Indian Music vs. Western Music

In this article, Indian Music vs. Western Music, let’s understand, Indian classical music, its cultural and spiritual connections, and its differences from Western music.

Indian music has been deeply tied to religion, rituals, and spirituality, as evidenced by the Vedas and temple art. But what is the main difference between Indian and Western music, especially in terms of melody and harmony, and how does it reflect on their respective cultures?

When Shiva began to sing, Vishnu melted and his body turned into the waters of the Ganga. Ravana invented the veena using his bone as the beam and his nerves as the string and his head as the gourd. Hindu folktales are full of such stories. 

Indian classical music is quite different from Western classical music. Indian classical music is based on melody or single notes, where one person strikes a note and the other instruments or voices follow, supporting it. Western classical music is based on harmony, where two musical sounds relate to each other as counter points.
Thus, while Western Classical is polyphonic, combining different sounds together in order to create new, distinct musical ideas, Indian music is monophonic.

Indian classical music is also highly improvised — with the aalaps or singing with the ‘a’ sound, which is free and unstructured — while Western classical music is more stringent and laid-down. No improvisations allowed. Jazz, based on improvisation, is a new idea introduced to the West from Africa.
Western classical music can be easily written down. Not Indian classical music, a reminder of how India prefers the oral to the textual. 

There are seven swaras — or notes — that are used in various permutations to make ragas, which are sung to a taal or beat, to evoke rasa and bhava: the sensations, emotions and mood of the audience. Rasa and bhava are not part of the music but the musical experience, and the audience helps the artist improvise.
With Western Classical music, on the other hand, the music will roughly sound the same with or without an audience. Rasa and bhava are not important. Fidelity to the composition is more important. 

Music began in prehistoric times. In the Stone Age, people made music by striking stones. Such stones have been discovered in Odisha by archeologists. Later, they developed wind and string instruments.
Historically, there is a Harappan seal showing seven people, dressed in the same clothes, dancing around a tree, so there might have been music to accompany this dance. 

Since instruments are made of organic material, they do not endure, so we do not have Harappan pottery instruments. But Harappans traded with Sumerians and may have exported musical instruments like harps found in Sumerian tombs and art. 

The first clear proof of Indian music comes from the Sama Veda (post-1000 BCE), which takes the lyrics of the Rig Veda and turns it into music. There are also references to Gandharvas or celestial musicians playing music. Sanskrit plays are full of musicians entertaining kings. Sculptures of female musicians are found on the walls of Hindu temples and Buddhist caves. 

A big shift happens in India with the arrival of Islam. Persian musical traditions enter India and we have the rise of the North Indian (Hindustani) musical system, distinct from the older and more traditional South Indian (Carnatic) musical system. The former was patronised in royal courts and in households (gharana) and by elite courtesans (tawaifs), the latter found patronage in temples and devadasi families. 

With the British came orchestras and military bands. The Indian military has always been associated with drums and bugles, but with the British, the military bands came in, which had a huge impact on Southern musicians. The Trinity of Carnatic Music, the trio of composer-musicians who enriched Carnatic music — Tyagaraja, Muthuswami Dikshitar, and Syama Sastri — happened only in the 18th century. 

The musical tradition of India was held together by the Devadasis in the South and the Tawaifs in the North. Bangalore Nagarathnamma, for example, built the shrine for Tyagaraja. In North India, figures like Gauhar Jaan — one of the first performers to record music on 78 rpm records in India — and Begum Akhtar became fixtures. This is often forgotten — the contribution of the courtesans. 

Also forgotten is the subaltern tradition of music. For example, the Parai instrument, usually played by Dalits, is mentioned in Sangam literature.
It was used to make announcements, and the announcers were called Paraiyar, from where the English word Pariah comes. Many musical entertainers were seen as ‘low’ caste and their presence was permitted only during rituals and festivals. 

While classical music is more structured, folk music from lullabies to wedding music, from Biraha of Bihar to Garba of Gujarat, is more organic. It connects with the common man, expressing their daily practices and rituals. There were tunes of boatmen, beats of farmers, melodies for weddings and tunes for mourning. 

It is said that when Kalidasa would compose songs for the king, he would compose in Sanskrit, but when he would travel, he would compose songs in the language of the people.
He was master of both folk Nautanki “saangit” and mainstream Natyashatra “sangeet”. Thus the folk and the classical, the desi and the margi, had common sources and many inter-connections.

Music was used to popularise Bhakti in India. From Sikh Gurbani to Maharashtrian Varkari tradition, from Jagratas and Ramayana tellings to the Vaishnava Manipuri drums, music played a key role in introducing stories and ideas of gods and goddesses across the Indian countryside.
In folk traditions, Nautanki and Jatras had singers on stage. These eventually gave way to playback singing and background scores in cinema, from Noorjehan and Lata Mangeshkar to Ilayaraja and AR Rahman.

Source: Indian Express