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August 16, 2005

A comparison of classical music styles

Classical music in Hindi and other Indian languages is called shastriya sangeet. Shastriya derives from the Sanskrit shastra, which means science or method. Whereas classical music in the Western tradition is merely classical, meaning old, its equivalent in Indian languages points to a fundamental science of sound underlying the Indian tradition of classical music.

The science behind Indian classical music is codified in ancient Indian texts such as the Vedas. The chants of Samaveda, one of the four principal Vedas, are set to a scale of seven notes, rather than just three, as in the other Vedas. The standard ascending scale with seven notes is sung as 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni' and corresponds to the Western 'Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti'. Today, Indian classical music has two distinct traditions in North and South India. The North Indian style of Indian classical music is commonly known as the Hindustani style and was heavily patronized by the Muslim dynasties that ruled from Delhi during the late Middle Ages. It has significant Persian and Central Asian influences in both instrumentation and tonality. The South Indian style of Indian classical music is known as the Carnatic (from karu nadu, 'black land' -- refers to the dark soil of the South Indian peninsula) style. Relatively isolated from Muslim and other foreign influences, it is arguably closer to the style expounded in ancient Sanskrit texts. As much as possible, this essay will make claims that apply to both styles of Indian classical music, as contrasted with Western classical music.

The Indian classical music octave is considerably richer than the Western classical music octave. The full Western octave consists of twelve notes. The full Indian classical octave contains twenty-two notes. In Western classical music, tonal clarity is highly valued and any emotion is conveyed in how a note is struck by a vocalist or instrumentalist. Indian classical music, in contrast, employs rapidly fluctuating microtones, notes that may fall between the standard twenty-two, to accentuate a standard note. To some Western ears, this sounds like a compromise on tonal clarity, but the value of microtones becomes clearer upon listening deeply to Indian classical music.

Indian classical music is based around the central concept of a raaga. A raaga is a tonal framework that circumscribes those notes that are allowed in a classical music composition and those that are not. Every classical music piece is set to a raaga. For example, if a song is set to Raaga Yaman, it can feature the notes C, D, E, F^#, G, A and B. Every musical composition begins with an ascending and descending scale appropriate to its raaga and proceeds to expound on those scales. Because every composition doesn't stand on its own but is backed by a raaga, there is considerable scope for improvisation when it is actually performed. My understanding is that in Western music, special courses in composition must be taken if an instrumentalist or vocalist wants to make music, and not just play it. In contrast, the most basic course in Indian classical music, be it vocal or instrumental, includes material about several basic raagas and tips on composition. Raagas have fascinating cultural artifacts attached to them as well. For each raaga, there are suggestions about the time of day in which it is best sung. Certain raagas are even said to induce fire and rain!

Raagas provide an extremely convenient and advanced framework for categorizing existing musical compositions and generating new ones. Musical composition, as with any other creative line of work, requires considerable talent. However, having a standard framework of raagas for reference gives the composer a set of rules that they can both follow and flout creatively. My friends say I am frequently guilty of using computer science analogies when not strictly necessary. Western classical music compositions are like incredibly polished looking software programs, perfected to every imaginable degree and handed off to instrumentalists and vocalists. Just as preferences may be changed in Windows XP each time it is booted up, different things may be emphasized over others during different performances. At its core, however, the piece always stays the same. The thought of riffing freestyle on The Moonlight Sonata during a performance seems unimaginable to most composers and audiences. In contrast, raagas act as a library of musical programs. They can be composed together on the fly, just as with Unix commands, to produce a composition that could well vary in its musical notes at each performance.

It is said that one of the most important inventions of the Western world is polyphonic music. The sonorous compositions of the early Baroque period seem wondrously dazzled at their own use of multiple voice and instrumental parts. Indian classical music, in contrast, is largely homophonic. I recall reading a Yehudi Menuhin essay, where he states that polyphonic music stands as an allegory to Western civilization itself, where each member of society gives up a little freedom to participate in the construction of a greater gestalt. He notes that that the awe-inspiring cathedrals of Europe are constructed in the same vein. In contrast, an Indian classical music performance consists of mostly autonomous virtuosos, whose musical strains intersect in intricate ways to yield a performance. This is said to be an analogy to Indian society, where everyone pretty much does whatever they want with less regard to what their actions may add up to in the aggregate than in Western civilizations. Some may say it is unfortunate that Indian civilization did not discover polyphonic music in its extremely long music history. Indian classical music more than makes up for this deficiency with its well-developed body of knowledge about rhythms and percussion. Western classical music may have the occasional tympani beat to accentuate a musical phrase, but subordinates rhythm to melody and reduces rhythm to a matter of counting out beats. On the other hand, the crucially central raaga aspect of an Indian classical music piece shares the stage with its taala aspect, which lays down the rhythmic scheme of the composition. Most Indian classical music performances feature percussion solos when they reach their improvisational phase. Listeners of Indian classical music are as keenly aware of the rhythmic scheme of a piece as they are of its melodic scheme.

Perhaps the best aspect of Indian classical music is that it has two distinct styles. These styles are clearly seen to descend from a common tradition. However, in their present form, they contain many regional Indian influences, which provide valuable counterpoints to each other when they are juxtaposed. One of the crowd-pleasing forms of Indian classical music performance is the jugalbandi, where musicians from the two styles interpret the same raaga and fire musical phrases back and forth in a lively musical debate. Western classical music, in contrast, seems to emphasize distinctive musical traditions less than Indian classical music. Because it lacks the raaga framework, it is hard anyway to come across an apples-to-apples comparison of how different musical styles may interpret a broad set of rules regarding tonal composition.

If you have never listened to Indian classical music and are intrigued by the points in this essay, spend some time in the World Music of a music store and look for Indian music titles, ensuring that they are not Bollywood titles. You will definitely not regret this portion of your overall musical experience.

Posted by Vishy at August 16, 2005 10:37 PM

Comments

Posted by: Avinash Bhat at October 15, 2005 11:00 PM