-Have been very busy commuting to Cambridge and back and generally feeling very happy attending lectures, but been fluey and too tired to do much else.

-A and I have finally going over to the dark side and have bought a car. We have resisted doing this for a few years. Both his parents and mine have been after us to get one, but what with living very near good transport links we’ve not really felt the need for one or the associated expense. But now as I will be commuting a lot for the PhD, the tube becoming pretty hellish pre-Olympics and us feeling the need to explore England more, we have decided that the time has come. I am having fond fantasises of getting A to drive me to historic sites and gardens and to nurseries. It will mainly be A doing the driving as I haven’t got my license yet. He is trying to change that situation!

-A has been baking nonstop. Chocolate tarts, lemon tarts, brownies…My mother was here for a few days and brought a halwai’s shop worth of mithai with her so there was some seriously unhealthy eating going on here. Not that I’m putting on any weight. Useless.

-Have lately been listening to this album, which a jugalbandi of the Gundecha Brothers (Dhrupad) and the Malladi Brothers (Carnatic). It’s not exactly easily available. They recently performed again in Chicago, here’s a vigorous fast-paced Shankara Girijapati by all four:

Related Posts:

• Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 13-What’s your frequency? The Tanpura/Tambura and finding your Sur, Shruti or Pitch
• Sa and Pa not always fixed?
• A Question of Variety; Carnatic or Hindustani Music?
• V is for Veena
• T is for Tanpura not Sitar; it’s Good to Know the Difference

I really like the Dilruba in this one. The bass is also lovely.

Related Posts:

• Misc Nothings vii
• Microtones of Saveri on Veena-Sung and Played (English)
• What is a Raga (8)?: The Chalan (characteristic phrases) of a Raga
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Music of India
• A rare sight

Related Posts:

• What is a Raga (8)?: The Chalan (characteristic phrases) of a Raga
• Congratulations Vidya!
• What is a Raga (1)?
• Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 14: More on Sur/Shruti or Pitch
• Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 13-What’s your frequency? The Tanpura/Tambura and finding your Sur, Shruti or Pitch

The chalan can be thought of as an expansion of the pakad. Pakad and chalan are concepts peculiar to Hindustani music, however there is a similar concept to chalan in Carnatic music (the use of prayogas), which will be discussed in a forthcoming post.

Chalan literally means “movement” or “gait” or way of moving. There may be Ragas without a pakad for which there are chalans.

The chalan demonstrates the melodic outline of a Raga. A Raga’s chalan shows one the characteristic ways of using clusters of notes or clusters of phrases in the development of a Raga.

A Raga may have the same or similar notes, arranged in the same way in the aroh and avroh (as in the Ragas Bhoop and Deshkar which have the same notes), however the chalan can show you how different clusters of notes are deployed in each Raga differently.

The chalan of a Raga can show you not only how swaras are grouped differently, but how they are differently intoned (this is learned through listening).

Here is a video from ShadjaMadhyam that explains the concept of chalan quite well, using the Ragas Bhoop and Deshkar as an example. Both Ragas have the same notes, i.e. S R G P D S. However, the chalan gives one an idea of the how the swaras are used differently in each Raga. (Note: It is not just the chalan that helps us see the difference between Bhoop and Deshkar, the difference in raga-anga, a concept to be discussed later, is also very important. If you want to read more on the difference in approach to Bhoop and Deshkar, Parrikar’s article is the best.)

If you ask some musicians to sing you some sample chalans of the same Raga, they will not all sing them in exactly the same way with exactly the same patterns of notes. The chalans, can, however, be very similar, especially when there is a consensus across the different gharanas , or different schools of music, over the general devlopment and form of a Raga.

Nachiketa Sharma discusses the Raga Yaman and the concept of chalan in the video below. He begins his chalan with the most well recognised phrase of the Raga Yaman, i.e. ‘N-R-G.

Notice that in some ascending phrases in his chalan Sharma skips the note Pa (e.g at 3:49). Sa and Pa are often skipped in ascending sequences in Yaman (though not always) and a chalan should illustrate this.

As Rajan Parrikar says, “The skipping of shadaj[Sa] and pancham[Pa] in arohi [ascending] movements – N’ R G and m D N – lends Yaman a distinct locus.”

The pakad, and more so the chalan, can provide a grammatical and aesthetical framework with which to understand a Raga’s swara groupings and movements. As usual, however, a note of caution: Chalan(s) do not a Raga make. A musician improvises while singing a Raga using its swaras, various microtonal ornamentations and it’s particular “feel” or “feels” (bhava/s), that can only be learned through a lot of listening and practice.

Related Posts:

• What is a Raga (7): The Pakad or the “Grip” of a Raga
• What is a Raga (1)?
• Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 13-What’s your frequency? The Tanpura/Tambura and finding your Sur, Shruti or Pitch
• Sa and Pa not always fixed?
• Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 12-The Saptaswaras in the South- the Carnatic notes

“We are preparing a digital version of the book in the US. It will be more versatile and will be available to people all over the world through the Oxford reference shelf,” Oxford University Press India’s Managing Director Manzar Khan said…link

But the question is, how soon will it be available? Can I wait?

Related Posts:

• What is a Raga (8)?: The Chalan (characteristic phrases) of a Raga
• Some more Kaushiki
• The Girl with the Runaway Taan
• What is a Raga (5): Similar Aarohana and Avarohana-Different Ragas
• What is a Raga (4)-Raga Jati