Indian Music Essay(Option 2)1

Carnatic music was once common throughout India, the earliest examples of which
are from between 4000 and 1000 BC, but during the 15th century the music of India
was divided. As the Mughals sought to expand their empire across northern India, lots
of Hindus fled south to avoid persecution, due to the Mughals never reaching
southern India, Carnatic music remained untouched, whilst in the north it was heavily
influenced by Muslim poetry, art and dance forms such as the kathak.and is what we
would now call Hindustani music. (1)
Hindustani music quickly became associated with the royal courts of the conquering
Mughals and remained dependent upon their patronage until the death of Aurangzeb
in 1707, which sparked political unrest and wars of succession. (2) Furthermore the
decline of the Mughal Empire can be attributed to two main factors; firstly, the empire
was expanding too quickly and there was no one to delegate democratic responsibility
to and secondly, Aurangzeb was a fanatical Muslim and could not tolerate other
religions, this lead to wars with the Maratha, and ultimately the end of Mughal Rule.
The main differences between Hindustani and Carnatic music are the structures of the
pieces and the instruments traditionally used to perform them. With regards to the
structure of the pieces, Hindustani music often opens with an Alap section which is
highly ornamented and often used to show the performers improvisational skills,
there is then a Bandish or gat the music then slows to a Jor, as the pace increases
again there is a final Jhala a fast tempo piece which often involves complex
imitation between the instrumentalists, until reaching the Jahai a thrice repeated set
piece cadence. Southern Indian music recitals often open with either; a Varnum
which is often compared to an Etude followed by contrasting Ragams (Raga) and
Thaalams of increasing intensity often based on Kritis (Hindu hymns) or, Ragam-
thanam-pallavi form in which the thanam is comparable to the aforementioned Jor
and the pallavi is a theme, sometimes unknown to the ensemble, that the soloist
initially plays, the ensemble then improvises on the theme before the soloist restates
the theme thus ending the piece.(3)
The most well know Hindustani instrument would have to be the sitar, developed
from a southern instrument called the veena by Amir Khusrau in the 13th century it
has 6/7 strings, 4 for the melody and 2 or 3 sympathetic strings. It also has movable
frets, which can be adjusted for each raga. The wind sections often both contain
Bansuri, with the Karnatic version often higher in pitch, but also double reed
instruments, namely the Shennai and the lower pitched Nagaswaram pertaining to
Hindustani and Karnatic music respectively. The southern counterpart to the well-
known Hindustani Tabla is the mridangam both of which are double-headed drums
capable of being tuned to specific ragas, although today it is common for musicians to
train in both traditions.(4)
The instrument common to both traditions and arguably the most important is the
Tanpura, often played by a student of the soloist in exchange for close proximity
learning, it repeats the Tonic, Dominant and the Octave of the chosen Raga. (5)
Indian classical music ensembles are often small in size, usually consisting of a
soloist, percussion and a drone, although in Karnatic music the percussion often
follows the soloist more closely, improvising around the melody.
In both Hindustani and Karnatic music the smallest interval between two notes is
called a sruthi theoretically there is an infinite number of divisions, but only a
fraction of them are audible. There are 22 sruthis of which12 basic swaras or notes
are derived, forming each raga. With different rules governing how each note can be
altered, this idea of microtanlity is the essence of raga, and strict rules regarding
inflection give us the melody by differentiating between more or less important notes.
The most fundamental idea in Indian music has to be that of Raga. Whilst
comparable to a scale with different ascending Aroha and descending Avaroha it
differs in that it also includes set phrases specific to the raga, namely the Pakad,
which may be described as the main theme. (6) The musical characteristics that
define a raga are both derivative and a source of concrete music (7) Furthermore it
is often said that this is evidence of folk song predating raga, as the classical
compositions of which the raga characteristics are derived are based on folk songs.(8)
Although Raga is common to both North and South Indian traditions, their means of
classification differ, the southern Melakarta system has 72 melas(Raga) taken from
the 12 notes, and gives a framework for all possible Ragas. Whereas the newer
Hindustani classification Thata uses only 10 main Ragas, as a result of this the
Carnatic system is often preferred.(9)
In addition, the elaboration of Raga links back to the aforementioned concept of
microtonality, with the use of, Meend, which is a slow glissando to the next note ,
and Gamak, which can be used to describe ornamentation technique itself or to
describe oscillations in pitch between two adjacent notes or grace notes, in vocal
music it may be described as a type of throat singing. (10)
In total there a probably around 500 ragas, including minor varieties and mixed ragas,
although only around 40 or 50 are well known to all performing musicians.(11)
Although sometimes performers create their own ragas, such as Ravi Shankars Raga
Charukauns in which he combined ragas Charukeshi and Malkauns
This leaves us the other vital component of music, rhythm. The tempo of the piece is
referred to as Laya. and has 3 distinct ranges; Slow Vilambita (30-60MM),
Medium Madhya(60-120MM), Fast Druti(120-160MM) Tala on the other hand
is a complex rhythmic cycle, often split into 4, 6 or 16 equal Matras or beats, that
imitates, and is imitated by the instrumentalist. (12) The differing use of these Ragas
and Talas led to various styles, which are known as the Gharana
When the Lumiere brothers Cinmatographe reached the Watsons hotel in
Bombay, July 1986, it marked a step away the previous Magic lantern method of
projection. The next logical step would be towards synchronized sound. First
premiered in Paris in around 1900, it took around 30 years for it to reach India, but in
1931 Ardeshir Irani directed the first Hindu-Urdu talking feature. The introduction of
dialect was in India especially difficult as in 1931 the governments official estimate
i
was that there were 225 different dialects. Therefore, in order to make the films
relavent to more people, they used song.(13)
At this time, most of the people involved in creating these films, were exclusively
contracted to their employers, for example most of the music for Bombay Talkies
was composed by Saraswati Devi, who was a student of Pandit Vishnunaryan
Bhatkhande as a result of this much of the music was based upon the light classical
ghazal form.Whereas the musicians of Calcutta, would be responsible for most
innovation including; Panjack Mullicks use of Vibrato, a typically western vocal
technique, the addition of Piano and Organ to the film orchestra and the first use of
western musical principles, including chords and harmony, which are evident in
Raichand Borals score for Vidyapati(14)
Although western classical music also takes elements of Indian music, with
composers like Philip Glass and Olivier Messiaen incorporating new ideas of rhythm
and melody into their pieces. But it was Ravi Shankar, who had the greatest influence
on western music, and western perceptions of Indian music, proven by the fact that in
Indian classical music the sitar and sarod have a similar status, but it is the sound of
the sitar that is synonymous with Indian music. Interestingly it would be George
Harrison, a student of his, who would bring greater attention to Indian music by
playing the sitar on Norwegian Wood (1965) possibly the first time most western
listeners had heard the instrument. George Harrison went on to compose other music
inspired by his experience of Indian music such as, Within you without you This set
a precedent of other artists using Indian instruments or tones in their music, which
Roger McGuinn called Raga Rock (15)
In 1974 the band Shakti was formed, with John Mclaughlin(Guitar)
L.Shankar(Violin) Zakir Hussain(Tabla) Ramnad Raghavan(Mridangam) and Vikku
Vinayakram(Ghatam) They played a fusion of Jazz, Hindustani and Carnatic music,
with the Hindustani and jazz influences from Z.Hussain and John McGlaughlin
respectively. Furthermore John McGlaughlin literally fused Indian and western music
by adding sympathetic strings to his guitar, a way of emulating the sound if the sitar.
They toured and produced three albums between 1974 and 1977.(16) Throughout the
1990s various labels would emerge in response to earlier Bhangra which fused
Punjabi folk traditions with western pop music, these post-bhangra artists and labels,
often collectively termed Asian Underground, often combined elements of rap, dub,
and techno an example of this would be Aki Nawazs Nation records, created for his
band Fun-Da-Mental which Voiced the anger of a dispossessed youth Although
this music started of as underground, it spread quickly among British youth, shown by
Cornershops 1998 number one with Brimful of Asha this song is directly related to
Indian film culture, as in Bollywood films it was common for actors to lip-sync whilst
the songs were performed by off screen singers, one of the most prolific was Asha
Bhosle, who has worked on over 1000 Bollywood films. Bringing Bollywood further
into the mainstream films like, Gurinder Chadhas Bend it like Beckham the
soundtrack contained a mix of British and Bollywood tracks, but in 2008 Indian
composer A.R.Rahman won an Oscar for his score of the film Slumdog Millionaire
(17)
Whilst western music has recently adopted traditional Indian instruments, Carnatic
music has been using western instruments since the nineteenth century, most
importantly; the violin, in this case played on the floor, was introduced to Carnatic
music by Baluswami Dikshitar who also adapted its tuning, and the clarinet,
although initially only as an ensemble instrument up until around 1920.Balaraman
of the Nadamuni band was one of the first virtuosi. More recently the mandolin has
gained popularity with child prodigy U.Srinivas touring worldwide, whilst still
keeping a devotional element to his music. The acceptance of the saxophone could
largely be credited to Kadri Gopalanath who modified the alto saxophone, so that it
could play Carnatic music, which sounds reminiscent of the nagaswaram. (RG 555)
Before attending these lectures, I had a very limited knowledge of Indian music and
where it came from, but after hearing more Indian music and reading other texts to
learn more about this topic, I not only have a much better understanding of some of
the fundamental principles such as Raga and Tala, but also knowledge of how Indian
music has been affected by various influences throughout history, and naturally
adapted to remain popular. Furthermore Indian music has now become a part of
western culture due to years of cross cultural exchange that have culminated in
various fusion bands and artists selling millions of albums worldwide.

1) Simon Broughton The Rough Guide to World Music: Europe, Asia & Pacific
(London 2009) pp 532-533

2 ) Music and Society in North India: From the Mughals to the Mutiny
Jon Barlow and Lakshmi Subramanian Economic and Political Weekly
Vol. 42, No. 19 (May 12-18, 2007), pp. 1779-1780

3) Simon Broughton The Rough Guide to World Music: Europe, Asia & Pacific
(London 2009) pp 533-534
4) Ibid pp 542-552
5) Ibid pp 532

6) Manorma Sharma Tradition of Hindustani Music (APH Publishing 2006) pp 10-11

7) W, Van der Beer, Hindustani music in the 20th Century (Springer Science and
Business media 2012) pp4
8) Ibid pp 5

9) Manorma Sharma Tradition of Hindustani Music (APH Publishing 2006) pp -11

10) Ibid pp 13-18

11) W, Van der Beer, Hindustani music in the 20th Century (Springer Science and
Business media 2012) pp5
12) Ibid pp7

13) Simon Broughton The Rough Guide to World Music: Europe, Asia & Pacific
(London 2009) pp 580-581

14) Sangita Gopal, Global Bollywood: Travels of Hindi Song and Dance (University
of Minnesota Press 2008) pp 92

15) Simon Broughton The Rough Guide to World Music: Europe, Asia & Pacific
(London 2009) pp 589
16) Ibid pp592-593
17) Ibid pp116-117
18) Ibid pp555
 Bibliography

Broughton, Simon The Rough Guide to World Music: Europe, Asia & Pacific
(London 2009)

Gopal, Sangita Global Bollywood: Travels of Hindi Song and Dance (University of
Minnesota Press 2008)

Huq, Rupa Beyond Subculture: Pop, Youth and Identity in a Post Colonial World
(Routledge 2007)

Music and Society in North India: From the Mughals to the Mutiny
Jon Barlow and Lakshmi Subramanian
Economic and Political Weekly
Vol. 42, No. 19 (May 12-18, 2007), pp. 1779-1787

Krishnaswamy, Arvindh Inflexions and Microtonality in South Indian Classical

Music

Sharma Manorma Tradition of Hindustani Music (APH Publishing 2006)

Van der Beer, W Hindustani music in the 20th Century (Springer Science and
Business media 2012)