Murchana of a Raaga

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stdio.h
Posts: 18
Joined: 10 Oct 2014, 00:27

Murchana of a Raaga

Post by stdio.h »

What does Murchana of a raaga mean? Is it just the aarohana and avarohana of the raaga?

kartik
Posts: 226
Joined: 06 Feb 2010, 06:25

Re: Murchana of a Raaga

Post by kartik »

Nice handle, stdio.h :)

vasanthakokilam
Posts: 10956
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:01

Re: Murchana of a Raaga

Post by vasanthakokilam »

That is my understanding as well.

Monier Williams definition is quite close: (in music) modulation , melody , a regulated rise or fall of sounds through the ग्राम or musical scale

Interestingly, there are two definitions of Arohana and Avarohana. One in the above murchana sense of defining which notes you can ascend from and from which notes you can descend from.

It does not define which notes you can ascend to/descend to which seems to a popular misconception, including mine until I learned the correct interpretation in this forum from Arun. For example, while kambhoji Arohanam is : s r g m p d s it is ok to use p d n
since 'd' is part of arohanam which gives you the permission to ascend to any note in the raga including the ones not in the arohonam. But having ascending to 'n' since 'n' is not part of Arohonam you can not go to 's' but can only go down. So 'p d n d' is kosher and 'p d n s' is not. Anyway, I may be stating the obvious since most people in our forum know this.

The second definition of Arohanam/Avarohanam is as a gamaka, an ornamentation that you can string together a bunch of ascending notes or descending notes together. One may wonder if such a thing needed to be even stated as a gamaka since what is music if it is not about notes going up in a sequence or down in a sequence and in combination. The easy example for me as to why it is an ornamentation is from piano players. They will very quickly go up and down the scale (piano runs or fills) and that creates a pleasant effect. So it makes sense to specify such quick up and down flourish as a gamaka, so goes my thinking.

stdio.h
Posts: 18
Joined: 10 Oct 2014, 00:27

Re: Murchana of a Raaga

Post by stdio.h »

@kartik :D

@vasanthakokilam Thank you for the detailed explanation. It helped clear out a basic doubt!

ganesh_mourthy
Posts: 1371
Joined: 02 Sep 2007, 23:08

Re: Murchana of a Raaga

Post by ganesh_mourthy »

vasanthakokilam wrote:e scale (piano runs or fills) and that creates a pleasant effect. So it makes sense to specify such quick up and down flourish as a gamaka, so goes my thinking.
Hi VK . Fair explanation , better than the conventional teachers. That is wisdom through reasoning. But one thing the reasoning mind will always try to escape. The rigours of practice that a conventional tradition will stick to without any question. Hope you get the drift :)

vasanthakokilam
Posts: 10956
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 00:01

Re: Murchana of a Raaga

Post by vasanthakokilam »

:complex emoticon with heads shaking, smiling, and muttering under the breath: oh man, this g_m is persistent, as he has promised he will be.

I know the complimentary first part is to cushion the blow of the second part which makes the first part less complimentary but I can live with that. :)

Yep, I am on that practice bandwagon with Arun's app on my iPhone. Once more, I am delighted to offer a plug for his iOS app swarasthana. Incredibly useful app. At the low price he is charging, it is a steal. It has so many high end features, had it been a different time, he could have easily charged close to $50 for that

ganesh_mourthy
Posts: 1371
Joined: 02 Sep 2007, 23:08

Re: Murchana of a Raaga

Post by ganesh_mourthy »

How I wish the same app in Android too. Not a big fan of iOS. Though only like their laptop versions which I have, but the app does not work in that i guess.

vgovindan
Posts: 1865
Joined: 07 Nov 2010, 20:01

Re: Murchana of a Raaga

Post by vgovindan »

I came across the meaning of 'mUrchana' in a quote from Kanchi Mahaswami's discourses - sent to me by Rajani of Veena JJ group.
Nadopasana is a great Sadhana, related to Mantra and Yoga Shastras. It is nothing but Omkara-Upasana. There are three basic concepts – Nada, Bindu and Kala. We sing “Nada bindu kaladi namo nama” in Tiruppugazh. These are complex concepts but to put it simply, Nada is Shiva, and Bindu is Shakti. Nada is the source of all Shabdas or sounds, and Bindu is the source of all Rupas or forms. Ultimately forms are also created from sounds.

Just as grammarians call the supreme being Shabdabrahmam, music scholars call it Nadabrahmam. Of course Nada is subtly different from Shabda. Shabda refers to the various sounds heard outside, while Nada is the basis of all these sounds, the point where they all culminate. When a singer holds a note in perfect pitch (Shruti) and completes it, it fades and becomes one with the Shruti (this is called Murchana) and this point is Nada. At this point, the singer becomes one with the Nada and experiences joy. This is shared by the listeners as well. This joy is nothing but Brahmananda, the bliss of knowing the self, the final goal expounded by all scriptures.

varsha
Posts: 1978
Joined: 24 Aug 2011, 15:06

Re: Murchana of a Raaga

Post by varsha »

https://archive.org/details/ManakuVachh ... mukhiTALam
BMK answers at 17.00.But please dont fast forward to that point.Lots of amusement before that!!!

https://archive.org/details/AjoyCourtesyNageswaran

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