UPMSP High School Instrumental Music flashcards

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Vadyatmak sangeet

Instrumental music, the limb of sangeet produced by instruments alone, as distinct from gita (vocal music) and nritya (dance); it may be swara-pradhan or tala-pradhan.

Tata vadya

Stringed instruments in which sound comes from vibrating strings, covering plucked types such as sitar and veena and bowed types such as sarangi and violin.

Sushir vadya

Wind instruments in which a vibrating column of air produces sound; examples include bansuri, shehnai, nagaswaram and harmonium.

Avanaddha vadya

Membrane-covered percussion instruments whose sound comes from a stretched skin over a hollow body, such as tabla, pakhawaj, mridangam and dholak.

Ghan vadya

Solid, non-membrane instruments struck to produce sound, such as jaltarang, manjira, ghatam, kartal and bells; they are idiophones in modern classification.

Notation of komal swara

In Hindustani notation a komal swara is marked by a small line or stroke below the letter, while tivra Ma carries a vertical line above the letter.

Octave dots in notation

A dot below a swara letter places it in the mandra octave; a dot above places it in the tar octave; an unmarked letter is in the madhya octave.

Tala notation symbols

In tala notation sam is marked X, tali by the numbers 2, 3, 4 and so on, khali by 0, and vibhag boundaries by vertical lines between matra columns.

Yaman characteristics

An evening sampurna raga with tivra Ma; aroha S R G M(tivra) P D N S; vadi Ga, samvadi Ni; its tivra Ma distinguishes it from Bilawal.

Bhairav characteristics

A morning sampurna raga using komal Re and komal Dha; vadi Dha, samvadi Re; its slow oscillating treatment of komal Re and Dha defines the raga.

Bhoopali characteristics

An evening audav-audav raga omitting Ma and Ni; aroha S R G P D S; vadi Ga, samvadi Dha; it is a janya of Kalyan thaat.

Bageshri characteristics

A night raga with komal Ga, komal Dha and komal Ni; vadi Ma, samvadi Sa; its aroha often begins on mandra Ni and it is treated as a janya of Kafi.

Bhimpalasi characteristics

An afternoon raga with komal Ga and komal Ni; vadi Ma, samvadi Sa; the aroha starts on mandra Ni and the raga is associated with the third prahar of the day.

Tintal structure

Sixteen matras in four vibhags of four; tali on 1, 5 and 13, khali on 9; theka Dha Dhin Dhin Dha Dha Dhin Dhin Dha Dha Tin Tin Ta Ta Dhin Dhin Dha.

Jhaptal structure

Ten matras in four vibhags of 2+3+2+3; tali on 1, 3 and 8, khali on 6; theka Dhi Na Dhi Dhi Na Ti Na Dhi Dhi Na.

Rupak tala

Seven matras in three vibhags of 3+2+2; the first vibhag is khali, so sam coincides with khali, and tali falls on matras 4 and 6.

Layakari types

Tempo multiples in tala: barabar is one note per matra, dugun two, tigun three and chaugun four; adi (3/2) and kuadi (5/4) are advanced forms.

Tansen

Sixteenth-century court musician of Akbar, traditionally credited with ragas such as Miyan ki Malhar, Miyan ki Todi and Darbari Kanada; his tomb is at Gwalior.

Vishnu Digambar Paluskar

Vocalist and educator (1872-1931) who founded the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, first at Lahore in 1901 and later in Mumbai, and devised a widely used notation system.

V. N. Bhatkhande

Musicologist (1860-1936) who formulated ten thaats, codified Hindustani notation in Kramik Pustak Malika, and founded the Marris College at Lucknow.

Allauddin Khan

Sarod and violin maestro of the Maihar gharana (c. 1862-1972) who trained Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan and Annapurna Devi and composed in raga Hemant.

Bismillah Khan

Shehnai player (1916-2006) who brought the instrument to concert status and received the Bharat Ratna in 2001; he was associated with Varanasi.

Sitar structure

A long-necked lute with a gourd tumba, 6-7 main strings, 11-13 sympathetic taraf strings, and movable tied frets that allow fine tuning of swaras.

Tabla pair

Daya is the right treble drum with a single membrane and syahi; bayan is the left bass drum with a double membrane; the syahi fixes pitch and shapes overtones.

Sitar playing strokes

The right hand wears a mizrab and uses da (inward) and ra (outward) strokes; the left hand produces meend by pulling strings across curved frets.

Bansuri fingering

A transverse bamboo flute with 6-7 finger holes; effective tube length set by open holes fixes pitch, and half-holing produces komal and tivra swaras.

Shruti and swara

Shruti denotes a microtonal position within the octave, traditionally 22 in number; swara is a musical note chosen from these positions, 12 used in practice.

Octave frequency ratio

The saptak spans a 2:1 frequency ratio, so the upper Sa has twice the frequency of the lower Sa; the fifth Pa is 3:2 and the fourth Ma is 4:3.

Equal temperament

A tuning dividing the octave into twelve equal semitones with ratio 2^(1/12), about 1.0595; Indian classical tuning generally uses just intonation instead.

Timbre in instruments

Timbre is tone quality determined by the harmonic spectrum and relative overtone amplitudes; the syahi of tabla and the tumba of sitar strongly shape it.

Gat and jhala

Gat is an instrumental composition, masitkhani in vilambit laya and razakhani in drut laya; jhala is the fast rhythmic climax using chikari strokes.

Vadi and samvadi

Vadi is the sonant or principal note of a raga, samvadi the consonant second most important note, anuvadi an assonant note and vivadi a dissonant excluded note.