A vocalist or instrumentalist can be identified on a recording by tuning in to the timbre or tonal quality of the voice or instrument. There are, of course, those who attempt to clone their idols or follow in the tradition established by their gurus or grand-gurus, but the difference between the original and the rest is evident to those with years of listening behind them.
The freshness exuded by the radiant quality of world-renowned maestro Ravi Shankar’s sitar is identifiable to seasoned listeners. In the third part of our series on instrumental interpretations of the raag Yaman and its close variant, Yaman Kalyan, we present a track featuring this iconic cultural ambassador of Indian music.
This live concert recording has an exposition of Yaman Kalyan. It begins with an aalaap, an introductory movement unaccompanied by the tabla. After exploring the kharaj or the octave immediately below the madhya or middle octave, Shankar moves to the laraj string that allows him to exploit deeper and more sonorous tones of yet another octave lower than the kharaj. Moving back to the kharaj, onto the madhya and then to the taar (the octave above the madhya), he uses the entire range of the instrument to the fullest.
Among the many features that establish the artistic identity of performers is the proportion they maintain between sound and silence, the sense of pause that they display in the manner that they distance discreet musical phrases, and the pace that they introduce within each phrase. Listeners will note that Shankar, while using gradual and long meends or glides between notes, slips in a faster phrase every now and then to avoid monotony and bring in different moods of the raag.
He follows the aalaap with the jod, a section that is also unaccompanied by the tabla but has a definite pulse. Here, Shankar plays staccato notes, although the meends and gamaks (oscillations on individual notes) are equally present. He quickens the pace of the jod progressively as he ascends yet again from the lower notes to the higher octave.
Concluding the jod with gamak taans and percussive right-hand strokes, Shankar moves to the gat or the instrumental composition. Unfortunately, the beginning of the gat is not part of the track, but what we can hear is a gat in medium paced Rupak, a taal or time-cycle of seven matras or time units. The elaboration has a heavy focus on the rhythmic aspect, as he often resolves musical ideas with tihais – phrases that are mathematically designed to be repeated thrice and kept equidistant so that the last syllable or note coincides with the sam/sum or the first matra of the cycle. Shankar also introduces different metrical patterns, like tigun or three notes in a matra, chaugun or four notes, and chhegun or six notes.
The tabla responds to each of the rhythmic statements that Shankar makes and goes on to anticipate his phrases.
