Indian music

Indian music always has had strong ties with mythology and religion and thus produced an art that is as different from Western music as Hinduism is from Christianity. It achieves unity through similarity rather than through change and is based on a more purely sensual…

…as 711, Arab conquerors reached India, and Mongol and Turkmen armies later invaded the Middle East, with resulting contact between Islamic and Far Eastern music. There are similarities between the modal systems of India (the ragas) and of the Middle East (the maqām system) and between some cosmological and ethical…

Although classical South Asian or Indian musicians usually perform in a concert situation quite analogous to that of Western artists, their audiences respond to them quite differently: they are judged not on how faithfully they reproduce the music the composer imagined but on how well they create their own music…

…solmization system exists in the music of India, using the syllables ṣa, ṛi, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni; and similar systems occur in, for example, Chinese, Southeast Asian, and ancient Greek music.

From historical accounts it is clear that the power to move people has always been attributed to music; its ecstatic possibilities have been recognized in all cultures and have usually been admitted in practice under particular conditions, sometimes stringent ones. In…

…cultures, such as those of India and Middle Eastern Islamic countries, music for the most part is not written down in advance of the performance but improvised upon framework-like patterns. In effect a composition exists only in its performance. Problems are presented by the different scales and intervals, rhythmic patterns,…

…Asian traditions than to the Indian and Chinese background of religious music.

…purported to have come from India as early as 736. Evidence of such a distant import can be found in a surviving court dance (bugaku) called Genjōraku, whose story about the exorcising of a snake can be traced to an ancient Indian Vedic tale. The date of 736 is also…

The performing arts also have a long and distinguished tradition. Bharata natyam, the classical dance form originating in southern India, expresses Hindu religious themes that date at least to the 4th century ce (see Natya-shastra). Other regional styles include

…as incarnations of the Hindu deities. The legends were probably sung and recited by wandering minstrels and bards even before the advent of the Christian Era, in much the same way as they still are. The stories were also enacted on the stage, particularly at the time of the religious…

Japanese theatre also incorporates music dramas of Indian origin, and the Indian theatre tradition is a full combination of poetry, music, dance, and symbolism. The music is often interpolated rather than specially composed and is likely to be drawn from the repertory of widely…

…see photograph), and eastward across India to Southeast Asia, where it survives as the Burmese harp, saung gauk. Modern African harps often have cloth rings on the neck that produce a buzzing tone colour as the strings vibrate against them.

…the Bharhut reliefs, the oldest Indian temple reliefs (2nd century bce). The modern Indian damaru is an hourglass-shaped clapper drum—when it is twisted its heads are struck by the ends of one or two cords attached to the shell. Barrel and shallow-nailed drums are particularly associated with India and East…

…in ritual use in northern India, Japan, the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China, and Vietnam. They appeared in the 5th century ce in India, where they are now also found at secular festivities. In China they play a prominent part in the theatre. Turkey, in contrast, has traditionally connected cymbals…

…that is popular in northern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Typically measuring about 1.2 metres (4 feet) in length, the sitar has a deep pear-shaped gourd body; a long, wide, hollow wooden neck; both front and side tuning pegs; and 20 arched movable frets. Its strings are metal; there are usually…

The basic ensemble in South Indian (Karnatak) music consists of a drone instrument (usually the long-necked lute tambura), a rhythm instrument (often the tuned drum (mridangam), and a vocalist or instrumentalist to carry the main melody. The group is often augmented to include additional instruments, but the basic elements must…