UPMSP Intermediate Instrumental Music flashcards

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

Nada

Sound in Indian music. Anahata nada is unstruck or cosmic sound; ahata nada is struck sound produced by effort, and all vocal and instrumental music belongs to ahata nada.

Shruti

The smallest perceptible interval of pitch. Classical theory divides the octave into 22 shrutis, though practical performance uses the twelve swaras of the saptak.

Vadi and Samvadi

Vadi is the principal or amsa note of a raga; samvadi is the second most important, usually a fourth or fifth from the vadi. Anuvadi are supporting notes and vivadi are avoided.

Aroha and Avaroha

The ascending and descending melodic orders of a raga. They may be vakra, meaning non-sequential or crooked, as in Kafi or Desh, rather than a plain scale.

Meend

A smooth glide from one note to another, produced by pulling the string or sliding the finger. It is a principal alankar of instrumental music and cannot be written in staff notation.

Saptak

The seven-note series Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni, existing in mandra, madhya, and tar registers. Sa and Pa are fixed, while Re, Ga, Dha, and Ni have komal forms.

Pakad

A short characteristic phrase or set of phrases that identifies a raga. Two ragas sharing a scale, such as Bhimpalasi and Dhani, are distinguished by their pakad.

Fourfold instrument classification

The classical Indian scheme: tat vadya (string), sushir vadya (wind), avanaddha vadya (skin-covered percussion), and ghana vadya (solid idiophones such as jaltarang and manjira).

Tat vadya

String instruments, subdivided into plucked (sitar, sarod, veena) and bowed (sarangi, violin). Sound is produced by a vibrating string over a resonator.

Sushir vadya

Wind instruments, including bansuri, shehnai, nagaswaram, and harmonium. Sound is produced by a vibrating air column, set moving by breath or by a reed.

Avanaddha vadya

Membranophone instruments such as tabla, pakhavaj, mridangam, and dholak. Sound is produced by a stretched skin membrane over a resonating body.

Ghana vadya

Solid instruments without a stretched membrane, struck or rubbed to sound, such as jaltarang, manjira, ghatam, and kartal.

Sitar construction

A long neck with movable curved frets, a large gourd tumba resonator, sympathetic tarab strings beneath the main strings, and a curved jawari bridge giving a buzzing resonance.

Sarod construction

A carved wooden body with a fretless metal or horn fingerboard and a metal plate bridge, played with a coconut-shell plectrum called java, producing a deep sustained tone.

Tabla construction

The dayan (right) is tuned with wooden gatta blocks; the bayan (left) carries a syahi black paste that gives a gliding bass pitch, tuned by tapping its gatta.

Natyashastra

Bharata's treatise, dated roughly 200 BCE to 200 CE, describing string, wind, and percussion instruments along with shruti, grama, and the foundations of Indian dramatic and musical theory.

Sangita Ratnakara

Sarngadeva's thirteenth-century treatise, the major medieval authority on raga, tala, prabandha forms, and instruments, bridging earlier theory and later Hindustani practice.

Maihar gharana

The instrumental tradition founded by Baba Allauddin Khan, centred on sarod and violin, and carried internationally by Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan.

Imdadkhani gharana

A sitar tradition associated with Imdad Khan and Vilayat Khan, known for the gayaki ang, a vocal style of phrasing on the sitar, and for the surbahar-sitar pairing.

Harmonium adoption

A nineteenth-century free-reed instrument initially resisted by All India Radio as unsuitable; it became widely accepted for accompaniment after the 1970s.

Raga Yaman

An evening raga of the Kalyan thata with tivra Ma and all other notes shuddha. Vadi is Ga and samvadi Ni; the aroha rises Ni Re Ga Ma(tivra) Dha Ni Sa.

Raga Bhairav

A morning raga with komal Re and komal Dha, both sung with andolan. Vadi is Dha and samvadi Re, giving a grave, devotional character.

Raga Bhairavi

A raga with komal Re, Ga, Dha, and Ni and shuddha Ma. It is the traditional mangal or concluding raga of a concert and is also used for thumri.

Raga Malkauns

A late-night audava-audava raga omitting Re and Pa, with komal Ga, Dha, and Ni. Vadi is Ma and samvadi Sa, producing a grave, meditative mood.

Ten thats of Bhatkhande

Bilaval, Khamaj, Kafi, Asavari, Bhairavi, Bhairav, Kalyan, Marwa, Purvi, and Todi: ten parent scales under which Bhatkhande grouped Hindustani ragas.

Samay (time theory)

The assignment of ragas to times of day: Bhairav and Todi in the morning, Bhimpalasi in the afternoon, Yaman and Bihag in the evening, Malkauns late at night.

Tintal

The sixteen-matra tala in four vibhags of four, with tali on 1, 5, and 13 and khali on 9. Its theka runs dha dhin dhin dha, dha dhin dhin dha, dha tin tin ta, ta dhin dhin dha.

Jhaptal

A ten-matra tala in vibhags of 2+3+2+3, with tali on 1, 3, and 8 and khali on 6. It is common for instrumental gats and for khayal.

Rupak

A seven-matra tala in vibhags of 3+2+2. It is unusual because its sam is khali, marked by a wave rather than a clap.

Sam and khali

Sam is the first beat of a tala cycle and the point of resolution. Khali is a wave marking an empty or unaccented division, contrasting with tali claps.

Layakari

The deliberate subdivision or multiplication of the beat, such as dugun (double speed) or tigun (triple speed), used to create rhythmic variation while keeping the cycle intact.

Bhatkhande notation

A Sargam notation using S R G M P D N, with komal notes marked by a stroke below and tivra Ma by a stroke above, octave dots, and bar lines for tala vibhags.

Tala symbols in notation

In written tala, X marks tali (clap), 0 marks khali (wave), and digits mark the remaining matras; the sam appears as X at matra one.

Baba Allauddin Khan

Sarod and violin master, roughly 1862 to 1972, founder of the Maihar gharana and teacher of Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan.

Pandit Ravi Shankar

Sitarist of the Maihar gharana, 1920 to 2012, who introduced Indian classical music to Western audiences and composed film scores.

Ustad Bismillah Khan

Shehnai player, 1916 to 2006, who raised the instrument to concert status and received the Bharat Ratna in 2001.

Pandit Shivkumar Sharma

Santoor player, 1938 to 2022, who adapted the Kashmiri folk instrument to classical music under the guidance of his father Uma Dutt Sharma.

Alap, jod, jhala

The three unmetered-to-metrical sections of instrumental exposition: alap is free and gradual, jod introduces rhythmic gait, and jhala is the fast stroked climax.

Masitkhani and razakhani gat

Two forms of instrumental composition: masitkhani gat is slow and vilambit, while razakhani gat is fast and drut, usually set in Tintal or Jhaptal.

Tihai

A phrase repeated three times so that its final note falls exactly on sam, used to close a section of a gat or a tabla solo.