Kami's post on Indian music

Haverstick here...Kami's post on Indian systems fits exactly with a
book I've been reading by Alain Danielou, "Music and the Power of
Sound"...Danielou takes a look at Indian, Chinese, and Greek systems
of tuning, and talks frequently about the question Kami asked when he
wondered which pitches were appropriate at various times in a raga.
It seems, according to Danielou, that pure pitches have exact corres-
pondences with emotional states in man, times of day, metaphysical
concepts, and much more, which is only hinted at in the book...in other
words, it's a deep and true subject, and one which is rarely, if ever,
addressed by most musicians (at least in the western system).
When DO you use a particular pitch, indeed, and what are the implications
thereof? How do we find out the answer to this most ultimate of
musical questions...and if, as Danielou suggests, the tempered scale
is out of harmony with the natural laws of musical pitch organization
(which, of course, we definitely know it is), what is the cumulative
spiritual effect of all these out of jharmony (as opposed to out of
tune) intervals? I am beginning to realize that this is perhaps the
most important issue facing musicians in the world today.
I believe we are in a most crucial time in the history of this planet,
and the decisions we make now will have a great impact on future
evenys...I also believe artists have a lot more power than we are
seeing, for the most part...at least we have the ability to be using
our gifts for more creative ends than most music I currently hear.
So, Kami's question is most appropriate, and one which we tuning folks
have the resources to begin to grapple with...I plan on taking my
music as far as possible, so this means really looking for the true
meaning and purpose of music...by studying the harmonic clues left
to us by the Creator, I believe a great and powerful music can arise,
one with the ability to heal and make positive waves in the very
structure of the Universe...which sruti, eh? Hstick

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Hello Everyone.

I want to begin compensating for my general ignorance of Classical Indian
Music and was wondering if anyone could recommend a more or less definitive
introduction to the subject. I'm definitely interested in recordings, but
initially I would want to spend some time studying the theoretical basis of
the music. I recently read the most basic of introductions to the
metaphysical basis of the ragas and talas and was completely fascinated.

In any case, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Nathan

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>I want to begin compensating for my general ignorance of Classical Indian
>Music and was wondering if anyone could recommend a more or less definitive
>introduction to the subject.

The most readable authoritative introduction to Indian classical music that
I've found is Bonnie Wade's Music in India: The Classical Traditions,
available in paperback from Prentice Hall.

I also like Neil Sorrell's Indian Music in Performance: A Practical
Introduction, written with Ram Narayan (NYU Press). Though less
comprehensive than Wade's, it is, as the title suggests, much more
practical, and comes with a cassette and transcriptions of performances.

The entry for "India" in the New Groves Dictionary is good, though
sometimes technical and a bit scattered. It also has a bibliography on
several specific topic areas, including areas such as folk music not
covered in these other sources.

A more technical book is Nazir Jairazbhoy's The Rags of North Indian Music,
but it has a very insightful analysis of the logic of ragas, including
their tuning. It also comes with a recording and transcriptions.

The older Western studies, including Danielou, Fox-Strangeways, and
Kaufmann, I wouldn't recommend to the beginning reader. Some of the
conclusions of Danielou in particular, though interesting, are not on
particularly sound scholarly footing. Kaufmann is useful as a reference
work.

As long as I'm at it, since this is the tuning list, the most important
work on the tuning of Indian music is by Mark Levy: Intonation in North
Indian Music. Unfortunately, it is published by a New Delhi publisher and
difficult to come by. I had to get it on interlibrary loan. I heartily
recommend it, though.

I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have other questions.

Bill

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^ Bill Alves email: alves@hmc.edu ^
^ Harvey Mudd College URL: http://www2.hmc.edu/~alves/ ^
^ 301 E. Twelfth St. (909)607-4170 (office) ^
^ Claremont CA 91711 USA (909)621-8360 (fax) ^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^




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For several technical reasons, I cannot recommend the Wade volume (her
volume on solo vocal music is to be recommended, however). In addition, the
material on South India is cursory, and the comparison with an American pop
song is really confused!

If you would like in-depth work on North or South India, all of the (widely
scattered) articles by Harold Powers are well worth looking into.

Karnatic music is probably a clearer repertoire _and_ theoretical
traditional with which to begin. For beginners, I like David Reck's PhD
dissertation, _A Musician's Toolkit_ which is unfortunately only available
from University Microfilms. Likewise, the dissertations of Jon Higgins (on
the music for Bharata Natyam), T. Viswanathan (on Raga Alapana), and K.S.
Subramanian (on a single vina tradition).

In any case, I would listen to a lot of music before beginning a survey of
the theoretical literature. There is simply too much irrelevant and/or
inaccurate material in the literature that only an active encounter with
the performed music can help sort out. Even better is to find a teacher -
either Hindustani or Karnatic - to give you a grounding in raga and tala. I
heartily recommend vocal lessons in combination with rhythmic training
(e.g. South Indian Solkattu).

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There are plenty of web pages about Indian classical music and this one
I was looking at just now:
http://www.aoe.vt.edu/~boppe/MUSIC/music.html
It contains a good annotated bibliography and a set of primers.

I can recommend the cheap three cassette set Music Appreciation of the
New Delhi label Music Today as an introduction, if you can find it.
The basic notions are explained and mixed with musical examples.

This is a long list of links:
http://webhead.com/WWWVL/India/india214.html

Manuel Op de Coul coul@ezh.nl

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