Indian Music: The Culture Within
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who is well known poet and educator, left the quotes “music is universal language of mankind”. Now we can assume what he was attempting to say. I personally believe his words means music contains cultural values of mankind. Nowadays, music is the popular source to communicate with others. Since centuries ago, music often has been used as entertainment or sources to convey messages. For example, hymns are sung to learn or convey messages from god. Also, some musicians write the lyrics about political problems so people are able to know about political issues. I believe music is very easy sources to deliver the messages and I assume that this is the reason why all the countries have national anthem. Besides that, the most significant aspect about music is the fact that it contains cultural values. Since world are separated by boundaries, music of all countries are different each other. However, most music share the one similarity which is purpose. When people start to develop the music, they usually contain lyrics about their culture or religions. Mostly, musicians develop lyrics first, music itself was developed after. Therefore, I believe music contain different cultural value of certain countries. Personally, Indian music was always interesting because it is national music which is very popular all over the world. Since my purpose is finding Indian cultural values in the music and figure out how those were developed and affect to modern pop music, I decided to write about Indian music. In Indian music, musicians started with including religious messages. By use of music, people were able to acquire knowledge about something easier than just studying them. The remarkable fact about Indian music is that, it does not only include those ‘messages’ but significant as world music.
Indian music contains several cultural values. Over many centuries, there was always effort to cultural values when Indian musicians produced the music. The most popular method was writing lyrics about Vedas. Nowadays, this method is often used by hymns many religions. However, Indian music has been using this method since numerous centuries ago, some music was developed differently because of regional differences. Mainly, Indian music can be divided to 4 eras. First era started when Indian music incorporated with Veda. Second era was when Indian classical music was born. Third era is when Raga was introduced. In third era, music theory started to be more complex. Fourth era is considered to be started from 18 century. In this period, Indian music was able to gain opportunities to become popular.
Vedas are significant aspects in Indian history. Basically, Vedas are literatures and it contains Indian own cultural value. To musicians, it was remarkable source for music. Soon, lyrics were started to be written based on Vedas and it became Vedic music. The Vedic music era started from around BC 2000. Basically, lyrics of Vedic music are taken from 3 out of 4 Vedas. Those are Rig Veda, Yajur Veda and Sama Veda. Rig Veda, the first Veda incorporated with music and lyrics are mostly about gods of nature like Indra and Agni. This Vedic music has longer history than any other Vedic music. Rig Veda chanting style was sung by many people and taught by oral generation to generation. Sama Veda is not considered to be as significant as Rig Veda however it is genuinely important aspect in Indian music because Sama Veda is basically collection of hymns. All Vedic music contains musically specific features. For instance, Yajur Vedic music is sung by one melody. In Rig Veda, melodies can be high and low depending on the accents of language. On the other hand, Sama Veda contains wider range of melodies than other Vedic music. Vedic music was generally sung for ceremony or religious purpose.
In India, one of the major religions is Hindu. However, Islam was also one of the popular religions in northern area. Culturally, India was divided by two parts that southern and northern area. Northern culture is called Hindustani and Southern culture is called Carnatic or Karnatak. Indian music was also divided and became two different terms that are simply Hindustani music and Carnatic music. Since Indian music is separated by two different types, each music styles represent regions. For example, Hindustani music represents the region that speaks Indo-European languages include Pakistan and Bangladesh. On the other hand, Carnatic music represents regions use Dravidian such as most of South India and Sri Lanka. Basically, those music share the same idea such as religious background however musically different in detail. The major difference between Hindustani and Carnatic music is how they are played. Hindustani music is mostly improvised while Carnatic music is composed in fixed form. In Carnatic music, vocal is considered to be the most important element and instrument players follow the melodic line of vocal part. Also, the most significant feature of Carnatic music is song structure. In Carnatic music, Kriti which is the form of religious devotional song is utilized.
Over many centuries, Indian musicians were able to develop their own music and invented their own sounds. First, Indian musicians utilized various Indian instruments. By use of their invented instruments, Indian music was able to create signature sound. Commonly used types of instruments are chordophone and membranophone. Chordophone is instruments that make more than one notes. For example, string and keyboards instruments are popular. Also sounds are produced by hitting or plucking strings. Membranophone produce sound by vibrating membrane and animal skins are commonly used. In Indian music, Sitar, Veena, Sarod and Tambura are one of the most popular instruments that are chordophone. Tabla and Mrigandam are most infamous membranophone.
Sitar is the lute that has long neck. It is the main instrument of Hindustani music and Indian classical music. Basically, it is believed to be used since 16th century however, the form changed over generations and became present form in 18th century. Numbers of strings are different depending on sitars. Usually, 18 to 20 strings are common and it is played by plucking. The most significant aspect of this instrument is the fact that this instrument takes charge of the melodic parts of Indian music. Also, this is one of the most well-known Indian instruments because this was used in modern pop music scene. George Harrison from the Beatles utilized this on the songs such as “Norwegian Wood”. Also, sitar can be heard from the song of Rolling Stones “Paint it black”. The other instrument Veena is considered to be rival of Sitar. The reason why is because Veena and Sitar are used in the same purpose but Veena is utilized in Carnatic music. The function of Veena and Sitar are basically the same. Sarod is lute and also chordophone. Unlike Sitar, Sarod is fretless instrument and has short neck. It is used in melodic sections of Hindustani music. Tambura is also string instrument that has long neck like sitar. However, like sarod, Tambura does not have fret and the function is not creating melodies like sitar. Basically, open strings are used and it supports the other music. Longer Tambura is used by male and shorter Tambura is used by female.
Tabla is the percussion that represents all membranophone instruments of Indian music. The term Tabla is considered to be come from Arabic word that simply indicates “drums”. Pair of drum is considered to be one set. Therefore, when musician plays Tabla, they use two of this. Tabla is played by hand and the function is time marking. In other words, Tabla manages the rhythm section of whole song. Other than Tabla, Mridangam is also infamous membranophone. Mridangam is mainly used in Carnatic music. The size of this instrument is bigger than Tabla and played horizontally. Since Mridangam is larger than Tabla, it is possible to provide powerful low sound which is the reason why it is relatively played slower than other membranophone.
Another significant key of Indian music is Raga. In Sanskrit, Raga indicates color and beauty. In music term, Raga is mode which is collection of scales. Scale is basically collection of notes. For example, C,D,E,F,G,A,B is one set and it become major scales. One key contains several scales and those set of scales become mode. It is significant because instruments will be tuned to play the notes of scales and that is how musical mood created. Since modes and scales created its own mood, many countries invented or developed their own music. In other words, modes and scales contains countries own styles and it is not difficult to understand their cultures in music. Therefore, some musicians show their interests in national classical music and Indian music is one of the music that interacted with other modern pop music.
It is known fact that Indian music is popular as world music. Some people listen to this music as meditation purpose and others tried to arrange the music and apply for their own creation. In Indian music, there are many examples of interacting and sharing Indian culture with others. As mentioned above, George Harrison is the one of most infamous musician who actually interacted with Indian music. When the members of the Beatles were having hard time due to rock star life and troubles between members, George Harrison was the only one tried to find peace from other things. Soon, he was able to find his interest from Indian music and culture. In the documentary “George Harrison: Living in the Material World”, it is not difficult to find out how he started to interact with Indian culture. At first, Indian culture attracted him because that mysterious of Indian culture was interesting to him. George started to listen to Indian music and learned how to play sitar from Ravi Shankar. Ravi Shankar is considered to be one of the greatest musicians in Indian music history. He is not only great musician but popularized Indian music by interacting pop music artists. George Harrison was always attempting to learn Indian music and eventually it made a chance for Indian music become popular. Later on, George started to write song in Indian music styles which contains Indian instruments with both Hindi inspired and pop music lyrics. Eventually, he even decided to becomes Hindi. Through many years, he was able to find some the true idea of meditation. In the film, there is a phrase taught by Dalai Rama which is “meditation is the practice of death”. George was inspired by those thinking way such as beyond death. After interacting with George Harrison, elements of Indian music began to be used with other genres such as Jazz. Musicians started to utilize Raga in Jazz and it became one of popular aspect in Jazz music today.
Another case can be found in Indonesia. Gamelan is the Indonesian classical music that was inspired by Indian values. Basically, Indonesian music is musically different from Indian music in terms of use of instruments and musical structures. However, in Gamelan music, Vedas takes important places. Since Hindu was imported, many musicians started write song and they believed Vedas are appropriate sources that they could use. Therefore, Gamelan is different style of music that is still related to Indian culture.
In conclusion, since I consider myself as musician, researching classical music of certain countries is genuinely interesting. All national music has its own style and through those music, I can see the cultures of nations. Indian music was one of the most interesting because of their interaction with modern pop music. As mentioned above, George Harrison from The Beatles utilized the Indian instrument which is Sitar to create his new music style. After his interest in Indian music gained attention, numerous musicians attempted to communicate with Indian music and Indian music became one of the most well known national classical music. I was always curious about how Indian music was developed. Through the research, I was able to gain much knowledge. I was able to learn types of instruments that are used in Indian music and what kinds of cultural values can be seen through Indian music. Personally, instruments parts were most interesting to research. I was able to learn how Hindustani music iss played by improvisation and Carnatic music is written in fixed form. Improvisation is one of commonly used method in modern pop music. Also, the way to play string instruments were similar to playing guitar and bass. I believe Indian music is still inspiring someone and provides Indian cultural values today. I believe it will be preserved and handed over to future generation just like now.
References
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http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/raga.html
3. Courtney, David. “FUNDAMENTALS OF RAG.” Indian Instruments. David and Chandrakantha Courtney, 2012. Web. 05 Dec. 2014.
http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/instruments.html
4. Nettl, Bruno. “Raga (Indian Musical Genre).” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2014.
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