What is Moorchhana(मूर्छना)?

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  What is Moorchhana(मूर्छना)? Moorchhana is nothing but the process of singing aroha and avaroha of notes.it is a technique in which the shadja(SA) is shifted to another note and this process forms a new scale. APPLICATION OF MOORCHHANA- Lets have a look at the seven notes, SA RE GA MA PA DHA NI SA' If we take Rishabh to be shadja, the rest of the notes shift with respect to Rishabh and we get a new scale. this whole process is referred as MOORCHHANA. Applying the moorchhana on the shuddha swara scale ,we get the scale of raga  KAAFI(काफी). i.e.      SA RE ga MA PA DHA ni SA' The moorchhana occures when a musician think about creating a new scale from another scale.its a process of creating new scales.
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SWARA(स्वर)

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SWARA(स्वर)/NOTE 




WHAT IS A SWARA OR NOTE?........
                            
                            
THE WORD 'SWARA(स्वर)' IS DERIVED FROM A SANSKRIT WORD WHICH MEANS  'A MUSICAL NOTE'.

I think we all are familier with SA RE GA MA PA DHA NI SA . According to music theories in indian music ,

    'A swara or note is a fixed sound which has a certain frequency and useful for music.'
                 there are 7 main swara/notes which are 'SA RE GA MA PA DHA NI SA.' these 7 notes are called 'SHUDHA SWARAS' and  together it is called a 'SAPTAK'(a group of 7 notes). the names of swaras are mentioned in our ancient books like NATYASHASHTRA which is written by ACHARYA BHARATMUNI.


SA        -         SHADAJ(षड्ज)
RE        -          RISHABH(रिषभ)
GA        -         GANDHAR(गांधार)
MA       -         MADHYAM(मध्यम)
PA         -          PANCHAM(पंचम)
DHA      -       DHAIVAT(धैवत)
NI          -         NISHAD(निषाद)



SHRUTI(श्रुति) AND SWARA


                        ' श्रूयते इति श्रुति।। '

  
      which means 'SOUND THAT CAN BE HEARD IS SHRUTI.

Shruti is originated from NADA which means SOUND.it is the smallest unit of our indian music system which is the source of indian SWARA/NOTE. there are 22 SHRUTIS in our music system. their names are also mentioned in our ancient books. The names of 22 shrutis are

Shruti                           swar

1-TIVRA ( तीव्रा)                      SA
2-KUMUDVATI( कुमुद्वती)          -
3-MANDA(मन्दा)                     -
4-CHHANDOVATI(छन्दोवती)     -
5-DAYAVATI(दयावती)               RE
6-RANJANI(रंजनी)                   -
7-RAKTIKA(रक्तिका)                 -
8-RAUDRI(रौद्री)                     GA
9-KRODHA(क्रोधा)                   -
10-VAJRIKA(वज्रिका)               MA
11-PRASARINI(प्रसारिणी)            -
12-PREETI(प्रीति)                      -
13-MARJINI( मार्जिनी)                -
14-KSHITI(क्षिति)                     PA
15-RAKTA(रक्ता)                      -
16-SANDIPANI(संदीपनी)           -
17-ALAPINI(आलापिनी)             -
18-MADANTI(मदन्ती)               DHA
19-ROHINI(रोहिणी)                  -
20-RAMYA( रम्या)                   -
21-UGRA(उग्रा)                        NI
22-KSHOBHINI(क्षोभिणी)          -

 the above mentioned table shows the relation of swara and shrutis. swaras are composed of shrutis as SA RE GA MA PA DHA NI have 4,3,2,4,4,3,2 shrutis respectively.

 In western music system SHRUTI is called MICROTONE which is an interval smaller than semitone .

ORIGIN OF SWARA(स्वर)/NOTE


The roots of our indian music are found in VEDAS.
the ancient veda which is all about music is SAMAVEDA (सामवेद). in the ancient times the music was called SAMAGANA (सामगान) and there were 3 notes/ swaras : UDATTA(उदात्त), ANUDATTA(अनुदात्त) and SWARIT(स्वरित).it was also mentioned in ancient books that there were 7 notes named as SAPTA VAIDIK SWARA(सप्त वैदिक स्वर) .their relation with present time swara is given below:

KRUSHT(क्रुष्ट)                  -     म
ATISWARYA(अतिस्वार्य)       -    प
MANDRA(मन्द्र)                -     ध
CHATURTHA(चतुर्थ)          -    नी
 TRITIYA(तृतीय)                -    सा
  DWITIYA(द्वितीय)             -     रे
 PRATHAMA(प्रथम)           -     ग

Apart from the theoritical aspect the origin of swara it is believed that the sound of the 7 swaras is originated from the voices of animals and birds in nature. this fact is written in one of the ancient books called NARADIYA SHIKSHA(नारदीय शिक्षा) by NARADMUNI.
              नारदीय शिक्षा (ch.1) 


The meaning of the text in the given picture can be understood by some illustrations below:





Explanation : the sounds of animals/birds from which the indian swara/notes are originated are,

         Swara            :             animal/bird

             SA                :              peacock
             RE                :              ox
             GA                :              goat
             MA               :              heron
             PA                :             cuckoo
             DHA             :             horse
             NI                 :             elephant
          


Types of SWARA/NOTE

 SHADAJ(SA) and PANCHAM(PA) are fixed at their own positions and they can not be distorted. Hence SA and PA are called ACHAL SWARAS 
 While RE GA DHA NI can be sung half note below to their actual position so this state of RE GA DHA NI is called KOMAL SWARAS. MA can be sung half note above it's actual position which is called TIVRA MADHYAM.

So there are 2 types of swaras :

1- SHUDHA SWARAS :  7 pure notes ( S R G M P D N  )

2- VIKRIT SWARAS   :   5 distorted notes ( r g d n -komal  and  m - tivra)


         
(* here capital and small letters denotes shudha and vikrit swaras respectively.)

The above description shows that there are total of 12 notes in indian classical music which are:

Sa(achal)
re(komal)
Re(shudha)
ga(komal)
Ga (shudha)
ma(shudha)
Ma(tivra)
Pa(achal)
dha(komal)
Dha(shudha)
ni(komal)
Ni(shudha)

Frequency of swara/note

After discussing about the 12 swara system lets know what is the frequency of each note :


Sawara/note             :           frequency(Hz)

Sa                           :               240
Re                           :                270
Ga                          :                300
Ma                          :                320
Pa                           :                360
Dha                        :                 400
Ni                           :                450
Sa                           :                480


A complete set of frequencies of all 12 notes (including shudha and vikrit swaras together) is mentioned below:



Note : the term' आंदोलन संख्या' in the above table is 'frequency in hz'.

Saptak(सप्तक)

The 7 notes of indian music : SA RE GA MA PA DHA NI together form A SAPTAK so we can say that A GROUP OF 7 NOTES IS CALLED A SAPTAK.there are 3 SAPTAK in indian music system which are MANDRA ,MADHYA and TAAR SAPTAK.

MANDRA SAPTAK:   lower octave
MADHYA SAPTAK:   middle octave
TAAR SAPTAK      :   higher octave


The musicians of indian classical music uses these 3 SAPTAK whether it is for vocal or instrumental.

Melody

Musical notes such as SA Re GA MA........etc. form melody while combining in many different ways.
For example: sing 'Sa Ga Re Ma Ga' or 'Pa Ma Ga Re Ga'. This is called melody.

The indian classical music is based on MELODY while the western music is based on HARMONY.













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