2. Let me start with my nostalgia from my younger days
3. Then from my fathers days
4. A popular song form a Telugu movie of a few decades
vintage
5. All these songs rendered are in the raga Khamas
6. Then what is a raga and what is Khamas?
7. To understand all these let me go back to certain
fundamentals, like an octave, and notes within an octave and then
notes of a raga etc
8. First, the concept of an octave is needed to understand
music. Let me demonstrate this on a veena.
9. In a veena, if the open string is plucked it gives a sound.
If half its length is plucked, a higher note is heard, which is an
octave higher to the previous note.
10. The range between the two notes is an octave. An octave is
divided into 12 musical intervals both in India and in the Western
music. We call these as swara-s and are named Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa,
Da and Ni, which abbreviations of Shadjam etc and collectively go
by the name sapta-swara-s (seven-notes) Actually, there are only
seven names for these twelve notes
11. That is, there are two varieties for Ri, Ga, Ma, Da and Ni
and none for Sa and Pa. The twelve notes, then, are as below,
located as successive frets on a veena. S r R g G m M P d D n N S
12 swaras of an octave
12. These twelve note in piano or harmonium are as below. S r R
g G m M P d D n N
13. Now let us come to a raga
14. A raga, may have a maximum of seven notes. There are rules
for this selection, For example there should be a minimum of five,
the ascent could be different from descent, and these could be
zig-zag. These are the basic rules, and there are many more.
15. Raga Khamas has the following notes S R G m P D n S But the
ascent (Arohana) is different from the descent (avarohana).
16. S m G m P D n S S R G m P D n S Arohana Avarohana The
arohana does not have Rishabham, and is zig-zag The avarohana
contains all seven notes and are regular This is called the scale
of a raga The raga allows use of the higher Ni, once in a way.
17. There are also further definitions to a raga beyond its
scale. For example, Graha swaras are the notes in which a
composition can start, nyasa swaras in which a phrase should end,
alpanyasa swsaras, acting as commas, amasa swaras bringing out the
essence of the raga, visesha prayogas, etc, etc.
18. Let Charulatha Mani demonstrate the Raga Let us go beyond
theory
19. Now Neyveli Santhanagopalan will define the raga through a
short rendering
20. There is a Daru Varnam in Khamas composed by Harikesanallur
Muthiah Bhagavathar which we are going to enjoy.
21. The composition is used as the title song for a film,
Morning raga
22. Who is better than the Bharata Ratna to show us the
composition at its classical form?