| Indian classical music |
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| Concepts |
Alankara (Sanskrit:अलंकार,romanized: Alaṃkāra), also referred to as palta oralankaram, is a concept inIndian classical music and literally means "ornament, decoration". Analankara is any pattern of musical decoration a musician or vocalist creates within or across tones, based on ancient musical theories or driven by personal creative choices, in a progression ofsvaras. The termalankara is standard inCarnatic music, while the same concept is referred to aspalta oralankara inHindustani music.
The ancient and medieval music scholars of India state that there are unlimited creative possibilities available to a musician, but each scholar illustrated the concept with a set ofalankara. Datilla discussed 13alankaras, Bharata Muni presented 33, Sarngadeva described 63alankaras, while mid medieval scholars presented numerous more.[1] The Indian music tradition classifiesalankara as rational or irrational, wherein irrationalalankara being those that cannot be reduced to a fixed scale degree pattern. The Indian theory ofgamaka covers the group of irrationalalankara.[1] The concept ofalankara applies to both vocal and musical instrument performance.[1]
Purandara Dasa, the father of modern Carnatic music, developed learning exercises for students based onalankara andsvaravali, where the student systematically repeats a certain set of patterns over three octave registers, across variousragas andtalas.[2]
A song without anyalankara,
would be like a night without a moon,
a river devoid of water,
a vine without any flower,
and a woman without any ornament.
Here are some common types ofalankara used in classical music are
Alankara also refers to:
