Month: September 2022

Melharmony can be defined as “harmony and vertical layers of music with an emphasis on the rules and principles of highly evolved 12-tone melodic systems”.

The raga system of Indian music, Chinese music systems and Makam system of Persia are examples of evolved melodic systems. But the first two, which use 12-tones per octave like Western Classical would be amenable to melharmony while Persian systems which use several other types of micro tonal intervals will not be so. 

Since melharmony not only creates new melodies but also explores new harmonic possibilities in a structured and aesthetic manner, it offers tremendous scope for composers and creative musicians of various geners across the world. 

The video endeavours to give a glimpse of the ABCD (Approach, Basis, Context and Definition) of melharmony.

Distinctive 

Typical ‘raga-harmony’ attempts by classical, contemporary or Hollywood-Bollywood composers have tended towards harmonizing ragas – usually with simple structures and straight sequences – either along the lines of its scale and notes or creating melody-centric passages with a flavour of harmony.  Melharmony, takes this to the next logical step of adopting a holistic and sensitive approach to vital melodic factors that are often not accounted for in such cross-cultural forays.  

Indian film music was initially more melody-centric, often drawing from ragas or folk melodies with occasional attempts at harmonization using Western principles. In recent times, composers have explored not only Western Classical but also jazz, rock, pop and other contemporary trends. However even today an occasional piece suggestive of raga is attempted by several noted composers. However, since the primary aim in film music is not so much to create an entire melody based on a single raga but only suggest it, one can often see shades of other ragas within a single piece either melodically or harmonically or several rules of ornamentation loosely followed or not taken into consideration. (See also the FAQ page.)

Melharmony is more about finding inventive ways to show fidelity to the melodic rules in a harmonically acceptable manner, making it a strong in theory and exciting and attractive in practice. 

Music systems the world over are melody-centric (focussing primarily on successive notes) or harmony centric (employing simultaneous combinations of notes like chords/counterpoints).  

Evolved systems of each type have very well defined rules based on universal as well as cultural aesthetics. For instance, Indian and Persian music have been built upon millennia of intricately organised melodic principles while Western Classical and Jazz are examples of highly developed systems anchored by harmony.  

Issues in world music collaborations

The melharmonic approach is founded upon a very important point – for any collaboration to be mutually true, one must introspect deeply about aspects that anchor each system.  Without this, a collaboration could be exciting but often at the cost of the very fundamental character of one or both systems. 

Technical: The biggest issue is of course the varying technical approaches that melody and harmony based systems have evolved over centuries.  The traid-centric approach to harmony is in sharp variance with the sequential, scalar approach that melody based systems like the raga (modal) system of Indian music.  Triadic harmony can never work across the board for all modes even if they are based on 7 tone scales as can be seen below:  

Even the fundamental triad in Major Scale C E G (Sa-Ga-Pa in Indiian solfa) will never be appropriate from the melodic perspective of an Indian raga like Shankarabharanam. Though the notes of both are exactly identical, CEG is not a combination that works melodically for the raga since it thrives on phrasings like CDE, DEF, FGFE (SRG – RGM – MPMG etc).  CEG would actually suggest a different raga called Sindhumandari (which was probably created to explore this chord by 19th/20th century Indian composer Ramnad Srinivasa Iyengar). 

a. Many modes have different sequences in ascent and descent. Which may mean that the same type of chords will not work in many notes.  For instance, a Carnatic raga like Bilahari which has C D E F A C – C B A G F E D C (Sa Ri Ga Pa Da Sa – Sa Ni Da Pa Ma Ga Ri Sa or simply S R G P D S – S N D P M G R S in Indian solfa) will make a chord like G-B-D (Pa-Ni-Ri) sound out of place even though the B is there in descent. 

b. Many may have non-straight sequence-structures like raga Kadanakutoohala, which has C D F G B E G C (Sa Ri Ma Da Ni Ga Pa Sa) in the ascent. Again a chord like G-B-D will sound out of place even though the note is there in the raga. 

c. Many modes can be based on 6, 5 or even 4 or 3 note scales, which means several notes absent in ascent and/or descent like raga Hamsadhwani which has C D E G B C – C B G E D C (S R G P N S – S N P G R S). Here a triad from D will be inappropriate though a composer steeped in harmony will employ it routinely.  

(d) Ornamentation and oscillations: Even for modes with straight 7-tones certain rules of oscillations on notes in certain contexts will make a plain chord seem out of place.  For instance, in the harmonic minor (Keeravani), the 3rd (Ga), 6th (Da) and 7th (Ni) are oscillated many times whereas the 1st, 2nd and 5th are not. 4th is oscillated occasionally. So a standard chord obviously played plain like CEG (Sa-Ga-Pa) will seem quite at variance to listeners used to the oscaillation on the 3rd.  

A few more technical aspects are explained in the melody section.  There are a few more issues like: 

1. Cultural: While each system sounds very good when presented by top artistes or orchestras, it is not uncommon to see people used to harmony finding melodic systems uni-dimensional or those bred on the rigorous melodic rules centered on modes (raga) not being able to reconcile the notes or chords that are ‘foreign’ to a scale/mode being featured in harmony-centric compositions. 
2. Melodic: It is unrealistic to expect composers used to only harmony-based systems to be aware of thousands of rules in hundreds of scales/modes (ragas) in advanced melodic systems like Indian classical such as of sequence, hierarchy and ornamentation of notes in various contexts. 
3. Harmonic: It is equally impossible for specialists of melodic systems to be aware of the chord/counterpoint approaches in harmony-centric systems and they may unintentionally violate many while creating pieces with multiple parts.  
4. Collaborative: Since several technical and aesthetic aspects of Western systems can be sharply at variance with those of melody-centric systems, fusion between these even featuring high quality artists/orchestras can end up mixing, violating or ignoring them, leading to unsatisfactory results.

In the video example, Steve Kurr (Conductor, Middleton High School Orchestra, WI) attempts Western triadic harmony to write parts for a section of a traditional Indian Carnatic piece in a Kalyani (which uses the same basic notes as the Lydian-mode). This approach illustrates an important area of divergence between the melodic and harmonic approaches.  The very first triad (built on the tonic) C-E-G (Indian notes – Sa-Ga-Pa) is a combination that would be inappropriate for the raga Kalyani successively or simultaneously even though they are present.

This led to Ravikiran formulating the concept of melharmony in the year 2000 with an aim to find musical solutions for literally thousands of such issues in world music collaborations.  Melharmony has since opened up new vistas for composers, musicians, orchestras and audiences all over the world.

Melharmony aims to address literally thousands of issues that crop up for composers and musicians diligent about creating attractive music that is true to all systems of  music in any fusion attempt.  Most issues are often overlooked or inadequately resolved during cross cultural collaborations since it is presumed that systems are too far apart.   

The numerous examples of composers blindly using Western triads upon modes and scales of systems like Indian or Chinese or melodic composers unfamiliar with rules of harmony using inappropriate chords are the most obvious issues that need to be resolved.  

The melharmonic solution is to have similarities between systems as its starting point.  And there are many more similarities than what may be assumed. 

• Melharmony aims to choose appropriate or alternate chord or counterpoint options and create music with fidelity to both melodic & harmonic approaches  (See video). 
• The solution often lies in going around or beyond the triad since even fundamental concepts of Perfect & Imperfect consonances and dissonances can vary culturally.  For instance, the 4th is considered a Perfect Consonance in Indian Classical but Dissonant in Western Classical.  Melharmony dictates that a composer be aware of these perspectives while creating cross-cultural music. 
• Further, if composers are aware of melhamonic developments made by scholars like Prof Robert Morris in terms scales (melas) modes (ragas) that have maximum harmonic potential, it will enable them to make intelligent choices even prior to composing a raga-based piece with melody-centric harmony.
• Composers can also familiarise themselves with the basic raga and tala systems of Indian music as it will empower them to fine-tune their creativity.  

The spirit of Melharmony is to tap the power of music as a powerful unifier of mankind, by creating music that sounds true to listeners of diverse systems.  Further, it is to use this spirit of togetherness to make strong social statements about key issues. 

Melharmony festivals and events featuring composers, musicians, scholars and students representing various systems from Western Classical to Indian Classical, have brought together diverse audiences.  Melharmony productions of videos where Western repertoire such as Beethoven’s Fur Elise are presented by virtuosos from the East or collaborations where Eastern repertoire is performed by frontline Western artists and orchestras have won both popular and critical acclaim.  More projects are underway thanks to the support of everyone.  Other objectives are:

• To create an attractive system that takes into cognizance the rules and aesthetics of both melody-centric (such as Indian Classical) and harmony-centric systems (like Western Classical/Jazz) and negotiates the differences between them.  
• To showcase similarities between diverse systems, which can lead to a positive appreciation of the distinctions between them.
• To enhance the awareness of rules of melody-centric systems among composers and musicians of harmony and vice-versa which in turn can create music with greater fidelity to each fused system. 
• To create a theoretical framework that enables composers and musicians from any part of the world to create melharmonic music.
• To highlight sophisticated melodic concepts to audiences used to harmony through compositions and arrangements. 
• To bring a rich feel of harmony and texture into melodic systems such as Indian, yet highlighting their fundamental melodic rules and values. 
• To explore new chord, counterpoint possibilities anchored on strong theoretical base as well as aesthetics of all constituent systems in the fusion, using melharmonic principles.

Robert Morris notes that “Melharmony suggests that voice leading should be derived from the melodic and combinational structure of a given mode”.  While seemingly challenging, the melharmonic approach actually offers enormous scope to explore unchartered territories in the world of harmony. (See Video)  

• Melharmony is a sophisticated and organised approach with comprehensible, context-specific rules that can be understood rationally and applied consistently to any well-defined melodic system of music.
• Creates colourful textures and new tones to pure melodic pieces. 
• Melharmony shows sensitivity to the rules and aesthetics of the melodic system by ensuring that not only the main melody but also each chord & counterpoint conform to melodic rules