Pandit Ravi Shankar set parameters of sitar alap When Ravi Shankar presented his systematic alap and jod with impressive bass string work at the Allahabad Music Conference in 1939, he had no peers. Vilayat Khan was the about 12 years old and was practising hard in his father?s style. Another lesser-known sitar player of the same generation, Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan (born 1929) was 10 years old.
Gradually, the simple and short alap style of older sitar players like Mushtaq Ali Khan (1911-89) was put into a shade by the Ravi Shankar alap and then sent to oblivion once the gatkari started. Mushtaq Ali Khan usually played a stereotyped form of Rezakhani or rut teental gatkari after the brief alap. Though well versed in surbahar playing (with three mizrabs), he usually neither played this instrument or the medium tempo teental gatkari known as Masitkhani gatkari in public.
Behind the attractiveness of the Ravi Shankar alap was the his guru Ustad Allauddin Khan?s artistic blending of alap techniques earlier restricted to exclusive segments in the styles of separate schools. If we restrict ourselves to the sitar, the version of the Jaipur Seniya style in which Mushtaq Ali played used only straight meends or deflected glides between notes. More complex deflected figures like murki and khatka were shunned and so were kirntans or quash notes. These were restricted to styles considered lighter. Allauddin Khan blended these and many other figures and embellishments in the alap style he taught Ravi Shankar and as a result made the style much more variegated and attractive.
Again, as I have pointed out earlier, there was little or no bass octave development in the sitar styles of the 1930-40 period. With the Ravi Shankar model sitar, modified versions of figures and material earlier restricted to the Been and the surbahar entered the alap and added auditory variety and enlarged melodic scope. The Ravi Shankar alap was not played only on the first or nayaki string but on the jodi, bass pancham and bass tonic string as well. Therefore it had the range of the surbahar alap plus the additional figures not played either on the surbahar or say the type of alap played by Mustaq Ali Khan
Originally, the instrumental alap was called just alap; not alap, jod, jhala as it is called today. The late sarod maestro Radhika Mohan Maitra pointed out the fact to me among others. It was divided into sections but these were not named the way they are now. What is now called alap, that is the rhythm-less or free tempo first section, was called vilambit alap. What is now called jod used to be known as madh alap and what is now called jhala was included in the section called drut alap.
Ravi Shankar, however, always announced that he was going to play alap, jod and jhala in so and so raga and this would be followed by a vilambit gat in so and so tala and drut gat in so and so tala. As the alap was not played on the sitar in this manner earlier, all sitar players, including those of other schools or gharanas and yes, Ustad Vilayat Khan, started demarcating their alap in this manner.
The Ravi Shankar alap normally begins with the raga being introduced in the area between the pancham and the gandhar on the nayaki string with the medial tonic or sadaj naturally being the anchor note. From here it descends to the bass pancham string via the jodi and from there to the booming bass tonic string.
The identity of the raga becomes clear right from the opening section and by the time Ravi Shankar is bending the bass tonic, the raga is already in full bloom. The phrase development works its way up to the medial tonic gradually and then moves upward in stages till it reaches the high tonic or taar sadaj and crosses it. The high section, known as antara, is gradually re-aligned to the medial tonic through movements originally called sanchari and abhog to mark the end of the alap or vilambit alap.
Then the jod begins. Usually at a slow tempo in 2/2 measure with figures and movements scrupulously ending on the first beat of the cycle. Ravi Shankar usually keeps time with his left foot. Pupils sitting behind him usually also keep time with their hand or hands. This goes on throughout the jod. This meticulous attention to rhythmic structure is not usually found in other artistes except his own pupils.
The melodic movements of the jod usually follow the direction of the alap: it starts in the medial zone and then descends to the bass segments with the thick strings being used for simple but impressive phrase progressions. Most sections of the Been madh alap like ladi jod, Llapet, Lad-gathao and other multi-stroke movements are used in moderation as the tempo increases. The bass strings are hooked down and kept out of action in the faster segments as rapid multi-stroke movements lead to the jhala.
The jhala, of course, is the final movement. The whole process, depending on the artiste?s mood or the scope offered by the particular raga may take up 60 to ninety minutes. This soon became the standard sitar alap format with individual deviations.
