CH – Raga CDs of the Months… (07/2012): Moorchana-s… the Matrix of Soul by Music.

Moorchana-s
– The Matrix of Soul by Music…

The Ragas and Ragams of North Indian and South Indian Classics trace back to the oldest musical treatise of the sage Matanga Muni. He is the author of the Brihaddeshi. Matanga lived before 2000 years… and he described already the Moorchana-s (or Mūrcchanā-s).

Matanga Muni introduced the term Moorchanas to the musical tradition – Ghandarva -, regarding an earlier preform of the Ragas, the Jati-s (Jati Gaan).

“Moorchana” is derived from the root “Moorcha”. In Sanskrit it means: “unconsciousness”.

The Moorchana-s overtake an important function for the arrangement of Raga compositions. Each of the seven (7) main pitches of a Raga scale can be transformed into the basic tone  “SA” (1st pitch), from where new Ragas with the same interval distances of the original Ragas are developed. This “modal SHIFT” – Shadja – causes a change of the emotional expression of the original Ragas by an audible perception. This technique is called Moorchana Paddhati.

Beside this ancient form of modal shifting there is a more modern variant for the derivation of scales, the fixed Tonic method. Here the first pitch SA is maintained and individual intervals are changed.

A raga form, which is emanated from different Moorchana-s is called Moorchanakaraka Raga.

dates of broadcasting…

23rd July 2012 – 04:00 pm EST (10:00 p.m. CET) @ Radio RaSA (CH)
(premiere: 17th February 2009 – 11:00 pm CET (05:00 pm EST) @ Tide Radio)
broadcasting plan | streaming (Internet Radio & Mobile Radio) | podCast

In the exterior world the Moorchana-s are a mirror of the world. The basic tone SA tells its history same as a mixture of colours, which is told by this individual note “SA”.

A Raga is the expansion and contraction of the main tone SA (1st pitch) as the universe was created, as it expanded and is limited. The secret of the Moorchana-s is to link the end with the beginning in an endless cycle of the renewal. This point “SAM “, with new beginning again on “SA”, is the origin word for “Samadhi“, the fusion with the divine (Devi):

“Moorchana sangeet ki papaharini devi hai.” (Hindi)

(translation: In music the Moorchana-s are the divine, which release from all sins; the divine that visits the soul in the condition of free from sin.)

With methods of modular arithmetic the Moorchana-s and raga scales deriving from it can be determined easily. For the mathematics layman by a 12×12er-Matrix – Moorchana Transform matrix (MTM) – the Moorchanas of a Ragas can be computed very fast.
The scientific processing of the Moorchana-s with mathematical and computer-assisted models helps us in the rational sense to equalise the complexity of the Moorchana-s and for understanding the compositorial and formative potential for Raga scales.

On the basis of the 7 main notes (svara-s), the melodic basic material of a Raga the Moorchana-s are seized into 14 sequential order samples.

sadja-grama (1-7): Uttaramandra | 4 (sa) – 3 (ri) – 2 (ga) – 4 (ma) – 4 (pa) – 3 (dha) – 2 (ni)
Madhyama-grama (8-14): Sauviri | 4 (ma) – 3 (pa) – 4 (Dha) – 2 (ni) – 4 (sa) – 3 (ri) – 2 (ga)

The system of the Moorchana-s is the most comprehensive source to discover new Ragas. The term of the harmony in Indian Classics can be understood as a kind of Symphony of the Road, the melodic terrain of Ragas. Like all roads, they lead out into the world; one can return on them in addition, again. Thus we cleave with the help of the Moorchana-s through a Raga scale cyclically in the ascending and descending form.

In their resting condition of the unconscious the Moorchana-s remain quietly, until they open us by a “pure spirit” the path to new Ragas and opening us their place within the universal family of Raga scales – a similar state as it can reveal itself to us by meditation.