Swaralipi ( bn, স্বরলিপি) is any system used in sheet music in order to represent aurally perceived

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

through the use of written notes for Indian classical music.

History

The Indian scholar and musical theorist

Pingala Acharya Pingala ('; c. 3rd2nd century BCE) was an ancient Indian poet and mathematician, and the author of the ' (also called the ''Pingala-sutras''), the earliest known treatise on Sanskrit prosody. The ' is a work of eight chapters in the la ...

(c. 200 BC), in his ''Chanda Sutra'', used marks indicating long and short syllables to indicate meters in Sanskrit poetry. In the notation of Indian rāga, a solfege-like system called sargam is used. As in Western solfege, there are names for the seven basic pitches of a major scale (, usually shortened Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni). The tonic of any scale is named Sa, and the dominant Pa. Sa is fixed in any scale, and Pa is fixed at a fifth above it (a

Pythagorean Pythagorean, meaning of or pertaining to the ancient Ionian mathematician, philosopher, and music theorist Pythagoras, may refer to: Philosophy * Pythagoreanism, the esoteric and metaphysical beliefs purported to have been held by Pythagoras * Ne ...

fifth rather than an equal-tempered fifth). These two notes are known as achala swar ('fixed notes'). Each of the other five notes, Re, Ga, ma, Dha and Ni, can take a 'regular' () pitch, which is equivalent to its pitch in a standard major scale (thus, , the second degree of the scale, is a whole-step higher than Sa), or an altered pitch, either a half-step above or half-step below the pitch. Re, Ga, Dha and Ni all have altered partners that are a half-step lower (Komal-"flat") (thus, is a half-step higher than Sa). Ma has an altered partner that is a half-step higher (-"sharp") (thus, Ma is an augmented fourth above Sa). Re, Ga, ma, Dha and Ni are called ('movable notes'). In the written system of Indian notation devised by Ravi Shankar, the pitches are represented by Western letters. Capital letters are used for the , and for the higher variety of all the . Lowercase letters are used for the lower variety of the .

References

Indian classical music Musical notation Musical scales Hindustani music terminology {{music-stub