NCERT Solutions for Class 9th English Chapter 6 Twin Melodies
Updated on 2026-09-19
About this chapter
Twin Melodies (play, pages 169–193) has three Acts and five characters: Shruti Sharma (a young aspiring violinist), Guru Nabin Sharma (her father, a violinist and Principal of Sangeetika Music School), Leela Devi (her mother), and her fusion group — Avinash on tabla, Iqbal on flute, Peter on keyboard. The conflict is stated plainly in Act I. Shruti tells her friends her father “will think it a desecration of the violin to be played to Western tunes” and that he “firmly believes that Classical Hindustani music, with its ragas and aalaaps, is the only kind of music that an artist of any worth should play.” Her problem is not disobedience but manner: “I just don’t know how to tell him in the right way!” Act II is the clash. Nabin refuses twice — first on his own rule (“one performance in ever
- Twin Melodies (play by Mitra Phukan)
- A Friend Found in Music (poem by Bryanna T. Perkins)
Quick revision
| Word or phrase | What it means | Where it appears in the chapter | Used in a fresh sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| crescendo [kri-SHEN-doe] | a piece of music that gets louder and louder; a gradual increase in volume or intensity (book’s gloss, pages 170 and 185) | “a beautiful Indo-Western fusion music piece in its crescendo” (Act I, page 170) | The drums built to a crescendo just before the lights went out. |
| desecration | disrespect towards something sacred (book’s gloss, page 173) | “He will think it a desecration of the violin to be played to Western tunes.” (Shruti, Act I) | Scribbling on a temple wall is a desecration, not a joke. |
| ragas and aalaaps | elements of Hindustani classical music (book’s gloss, page 173) | “Classical Hindustani music, with its ragas and aalaaps” (Shruti, Act I) | She opened the recital with a slow aalaap in Raga Yaman. |
| to bite the bullet | to deal with an unpleasant or difficult situation in a courageous and determined way (book’s gloss, page 173) | “I guess it is time to bite the bullet.” (Shruti, Act I) | I bit the bullet and told my coach I wanted to change events. |
| contempt | a strong feeling of dislike and disrespect (book’s gloss, page 176) | “More than that, familiarity breeds contempt.” (Nabin, Act II) | He spoke of the local team with open contempt. |
| hubbub | a loud noise (book’s gloss, page 176) | “To drown your individual style in the hubbub of an orchestra” (Nabin, Act II) | We could not hear the announcement over the hubbub of the platform. |
| iterated | repeated (book’s gloss, page 176) | “Since my views on fusion music have been iterated in this house on several occasions” (Nabin, Act II) | The teacher iterated the rule until the whole class had it by heart. |
| painstakingly | done with great care and effort (book’s gloss, page 180) | “They painstakingly nurtured the flame of musical heritage” (Leela, Act III) | He painstakingly copied every diagram into his notebook. |
| worked his fingers to the bone | to work very hard (book’s gloss, page 181) | “your father worked his fingers to the bone” (Leela, Act III) | She worked her fingers to the bone to open the little tailoring shop. |
| root (for) | to show support (book’s gloss, page 181) | “I will root for your group at the concert!” (Nabin, Act III) | The whole hostel was rooting for our kabaddi team. |
| each bay, its own wind | every place — and so every artist — has its own character and its own way of moving forward | “After all each bay, its own wind.” (Nabin, Act III) | Do not copy his practice routine; each bay, its own wind. |
| aside | a dramatic device in which a character speaks to the audience while the other characters on stage are understood not to hear (defined on page 184) | “Shruti (Aside): Oh, how much I enjoy performing this piece.” (Act III) | In his aside, the villain told us exactly what he planned to do. |
| non-lexical fillers | words or sounds like ‘uh’ or ‘um’ used to fill pauses while a speaker gathers their thoughts (defined on page 185) | “Ahem ahem…”, “I … er … was finding the right words” (Acts I and II) | He filled the pause with a long ‘hmmm’ before answering. |
| rhythm | the pattern of beats or time intervals in music (matching item, page 186) | “Music is the rhythm / That moves me to the core.” (poem, stanza 1) | The whole class clapped the rhythm before the song began. |
| tempo | the speed or pace at which a piece of music is played (matching item, page 186) | Column 1, Vocabulary and Structures in Context III | The tabla player quietly raised the tempo in the last cycle. |
| bass / baritone | the lowest tone or part in music / a male voice between the higher and lower ranges (matching items, page 186) | Column 1, Vocabulary and Structures in Context III | His baritone carried over the whole hall without a microphone. |
| cacophony | a mixture of loud unpleasant sounds (matching item, page 186) | Column 1, Vocabulary and Structures in Context III | The tuning of forty instruments at once was pure cacophony. |
| pitch / scale | the perceived frequency of a sound, how high or low it is / a series of musical notes moving upwards or downwards (matching items, page 186) | Column 1, Vocabulary and Structures in Context III | She ran up the scale twice to check that her pitch was steady. |
| go down the drain | to be wasted; to come to nothing (phrase task, page 186) | “All our practice will go down the drain.” (Shruti, Act II) | One careless mistake and a month of preparation went down the drain. |
| drown your individual style | to let your own distinctive manner disappear inside something larger (phrase task, page 186) | “To drown your individual style in the hubbub of an orchestra” (Nabin, Act II) | Copying every trend will only drown your individual style. |
| musicality | a feel for music — an instinct for pitch, rhythm and expression (phrase task, page 186) | “would lose their sense of musicality to such an extent” (Nabin, Act II) | Her musicality showed even in a simple two-line tune. |
| yazh [yāḻ] | an ancient Tamil harp, the ancestor of the modern veena, named from the Yali head carved at its stem tip (listening transcript, printed page 270) | Listen and Respond, page 188 | The yazh appears in Sangam poetry long before the veena did. |
| feel blue | to feel sad or low in spirits (poem vocabulary, page 197) | “I need when I feel blue.” (poem, stanza 2) | I feel blue on the last day of every vacation. |
| pull through | to succeed in doing something very difficult (book’s gloss, page 197) | “To make sure I pull through.” (poem, stanza 2) | She was badly ill in June, but she pulled through. |
| phrasal verb | a verb of two parts — a verb plus a preposition or adverb — whose combined meaning is quite different from the parts (defined on page 197) | pull through, move out, move on, move off | ‘Look up’ is a phrasal verb: it means to search for information. |
| anaphora | the repetition of the same word or phrase at the start of successive lines | “Music is the ocean… Music is the rhythm… Music is the therapy…” (poem) | The speech used anaphora — every sentence began with ‘We will’. |
Exercises
- Twin Melodies (play by Mitra Phukan) — Reflect and Respond Page 169–170
- Twin Melodies (play by Mitra Phukan) — Check Your Understanding (Act I) Page 174
- Twin Melodies (play by Mitra Phukan) — Check Your Understanding (Act II) Page 177–178
- Twin Melodies (play by Mitra Phukan) — Check Your Understanding (Act III) Page 181–182
- Twin Melodies (play by Mitra Phukan) — Critical Reflection Page 182–184
- Twin Melodies (play by Mitra Phukan) — Vocabulary and Structures in Context Page 184–188
- Twin Melodies (play by Mitra Phukan) — Listen and Respond Page 188
- Twin Melodies (play by Mitra Phukan) — Speaking Activity Page 189–190
- Twin Melodies (play by Mitra Phukan) — Writing Task Page 190–191
- Twin Melodies (play by Mitra Phukan) — Learning Beyond the Text Page 191–193
- A Friend Found in Music (poem by Bryanna T. Perkins) — Reflect and Respond Page 194
- A Friend Found in Music (poem by Bryanna T. Perkins) — Check Your Understanding Page 195
- A Friend Found in Music (poem by Bryanna T. Perkins) — Critical Reflection Page 196
- A Friend Found in Music (poem by Bryanna T. Perkins) — Vocabulary in Context Page 197–198
- A Friend Found in Music (poem by Bryanna T. Perkins) — Listen and Respond Page 199
- A Friend Found in Music (poem by Bryanna T. Perkins) — Speaking Activity Page 200
- A Friend Found in Music (poem by Bryanna T. Perkins) — Writing Task Page 200–201
- A Friend Found in Music (poem by Bryanna T. Perkins) — Learning Beyond the Text Page 201–202