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The Indian music characteristics are evident when you compare it with Western music. In both the systems you will find galore necessary differences: the Indian music is based on melody or single notes played in a given order, while the Western music is based on harmony: a group of notes known as chords played together. Dr. Rabindranath Tagore who was well intimate with both the systems, explained the divergence as follows: “The world by daylight stands for Western music which is a flowing concourse of vast harmony, composed of concord and discord and some disconnected fragments. And the night world stands for Indian music: one pure, deep and tender raga. Both, touches our heart, and yet both are contradictory in spirit. But this is natural. Nature, at the very root is disunited into two, day and night, unity and variety, finite and infinite. Indian men live in the realm of night; we are inspired by the sense of the One and Infinite. Indian music draws away the listener beyond the boundaries of every day joys and sorrows and takes us to the solitary space of renunciation which exists at the root of the universe, while Western music leads us to dance through a limitless rise and fall of humane joy and grief. ” Indian classical music fundamentally stirs our spiritual sense and discipline – a longing for realization of the self salvation. Singing is a worshipping act and not an intellectual exhibition of mastery on the technique of a raga. In Western culture, singing is a formal and secular exercise, and does not implicate piety or devotion as equated to Indian music The teacher-student (Guru-Shishya) tradition in Indian music is responsible for the deep dedication and attachment of the student to the teacher. In the West, a music teacher is taken as a hired person who teaches lessons and there is no deep attachment amidst the teacher and student. Like Western music, Indian music too is based on melody and rhythm, but it has no foundation of concordance which is so substantial in Western music. Indian music is “modal” – based on the kinship amongst the permanent person notes known as tonic, with the successive notes. This is the reason why Tanpura (drone) is played in the background of Indian music which reminds one of the tonic notes. The Indian classical music system is horizontal; one note follows the other, while the Western music is vertical; numerous notes played at a time. Yehudi Menuhin, the cited musician, highlights the differentiates both systems by describing Indian music as: “for appreciating Indian music one has to adopt altogether a dissimilar set of values… one ought to orientate oneself and at least for the concerned period, forget the passing of time and just sink into a kind of thematic, closely hypnotic trance. The rhythmic and melodic features of Indian music that are repetitive, acquires an extraordinary charm and fascination… in spite of the domination of this hypnotic mood’s domination, which is an Indian music characteristic, actively frees the mind.” The place of “composition” in these two systems is notably different. In Western music, the music is introductory composed by the composer and arranges it in notation: then the musicians play this composition underneath the guidance of a music conductor. Here improvisation scarcely takes place, and the performance value lies in the uniformity and the pre-determined conduct of tone and music speed (tempo). In Indian music, while the melody grammar and rhythm is fixed, the ingenuity and skill of the musician lies in his ability to create and improvisation, peculiarly in mood evocation and rasa of a queer raga. In this context, an global musicologist has written: “In the West, solid blocks of music are constructed. After carving out like building stones, the seven degrees of diatonic scale, lined up and placed on top of each other with cleverly worked out concordance and counterpoint. In this way fantastic edifices in sound are erected. In Indian classical music, no one may think of dividing sound into blocks; rather it is refined into a wire-thin thread. The sound is stretched out to finetune it to an extreme point of delicacy… No usual materials, no building of three or five floors, but just like silk thread which unfold and rises and falls and evokes a world of sensations and feelings.” In music of India, melody and rhythm offer a potpourri of subtleties, which is not possible in Western music. Indian notes are separated into units called shruties (22 microtones), whereas Western music consist of 12 semitones. The microtones are more subtle than semitones. These microtones adorned with gracetones (gamakas) construct a magical effect. Western music has the capacity of constructing a good deal of sensations and moods. While Indian music, has the capacity to formulate a indispensable emotion or a mood in a raga. An Indian musician improvises with his own originative talent within a raga’s framework, but in Western classical music, except in jazz, such an improvisation is inconceivable. Moreover, the percussion in Indian music emphasizes it is rhythm. It is only through keeping one’s mind and ears open that one is capable to be grateful for the melodies and sequences dissimilar from one’s own. This applies to Indian audiences attending Western music performances, and to Western audiences attending music of India concerts. Just do not forget that the both music systems are complementary, like two halves of classical music. |
