All art
submits to its audience a form for aesthetic appreciation. Literature submits a verbal form. Painting
and sculpture submit a visual form. Architecture submits visual and spatial/enveloping
forms which warrant aesthetic evaluation apart from the structure’s functional
values. Music submits an auditory form. Like
other forms, the musical form is governed by a “commanding form” which governs
the entirety of the musical endeavor and its experience. With specific reference to Western art
music, the influential aesthetician, Susanne K Langer, granted the status of the "Commanding Form" appropriately to the composition. In Hindustani
music, we find that the composition is itself subservient to the Raga. In our music, therefore, the status of the “commanding
form” most be accorded to the Raga.
A Raga is a partially
precomposed matrix of melodic contours, tight enough to remain recognizable
and loose enough to provide substantial creative freedom. Each Raga justifies
itself as performance material because it makes a distinctive emotional
statement. It can be described as a psycho acoustic hypothesis which relates
qualifying melodic patterns to the associated quality of emotional responses. At
each rendition, a musician works on this hypothesis and deploys his creativity
in an attempt to maximize the probability of communicating the associated
emotional idea.
Raga-s are
not “composed” by any particular musician. Their origins are mostly indeterminate.
They evolve over a period of time from a variety of source melodies as plausible
triggers for well-defined categories of emotional responses. It is estimated
that the melodic grammar of about a 1500 Ragas has been documented. The music-scape of each generation sees some
Raga-s coming into circulation, and some going out of fashion. The core of
commonly performed ragas remains around 200.
Note: For a comprehensive view on this subject, read: "Hindustani Sangeet and a Philosopher of Art" by SK Saxena, DK Printworld, New Delhi 2001.
Note: For a comprehensive view on this subject, read: "Hindustani Sangeet and a Philosopher of Art" by SK Saxena, DK Printworld, New Delhi 2001.
