Orchestration in Indian Music

What are the variations of chords ? We have “Major chord” which has Sa, shuddh Ga and Pa (1st, natural 3rd and 5th notes). This major chord also has a “seventh'' variation. If we add the 7th note of the scale komal Ni (flattened 7th), then the major chord becomes a seventh (7th) chord. We call it the “Dominant 7th” chord. Salilda now plays the seventh chord and sings the notes Sa,Ga,Pa,Ni.... Seventh chord creates a “problem” or a tension. So, how do we resolve this tension ? The note Ma resolves this Salilda now plays the note “Ma” (4th) along with “Dha” (6th) and also the “Sa” (1st). He plays these three notes together which is also a major chord and resolves the tension created by the 7th chord. Another important chord is the “Minor chord”. Here we use the “komal” Ga or the flattened 3rd stead of the natural 3rd. So, the minor chord is Sa, komalGa and Pa played together. There is another important chord which is called the “Diminished” chord. In this we use “komal Ga”, then taking this komal Ga as the “Sa” we calculate its komalGa and then again taking this as “Sa'' we work out its “komalGa”. These three notes played together are called the “Diminished Chord”. Each division therefore is a “Minor 3rd” interval. So, from Sa to komalGa is a “Minor 3rd” interval, From komalGa to KoDiMa (flattened 5th) is also a Minor3rd interval and finally from “Kodi Ma” to Shuddha Dhaibat (Dha or the 6th note) is also a Minor3rd interval. When we play these four notes together we create a “suspense” and this chord is called the “Diminished” chord. Salilda plays the diminished chords to demonstrate its effect. Another variation of this would be to use the “Major 3rd” interval which would be to use the “Shuddha Gandhar” (natural 3rd) instead of the “flattened 3rd”. So, if we take this “Shuddha Gandhar” (Natural 3rd) as “Sa” then it's “Shuddha Gandhara” would be the “Komal Dhaibat” (flattened 6th) note. If we play these three notes together we get an “Augmented” chord. We can also add the 6th note or the seventh note to this and we will get Augmented 6th or Augmented 7th chords. More or less the harmonic principles have been created based on these four types of chords. This means that as the melody moves the changing chords also follow the melody. This can be demonstrated with a simple example. We will demonstrate the chord progression

for “Jana Gana Mana”, our national anthem. Salilda now demonstrates the normal way to play chords with “Jana Gana Mana” in the key of CMajor. The chords are simple in fact quite elementary and they are CMajor, FMajor, G7 and CMajor. We will now show how to sing it using modern technique. Recently a French Choir group visited Kolkata. They were a group of nearly 100 boys and girls with 60 musicians. They did some superb shows and they performed “Jana Gana Mana” with their own arrangement. However, their arrangement was quite different. We will now sing “Jana Gana Mana” with my orchestral arrangement.
Please listen and let me know what you think.
Salilda now hums the song with the whole orchestra using quite different chord progression. He gets the chord chart and asks the audience if they would like to hear the singing again. He then explains what he did. He sings “jana gana mana adhinayaka jaya he” and says that the note “Ga” (3rd) is used for the words “gana mana adhinayaka jaya”. This is where the note “Ga” is basically not changing. But this is where our orchestra is moving the chords keep changing on this one note. Listen now (humming and playing chords) “na, na, na, na ,na,na".

The World of Salil Chowdhury