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Know India Better:
An Introduction to Indian Music
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06. CULTURE |
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An introduction to Indian music |
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The Indian word for music
is sangeet, which means
bringing it all together and expressing it - the body, mind
and spirit. Indian music revolves around a soloist (voice or
musical) with a supporting and interacting line of percussion
and drone instrument (tanpura, resembling a sitar but with no
frets). The instruments mostly either produce tones (veena,
sitar, bamboo flute) or provide rhythm (tabla, mridangam). The
concept of ornamentation of the notes is key to Indian. Even
foreign instruments such as the violin, harmonium and clarinet
have been co-opted into the tradition, albeit using different
techniques. The violin, for instance, is played seated cross-legged
and held firmly between the neck and left thigh. |
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Indian music is said to have one of the longest unbroken traditions
in the world, being imparted one-on-one from teacher to disciple
in an oral tradition called the guru-shishya parampara. Music
notations are a relatively new invention. In the old days, students
lived with their guru for many years but modernisation has meant
that there are now music schools in most cities.
The
two main traditions of classical music are the North Indian
(Hindustani) and South Indian (Carnatic) traditions of music
with differing approaches. Due to their mainly devotional content,
this music was originally sung in temples and then later, nurtured
under royal patronage. Since spirituality remains intrinsic
to the Indian, this also ensures that these kinds of music still
have currency. In the more structured Carnatic style, there
are a number of songs that one can master, which means that
a musician can start performing at a very young age. In the
Hindustani style, though, the best musicians are older because
their singers are expected to improvise a lot; so the emphasis
is not on the song but on the experience of the singer. Think
Western classical as opposed to jazz.
Most
musicians the world over agree that Indian percussion is one
of the most complex in the world. It can be explained by complicated
mathematical formulae, but in essence, it is still deft fingerwork
tapping out rhythmic patterns on natural material like leather,
wood or |
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intriguingly, an
earthen pot (ghatam).Long relegated to playing second fiddle
to the vocals, tabla players such as Zakir Hussain and percussionists
such as Sivamani are now stars in their own right.
While
the recently evolved concept of jugalbandi or fusion has brought
on a chamber feel to Indian music with joint soloists, percussion
and drone, it is done on an ad hoc basis. While orchestras in
Indian music are not a totally unknown phenomena, the concept
of marrying Western orchestral traditions of melody, harmony,
negligible percussion and contrapuntal aspects to the invidualistic
Indian music tradition is itself a very difficult exercise.
Sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar in fact pioneered a wholly
Indian orchestra when he established one under the auspices
of national broadcaster All India Radio (AIR). Recently violinist
L Subramaniam has put together ‘global’ orchestras
with musicians from both Indian and Western traditions.
Between
the hundreds of folk styles and classical music, there are many
variations in between. Enjoying a renaissance is the dying art
of dhrupad, traces its roots to the ancient Vedas and sung in
courts of North India before giving way to simpler and lighter
forms like khayal and thumri. On the other hand there are romantic
and somewhat bluesy styles like the ghazal - simplistically,
a poek consisting of rhyming couplets sung in the Indo-Persian
language Urdu. |
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Top 10 music charts in India till very recently only featured
songs from film soundtracks. Unlike western films' semiotic
matching of soundtrack to situations rather than having characters
stop the action to sing, Indian film music is composed from
scratch for every film and is sung - ‘playback’ -
by vocalists. Many songs are in fact, semi-classical, incorporating
folk or pop elements but basing themselves in a certain raag
(broadly translating to melody) and most playback singers are
trained classically. Youngsters looking to homegrown composers
and singers set off an ‘Indipop’ wave. Part of that
phenomenon were the rising stars of bhangra artists, who added
other elements to the already upbeat music.
While
Indian film music has been sampled by hip hop, rap and pop artists
in the West, one of the new waves of Indian music has seen ancient
chants, folksy beats such as bhangra and film songs have been
married with electronica and Western instrumentation to feed
into the ‘chill’ and ‘lounge’ music trend
so hugely popular with young people. The wave that started by
British born or based Asian musicians such as Tavleen Singh,
Bally Sagoo, Rishi Rich and Susheela Raman, has even encouraged
other DJs and producers such as Frenchman Claude Challe? to
put out compilations that can be heard in bars and clubs around
the world. In a case of the wheel coming full circle, many of
the DJs are now composing music for Hindi films.
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