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| Indian classical music |
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| Concepts |
Swara (Sanskrit:स्वर) orsvara[1] is anIndian classical music term that connotes simultaneously a breath, avowel, a note, the sound of a musical note corresponding to its name, and the successive steps of theoctave, orsaptanka. More comprehensively, it is the ancient Indian concept of the complete dimension of musicalpitch.[2][3] At its most basic comparison to western music, aswara is, essentially, a "note" of a given scale. However, that is but a loose interpretation of the word, as aswara is identified as both a musical note and tone; a "tone" is a precise substitute forsur, relating to "tunefulness". Traditionally, Indian musicians have just sevenswaras/notes with short names: sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni, which they collectively refer to assaptank orsaptaka. This is one of the reasons whyswara is considered a symbolic expression for the number seven. In another loose comparison to western music,saptak (as an octave or scale) may be interpreted assolfège, e.g. the notes of a scale as Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti (and Do).
The wordsvara (Sanskrit:स्वर) is derived from the rootsvar- which means "to sound".[4] To be precise, thesvara is defined in the Sanskritnirukta system as:
TheKannada wordsvara andTamil alphabet or lettersuram do not represent a sound, but rather more generally theplace of articulation (PoA) (பிறப்பிடம்), where one generates a sound, and the sounds made there can vary in pitch.
The word is found in the Vedic literature, particularly theSamaveda, where it means accent and tone, or a musical note, depending on the context. The discussion there focusses on three accent pitch or levels:svarita (sounded, circumflex normal),udatta (high, raised) andanudatta (low, not raised). However, scholars question whether the singing of hymns and chants were always limited to three tones during the Vedic era.[4][5]
In the general sensesvara means tone, and applies to chanting and singing. The basic svaras of Vedic chanting areudatta,anudatta andsvarita. Vedic music hasmadhyama orma as principal note so that tonal movement is possible towards lower and higher pitches, thusma is taken for granted as fixed in any tonal music (madhyama avilopi, मध्यम अविलोपी).
One-svara Vedic singing is calledārcika chanting, e.g. in chanting the following texts on one note:
or the like. Two-svara Vedic singing is calledgāthika chanting, e.g. in chanting the following text on two notes:
| om | shaan- | tih, | om | shaan- | tih, | om | shaan- | tih, ... | ||
| M | M---- | P-M, | M | M---- | P-M, | M | M---- | P-M, ... | or | |
| P | P---- | D-P, | P | P---- | D-P, | P | P---- | D-P, ... | or | |
| S | S---- | R-S, | S | S---- | R-S, | S | S---- | R-S, ... |
The musical octave is said to have evolved from the elaborate and elongated chants of theSamaveda, based on these basic svaras.[6]Siksha is the subject that deals with phonetics and pronunciation.Naradiya Siksha elaborates the nature of svaras, both Vedic chants and the octave.
The word also appears in theUpanishads. For example, it appears inJaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana section 111.33, where the cyclic rise and setting of sun and world, is referred to as "the music of spheres", and the sun is stated to be "humming the wheel of the world".[7] According to the philosopherAnanda Coomaraswamy, the roots "svar", meaning "to shine" (whence "surya" or sun), and "svr", meaning "to sound or resound" (whence "svara", “musical note”) and also in some contexts "to shine", are all related in the ancient Indian imagination.[7][8] This connection, however, is not supported by linguistic evidence and mere speculative (cf.William Dwight Whitney:The Roots, Verb-Forms, and Primary Derivatives of the Sanskrit Language entry subsvar-, footnote. He states that because of close formal similarity between these two distinct roots it is hard to tell them apart. So it is a case ofhomophony. More recent linguistic research points out thatsvar- „sun” is related to theproto-indo-european root*sóh₂wl̥-, whereassvar- „sound“ is related to pie.*swer-.)
The concept of asvara is found in Chapter 28 of the textNāṭya Śāstra, estimated to have been completed between 200 BCE to 200 CE.[9] It names the unit of tonal measurement or audible unit theśruti,[10] with verse 28.21 introducing the musical scale as follows:[11][12]
तत्र स्वराः –
षड्जश्च ऋषभश्चैव गान्धारो मध्यमस्तथा ।
पञ्चमो धैवतश्चैव सप्तमोऽथ निषादवान् ॥२१॥
| नत्य शास्त्र | २८.२१ |
tatra svarāḥ –
ṣaḍjaśca ṛṣabhaścaiva gāndhāro madhyamastathā ।
pañcamo dhaivataścaiva saptamo'tha niṣādavān ॥21॥
This text contains the modern names:
[Here are the]swaras -
Shadaj, Rishabha, Gandhara, Madhyama,
Panchama, Dhaivata, [and seventh] Nishada.
These seven svaras are shared by both majorraga systems ofIndian classical music, that is the North Indian (Hindustani) and South Indian (Carnatic).[14]
Sapta svara, also calledsapta swara orsapta sur, refers to the seven distinct notes of theoctave or the seven successivesvaras of asaptak. Thesapta svara can be collectively referred to as thesargam (which is an acronym of the consonants of the first foursvaras).Sargam is the Indian equivalent tosolfège, a technique for the teaching ofsight-singing. As in Western moveable-Do solfège, thesvara Sa is thetonic of a piece or scale.[14] The sevensvaras of thesaptak are the fundamentals ofheptatonic scales ormelakartaragas andthaats in Carnatic and Hindustani classical music.
The sevensvaras areśaḍja (षड्ज),r̥ṣabha (ऋषभ),gāndhāra (गान्धार),madhyama (मध्यम),pañcama (पञ्चम),dhaivata (धैवत) andniṣāda (निषाद).[15] Thesvaras of thesargam are often learnt in abbreviated form:sā, ri (Carnatic) orre (Hindustani),ga, ma, pa, dha, ni.[14] Of these, the firstsvara that is"sa", and the fifth svara that is"pa", are considered anchors (achal svaras) that are unalterable, while the remaining have flavours (komal andtivra svaras) that differs between the two major systems.[14]
| Svara (Long) | Shadja (षड्ज) | Rishabh (ऋषभ) | Gandhar (गान्धार) | Madhyam (मध्यम) | Pancham (पंचम) | Dhaivat (धैवत) | Nishad (निषाद) |
| Svara (Short) | Sa (सा) | Re (रे) | Ga (गा) | Ma (म) | Pa (प) | Dha (ध) | Ni (नि) |
| 12 Varieties (names) | C (Shadja) | D♭ (komal re) D (shuddha re) | E♭ (komal gā) E (shuddha gā) | F (shuddha ma) F♯ (teevra ma) | G (pancham) | A♭ (komal dha) A (shuddha dha) | B♭ (komal ni) B (shuddha ni) |
| Svara (Long) | Shadjam | Rishabham | Gandharam | Madhyamam | Panchamam | Dhaivatam | Nishadam |
| Svara (Short) | Sa | Ri | Ga | Ma | Pa | Dha | Ni |
| 16 Varieties (names) | C (Shadjam) | D♭ (shuddha ri) D♮ (chatushruti ri) D♯ (shatshruti ri) | E (shuddha gā)E♭ (sadharana gā) E♮ (antara gā) | F♮ (shuddha ma) F♯ (prati ma) | G (panchamam) | A♭ (shuddha dha) A♮ (chatushruti dha) A♯ (shatshruti dha) | B (shuddha ni) B♭ (kaishiki ni) B♮ (kakali ni) |
North Indian Hindustani music has fixed names of a relative pitches, but South Indian Carnatic music keeps on making interchanges of the names of pitches in case of ri-ga and dha-ni whenever required. Swaras appear in successive steps in anoctave. More comprehensively, svara-graam (scale) is the practical concept of Indian music comprising seven + five= twelve most useful musical pitches.[2][3] Sage Matanga made a very important statement in his Brihaddeshi some 1500 years ago that:
- षड्जादयः स्वराः न भवन्ति
- आकारादयः एव स्वराः
- Shadaj aadayah svaraah na bhavanti
- aakar aadayah eva svaraah
i.e. Shadaj, Rishabh, Gandhar, ... (and their utterance) are not the real svaras but their pronunciation in the form of aa-kar, i-kaar, u-kaar ... are the real form of the svaras.
It is said thatShadaj is the basicsvara from which all the other 6svaras are produced. When we break the wordShadaj then we get, Shad- And -Ja.Shad is 6 andja is 'giving birth' in Indian languages. So basically the translation is :
षड् - 6, ज -जन्म . Therefore, it collectively means giving birth to the other 6 notes of the music.
The absolute frequencies for allsvaras are variable, and are determined relative to thesaptak or octave. E.g. given Sa 240 Hz, Re 270 Hz, Ga 288 Hz, Ma 320 Hz, Pa 360 Hz, Dha 405 Hz, and Ni 432 Hz, then the Sa after the Ni of 432 Hz has a frequency of 480 Hz i.e. double that of the lower octave Sa, and similarly all the other 6 svaras. Considering the Sa of the Madhya Saptak then frequencies of the other svaras will be,
Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha NiMandra Saptak: 120 Hz, 135 Hz, 144 Hz, 160 Hz, 180 Hz, 202.5 Hz, 216 Hz.}Madhya Saptak: 240 Hz, 270 Hz, 288 Hz, 320 Hz, 360 Hz, 405 Hz, 432 Hz.}Taara Saptak: 480 Hz, 540 Hz, 576 Hz, 640 Hz, 720 Hz, 810 Hz, 864 Hz.}
All the othersvaras exceptShadaj (Sa) andPancham (Pa) can bekomal ortivra svaras but Sa and Pa are alwaysshuddha svaras. And hencesvaras Sa and Pa are calledachal svaras, since thesesvaras don't move from their original position.Svaras Ra, Ga, Ma, Dha, Ni are calledchal svaras, since thesesvaras move from their original position.
Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni - Shuddha SvarasRe, Ga, Dha, Ni - Komal SvarasMa -Tivra SvarasTalking aboutShrutis of these Sapta Svaras,
Sa, Ma and Pa have four Shrutis, respectivelyRe and Dha have three Shrutis, respectivelyGa and Ni have two Shrutis, respectively
And these all Shrutis add up to 22 Shrutis in total.
Thesvara differs slightly from theśruti concept inIndian music. Both thesvara and theśruti are but the sounds of music. According to the music scholars of the distant past, theśruti is generally understood as a microtone besidesveda and an ear. In the context of advanced music, aśruti is the smallest gradation of pitch that ahuman ear can detect and a singer or instrument can produce.[19] There are 22śruti ormicrotones in asaptaka of Hindustani music but Carnatic music assumes 24śruti. Asvara is a selectedpitch from 22śrutis, using several of suchsvaras a musician constructs scales,melodies andragas. In the presence of a drone-sound of perfectly tunedTanpuras, an idealsvara sounds sweet and appealing to human ear but particularly some 10śrutis of thesaptaka sound out of pitch (besuraa) when compared to the very drone. A tuneful and pleasing tone of thesvara is located at a fixed interval but there is no fixed interval defined for two consecutiveśrutis anywhere that can safely and scientifically be used throughout with respect to a perfect drone sound.
Theancient Sanskrit textNatya Shastra by Bharata identifies and discusses twenty twoshruti and seven shuddha and two vikritasvara.[19] The Natya Shastra mentions that in Shadaj graama, the svara pairs saa-ma and saa-pa are samvaadi svaras (consonant pair) and are located at the interval of 9 and 13 shruti respectively. Similarly, svara pairs re-dha and ga-ni are samvaadi svara too. Without giving any example of 'a standard measure' or 'equal interval' between two successive shrutis, Bharata declared that saa, ma or pa shall have an interval of 4 shrutis measured from the pitch of the preceding svara, re or dha shall have an interval of 3 shrutis measured from the pitch of the preceding svara and ga or ni shall have an interval of 2 shrutis measured from the pitch of the preceding svara respectively. The following quote explains it all:
चतुश्चतुश्चतुश्चैव षड्जमध्यमपञ्चमाः
द्वे द्वे निषादगान्धारौ त्रिस्त्री ऋषभधैवतौ
Chatush chatush chatush chaiva Shadaj madhyama panchamaah.
Dve dve nishaada gaandhaarau tristrii rishabha dhaivatau.
Bharata also makes some unscientific and unacceptable observations ignoring practically proven truths likesamvaad (samvaada/ संवाद) or consonance of ma-ni, re-dha, re-pa and ga-ni as each of these svara pairs do not have equal number of shrutis to establish samvaad. In reality, the above-mentioned pairs DO create samvaad or consonances which Bharata did not recognize for unknown reasons. None of the musicologists give in writing the 'practical basis' or technique of ascertaining the ideal tonal gap between the note pairs like saa-re, re-ga, ga-ma, ma-pa, pa-dha, dha-ni, ni-saa* (taar saa) until Sangeet Paarijat of Ahobal (c. 1650). Thesvara studies in ancient Sanskrit texts include themusical gamut and itstuning, categories ofmelodic models and theraga compositions.[20]
Perhaps the greats like Bharata, Sage Matanga and Shaarnga-deva did not know the secret of tuneful tones (up to acceptable level of normal human ear, on the basis of taanpuraa drone) for they do not mention use of drone sound for any of the musical purposes. Most of the practicing musicians knew very well that all the tuneful tones of seven notes could be discovered with the help of the theory of samvaad, in which saa-saa* (*means upper octave), saa-ma and saa-pa play the most crucial role.
As per the widely usedBhatkhande Svara Lipi (Bhakthande's Swar Notation script), a dot above a letter (svara symbol) indicates that the note is sung onesaptak (octave) higher, and a dot below indicates one saptak lower.Komal notes are indicated by an underscore, and thetívra Ma has a line on top which can be vertical or horizontal. (Or, if a note with the same name - Sa, for example - is an octave higher than the note represented by S, an apostrophe is placed to the right: S'. If it is an octave lower, the apostrophe is placed to the left: 'S. Apostrophes can be added as necessary to indicate the octave: for example, ``g would be the note komal Ga in the octave two octaves below that which begins on the note S (that is, two octaves below g).) In other words, the basic rule is that the number of dots or apostrophes above or below the svara symbol means the number of times dots or apostrophes, respectively, above or below the corresponding svara in madhya saptak (middle octave).
The basic mode of reference in the Hindustani system is that which is equivalent to the WesternIonian mode or major scale (calledBilavalthaat in Hindustani music,Sankarabharanam inCarnatic). In the Carnatic system however, the beginner exercises are sung in the ragaMayamalavagowla, which corresponds to the WesternDouble harmonic scale. The reason for this being the symmetry of the scale, with the first half mirroring the second half, and the existence of all the important intervals (half, whole and double note). This is something that is absent in the major scale, which only consists of half and whole notes. In any seven-tone mode (starting with S), R, G, D, and N can benatural (shuddha, lit. 'pure') orflat (komal, 'soft') but never sharp, and the M can be natural orsharp (teevra) but never flat, making twelve notes as in the Westernchromatic scale. If a svara is not natural (shuddha), a line below a letter indicates that it is flat (komal) and an acute accent above indicates that it is sharp (tīvra, 'intense'). Sa and Pa are immovable (once Sa is selected), forming a justperfect fifth.
In some notation systems, the distinction is made with capital and lowercase letters. When abbreviating these tones, the form of the note which is relativelylower in pitch always uses alowercase letter, while the form which ishigher in pitch uses anuppercase letter. Sokomal Re/Ri uses the letter r andshuddha Re/Ri, the letter R, butshuddha Ma uses m because it has a raised form -teevra Ma - which uses the letter M. Sa and Pa are always abbreviated as S and P, respectively, since they cannot be altered.
| Semitones from Tonic | Carnatic name | Hindustani name | Western note (when thetonic, Sa, isC) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full form | Abbreviation | Full form | Abbreviation | ||
| 0 | Ṣaḍjam | Sa | Ṣaḍj | Sa | C |
| 1 | Śuddha R̥ṣabham | Ri₁ | Kōmal R̥ṣabh | Re | D♭ |
| 2 | Catuśruti R̥ṣabham | Ri₂ | Śuddh R̥ṣabh | Re | D |
| Śuddha Gāndhāram | Ga₁ | E𝄫 | |||
| 3 | Ṣaṭśruti R̥ṣabham | Ri₃ | Kōmal Gāndhār | Ga | D♯ |
| Sādhāraṇa Gāndhāram | Ga₂ | E♭ | |||
| 4 | Antara Gāndhāram | Ga₃ | Śuddh Gāndhār | Ga | E |
| 5 | Śuddha Madhyamam | Ma₁ | Śuddh Madhyam | Ma | F |
| 6 | Prati Madhyamam | Ma₂ | Tīvra Madhyam | Ḿa | F♯ |
| 7 | Pañcamam | Pa | Pañcam | Pa | G |
| 8 | Śuddha Dhaivatam | Dha₁ | Kōmal Dhaivat | Dha | A♭ |
| 9 | Catuśruti Dhaivatam | Dha₂ | Śuddh Dhaivat | Dha | A |
| Śuddha Niṣādam | Ni₁ | B𝄫 | |||
| 10 | Ṣaṭśruti Dhaivatam | Dha₃ | Kōmal Niṣād | Ni | A♯ |
| Kaiśikī Niṣādam | Ni₂ | B♭ | |||
| 11 | Kākalī Niṣādam | Ni₃ | Śuddh Niṣād | Ni | B |
Thesvaras in Carnatic music are slightly different in the twelve-note system. Eachsvara is eitherprakr̥ti (invariant) orvikr̥ti (variable).Ṣaḍjam andPañcamam areprakr̥ti svaras, whilstR̥ṣabham,Gāndhāram,Mādhyamam,Dhaivatam andNiṣādam arevikr̥ti svaras. Ma has two variants, and each of Ri, Ga, Dha and Ni has three variants. The mnemonic syllables for eachvikṛti svara use the vowels "a", "i" and "u" successively from lowest to highest. For example,r̥ṣabham has the three ascending variants "ra", "ri" and "ru", being respectively 1, 2 and 3 semitones above the tonic note,ṣaḍjam.
| Position | Svara (स्वर) | Short name | Notation | Mnemonic[21] | Semitones from Sa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ṣaḍjam (षड्जम्) | Sa | S | sa | 0 |
| 2 | Śuddha R̥ṣabham (शुद्ध ऋषभम्) | Ri | R₁ | ra | 1 |
| 3 | Catuśruti R̥ṣabham (चतुश्रुति ऋषभम्) | Ri | R₂ | ri | 2 |
| Śuddha Gāndhāram (शुद्ध गान्धारम्) | Ga | G₁ | ga | ||
| 4 | Ṣaṭśruti R̥ṣabham (षट्श्रुति ऋषभम्) | Ri | R₃ | ru | 3 |
| Sādhāraṇa Gāndhāram (साधारण गान्धारम्) | Ga | G₂ | gi | ||
| 5 | Antara Gāndhāram (अन्तर गान्धारम्) | Ga | G₃ | gu | 4 |
| 6 | Śuddha Madhyamam (शुद्ध मध्यमम्) | Ma | M₁ | ma | 5 |
| 7 | Prati Madhyamam (प्रति मध्यमम्) | Ma | M₂ | mi | 6 |
| 8 | Pañcamam (पञ्चमम्) | Pa | P | pa | 7 |
| 9 | Śuddha Dhaivatam (शुद्ध धैवतम्) | Dha | D₁ | dha | 8 |
| 10 | Catuśruti Dhaivatam (चतुश्रुति धैवतम्) | Dha | D₂ | dhi | 9 |
| Śuddha Niṣādam (शुद्ध निषादम्) | Ni | N₁ | na | ||
| 11 | Ṣaṭśruti Dhaivatam (षट्श्रुति धैवतम्) | Dha | D₃ | dhu | 10 |
| Kaiśikī Niṣādam (कैशिकी निषादम्) | Ni | N₂ | ni | ||
| 12 | Kākalī Niṣādam (काकली निषादम्) | Ni | N₃ | nu | 11 |
As you can see above,Catuśruti Ṛṣabham andŚuddha Gāndhāram share the same pitch (3rd key/position). Hence if C is chosen asṢaḍjam, D would be bothCatuśruti R̥ṣabham andŚuddha Gāndhāram. Hence they will not occur in same rāgam together. Similarly for the two svaras each at pitch positions 4, 10 and 11.[22]
So eachsvara is said to be sourced from the sound produced by an animal or a bird.[24]
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| Semi-classical genres | ||
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