WBBSE Madhyamik Optional Instrumental Music case studies
WBBSE Madhyamik Optional Instrumental Music · Put your knowledge to work in context.
Instrumental Music is one of the optional elective subjects a West Bengal Madhyamik candidate may take in place of a regular elective, examined by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. It suits a Class 9–10 student who already learns an instrument - sitar, sarod, violin, flute, tabla, harmonium, esraj and similar - with a teacher, and who wants that steady practice to count toward the Madhyamik aggregate. The WBBSE Madhyamik Optional Instrumental Music case studies are 5 cases and about 4,192 words.
1Two pentatonic ragas, one 7:15 p.m. slot
At the district inter-school music competition, a Class X candidate has a ten-minute instrumental slot beginning at 7:15 p.m. His teacher has prepared two items: a drut gat in Bhoopali set to Teental, and a madhya-laya gat in Deshkar set to Jhaptal.
645 words, about 3 min2The Roopak theka that turns over in the wrong place
A tabla student is accompanying a Class IX bhajan group in Roopak tala at the annual function. In rehearsal she writes the theka on the board as: matra 1 - dha, 2 - na, 3 - na, 4 - tin, 5 - na, 6 - dha, 7 - na, with a cross (x) over matra 1 and a zero (0) over matra 4, and tells the group that 'the sam is the loudest beat, so start your song there'.
876 words, about 4 min3Monsoon, a worn bridge, and three days to the practical
Three days before his Madhyamik practical, a sitar player finds that his instrument - a seven-string sitar with eleven sympathetic strings - has developed a harsh buzzing javari on Pa and Dha of the first (baj) string, while Sa, Re, Ga and Ma still sound clean. The sitar has stood near an open window through three weeks of monsoon rain.
915 words, about 5 min4Eight minutes, three items, one tihai
A candidate's practical slot is eight minutes, strictly timed. He plans: (i) a maseetkhani gat in Teental, vilambit, with two avartans of alaap and one avartan of jod; (ii) a razakhani gat in the same raga and Teental, with jhala; (iii) a Jhaptal gat carrying a tihai built on a four-matra phrase played three times, timed so that the last stroke falls on sam.
835 words, about 4 min5The mukhda that begins on matra 14
A candidate submits handwritten notation of a drut bandish in Teental taught by his guru. In the guru's rendering the mukhda's first syllable falls on matra 14 of the cycle, and the remaining syllables fall on matras 15 and 16 and on sam.
921 words, about 5 min