Anoushka Shankar-Breathing Under Water

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Introduction

  • Ravi Shankar
    • Born in 1920
    • Daughter performed in many of his sitar concertos
    • Shankar became a composer in 1944
  • Indian classical music
    • Two foundational elements: raga and tala
    • Space between the notes in Indian classical music
    • Displays Western classical concepts such as harmony, counterpoints, chords or modulation
  • Anoushka Shankar
    • Born in 1981
    • Active in promoting her father's work
    • Explores many fusions
  • Indian Raga
    • Melodic mode
    • Each raga is a melodic structure
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Instrumentation

  • Breathing Under Water
    • Piano, electric guitar, electronic drums, vocals, synth bass
    • Sitar, Manjira
  • Burn
    • Strings, synth bass (bars 22-end)
    • English vocals (Noa Lambersley)
    • Sitar and manjira (bars 22-49)
  • Easy
    • Similar to the previous two
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Rhythm and Metre

  • Breathing Under Water
    • simple quadruple
    • Scotch snaps (bar 2)
    • Triplets (bar 6)
    • Quintuplets (bar 12)
    • Syncopation (bars 5-6)
  • Burn
    • triplets
    • syncopation
    • Lombardic rhythms
    • Anticipations
    • Demi-semiquavers
  • Easy
    • sitar rhythms
    • 1/2 beat anacrusis
    • septuplets (bar 20)
    • scotch snaps
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Melody

  • Breathing Under Water
    • overlapped melodies (bar 18)
    • melody in string part (bar 23)
    • stepwise vocal lines (bar 42)
    • opens with a sitar solo
    • ornamentation
  • Burn
    • mainly conjunct with ornamentation
    • rising 6th figure
    • uses minor 3rds
    • includes slides and trills
  • Easy
    • ornamentation is often used
    • backing vocals span a 9th
    • slurred notes and melisma
    • restricted 4th and 5ths
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Texture

  • Breathing Under Water
    • simple texture (bar 7)
    • melody dominated homophony (bar 7)
    • countermelody (bar 42)
    • polyphony (bar 55-67)
  • Burn
    • drone
    • polyphonic (bar 38)
    • contrapuntal (bar 40)
    • dialoguing (bar 86)
    • homophonic (end)
  • Easy
    • melody dominated homophony
    • varied texture
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Harmony

  • Breathing Under Water
    • Slash chords (bar 26)
    • Maj 7th chord
    • variations on plagal cadence
    • Inconclusive Db sus 4 (bar 17)
  • Burn
    • strict Indian ragas
    • use of extension chords
  • Easy
    • Three suspended chords-Db sus 4, Gb sus 2 and Cb sus 2
    • Variation in chord orders
    • limited chord choices
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Tonality

  • Breathing Under Water
    • modally inflected
  • Burn
    • the suggestion of C#minor
    • modally infelcted
  • Easy
    • Db mixolydian
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Structure

  • Breathing Under Water
    • Uneven phrases
    • Section 1(bars 1-18)
      • A1(1-4)
      • A2 (5-10)
      • B1(11-18)
    • Section 2 (bars 18-36)
      • C1 (bars 18-22)
      • C2 (bars 23-26)
      • B2(47-53)
      • Bridge passages (27-36)
    • Section 3 and 4 follow similar structures
  • Burn
    • Strophic form
  • Easy
    • Strophic form
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