(Sanskrit: ‘conversation’; Hindi ālāp; Urdu ālāp; Tamil ālāpanam). In South Asian music an unmetred introduction to the performance of a metrical composition, comprising an exposition of the mode or rāga of the composition. Ālāpa is normally improvised according to traditional principles (see India, §III, 3(ii)(a–d); Mode, §V, 3), and is variable in length from a few minutes to an hour or more. The most extended examples are performed by Hindustani dhrupad singers and players of sitār, sarod, bīn and other melodic instruments, and by Karnatak musicians in the genre rāgam-tānam-pallavi (see India, §III, 5(xiii–iv and ex.1). Notated examples are found in the 13th-century Sangīta-ratnākara of Śārngadeva, the Rāga-vibodha of Somanātha (17th century) and more recent didactic works. A short ālāpa may precede a devotional song in many of the religious music traditions of South Asia (see Nepal, §I, 2(ii)).
RICHARD WIDDESS