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Often while listening to music we are transposed to a particular phase in time or are moved to feel a certain emotion. But what gives music the ability to bring out some of our emotions to the forefront?
Carnatic musician Chitra Srikrishna might have the answer to this, “The power of music stems from its underlying melody — what we term raag or raga in Indian classical music.”
Research tells us that the etymological origin of the Sanskrit word ‘raga’ means ‘the act of colouring or dyeing’ (the mind and mood/emotions in this context) and therefore, refers metaphorically to ‘any feeling or passion especially love, affection, sympathy, desire, interest, motivation, joy, or delight.’ Thus, a raga composition comprises of a specific combination of notes which are used by the performer to create a mood (rasa) or atmosphere that is unique to the raga.
Classical music of India can be categorised into two main traditions : one is the Carnatic (or Karnatak) music of south India and the other is the Hindustani music of North India.
What differentiates the two systems of Indian Classical Music is the Persian influence that evaded and adapted to northern Hindustani Music because of the Mughal rule. While Southern Karnatak music continued to evolve in isolation away from any sort of Persian influence. Mughals also brought Hindustani music which was played in temples into the kings’ court.
Allen Roda writes for the Met Museum, “Both Hindustani and Karnatak music use the system of ragas—sets of pitches and small motives for melody construction—and tala for rhythm. Ragas form a set of rules and patterns around which a musician can create his or her unique performance. Likewise, taala is a system of rhythmic structures based on the combination of stressed and unstressed beats.”
Over the years, there have been several rounds of research to understand the influence of ragas on the human mind as well as an attempt to establish a link between listening to ragas and their consequent effect on our mood. This has sparked a debate amongst researchers with them being divided into two primary groups — emotivists who believe that they do affect the human mind and mood; and cognitivists who actively refute the theory.
“The cognitivists argue that music does not generally evoke emotions in listeners, it merely expresses emotions that are perceived by listeners (Kivy, 1989). In other words, listeners refer to music as happy or sad because the music expresses happiness or sadness, not because the music makes them feel happy or sad. By contrast, emotivists suggest that music actually evokes or induces feelings in listeners (Schererand Zentner, 2001),” explains a National Brain Research Centre report.
In the research carried out by the National Brain Research Centre, participants were shown a cartoon film before the experiment so as to ensure a pleasant mood. After this, all the participants had to hear ragas from North Indian Classical Music. 12 ragas were played and they all had to self-report the emotions they felt after listening to the raga. The subjective nature of the experiment ensured that results were not influenced by those conducting the experiment.
The conclusion of the experiment was that “ragas evoke a gamut of responses that range from ‘happy’ and ‘calm’ to ‘tensed’ and ‘sad’. In particular, the emotional response to ragas (like Desh and Tilak Kamod) shifts from ‘calm/soothing’ in the slower arrhythmic alaap to ‘happy’ in the faster rhythmic gat. In parallel, the emotional response of ‘sad’ in the slower arrhythmic phase shifts to ‘tensed’ in the faster rhythmic phase (e.g., Shree and Miyan ki Todi). An interesting feature was the fact that all ragas universally generated a calming effect and anger remained the lowest-rated emotion category.”
The researchers further added the opened “possibility of using different ragas as robust mood-inducing stimuli, which is relevant for studies on emotion.”
While most of us might feel that we can never understand the complexity of ragas or perhaps do not even actively engage with it, Chitra Srikrishna feels that “you know a good deal more about classical ragas than you likely give yourself credit for. Before you dismiss that assertion, ask yourself two questions: ‘Do you listen to Hindi or Tamil or filmy music in any language? Do you enjoy it?’ If you answered yes to one or both, here’s the reason why. Most Indian popular music, particularly filmi gaane (movie songs) have their roots in classical music.”
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