WBCHSE HS Music cheat sheet

Vedic period (c. 1500–500 BCE): Samagana chanted from the Sama Veda using three-note (later seven-note) scales; the udgatri priest sang, the hotri recited Rigvedic verses.

Natyashastra of Bharata (c. 200 BCE–200 CE) is the earliest systematic treatise covering svara, grama, murchhana, jati and tala; it describes seven shuddha and five vikrita svaras.

Medieval period: Jayadeva's Gita Govinda (12th c.) fixed prabandha-style compositions; Amir Khusrau (13th c.) is credited with early Persian-influenced forms and the sitar/tabla tradition by later legend.

Puranandadasa and the 15th–16th century Bhakti movement shifted emphasis to pada-based devotional song, preparing the ground for dhrupad.

Raja Man Singh Tomar of Gwalior (late 15th c.) codified dhrupad in four vanis (Gauri, Nauhar, Khandar, Dagar) and the chautal-based repertoire.

Mughal era: Tansen (c. 1500–1586) at Akbar's court; his descendants founded the Senia gharana, and khyal rose to prominence from the 18th century onward.

Modern period: V. N. Bhatkhande (1860–1936) systematised the ten-that (thata) classification; V. D. Paluskar (1872–1931) founded the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya (1901) and standardised notation teaching.

Post-independence: All India Radio and the Sangeet Natak Akademi (1952) institutionalised patronage; gharana boundaries loosened as mass media and university syllabi spread.

Shruti: the smallest perceptible pitch interval; classical texts name 22 shrutis per saptak, though modern practice treats them as microtonal positions rather than fixed frequencies.

Swara: seven shuddha svaras - Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni; vikrit svaras are komal Re, Ga, Dha, Ni and tivra Ma, giving 12 semitone positions.

Saptak: the three registers - mandra (lower), madhya (middle), tar (upper); Sa of madhya saptak is the reference tonic and is movable (no fixed absolute pitch).

Grama and murchhana: the three ancient scales (shadja, madhyama, gandhara grama) and the procedure of shifting the tonic to derive new scales - the historical root of raga derivation.

Raga: a melodic framework defined by aroha (ascent), avaroha (descent), vadi (dominant), samvadi (sub-dominant), anuvadi and vivadi svaras, pakad (catch-phrase) and time (samay).

Tala: a metrical cycle of fixed matras divided into vibhags; sam is the first and strongest matra, tali are clapped, khali is waved (unmarked).

Laya: tempo - vilambit (slow), madhya (medium), drut (fast); laya is expressed as a ratio to the tala, e.g. dugun (2x) and chaugun (4x) of the matra.

Alankar and palta: ornamentation patterns (meend, gamak, kan, murki, khatka) and scale exercises used to build raga vocabulary.

Ten-that system (Bhatkhande): Bilaval (all shuddha), Khamaj (komal Ni), Kafi (komal Ga, Ni), Asavari (komal Ga, Dha, Ni), Bhairavi (all komal), Bhairav (komal Re, Dha), Kalyan (tivra Ma), Marwa (komal Re, tivra Ma), Purvi (komal Re, Dha, tivra Ma), Todi (komal Re, Ga, Dha, tivra Ma).

A raga must have at least five svaras; audav (5), shadav (6) and sampurna (7) combine into audav-audav, shadav-sampurna and similar jati labels.

Vadi is the king note and samvadi the minister; their interval is usually a fourth or fifth, and a raga's time of day follows the vadi's position on the cycle.

Aroha/avaroha may be vakra (zig-zag) rather than straight - e.g. raga Kafi uses komal Ga and Ni with shuddha Ma, whereas Bageshri omits Pa in ascent.

Sandhi-prakash ragas (e.g. Kafi–Bageshri, Bhairav–Bhairavi) borrow phrases of two parent ragas, usually at a change of time of day.

Comparison rule: two ragas sharing a scale are distinguished by vadi/samvadi, pakad, vakra movement and time - e.g. Bhairav vs. Malkauns (both komal Re/Dha vs. komal Ga/Dha/Ni).

Thaat is a scale (grammar); raga is a living melody (behaviour). A thaat is not performed; a raga must be rendered with vadi, samay and ornament.

Raga-rasa association: Bhairav and Todi are early-morning (shant/karuna), Malkauns and Bageshri late-night, Hindol and Deepak spring and evening.

Teental: 16 matras, 4 vibhags of 4; tali on matras 1, 5, 13; khali on 9; theka: dha dhin dhin dha / dha dhin dhin dha / dha tin tin ta / ta dhin dhin dha.

Jhaptal: 10 matras, 2+3+2+3; tali on 1, 3, 8; khali on 6. Ektal: 12 matras, 4+4+4; khali on matras 5 and 9 (in the common chautal-linked form).

Chautal (Chautala): 12 matras, 2+2+2+2+2+2; khali on matras 3 and 7; the standard dhrupad tala with pakhawaj.

Dadra: 6 matras, 3+3, khali on 4; Keherwa: 8 matras, 4+4, khali on 5; Rupak: 7 matras, 3+2+2, khali on matra 1 (sam is khali - a distinguishing rule).

Dhamar: 14 matras, 5+2+3+4, associated with the Holi dhamar form; Ada Chautal: 14 matras, 2+4+4+4.

Tilwada: 16 matras like teental but with a different theka and khali placement, used for khyal; Punjabi and Sultaal are 16- and 10-matra variants respectively.

Notation convention: matra numbers are written above the line, tali symbols (x, 2, 3) and khali (0) mark vibhags; a vertical bar separates vibhags.

Laya multiples: dugun = 2 matras per beat, tigun = 3, chaugun = 4; in teental dugun fills 8 beats, chaugun 4 beats, per 16-matra cycle.

Bhatkhande notation: svaras written in Devanagari or Roman capitals; shuddha as S R G M P D N, komal marked with an underline, tivra Ma with a vertical stroke or accent.

Octave marks: a dot above a svara = tar saptak, a dot below = mandra saptak; unmarked = madhya saptak.

Bar lines divide vibhags; matra numbers are written above each svara cluster, and sam is marked with the symbol x.

Meend (glide) is shown by a curved line joining two svaras; kan (grace note) by a small svara in brackets; murki and khatka by grouped small svaras.

Vilambit khyal in Bhatkhande swaralipi is written with one svara per matra or with grouped svaras showing the laya; the sthayi and antara are notated separately.

Paluskar notation uses similar svara symbols but different placement of matra numbers and is common in Maharashtra and in Gandharva Mahavidyalaya publications.

For percussion, theka is written as bols under matra numbers; an avartan (cycle) is closed with a double bar and the sam is marked.

A complete swaralipi entry for a composition lists: raga, tala, laya, composer, sthayi, antara, and (for dhrupad) sanchari and abhog.

Dhrupad: four-part structure - sthayi, antara, sanchari, abhog; set in chautal or dhamar; austere, with pakhawaj and often rudra veena; vanis: Gauri, Nauhar, Khandar, Dagar.

Khyal (bandish): two-part sthayi and antara, set in teental, ektal, jhaptal or tilwada; vilambit khyal allows extensive alap and bol-bant, drut khyal is compact and tala-focused.

Thumri: romantic, text-centred form in dadra, keherwa, addha or deepchandi; laggi, bol-banao and bandish-ki-thumri styles; associated with the Banaras and Lucknow gharanas.

Tappa: fast, rolling, text-driven form in Punjabi; attributed to Shori Miyan (Gulam Nabi), with tight vakra phrases and no elaborate alap.

Tarāna/Tillana: syllable-based (nom-tom, yala, dir-dir) compositions without semantic text, often in drut laya; tillana is the Carnatic equivalent.

Other forms: chaturang (four elements - svara, tala, pada, tarana), trivat, sadra, hori/dhamar (Holi songs in dhamar tala), and bhajan/ghazal outside the classical core.

Composition writing convention: sthayi states the raga's mukhya anga; antara explores the upper register (tar saptak) and usually names the composer in the last line.

Gharana composition signatures: composers sign with pen-names - Sadarang (Niamat Khan) and Adarang (Firoz Khan) for khyal, Tansen for dhrupad.

Khyal performance sequence: alap (raga introduction, no tala) → vilambit khyal with badhat → bol-alap/bol-bant → drut khyal → tihai and sam landing.

Dhrupad sequence: alap in four stages (unnayana, alap, jod, jhala) on rudra veena or voice, then nom-tom and the composition in chautal or dhamar.

Instrumental (sitar/sarod): alap-jod-jhala in the raga, then gat in a tala (often teental or jhaptal), with toda, jhala and tihai as closing devices.

Tihai rule: a phrase repeated three times so that the last note falls exactly on sam; calculation must fit the tala cycle, e.g. a 4-matra tihai in teental leaves 4 matras before sam.

Pakad and chalan are the practical tests of a raga: a performer must establish the raga within one avartan using its characteristic phrases, not merely its scale.

Tala accompaniment: the tabla player follows the theka, marks tali/khali, and answers the soloist's tihai; the pakhawaj player in dhrupad uses pranam, uthan and paran.

Vocal technique: murki and khatka are fast ornamental clusters; meend is a continuous glide; gamak is a heavy, oscillated attack - each is raga-appropriate.

Concert format: solo, jugalbandi (duet), or lehara/ nagma accompaniment; the lehara repeats a fixed melody to anchor tala for instrumental soloists.

Bharata: author of Natyashastra, the foundational text on svara, grama, murchhana, jati and tala; the first systematic Indian music theory.

Amir Khusrau (1253–1325): poet-musician of the Delhi Sultanate; later tradition credits him with the sitar, tabla and qawwali style - attributions are traditional, not documented.

Tansen (c. 1500–1586): court musician of Akbar; dhrupad composer; associated with ragas Deepak, Megh and Mian-ki-Malhar; founder-line of the Senia gharana.

Haridas Swami: 16th-century saint-musician of Vrindavan, traditionally named as Tansen's teacher; his disciples include Tansen and Baiju Bawra.

V. N. Bhatkhande (1860–1936): collected and published compositions, devised the ten-that system, wrote Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati, and standardised swaralipi.

V. D. Paluskar (1872–1931): founded Gandharva Mahavidyalaya (1901, Lahore; later Bombay), promoted notation-based mass teaching and the Paluskar svara notation.

Allauddin Khan (c. 1862–1972): Maihar gharana founder; teacher of Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan; expanded sarod technique and instrumental alap.

Onkar Nath Thakur (1897–1967): musicologist and dhrupad singer, author of Sangeetanjali; work on shruti and raga grammar.

Classical Indian classification: tata (stringed), sushira (wind), avanaddha (membrane/percussion), ghana (solid, non-tensioned - cymbals, jaltarang).

Tata instruments: sitar (7 main + 11–13 sympathetic strings, movable frets, gourd resonator), sarod (metal fingerboard, no frets, 4 main + 2 drone + sympathetic strings), sarangi (bowed, 3 main + 35–40 sympathetic).

Sitar tuning: main strings tuned to Sa–Pa–Sa (or Sa–Ma–Sa) with the remaining strings as drone and rhythmic (chikari) strings; sympathetic strings tuned to the raga's notes.

Sarod tuning: Sa–Pa–Sa–Ma (or per raga), with chikari strings set to Sa and Pa; the fretless steel fingerboard allows continuous meend.

Tanpura: four strings tuned Pa–Sa–Sa–Sa (or Ma–Sa–Sa–Sa for ragas omitting Pa); the jawari bridge produces the overtone-rich drone.

Avanaddha: tabla (dayan, tuned to Sa with the syahi and gatta; bayan tuned lower with a glissando), pakhawaj (barrel drum, both heads tuned with gatta), mridangam (Carnatic).

Sushira: bansuri (bamboo flute, six or seven holes, tuned to a tonic by cork position), shehnai (double reed, no holes stopped by the lips) and nagaswaram.

Ghana: manjira, jaltarang (tuned water bowls), and ghatam; the jaltarang is tuned by water level and is the clearest example of a pitched ghana instrument.