Introduction
This chapter introduces the art music of South Asia, also known as Indian classical music. These terms have the following meanings:
- South Asia comprises the whole of the Indian sub-continent, including the modern nation-states of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
- Art music or classical music is music that is performed primarily for the purpose of listening with enjoyment, though it may also have religious or spiritual connotations. It may be played in public or in private, and it is governed by aesthetic principles and musical systems, especially the melodic systems of rāga and the metrical systems of tāla. These principles and systems form the subject of discussion in a theoretical literature, developed over many hundreds of years; but for practical purposes the music is taught and learned orally, with little or no reference to written sources, and is performed from memory and/or improvised in varying degrees.
In this chapter, we shall present the North Indian music (also known as Hindustānī music) as practiced in the remaining parts of the region. We shall also study examples of both vocal and instrumental music. These are not fundamentally different, since Indian classical music is based primarily on vocal music, which instruments emulate as far as possible. However, instrumental music has to some extent developed its own forms and techniques, especially in the North.
Introducing a culture and a musical tradition as varied and complex as Indian classical music-to say nothing of the many other types of musical performance to be found in South Asia-poses considerable problems of selection and presentation. Since some readers may not have previously experienced this music, this chapter presents the music first, in the form of a listening example. This has been chosen to represent a type of music, as explained above. This example is a short but a complete performance, and illustrates the main features of a full-length performance.
We shall explore the various aspects of Indian Classical Music that it illustrates. These include:
- the cultural context: historical, religious and social perspectives
- the instruments and ensemble
- the performers, and their background
The presentation of the listening example will conclude with a Listening Guide.
Note on pronunciation
In this presentation we have spelled Indian terms according to academic convention, with diacritics to indicate the pronunciation. The following equivalences are approximations only. Other sounds are similar to the corresponding English letters.
| Pronunciation | |
|---|---|
| Letter(s) | Similar sounds in English (underlined) |
| a | attention |
| ā | a father |
| i | lip |
| ī | leap |
| u | cook |
| ū | mood |
| e | Italian prego |
| ai | air |
| āī | high |
| o | Italian Roma |
| au | awe |
| ~ | = nasalization of any of the above vowels |
| t, d | with tip of the tongue touching the back of the upper teeth |
| ṭ, ḍ, ṛ | with tip of the tongue further back than in English t, d, r |
| c | teacher |
| j | rejoice |
| kh, gh, ch, jh, ṭh, ḍh, th, dh, ph, bh, ṛh | the initial consonant is accompanied
by aspiration |
| v | swim or vow |
| s | sip |
| ś | ship |
