Compare and Contrast the traditional music of India with the traditional music of Korea - Research Paper Example

In 12th century, influences from the Middle East made Indian music split in to two main paths. Carnatic music was not altered by Arabian culture unlike Hindustani music, which embraced evident Persian and Arab influences from the ruling Muslim kings in the Northern states of India (“Carnatic music”). In 13th century Carnatic music localized in the Southern part of India and developed there a significant music culture (Randel, ed.). Carnatic music was quite diverse, but it utilized the main elements of Indian music which were sruti, swara, tala and raga.

Out of these elements, sruti was defined as a musical pitch, and swara was the repetition of the same note; raga was a specific interchange of ascending and descending parts of the melody, and tala was a fixed rhythmic scale (Randel, ed.). Carnatic music was usually composed; though, improvisation was possible as well. Instrumentation of Carnatic music included the main performer (vocalist), melodic and rhythm accompaniment and a drone (Randel, ed.). Usually, the vocalists sat in the middle of the stage because they were main figures in the performance, other musicians circled them behind.

Goryeo dynasty, which ruled in 938-1392, contributed a lot to the development of Korean traditional music. Goryeo dynasty music was represented by aak, court ceremonial music (So). Aak was derived from Chinese model and it was translated as elegant music; it was presented to Goreyo dynasty in Korea by Song Dynasty in China. However, Koreans retuned Chinese music gifted to them and developed unique tone and style, which was radically different from Chinese music. All instruments for aak were shipped from China; they were divided into two orchestras – tungga (veranda orchestra) and hon’ga (ground orchestra) (So).

According to Randel ed., akk orchestras included extremely diverse instruments grouped as idiophones (wooden and stone chimes, boxes, scrappers and clappers), aerophones (octarina, various flutes,