Swaralipi


Swaralipi is any system used in sheet music in order to represent aurally perceived music through the use of written notes for Indian classical music.

History

The Indian scholar and musical theorist Pingala, 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. 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. These two notes are known as achala swar. 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, or an altered pitch, either a half-step above or half-step below the shuddha pitch. Re, Ga, Dha and Ni all have altered partners that are a half-step lower . Ma has an altered partner that is a half-step higher . Re, Ga, ma, Dha and Ni are called vikrut swar. In the written system of Indian notation devised by Ravi Shankar, the pitches are represented by Western letters. Capital letters are used for the achala swar, and for the higher variety of all the vikrut swar. Lowercase letters are used for the lower variety of the vikrut swar.