The Call of the Swara : Indian Classical Music

The Call of the Swara : Indian Classical Music

ब्रह्मप्रणवसन्धाने नादो ज्योतिर्मयः शिवः ।

स्वयमाविर्भवेदात्मा मेघापायेंऽशुमानिव ॥

In the search for Brahman as ‘Om’,

the Creative word, the luminous

and auspicious form of Nada appears.

Just as the sun reveals itself dispersing the clouds,

so too the Self shines forth.

The Call of the Swara

The Importance of Swara

Why do we go to a concert of Indian music? In the beginning, it may be for several reasons. We may go to be entertained, or because a famous artist is performing, or to hear how a particu lar Raga is played or sung or because we enjoy listening to a particular instrument.

Ustad Rais Khan, Sitarist of Mewati gharana [ The Call of the Swara : Indian Classical Music ]
Ustad Rais Khan, Sitarist of Mewati gharana
And then perhaps, one day, we have a strange experience and everything changes. We come across a musician who is much more than a good voice, a fine interpretor of a Raga or a style. He is something else which we feel but cannot explain. He cannot be compared with others. He is himself. His music rings true. It sinks deeper in us and invites our own truth and being to reveal itself. It is ever new and fresh and can never get old.

Our attitude changes. We now go to a concert not merely to hear a beautiful voice or a Raga but to hear such a person, who can put his whole being into his music. His songs say what he is or has become and not what he has learnt or acquired. What, we ask ourselves, is the secret? It lies hidden in that very special Indian concept called the Swara.’

Pandit Omkar Nath Thakur, a famous name in Indian music, once said, “Let us make one thing clear. There are only two kinds of musicians. One is and the other isn’t…. You can follow any Gharana or Sampradaya you like. It is all the same. You must know that it is the Swara alone which is real.

After acquiring it you can learn any composition, any Raga. Ten Ragas or one makes no difference. In the Swara you have acquired the right to every song, every Raga ever conceived in the mind of man, now and forever more. But that is only if you have gained the Swara in every note of the scale.”*²

[ The Call of the Swara : Indian Classical Music ]

The Meaning of Swara

What is Swara? The word itself gives a clue to its meaning. It is a Sanskrit word and is made up of “Swa”, which stands for ‘Self’, and “Ra”, which stands for ‘shining forth’. We can now see that by the force of Swara man’s Self is expected to shine through.

A good voice may have a fine range, depth, tonal beauty, power, a true pitch which are all its attributes. Swara is something else that is not a sum of these parts. It is a matter of quality, of presence. This quality adds a new dimension. Swara is an agent of change, a change which transforms without adding or subtracting from the voice.

Ustad Amanat Ali Khan of Patiala Gharana
Ustad Amanat Ali Khan of Patiala Gharana

There is a lovely story which Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar revealed on his death bed. Once, while wandering in the jungles near Indore, he heard a Sanyasi singing in a temple in ruins. As he listened, awestruck by the power of the voice, he saw to his wonder the temple glowing as though on fire. Deeply moved and shaken by this experience, he asked the Sanyasi whether he could also acquire this power in his singing and whether the mendicant would teach him.

Seeing the Sanyasi undecided, Panditji said that he was prepared to give up everything, even become a Sanyasi, if that would give him this power in his song. “No”, replied the singer, “it is when you get this quality in your Swara that you will have already become a Sanyasi”.

There is a profound truth in the Sanyasi’s laconic statement. It is not by becoming a Sanyasi that we acquire spiritual power and force. It is by following the spiritual path that we become inwardly a Sanyasi. This is the single-minded pursuit of the Swara. As the Swara enters our nature, our Self begins to shine through our music. The Swara makes us into musicians, makes us musically significant.’

1-2. Omkarnath Thakur-Vocal-Raga Malkauns

[ The Call of the Swara : Indian Classical Music ]

Swara and Notes

The word “note” is often used to describe the Swara. But this is not entirely apt. We need to distinguish between the two.

A note can be produced by any mechanical means. By striking the edges of cups of water, or striking strips of wood or pieces of metal of different lengths, or pulling horsehair across a taut catgut, or striking a stretched skin with a padded stick. In short, all we need is a frequency of vibration, within a certain limit its, and we have a musical note. But the Swara is something more.

Ustad Asad Ali Khan rudra veena player Beenkar gharana
Ustad Asad Ali Khan rudra veena player Beenkar gharana

The concept of the Swara is based on the assumption that there are two faces to a musical sound: an inner face and an outer face. The outer face is what we are accustomed to calling a note. The Swara is born when the inner face comes into being and shines through the outer note.

All mechanically produced musical sounds have only notes in them, which are defined by frequency, amplitude and timbre alone. Orchestral music, for example, can be represented and performed very accurately and specifically through a written score. This is a necessity imposed by the demands of orchestral music, where various instruments have to combine together to create a harmony. The concept of an inner face of a musical sound is not very common in non-Raga music. So there is no word that describes Swara in the English language.

The quest of Indian music, its view of music and life, is based on the idea of Self which, behind and within all things, is their base and support. This is why Ragas are made out of Swaras, and the Swaras require the human person. Along with an outer life, men possess an inner life which, though not easily accessible, can alone create the Swara, the inner face of the musical sound.

Musical instruments by themselves exist only on the outside. They have no segment of inner life. A musical instrument, in Indian music, has to be laboriously incorporated into the inner being of the performer before flashes of Swara begin to appear in the notes that the instrument can produce.

3. Amir Khan Vocal-Raga Marwa

[ The Call of the Swara : Indian Classical Music ]

The Finding of Swara

Swara of the human voice, produce impressive musicians. But musician, who has consciously worked towards the acquisition of full Swara, produces quite another impact-a mysterious economy, an assurance direction, quality unbelievable credibility in tonal essence voice, an integrity that is larger and significant than the Raga the Tala the technical skill the musician. Such musician transcends the plane of the Raga and lives moves on level above it.

Studio R’Bhavan/April.52,A22d(v)Four distinguished Indian Musicians, Ustad Mushtaq Hussain, Shri Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Ustad Allauddin Khan and Shri Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer, called on the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan on March 20, 1952. Photo shows Ustad Mushtaq Hussain; Shri Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar; Ustad Allauddin Khan and Shri Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer with the President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad. (The Musicians received awards from the President at the special function held in New Delhi in March 1952. This was in pursuance of the decision of the Central Govt. to make four awards every year to distinguished Indian musicians in the four categories viz. Hindustani (Vocal); Hindustani (Instrumental); Carnatic Music (vocal) and Carnatic music (Instrumental).
Studio R’Bhavan/April.52,A22d(v)Four distinguished Indian Musicians, Ustad Mushtaq Hussain, Shri Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Ustad Allauddin Khan and Shri Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer, called on the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan on March 20, 1952. Photo shows Ustad Mushtaq Hussain; Shri Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar; Ustad Allauddin Khan and Shri Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer with the President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad. (The Musicians received awards from the President at the special function held in New Delhi in March 1952. This was in pursuance of the decision of the Central Govt. to make four awards every year to distinguished Indian musicians in the four categories viz. Hindustani (Vocal); Hindustani (Instrumental); Carnatic Music (vocal) and Carnatic music (Instrumental).

Legends seem to grow around who has developed this in his voice or in the instrument. The full miraculous incidents associated with lives of musicians, men, and women, who this power in their voices. Their grasp Raga the power elan of their compositions, speed of their Taans, their curious reach and mystery, which makes them unforgettable and disquietening, results the pursuit of Swara.

Tansen, Baiju Bawara, in our times Vishnu Digambar Paluskar; Faiyaz Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Kumar Gandharva, Kesar Bai Kerkar, Siddheshwari Devi, Begum Akhtar-the names are legion and many enumerated. number who have achieved magnified clarity music, when compared to the whole range musicians, not overwhelmingly large.

But the strength of these few that music through the blood stream of one generation to the next, fecund and force surfacing now here now there and transmitting the music an unbelievable fidelity. It the power Swara braves poverty, insult, humiliation and physical suffering, endures every hardship that is known to man so that music’s inner recesses may be reached.”

4. Ali Akbar Khan Sarod-Raga Ahir Bhair

https://youtu.be/NIxK7su9F_I

[ The Call of the Swara : Indian Classical Music ]

The Origin of Swara

The concept of Swara comes from a very ancient tradition which states that the universe was formed from a primordial vibration. This was called Nada Brahman. It was undiffe rentiated and featureless, and had no beginning and no end.

This vibration, through a timeless interval, a time of infinite durations, emerged, it is said, from the featureless “One” into the “specific and the many” as Ragas. Within the Swaras of the Indian scales, the principle of the original vibration from which it has emerged, remains hidden and silent and is often referred to as Anahata Nada or the sound that we cannot hear. In fact, if we are actually listening for the pres ence of Swara in a voice, we will not hear it in our ears, but find it in our feelings that arise with the Swara in our heart.

When we examine our response carefully we will find that our feelings arise not because of the singer’s higher and more complete knowledge of Raga, Tala or other techniques, but because of a quality in him that lies beyond these techniques. It is an inclusive quality that enriches, vivifies and is reborn every time we hear the singer. Almost all of Swara’s essential response arises in the inaudible region of sound.

5. Amir Khan-Vocal-Raga Marwa [ Mentioned Above ]

6. Ali Akbar Khan-Sarod-Raga Ahir Bhairav [ Mentioned Above ]

[ The Call of the Swara : Indian Classical Music ]

The Test of the Swara

The one true test of the presence of Swara in a musical piece is to find out whether the piece attracts us more and more, each time we hear it, whether a new quality, a new technique, a new message, which we had not noticed before, seems to arise from it. The year, the passing of musical fashions, changes of styles do not seem to touch the perennial freshness and the recurring thrill of discovery in such voices and instruments.

If a piece of music tends to be liked less and less with every hearing, if it increasingly seems to sound shallow and trivial with each passing year that we have heard it, then that music could never have emerged from the timeless part of the singer. And this must be surely because the timeless part of the singer was never made accessible to him in the first place. So that he sang from history which passes and becomes lifeless with use and age.

The music might have been sweet and appealing while it was still popular but died as soon as its time had passed. On the other hand, a Swara-based music gets a fresh lease of life each time we hear it; even though familiar, it seems to be new in some inexplicable way.

The call of Swara is a personal one and so sublime is its inner pull that its true sense can never be described. The lis tener forgets himself and merges into the song. In other words, the listener and the music become one.”

7. Ali Akbar Khan Sarod- Raga Ahir BhairavBhairav [ Mentioned Above ]

[ The Call of the Swara : Indian Classical Music ]

The Call of the Swara : Indian Classical Music
The Call of the Swara : Indian Classical Music

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