Odissi Music is a classical
form consisting of all the necessary ingredients
common to Hindustani and Karnatic Music, such
as rags and tala Jayadeva' was the first Oriya
poet who composed lyrics meant to be sung
and thus the words of those Lyrics were musical
to start with. In addition he indicated the
classical ragas prevailing At the time in
which these were to be sung. Prior to this
there was the tradition Of chhandas which
were simple in musical outline. From the 16th
century onwards Treatises on music were written
or compiled in Orissa. They were Sangitamava
Chandrika, Gita Prakasha, Sangita Kalalata
and Natya Manorama. Two treatises namely,
Sangita Sarani and Sangita Narayana were also
written in the early 19th century.
Odissi sangita is a synthesis of four classes
of music, i.e. dhruvapada, chitrapada, chitrakala
and panchal, described in the above-mentioned
texts. The dhruvapada is the first line or
lines to be sung repeatedly. The use of art
in music is called chitikala. Kavisurya Baladeva
Rath, the renowned Oriya poet wrote lyrics
which are the best examples of chitrakala.
Chitrapada means the arrangement of words
in an alliterative style. All these were combined
to form the style peculiar to Odissi music.
Chhanda (metrical section) contains the essence
of Odissi music. The chhandas were composed
combining bhava (theme), kala (time), and
swara (tune) The chaurisha represents the
originality of Odissi style. All the thirty-four
letters of the Oriya alphabet from 'Ka' to
'Ksha' are used chronologically at the beginning
of each line. A special feature of Odissi
music is the padi which consists of words
to be sung in druta tala (fast beat). Odissi
music can be sung to different talas: navatala
nine beats), dashatala(ten beats) or egar
tala (eleven beats).
