Shruti (music)

The meaning of shruti varies in different systems. Grama system Bharata Muni uses shruti to mean the interval between two notes such that the difference between them is perceptible. Controversy In the current practice of Carnatic music, shruti has several meanings. In certain ragas, due to inflexions or gamakas on some of those 12 notes, listeners perceive a sharpened or flattened version of an existing note. Some scientific evidence shows that these intermediate tones perceived in the contemporary rendition of a raga do not hint at the existence of 22 shrutis. The number 22 is not practically significant in the current performance of Carnatic and Hindustani music traditions, partly because different musicians use slightly different "shrutis" when performing the same raga, an example being the ati-komal (extra flat) gandhar in Darbari. The phenomenon of intermediate tones is pursued as an active area of research in Indian Musicology, which says the number of perceptible intermediate tones may be less or more than 22. and known as pramana shruti (22%), nyuna shruti (70%) and purana shruti (90%). Each shruti may be approximated in the 53EDO system. ==Relationship to , , and ==

Shruti is linked to the fundamental aspects of . Of the twenty-two shruti, veena scholars identified the 4th shruti as the sa solfege, 7th as re, 9th as ga, 13th as ma, 17th as pa, 20th as dha, and 22nd as ni. Identification of a shruti In performance, notes identified as one of the 12 universal pitch classes of the chromatic scale (swara-prakara) are the shrutis, and connected unidentified notes between them are nadas. The human ear takes about 20–45 msec to identify a note within the range of the human voice—from 100 to 1000 Hz. The ear can identify shrutis played or sung longer than that—but cannot identify nadas played or sung faster than that limit, but can only hear them. Lack of appreciation of this difference has led to many scientists to opine that because of the meend and the oscillating notes, it is hard to determine the exact numerical frequencies. Brihaddeshi (Sanskrit) by Pandit Matanga mentions after Shloka 24, in Shrutiprakarana (Chapter on Shrutis) that "[o]nly when the ear understands (the point on the string where perception of the notes changes), does that sound become a Shruti." He further says that these points on the string are very precise, as in Shloka 28, Chapter 1, in Nadaprakarana (Chapter on Nadas) that "[r]eaching (the point on the string where the perception of the notes changes), and reverting (from there) results in the precision that is called as 'Shruti.'" There are 12 universally identifiable musical notes (pitch classes of the chromatic scale or Swara-prakara) in an octave. They indicate "a musical note or scale degree, but Shruti is a more subtle division of the octave". Gamakas In any gamaka, only shrutis and nadas exist. The threshold of identification of a musical note within the range of human voice of 100–1000 Hz is 20–45 msec. When different artists performed rāga yaman on flute, sarangi, sitar, and voice, pitch accuracy was found to be "relative" and "subjective", and "neither rigidly fixed" "nor randomly varying"; the "same Swara was pitched differently at different times by the same artiste in the same raga", and "different artistes intoned the same swara differently in the same raga". == Ancient treatises on Indian classical music and performing arts ==

• Natya Shastra by Bharata • Dattilam by Dattila • Brihaddeshi by Matanga Muni • Abhinavabharati – Abhinava Gupta's commentary on Natya Shastra • Sangita Ratnakara by Sarangadeva • Svaramelakalanidhi by Ramamatya • Charurdandi Prakashika by Venkatamakhin • Ragavibodha by Somanatha ==References==