Om is the universal sound, the first and always vibration. Vibration is the essence of creation, the totality of the ocean, the drop, the moment, and the continuation. Indian classical music's devotional nature cannot be separated from its sound, and its... [more]
Om is the universal sound, the first and always vibration. Vibration is the essence of creation, the totality of the ocean, the drop, the moment, and the continuation. Indian classical music's devotional nature cannot be separated from its sound, and its eternal constant is expressed in the presence of the drone -- a continuous unbroken pitch sounding as the center of the raga. Just as the common junctures of human experience have a universal template -- mourning, transformation, love -- upon which the specific circumstances of our life riff to make each passage uniquely ours; so does each raga possess a prototypical melodic shape in which countless permutations develop.
The percussion accompaniment, played on exquisitely pitched hand drums, also has a basic pattern, tala, upon which variations are built. This pattern metaphorically expresses the cyclic nature of our lives by establishing a characteristic rhythm to which the beat always returns --and always on the "One."
Each of the 200-plus ragas is assigned to its own time of day and season, defining a system of extramusical concepts wholly unique from Western music theory. Indian musicology does more than establish rules of melody and rhythm; it goes beyond formal considerations and regards music as nothing less than a path of emotional and spiritual progress.
Differentiated into southern and northern styles -- Carnatak and Hindustani -- Indian classical music also includes a vocal style now primarily found in Pakistan called qawwali singing. This devastatingly emotive vocal style, based in Sufi mysticism, has fascinated Western audiences in recent years, aided considerably by the star power of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The late singer became known to the MTV set after performing with rock stars and appearing in the pages of Interview magazine.
The first wave of Indian music's popularity in the West, however, was sparked by Pandit Ravi Shankar's association with The Beatles. Traditionalists were critical, but sitars and sarods were shipped to American and European music shops by the thousands, and in 1969 Ravi Shankar became Billboard Magazine's Musician of the Year. [show less]