Write an Significance of “Swara” in Indian Music – Essay
Answers
Swara is that sound which has some meaning and which possesses a distinct identity. Sound becomes music only when it holds a specific connotation among other sound along with rhythm. Music, be it Indian or Western, is based on Swaras. It is composed of different configurations of Swaras. The basic Swara in Indian music is called Shadaj.
It is also known as the basic swara. Since the literal meaning of the word shadaj is six, it can be easily understood that this basic swara is always related to six other swaras. The spectrum of swaras in Indian music is thus composed of seven bands also known as saptak. In Indian music the swaras are not related with a fixed pitch unlike the Western music.
It is the musician here who defines the pitch of shadaj and accordingly other six swaras get located on the musical spectrum. Western music, however, has the concept of an “absolute pitch”. This means specific pitch for specific swaras. Likewise the musical instruments are created according to fixed pitches.The second important element in Indian music is the beat or taal. Traditionally taal is considered an integral feature of Indian music. It is a process through which rhythm gets depicted in musical compositions. The taal is further measured in terms of the numerical content of the pulse in each composition.
Thus when the pulse is slow, the composition is called vilambit. A medium pulse count makes it madhyam; the faster counts are called as drut pulse. Innumerable combinations of these pulse counts provide such a tremendous variety in Indian music. The taals are generally played through percussion instruments such as jhanjh, manjira (metallic) etc. and mridang, pakhavaj, tabla, (drums) etc.