Raga

What it means

A raga, in the classical music of India, is far more than a scale. It comprises a stock of notes, but equally characteristic melodic turns, emphasized and goal notes, different courses ascending and descending, particular kinds of ornamentation, and an expressive character. Two ragas can have the same stock of notes and yet sound fundamentally different, because the manner of treatment distinguishes them.

Since presenting Indian music theory in European terminology easily leads astray, caution is called for with every such transfer.

Musical use

Some features can nonetheless be named. The music is monophonic-melodic and is performed over a continuously sounding drone that holds the tonic — and usually the fifth; all pitches relate to this freely chosen tonic, not to an absolute tuning. Execution is to a large extent improvised, though within the strict order that the respective raga prescribes.

Traditionally, ragas are also connected with times of day, seasons, and moods; which raga is played when belongs to the tradition. The North Indian and the South Indian traditions differ considerably in terminology, systematics, and practice; in South Indian music, ragas are derived from systematically ordered basic scales.

The pitches do not correspond to those of the European tempered system, and ornaments often consist of gliding movements between notes that can only be approximately represented in European notation.

A raga fixes, alongside the choice of notes, characteristic turns, principal and subordinate notes, ornaments, as well as a mood called rasa. Many ragas are traditionally assigned a time of day or a season. The performance often begins with a free, unaccompanied part, the alap, in which the raga is unfolded note by note, before drums and metre are added.

Performance practice

Approach this music through recordings and, if possible, through instruction within the tradition; the decisive thing stands in no scale table. Listen first to the drone and to how the melody relates to it. And transfer European concepts only with caution — “scale” does not capture the matter.