Music Handbook
   

ONLINE DICTIONARY

    

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Nabhi swara   A kind of vocal production that is layered with harmonics and seems to originate at the navel of the singer.  
Nada  

A mystical concept that has several connotations, one of which is the Nadabramha, which is an esoteric understanding of the silence of the spheres. On a more physical level, it refers to the basic vibration that enters the audio level and can be heard as sound as it impinges on the consciousness - the matrix of sound. It can be subdivided into Ahata nada (the heard sound) and Anahata nada (the unheard sound).

Nada roopa   Is the embodied form of nada.  
Nadaswaram   See Nagaswaram  
Nadopasana   It is the practice of nada as a meditative exercise that cleanses one's musical perceptions.  
Nadopasika   Refers to one who meditates on the swaras of music and obtains the power of nada from the exercise.  
Nadayoga   It is a Sanskrit term used to describe the meditation on a swara as a kind of yoga where the swara is understood to be the fundamental sound and the raga, secondary.  
Nadayogi   Is a musician who practices music as part of yoga, a kind of rigorous discipline that involves the gathering of one's faculties and focussing on the Art.  
Nagaswaram   An ancient Carnatic wind instrument, similar to the Western Clarinet.  
Navaratnamala   It is a garland of nine kirtanas composed by Swati Tirunal on the theme of bhakti. There are nine kinds of bhakti - sravanam (attentive listening), kirtanam (singing religious songs), smaranam (mentally imagining the deity), padasevanam (worshipping at the feet of the deity), archanam (making an offering), vandanam (paying one's respects), dasyam (offering one's services to the deity), sakhyam (constant companionship) and atmanivedanam (self-enquiry).  
Navaratri kriti   Refers to a set of nine kritis in praise of Goddess Devi, specially composed by Swati Tirunal to be sung during the Navaratri festival.  
Navavarna kritis   Refers to a set of nine kritis in praise of Goddess Devi, to be sung during the nine days of the Navaratri festival. There are two such sets, one composed by Oottukadu Venkatasubbayyar and one by Muthuswami Dikshitar.  
Nibaddha   It refers to a composition that is set to a tala. It is the opposite of Anibaddha, which is the unbounded area of a raga, i.e. alapana.  
Nindastuti   Refers to that form of worship (Bhakti) in which the faults of the God/Goddess is highlighted as an indirect act of adoration. There are many compositions based on this form of Bhakti.  
Nishada or Ni   It is the seventh note of the Indian scale.  
Nisabdha kriya   It is the act of reckoning rhythm without sound.  
Niyama   Sanskrit word that means rules. There are various niyamas (rules) by which Ragas, Talas and Sahitya are bound.  
Nyasa swara   It is the final note on which a phrase or an alapana rests.

            

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