Definition of alap
music
:an improvised, unaccompanied prelude to an Indian raga normally lacking rhythmic pulse and meter that is either played or sung as vocalise
- The practice of beginning musical pieces with a seemingly free-form introduction that becomes a metered ensemble performance is common to India in the alap of a raga in classical Hindustani music …
- —Leonard Brown, John Coltrane and Black America’s Quest for Freedom, 2010
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