What's in a sunset that it creates some of the most dramatic images ? Why are some of the most evocative paintings set in darkness with candle-light adding just the highlights ? Why do some film makers swear by black and white and refuse to delve in colour ?
On closer scrutiny, a pattern emerges in imagery! It looks as if restricting the colours on the palette actually helps to heighten the feeling in the picture. Regardless of the topography- an ocean front, a mountainscape or even a city skyline, a sunset is arresting because there are fewer colours. The sky is aflame in a deep orange in the background; silhouettes dominate the foreground. Mainly two colours- orange and black. The same scene looks quite ordinary at a different time of the day simply because we have all the colours.
It is precisely this concept that Indian music is based on. Every raaga comes with a fixed subset of notes (swaras). It's as if we took all the notes, arranged them all as colours in a paint-box and then carefully chose just a few of them. Now, with only these colors (notes), we paint a musical picture. That would be a particular raaga (say Mohana).
Next, we go to the same paint-box with the full set of notes and choose a different subset of colours. Another picture with just these notes and we have another raaga (say Shivranjani).
The dramatic element in raagas comes from this restricted usage of notes, much like our sunset picture. Shivranjani tugs at our heart because it has just five notes. To give some popular examples from films, "jaane kahaan gaye woh din" (mera naam joker) and "tere mere beech mein" (ek duuje ke liye) exude pathos. Papanasam Sivan's "tarunam idaiya" is good example of a classical composition in Shivaranjani which evokes the same feeling. It is difficult to convey such profusion of emotion and that too predictably in music if we used all the notes.
That's what sets Indian music apart from other musical systems of the world. We have pentatonic (5-note), 6 note and 7 note raagas. Some have experimented with even 3 notes, but that's more like a black and white picture with no shades of grey- it's too discrete.
We now have a research topic on our hands. May be, we can assign a colour (real colour like red, blue etc.) to every note in music. Next, we try a series of paintings based on different raagas using only those colours which are native to that raaga. We would soon have some musicscapes on canvas. Perhaps, some pattern will emerge: looking at a set of paintings, on completely different themes, we would be able to decipher that it is in the raaga Kalyani!
Can these paintings move us the way raagas do ? Will a Sahana canvas evoke compassion, an Atana picture.. a sense of bravery and a Saama landscape... a general feeling of peace ? Will a painting of Amrita-varshini (or Miyan ki Malhar in Hindustani) touch the rain-gods or do these gods relate only to sound?
Paintings have some obvious limitations. Musical notes are far more refined and delicate than the paint and the brush. Painters can climb a tree!
On closer scrutiny, a pattern emerges in imagery! It looks as if restricting the colours on the palette actually helps to heighten the feeling in the picture. Regardless of the topography- an ocean front, a mountainscape or even a city skyline, a sunset is arresting because there are fewer colours. The sky is aflame in a deep orange in the background; silhouettes dominate the foreground. Mainly two colours- orange and black. The same scene looks quite ordinary at a different time of the day simply because we have all the colours.
It is precisely this concept that Indian music is based on. Every raaga comes with a fixed subset of notes (swaras). It's as if we took all the notes, arranged them all as colours in a paint-box and then carefully chose just a few of them. Now, with only these colors (notes), we paint a musical picture. That would be a particular raaga (say Mohana).
Next, we go to the same paint-box with the full set of notes and choose a different subset of colours. Another picture with just these notes and we have another raaga (say Shivranjani).
The dramatic element in raagas comes from this restricted usage of notes, much like our sunset picture. Shivranjani tugs at our heart because it has just five notes. To give some popular examples from films, "jaane kahaan gaye woh din" (mera naam joker) and "tere mere beech mein" (ek duuje ke liye) exude pathos. Papanasam Sivan's "tarunam idaiya" is good example of a classical composition in Shivaranjani which evokes the same feeling. It is difficult to convey such profusion of emotion and that too predictably in music if we used all the notes.
That's what sets Indian music apart from other musical systems of the world. We have pentatonic (5-note), 6 note and 7 note raagas. Some have experimented with even 3 notes, but that's more like a black and white picture with no shades of grey- it's too discrete.
We now have a research topic on our hands. May be, we can assign a colour (real colour like red, blue etc.) to every note in music. Next, we try a series of paintings based on different raagas using only those colours which are native to that raaga. We would soon have some musicscapes on canvas. Perhaps, some pattern will emerge: looking at a set of paintings, on completely different themes, we would be able to decipher that it is in the raaga Kalyani!
Can these paintings move us the way raagas do ? Will a Sahana canvas evoke compassion, an Atana picture.. a sense of bravery and a Saama landscape... a general feeling of peace ? Will a painting of Amrita-varshini (or Miyan ki Malhar in Hindustani) touch the rain-gods or do these gods relate only to sound?
Paintings have some obvious limitations. Musical notes are far more refined and delicate than the paint and the brush. Painters can climb a tree!
It is awesome it has all kinds of things
ReplyDelete-
Saankhu
Saankhu!
ReplyDeleteIt is nice to know that you thought so highly of this article. By the way, what has all kinds of things ? Were you talking about your toy-box by any chance !?
-Dad
Mr. Painter,
ReplyDeleteIt would be awesome if you could scan your sketches and paintings and put them on this blog for your reader's delight. A few folks in our team are not acquainted with the fact that you are good not just at QoS and with words but with colours as well. Kindly consider my request. :)
-Deepti.