Improvisation in Alapana Performance: A Comparative View of Raga Shankarabharana

Abstract

Improvisation is an essential aspect of Indian music and Indian culture. It is evident not only music but the other arts, literature, and the folk tradition. Improvisation is a continuous process that has flourished from the past to the present India. This paper considers one kind of improvisation, the alapana2 of Karnatak (South Indian Classical) music from a point of view that combines the experience of a Karnatak performer with the modes of enquiry used ethnomusicology. Alapana is the improvisation purely upon the raga (melodic resource) and usually precedes and introduces a pre-composed form (e.g. kriti) or an improvised form, (e.g. tana or palavi). The word is defined Apte's Sanskrit-English Dictionary as running over the notes. Alapana is rhythmically free and abstract, using neither text nor solf4ge (pitch syllables). It is subject to a performer's individual style within the norms of the Karnatak tradition. In alapana the performer reveals both the elements and the essence (bhava) of a particular raga, using musical and personal experience as communication. Before proceeding to the discussion of alapana performance, the author offers some brief observations about several sources for the alapana improvisation-pre-composed forms and improvised forms. Karnatak music is of two major kinds: (1) kalpita sangita (created music), which is composed prior to performance by a musician other than the performer, and (2) kalpana sangita (music that is imagined), which is created during performance through improvisation. Kalpita sangita embraces a variety of forms (gita, svarajati, jatisvara, taya, and prabanda) that are used for training musicians. These forms incorporate the elements of text and time cycle (tala). Varna, an important one of these forms, is used both as a training exercise and as a warm up piece for concerts. Kriti, kirtana, pada, javali and tillana also constitute major forms the concert repertory (Ayyangar 1965: 9-13). Kalpana sangita, also called manodharma sangita (imagination of the mind), embraces several varieties of improvised music addition to alapana. Neraval (text elaboration), also called sahitya prastara, improvises on a section of a kriti, a form which the text and tala are performed as composed, but with variations created within these limits: the meaning of the text can be highlighted by reordering the text and its melody to create clever word displays while staying within the structure of the pre-composed piece. In pre-composed forms, musical elements idiomatic to a specific raga are presented synthesis. In such forms the details of svara (pitch syllables), gamaka (ornaments), and phrase contours specific to a raga are already summarized and presented in a nutshell.