Describe in your own words the characteristics of time and pitch including drone, melodic contour, improvisation, ornamentation/”pillar” tones, and phrase structure of the alapana section. (Answers should vary.)

What will be an ideal response?

—Time characteristics
• Absence of meter
• Melody made up of free-flowing rhythms that increase in speed and complexity as the section unfolds

—Pitch aspects
• Drone sustains tonal center and the tone a fifth above tonal center throughout entire section anchoring tonal center of composition
• The drone part stabilizes the music and balances the highly improvised melody
• Melody seems to unfold through a series of improvised phrases that gradually rise from tonal center (sa) and then gradually descend back to the tonal center (sa)
• Much note-bending and sliding between pitches and ornamentation of the melody
• Melody frequently returns to pillar (resting/stable) tones such as sa and pa.