# Indian Classical Music



## aanandham (Oct 2, 2013)

Dear Friends and Music Lovers,

Please watch the Video of the "BAND AANANDHAM" consisting of Indian Classical Music from South India popularly known as "Carnatic Music" and North Indian Music called as "Hindustani Music". Your comments are welcome -


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

I like Indian classical music, but am too ignorant of the subtleties to offer any kind of critique. I think if you're looking for bookings, there are better places to trawl.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I'm not following that link now but the topic of Indian Classical Music comes up here about twice a year. I'm not sure whether this should go in the non-classical forum, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to have a thread about it somewhere so that the separate ones can be merged productively together.


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## KRoad (Jun 1, 2012)

science said:


> I'm not following that link now but the topic of Indian Classical Music comes up here about twice a year. I'm not sure whether this should go in the non-classical forum, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to have a thread about it somewhere so that the separate ones can be merged productively together.


No, no... though Indian Classical music comes I think from an oral (as opposed to written) tradition for the most part - please correct me if I am wrong - it nonetheless deserves to be unambiguously categorised as "Classical Music" as much as Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Brahm, et al.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

KRoad said:


> ...Indian Classical music comes ...from an oral tradition for the most part.... ....it deserves to be unambiguously categorised as "Classical Music" as much as Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Brahm, et al.


I agree. However, the methods, sounds, scales and aesthetcis are so different that many who listen to western classical music will never care to listen to those other classical musics from India, China, Japan, Indonesia, etc.

Wikipedia sets them apart simply: the first main article on Classical Music is headed with this:
"This article is about Western art music from c. 1000 AD to the present. For Western art music from 1750 to 1820, see Classical period (music). *For other "classical" and art music traditions, see List of classical and art music traditions.*" (bold font mine.) 
The next article in Wikipedia is about the classical and traditional non-western musics.

It needs / wants, then, a separate category, the other musics being no less"sophisticated" but of such a different sensibility and manner of making music.

Best regards.


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## KRoad (Jun 1, 2012)

PetrB said:


> It needs / wants, then, a separate category, the other musics being no less"sophisticated" but of such a different sensibility and manner of making music.


What I wonder, would provide a meaningful and (dare I say it) sound basis for differentiating and classifying said "other musics"?

Along national lines? Surely not. Ethnic perhaps? "Exotic" scales? The Chinese and Africans both traditionally employed the pentatonic scale long before Robert Johnson. By genre? Vocal, instrumental, choral and so on? By instrument...?

Actually on reflection, I'm certain this MUST be a topic well covered in Ethnomusicology 101 classes and that therefore my speculating is both naive and redundant. However, having typed this reply I'll post it for general delectation nonetheless.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

KRoad said:


> What I wonder, would provide a meaningful and (dare I say it) sound basis for differentiating and classifying said "other musics"?
> 
> Along national lines? Surely not. Ethnic perhaps? "Exotic" scales? The Chinese and Africans both traditionally employed the pentatonic scale long before Robert Johnson. By genre? Vocal, instrumental, choral and so on? By instrument...?
> 
> Actually on reflection, I'm certain this MUST be a topic well covered in Ethnomusicology 101 classes and that therefore my speculating is both naive and redundant. However, having typed this reply I'll post it for general delectation nonetheless.


Ethnomusicology 101 covers the gamut -- at least in those intro / survey courses. It would cover a range from what would be called in the west "folk" music to the most antique and highly refined of "classical" or greatly developed and disciplined art music. Too Broad.

But, it is far up from the roots that anyone speaks of "national" music, though. In both east and west, there are different qualities and marked traits, differences in aesthetic from one culture / nation to the next, and there are both "folk" grass-roots traditional and the classical.

So, _Western classical / art Music_ and _Eastern (non-Western) classical / art Music_. .... even then some will think that anything not art music is not "artful,' etc.

But I think that is your best category, _Eastern classical music_ -- even then some petty academic will tell you what "classical" is supposed to mean, another would cry loud if you called the Eastern classical 'traditional' instead of classical. I think you have to allow one broad category is not going to inform anyone there are notable differences between Chinese Musics and Japanese or Indonesian musics anymore than "Classical Music" informs that there are notable differences between French music and German music, for example.

It is for anyone looking into any of it to discover the levels of both beauty and sophistication of means, i.e. the 'folk' music of one African Pygmy tribe is vocal / choral, and they generate music which is canons, or a favored rhythm in much African music is 3 against four (3:4), etc.


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