Hindustani Music...breaking it down.

I chose a rather brief piece for this posting, you can find it here

While it’s short, I think it is a great short demonstration of many of the concepts of Hindustani classical music mentioned in the book. First, it was composed of the normal elements: a drummer, a drone (provided by what appears to be a tambura), and a soloist, in this case a vocal soloist. The drone in this piece and many others I observed is fairly quiet; it is definitely meant to serve as a backdrop for the featured soloist and drummer. Also, although it is hard to pick out, it is definitely made of two notes, one of which was the tonal center; you could tell because the soloist would return to it frequently.

The style of the voice was emblematic of Indian music; there was a fairly noticeable melody with a great deal of the improvisation/ornamentation associated with Hindustani music. It sounded as if she was using the Asavri that, but I could be wrong on that. It was interesting to hear a note other then the sa being the emphasis; the vadi was definitely the dha, which in this that is a dha-komal.

The drummer was not visible but played a major role in the song. I could not tell what type of drum it was, but the rhythm was very obviously the tala tintal. The first vibhag was sam, second was the loudest and the third was khali (I apologize, I do not know how to properly conjugate that sentence). :(

From what I read and listened to, this song presents all the major elements of Hindustani classical music in just a minute and a half. Amazing how much there is to this music when you know what you’re listening for...