popular genre with poet-composer teams.

Gandharva Natak Mandali

Bal Gandharva's Marathi theatre company, active in the early twentieth century, famous for musical plays such as Manapman and Saubhadra.

Bal Gandharva

Narayan Shripad Rajhans (1888–1967), Marathi stage legend who played female roles and set the standard for natya sangeet phrasing and diction.

Govindrao Tembe

Harmonium player and composer (1881–1955) who scored music for Bal Gandharva's Manapman and helped establish the harmonium in Marathi theatre.

G.D. Madgulkar

Marathi poet and lyricist known as Ga Di Ma, who wrote the lyrics of Geet Ramayan and many film and bhavgeet songs.

Shanta Shelke

Marathi poet and lyricist (1922–2002) whose reflective, lyrical verse became a mainstay of Marathi bhavgeet and film music.

Chheda in natya sangeet

A fast, rhythmic song in Marathi musical theatre addressed to the audience or patron, often using question-answer or jod patterns.

Saval-jawab in natak

A duet in Marathi sangeet natak in which two singers answer each other phrase by phrase, often in the same raga and tala.

Sangeet Sharada

Shripad Krushna Kolhatkar's 1899 Marathi musical play on a social theme, noted for songs that moved natya sangeet beyond mythology.

Bhavgeet versus ghazal

Bhavgeet uses strophic sthayi-antara form in Marathi; ghazal uses couplets with radif and qafiya, usually in Urdu or Marathi literary style.

Lavani

Fast Marathi folk song-dance of Tamasha, usually in keherwa or dadra; Baithakichi, Phadachi and Dhangari are its main types.

Povada

Heroic Marathi ballad in a fixed chhand, sung with dholki and tasha to recount the deeds of Shivaji and Maratha warriors.

Gondhal

Devotional ritual performance of the Gondhali community, addressed to the goddess, using sambal and cymbals with vigorous singing.

Bharud

Didactic Marathi folk song form developed by Sant Eknath, using metaphor and humour; performed with chipali and dholki in public gatherings.

Navarasa

The nine rasas of Bharata's Natyashastra: Shringara, Hasya, Karuna, Raudra, Veera, Bhayanaka, Bibhatsa, Adbhuta and Shanta.

Sthayi bhava

The permanent emotion in a performance, such as rati or shoka, which combines with vibhava, anubhava and vyabhichari bhava to produce rasa.

Rasa sutra

Bharata's formula: vibhava, anubhava and vyabhichari bhava together produce rasa, the relished aesthetic experience in the spectator.

Bhava and rasa

Bhava is the emotion expressed by the performer; rasa is the aesthetic relish produced in the listener when that emotion is universalised.