| Carnatic |
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| Culture |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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ancient Vedic chantings, we have only three swara sthanas, denoted
as normal, low and high. Interestingly, the pitch steps
corresponding to these three swara sthanas can be represented by the
F, G and A keys. Vedic chants of later periods use as many as seven
swaras and are often described as the precursors of the raga
system. The twelve swara sthanas are generally considered to be the
maximum number of sthanas that a normal human ear can perceive to be
different without too much difficulty. Western music believes in
specifying the absolute pitch of all swaras and thus, the
frequencies of all keys are fixed and the same for all keyboards (in
fact, all instruments, if one can locate the corresponding notes).
Indian music is based on relative positioning and thus, notes are
not of fixed pitch. The note Sa is the analog of the note C. The
white key marked C is called as one kattai and the successive white
keys are assigned values of two kattais, three kattais and so on.
The black keys are assigned fractional values (one and a half, two
and half and so on). Note that there is no three and a half kattai
pitch. The sruthi accompaniment (tampoora or sruthi box) provides
the reference pitch and we indicate the reference pitch by saying
that somebody sings at one and half kattai pitch, or a veena is
tuned to four and half kattais. This simply means that the Sa has
been set to that pitch and all other swaras occupy corresponding
sthanas. The importance of the Sa is that it provides the fixed
foundation note upon which the rest of the music is built. Such a
foundation note exists in classical Western music also and is
indicated by the scale name eg. F-Major indicates that the tune is
built using F as the base note. The base note can be discriminated
with a little practice since the music generally returns to dwell on
the base note every now and then. |
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