Melharmony is a new approach to compositions and aesthetics that Ravikiran initiated in 2000 at the Millennium Festival in UK. He premiered some of his compositions applying this concept in collaboration with artistes of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. These were presented in various cities including London and Manchester in Oct 2000, billed as Global Echoes by the sponsors, Kala Sangam, a leading multi-cultural organization in UK. Melharmony received overwhelming responses from listeners everywhere and the concert in Bradford was selected among the best five out of nearly 2000 events from around the world in the Millennium Festival and the artistes were invited for an encore in the Tate Modern Gallery in December 2000. Melharmony received critical acclaim from many quarters prompting the BBC Magazine to run a cover story titled 'BBC Melharmonic!'

Ravikiran has composed and presented several concerts with top caliber artistes from many parts of the world featuring Melharmony. He has arranged several Melharmonic pieces for performances by full sized, medium sized or chamber orchestras. Some of these are in collaboration with composers such as Prof Robert Morris and Charles Demuynck, Toronto, Canada.

Ravikiran's Melharmonic compositions bring a new dimension that endeavours to enrich both melodic and harmonic systems. Flavoured with exciting and often highly original rhythmic patterns, his compositions have started blazing a new trail in world music. One of his creations, Ujjwal, a full-fledged, first of its kind 45-minute long Melharmonic Concerto was presented in the Swar Utsav Festival at India Gate, New Delhi to an audience close to 20,000 people.

Melharmonic concerts in cities such as Boston, London, New Delhi, Toronto, Mumbai, Austin (TX), Chennai, Bangalore, Tulsa (OK) at times in collaboration with top calibre artistes and groups from diverse parts of the world have also won plaudits.

Ravikiran's Melharmonic compositions, based on diverse ragas such as Hamsadhwani, Nattai, Keeravani, Janaranjani, Varunapriya, Hamsanadam, Saraswati and Hamirkalyani have added a new dimension to world music and enriched both melodic and harmonic systems.

Flavoured with exciting and often highly original sounds, singular melo-rhythmic interactions between various instruments and interesting patterns, his compositions have begun to blaze a new trail in world music, influencing other musicians and composers as well. Emerging artistes such as Canada-based Polivios Issariotis have started attempting their own Melharmonic creations.

Academic acceptance

The Society for Music Theory Conference, Boston, USA: On Nov 12, 2005, at Prof Robert Morris, one of the most distinguished musicians and composers in the West presented a paper entitled: 'Ravikiran's concept of Melharmony: an inquiry into Harmony in South Indian music'. Having collaborated with Ravikiran in creating or arranging several Melharmonic pieces, Prof Morris was able to elucidate the concept succinctly with excellent examples. This paper - probably the most significant paper presented about an Indian concept in the SMT Conference - was warmly received by the delegates consisting of noted music theorists and musicologists from several parts of the world. The conference also featured Ravikiran's recital of his Melharmonic pieces to the accompaniment of an audio disc that had the orchestration of the same.

Amsterdam Conference - India and the World: In Nov 2008, Ravikiran was again invited to present a paper on Melharmony which saw a confluence of numerous delegates literally from across the planet, as a part of the Amsterdam-India Festival, which also featured a solo Carnatic concert by him. He had also been invited to similar conferences and seminars featuring new approaches and compositional styles in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and other cities.

The approach

Melharmony can be defined as “harmony with an emphasis on the melodic rules of highly evolved systems such as the raga system of Indian music”. Broadly speaking, Melharmonic principles can be used to help guide the use of harmony in any system of modal music.

However, in an Indian context, Melharmony suggests that voice leading should be derived from the melodic and combinational structure of the raga. The concept dictates that a composition based on a well-defined scale such as the raga, not only features chords and harmonies drawn only from notes permitted in the raga, but also highlights the sequence, structure and typical ornamentation that bestow the raga its unique individuality and identity. In this manner it is distinct from simple diatonic harmony that takes care of only the scale but not the other aspects associated with a raga.

The reality

Though the above statements may seem easy enough, a Melharmonic approach to creating music is seldom a reality in world music, for two reasons:

· Systems dependant only on melody scarcely venture out to the territories of chords

· Systems such as Western Classical and Jazz that predominantly use chords follow different sets of aesthetics that do not require composers to exclusively use notes native to a specific scale.

Precisely because the approaches to melody-centric and harmony-based systems are quite distinct, many aspects do not resolve themselves to a listener from the 'other side of the fence', even though each system sounds wonderful to a person listening with the necessary aesthetic mindset. In other words, for someone who listens to Western classical or jazz or other systems with an 'Indian ear', certain chord combinations may appear to use notes absolutely foreign to the raga. Similarly, for one attuned to harmonic systems, a purely melodic system may not sound wholesome all the time.

The challenge

There is a very important point to be noted here in the context of world music as a whole. While most combinations of notes can be skillfully made to work when rendered successively, only certain combinations would be palatable when rendered simultaneously . This gives an enormous scope to melody-centric systems such as Indian music when it comes to exploring combinations or sequences of notes. However, this also makes melharmony all the more challenging – since one attempts to create harmony using the melodic rules of the ragas.

The next logical questions would be, "So what are the ways in which one can compose melharmonically? What are the melodic rules that one needs follow? What are the aspects of music that one needs to get familiar with and attain competence?" The answers are very simple and quite easy to practice if one were to engage in quality interaction with master musicians and composers of the melodic systems even for a few days or weeks.

The practice

In order to practice melharmony (in the context of ragas), one needs to approach a raga with an eye to its melodic structure’s harmonic potential. Indian music theory provides schemes for classifying ragas that help identify their similarities and differences. An awareness of these melodic rules are essential for composing quality works using Melharmony.

Each raga’s identity is based on at least five criteria:

(1) Scale: Notes used in the raga that enable a Carnatic raga to be classified under one or more of a possible 72 parent ragas.)

(2) Sequence - specific to both ascending and descending scale patterns. This is a very fundamental aspect of a raga that composers must be well aware of, since even a minute change in the sequence can mean a different raga.

(3) Hierarchy of the notes of the raga: Each raga has certain dominant notes, notes with development potential as also certain 'touch me not' notes in which phrases cannot begin and/or end.

(4) Typical ornamentation: Again, each raga has well defined rules of what notes can be rendered plain or with movement or micro-tonal variation depending on the context. In the South Indian tradition of Carnatic system, oscillation of a note is a major ornamentation that is in fact the lifeline of some ragas. Composers seeking to use Carnatic ragas will find it most rewarding to acquaint themselves with some of these principles.

(5) Key phrases: Since Melharmony aims to bring out the beauty of the raga, one must be aware of the ways in which a raga can be made to come alive in the course of a composition. The classical approach to ragas in India have been focussed on revealing the raga from the very first phrase and not approach it with the mindset of a mystery writer. Even an awareness of 10-12 key phrases of a raga will go a long way in enabling a composer to feel the pulse of the raga and create quality compositions in those.

Over the last few decades, several composers from other cultures have attempted 'raga-based' compositions (using both North Indian and Carnatic ragas). They have made commendable efforts to learn and try out new scales from India. But without familiarity with the other four aspects listed above , their compositions are at best diatonic harmonies and only bring out about 20% of the raga. In fact, without an emphasis on the right sequence of notes, the music can very easily cross borders and go into the territory of another raga. This does not matter, if the attempt is specified as only a 'raga-influenced' work and not as a 'raga-based' creation.

The significance

It is against this background that Ravikiran's melharmony is revolutionary. Several of his melharmonic pieces have multiple arrangements that can be performed by small jazz bands and classical ensembles as well as by full-sized symphony orchestras. More significantly, Ravikiran hopes to create a new set of aesthetics and rules of desirable chords with respect to each individual mode raga that will enable any composer in any part of the world to create melharmonically.