Azerbaijani Thodi
I didn't want to write a post today. Yesterday I had posted a humour article in my other blog, boigudabakwas. Added to it was some more work which was done for a Solvanam article. So I did not have the inclination to do anything today. My friend Ramachandran, who runs a very nice blog on Carnatic Music, http://carnaticmusicreview.wordpress.com/ sent a link on twitter which stunned me and at the same time spurred me into action. (Ram had inturn got it from his friend, Srikanth, http://www.srikanthd.com/)
There are some ragas in Carnatic Music which are very unique to it and you will not find them in other systems. Ragas oft quoted are Yadhukula Kambhoji, Begada, KedaraGowla, Anada Bhairavi, Reethigowla and some more. I had been thinking that Todi too was one such ragam, which is very unique to Carnatic Music. That would be surprising since Todi is not a vakra raga, it contains all the seven notes and as a scale it is not a difficult one to imagine. I have read that Hindustani Music's Bhairavi is equivalent to Todi when you compare them as scale. But Hindustani Bhairavi is according to our ears Sindhu Bhairavi. Without the characteristic gamakas, Todi can lapse into Sindhu Bhairavi. Hear the interludes of 'Gangai Karai Mannanadi' and you can see Todi sliding into Sindhu Bhairavi. So I held the opinion that Todi is very unique to Carnatic Music and we will probably not find it in other parts of the world. Not the scale but the raga.
In one lecture demonstration, S.Ramanathan surprised me by saying that he had heard Todi in Jerusalem, where he had a chance to listen to some Gregorian chants. He says that he sang Todi while they were singing the Gregorian chants. That interested me a lot but as usual you hear such stuff, get interested and by dinner time you have forgotten about it. So it was like godsend when I saw this link by Ram (@lalitha_ram on twitter)
Right at the beginning, you can feel Thodi, in the playing of the tar (mandolin like instrument.) The violin / sarangi like following keeps giving the Thodi flavour when the singer sings and when the instrument plays you can clearly hear Thodi. What superb playing!!! Wonderful skill and brings out the essence of the raga. For a minute you are in a carnatic music concert!!! Later when the rhythm instruments start accompanying, the carnatic concert feel is complete.
I was totally blown away by this piece. Time to go search for more Azerbaijani pieces. I enjoyed this thoroughly. Hope you too enjoy this. Take some time off and listen to it. You are bound to profusely thank me, the same way I thanked my friend Ramachandran.
Comments
I am stunned too.
I am sure music in its basic form is essentially language independent.
Thanks
madhu
Fascinating is indeed the word.
"It is very nice and relevant clip to remind us that there is a unification in music in the most pleasantly surprising ways never imaginable. Also quite emotive, where the emotions are suggested by musical ornaments similar to carnatic (strange that the ornaments are closer to carnatic than hindustani -- of course, the ornaments are also somewhat different and hence the raga is not a 'replica' of todi).
Kudos to all those instrumental in unearthing this clip and sharing it with sahRdayas."
It is true that many elements of Carnatic music are reflected in Persian-Arabic-Turkish classical music traditions (of which the Azerbaijani is one variety). For instance, the RTP structure of Carnatic has parallels in vocal and instrumental Dhrupad and instrumental khayaal (in these northern traditions the analogous element is aalaap-jod-jhaalaa), and the Persian classical traditions.
However, a major difference between the Indian and middle-eastern traditions is the tuning scheme. This particular piece clearly uses some notes (the third and fourth, for example) characteristic of the middle-eastern intonation, which are totally absent in Indian music. Therefore, its being equivalent to thodi is ruled out already by the intonation. Even if we were to shift the notes to those used in thodi, the character of thodi (like that of any raaga) goes much beyond just the notes used (as you have yourself acknowledged), and this would not qualify any more as thodi than would North Indian bhairavi. So your claim of this being close to thodi is questionable on two levels. An analogy is to say that the Hindustani raagas bhoopaali and bibhaas are the same, which would be wrong as such because the notes aren't the same but also because even if the notes were made the same, the relative weights of different notes and characteristic phrases wouldn't be the same.
So while it is fortunate that the appeal of music transcends boundaries of tradition, we must not draw undue parallels. In fact, it is also fortunate that the universality of music is not so exact that variety is killed. Thanks to many differences (such that that in intonation between Indian and middle-eastern traditions), we can enjoy a richer variety. And after all this, I am confident that I have still not heard anything in any other tradition that has sounded anywhere close to the Carnatic thodi.
Thank you very much for the erudite comment. It is always a pleasure when people who understand music deeper post their comment.
One of my musically knowledgeable friend had called me after reading this piece. He had views very similar to what you have expressed. So in a sense I would accept what you say.
I too love the variety of music across the world and as you said, thankfully they are all not the same. And I also haven't found an 'exact' parallel to Todi in the music I have heard till now.
Having said that, in spirit, this rendition was probably the closest I could get to Todi in a non-carnatic music setting. So maybe we can classify it as 'Azerbaijan Todi' :)
You said:
"However, a major difference between the Indian and middle-eastern traditions is the tuning scheme. This particular piece clearly uses some notes (the third and fourth, for example) characteristic of the middle-eastern intonation, which are totally absent in Indian music."
Can you please elaborate on what you mean by the third and the fourth, here?
Thank you for your flattering description of my "deeper" understanding! I take pleasure in learning and experiencing different forms of music.
I must restate my point more precisely: Most raagas practiced in Indian music have several different forms / versions depending on the tradition / genre (classical, bhajan, thumri, qawwaali, etc.), so there is some margin of variation. What I meant when I denied to ascribe the todi identity to this Azerbaijani performance was that I would not consider this to fall within the margin of variation which we normally tolerate for todi.
Coming to Hamsanandi's question, by the third and fourth notes, I mean the gaandhaara and madhyama. The gaandhaara used in this falls between the highest rshabha and lowest gaandhaara we use in Indian music, and so isn't a note we are familiar with. The madhyama used here falls between the shuddha madhyama and pratimadhyama (or teevra madhyama) we use. These notes are novel and exotic to us, but ubiquitous in the middle-eastern traditions. You can clearly hear these unfamiliar notes in the stretch following http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM0GNG2yajg&feature=player_embedded#t=163s
Now I understand and appreciate why you say that you would not ascribe 'Todi' to this melody.
You explanation on the gandhara and madhyama is very illuminating. I was not aware of this. I can't add much here since I personally cannot identify individual notes (though I can identify a raga). Hamsanandi may have something to contribute here.
I'd like to point out that thodi's ga effectively between r2 g2 due to the heavy kampita of ga (starting from r1 to m1, back to r2,m1 and so on). Only rarely do you hear a proper g2. Morover ragas like begada have a sharpened m1.
So to say this sounds"Exotic" is a bit improper.
Infact this is one of the few arabic music videos unadulterated by heavy anyaswara prayogas.