Orchestration in Indian Music

7and creating a much more constrained free environment. They are just breaking down the barriers. They are saying we can use any note with any other note. So, if the notes of a raag have certain properties , say the Todi raag, and if we use the notes of the Todi raag then we see that we can use the diminished chord quite well. Salilda then plays the notes of a Todi raag, identifies the root note (Sa) first and then sings the notes “Re Ga Re Sa Ni Sa Re Ga Ma Dha Ma Ga..”and when I arrive at this “Shudh Ni”(7th) then I am getting the Bmajor chord. So, if we follow the notes of this raag and analyse the chords in this raag we can then experiment with different chord variations and chord improvisation rather than strictly follow the major minor augmented diminished pattern. There should not be any problem. You may remember that years ago I composed a song “Runner”which was recorded by Hemanta Mukherjee. In that song the “Sa” (Root) changes at least five times.But it doesn’t sound odd. But these changes follow certain rules. Those of you who are planning to learn orchestration and do not master the western technique will never be able to do orchestration. You can of course break the rules but only if you know the rules. “You must know the grammar to break the grammar”. That has been a big problem here. In that respect teaching of western techniques here is very little.

Well, we do have conservatism in our classical music. That is fine and maybe it should be there in order to preserve old traditions and I am sure these traditions and customs will become stronger and will be retained. That is fine because we have no right to wipe out our past history and tradition. Music is actually a language. When I speak in Bengali I am not creating the Bengali language. In order to express myself and present my thoughts clearly I arrange the language in such a way that you can understand what I am saying. If I talk nonsense you will not understand me and feel that I am incomprehensible. It is exactly similar with music. The language of music has developed and matured for thousand years and it is now fully formed. None of us are actually creating any new music or new melody. What we are doing is that we are rearranging the music. The world is getting smaller and there is increased communication and cultural exchanges. Just like the English language which has become quite common in our culture the music has also gone through changes and as a result some of the principles and techniques in western music do not appear to be so alien to us anymore. So, just like a language goes through changes the music can and does change through time and it will never stay still. If those of you who are talented and budding composers do not come forward and take the leading role in bringing this change mediocre people will end up dominating the music. That will be a loss to our music.
Unfortunately the time today is quite limited for me to discuss the enormous possibilities we have and maybe I myself do not know everything. But to explain whatever I have learned it would take multiple sessions every three or four days. I could have then explained why I am using certain chords, why I am using this progression etc. For example all of you here are music students and you all know the theory of music and the notes the “Sargam” (octave). Salilda now plays the melody of one of his compositions “”aaj tabe ei tuku thaak” and starts singing the first line of the song and then the notes aaj tabe ei tuku thaak (sa, ni, pa, ga, sa ,ni) baaki kathaa pore habe (ni, re, pa, pa,re, ga, re, sa) dhusor dhoolir por (ni, re, ma, ma,

The World of Salil Chowdhury