In this series, I plan to take each of Messiaen’s modes of limited transposition one by one, and explore its identity as raga. The first is the whole tone scale. THIS IS THE EASIEST ONE I HAVE GOT i think. Many interesting discoveries.



Sa, Re, Ga, M’a, dha, ni, Sa’

It’s similarity to Charukeshi is unmistakable until the Ga.

Sounds like this as a plain old mode or not:



https://researchweb.iiit.ac.in/~tejaswinee.k/Ar-Av-Wholetone.mp3

Sorry for the komal dha initiation.

Literature Survey:

I found this useful blog http://rudiseitz.com/2013/01/12/charukeshi-gopriya/

where the composer has also dealt with the question of a whole tone raga. The approach taken is a Charukeshi descent and a whole tone ascent. Which is so more ear friendly, i realized after beginning to sing whole tone descents, which are immensely difficult.

Also found out that a whole tone scale is sung in Carnatic Music as Raga Gopriya. Fearless raga as it is, from the Rishabhapriya melakarta.

Some people have called the whole tone to be Lachari Todi in the Hindustani system, although the Lachari todi is popularly sung is very differently from the whole tone.





Lots of people have said this to be in a rare ‘Raga Sahera’ in Hindustani music. Ustad Sultan Khan and later Mehdi Hassan played with this raga. Ustad Sultan Khan’s work in this raga can be found here:

http://sarangi.info/2011/11/27/sultan-khan-1940-2011-raag-sehra/

In this, the stress is mainly on Charukeshi, with a lesser use of the teevra Ma. The overall descent from Sa is avoided, and a descent from Ma is usually expressed more.

Mehdi Hassan’s Whole tone ghazal

His chalan: SRnS, SRG MG, MGS, MGRS, SGMdS, nRnd M, GMG

MGRS.

Aaroha for SGMdS is the way in which he avoids getting neck deep into the ni, and achieves a bit of lightness in the raga too.

Listening to Debussy’s Whole tone piece:



At this point, i just feel that i’m listening to the same tonal material. Which has never happened while switching between even the same tonal material and different musical styles, but this scale is very special!

Wayne Shorter’s JuJu



Problems:



1. How to set the tanpura?

Usually we set Tanpura to play Pa - Sa - Sa - Sa,

The Pa string is set to a Shuddha Ni, in cases where Pa is absent. In cases where the Ni is komal, we set the first string to a Teevra Ma (M’a).

Hmm. All three notes are absent in the Whole Tone scale.

In the recording above, plus for primary thinking purposes, I decided to set one tanpura playing in Komal ni and one in Teevra Ma for the time being. It is interesting, but does not make listening / singing any easier. Here on I am going to stick to further explorations just playing a Sa.

