INDIAN MUSIC NEWSLETTER a Quarterly Information Paper for Lovers of Indian Music in the West
Issue no. 12 July-August-September 1984 INDIAN MUSIC NEWSLETTER A quarterly information paper for lovers of Indian music in the West. BASICS OF INDIAN MUSIC V treatment of notes in each raga. beat is introduced, but no rhythmic struc Instrumentalists usually loosely follow ture or accompaniment is present. the structure of the dhrupad alap. First the COMPOSITION AND tonic (sa) is established. Then, the other Composition IMPROVISATION notes are slowly introduced one by one. As is the case with improvisation, we must The artist plays a note, moves to another, first consider the meaning of the word and returns, establishing a context for each 'composition' in Indian music, because it The modern Western world does not know im note. Starting in the lower octave, all notes differs greatly from the Western concept. provised classical music. Our classical works have are carefully made to shine, gradually Indian classical music does not know all been written down, fixed. They may be re working up to high sa, one octave above scores, pieces of music that have been writ created in performance, but never recomposed. the tonic. After that, improvisations move ten down entirely. In India, composing Indian classical music is generally qualified more freely over the entire range of the in takes place during the practice-time of ac as improvised music. However, it also knows strument, creating tensions and resolving complished musicians. They search and composed parts. The balance between the two dif them, firmly establishing the atmosphere find new phrases by re-ordering the tradi fers from musician to musician and from style to of the raga.
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