In India there is music everywhere, be it folk or classical. Every expression finds unparalleled perfection in music.
Sometimes that which is beautiful slips past us and we do not even notice.
When we pay attention to nature's music, we find that everything on the earth contributes to its harmony. The trees joyously wave their branches in rhythm with the wind; the sound of the sea, the murmuring of the breeze, the whistling of the wind through rocks, hills, and mountains; the flash of the lightning, and the crash of the thunder, the harmony of the sun and moon, the movements of the stars and planets, the blooming of the flower, the fading of the leaf, the regular alternation of morning, evening, noon, and night, all reveal to the seer the music of nature.
The insects have their concerts and ballets, and the choirs of birds chant in unison their hymns of praise. Dogs and cats have their orgies, foxes and wolves have their soirees musicales in the forest, while tigers and lions hold their operas in the wilderness. Music is the only means of understanding among birds and beasts. This may be seen by the gradation of pitch and the volume of tone, the manner of tune, the number of repetitions, and the duration of their various sounds; these convey to their fellow-creatures the time for joining the flock, the warning of coming danger, the declaration of war, the feeling of love, and the sense of sympathy, displeasure, passion, anger, fear, and jealousy, making a language of itself.
The word in itself is frequently insufficient to express the meaning clearly. The student of language by keen study can discover this. Even modern languages are but a simplification of music. No words of any language can be spoken in one and the same way without the distinction of tone, pitch, rhythm, accent, pause and rest. A language however simple cannot exist without music in it; music gives it a concrete expression. For this reason a foreign language is rarely spoken perfectly, the words are learnt, but the music is not mastered.
Language may be called the simplification of music: music is hidden within it as the soul is hidden in the body: at each step toward simplification the language has lost some of its music."
The Indian system of ragas or melodies has specified a raga for a particular time of the day. It is simplifying the matter when we say that ragas are melodies, Actually we may well call them an entity which have their own characteristics and make a statement not only on the time of the day, but also the season, the emotion and even the colours inspired by it.
Early morning, sunrise and late evening, sunset ragas tend to be similar in some respects and dissimilar in some others. They are however quite different form day time ragas. The afternoon ragas are sarang, bhimapalasi, dhanasri, pilu, suha and goud sarang. They have a cooling and restful effect emphasising the notes, sa, ma, pa equivalent, in one sense to do, fa and so. Re and la or ga and ni are under emphasised. Sometimes when it has not rained for long and the people are looking forwards to relieving showers, the rug Malhar is sung. In South India the equivalent raga is Amritavarshini. Then it is said to rain immediately.
Most lullabies at the closing time in temples in the afternoon are in these ragas which may be called differently in different regions. The afternoon time is understood as falling between noon and before sunset begins.
In India the afternoons are very hot and traditionally Indians used to have a nap after lunch. They rise very early in the mornings. Of course not the entire afternoon is spent in sleep, but the there is a slowing down of tempo before things pick up again to make a hectic evening!
MUSIC IS DIVINITY. IT ORIGINATES FROM THE ARABIC WORD “MAUSIQI” WHICH MEANS “SOFT RYTHMIC RIPPLES FROM HEAVEN”
Poet Raghupati Sahay “Firaq” Gorakhpuri writes
Mutrib se kaho iss andaaz se gaye Please ask the singer to sing in a way
Har dil ko lage chot si Every heart should feel hurt
Har aankh bhar aye Every eye must be tearful
Gulzar said he wrote the lines “Naam goom jayeega, chehra badal jaayega, meri awaaaz hi pehchan hai . . . gar yaad rahe” with me in mind. And I feel he expressed my emotions perfectly. LATA MANGESKAR
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