Rag Bhairav

Rag Bhairav

1. Background/Instrumentation

   • Sarangi (melody), Tabla (rhythm), Tampura (drone)
     • Dayan (right, smaller)/Bayan (left, larger)

2. Structure

   • Alap
     • Staves 1-9 in middle (madhya saptak)
   • Jhor/Jhala
     • Tabla enter in Jhala and provide a regular pulse called the tal
     • Constant, restless scalic movement in staves 14-15
   • Gat
     • Eight cycles of the tal
     • Staves 19-23 even in rhytmic detail
     • Fast tans (decorative scalic passages) commence at line 25
     • Quick and wide ranging movement in line 32 before drawn out cadential phrase in line 35

3. Texture

   • Monophonic

4. Tonality

   • Based on the Rag Bhairav scale

5. Harmony

   • The sympathetic strings create an underlying halo of ambiguous harmony

6. Melody

   • Improvised
     • Some characterised melodic shapes (mukrah, pakad) that reaccur
   • The end of each talk concludes with a cadential phrase B-C (=ni-sa)
   • The vibhag khali is more decorated and is based around F (=ma)
   • Melody is embellished by shruti (microtones), gamek (wide vibrato) and meend (slides)
   • Fast tans predominate lines 25-28
   • Arch structure, rhythmic energy in waves

7. Rhythm

   • Alap
     • No pulse
     • sustained notes and decorated by quicker moving notes
   • Jhor/Jhala
     • Pulse is introduced called the tal
       • the tabla player improvises complex rhythmic patterns
     • the vibhag khali (the third segment) is contrasting and plays on the smaller drum and the melody is more decorated
     • 16 beat pattern played 8 times