The music of South India - Essay Example

19 October The music of South India Two people came to our school few days ago andtaught us many things about Indian music. They told us about different types of Indian music. They told us what are the basics of Indian music, and what things are included in it. They told us all these things by a powerpoint presentation. We saw different kinds of pictures of the instruments used in Indian music and also saw the Indian composers in the pictures. We learned many things about Indian music that I have discussed in this paper below.

I learned that Indian classical music is very much different from western classical music. For example, Indian classical concerts contain melodies formed by notes. Melody is not very important in the western classical music but some western music contains melody also. Instruments with which Indian classical music is played are tabla, sarod, and sitar but western classical music uses different instruments like flute, piano, and violin. Indian musicians wear Indian clothes like loose clothes whereas western musicians wear western clothes like pant shirt.

In Indian classical musical concerts, they offer Indian desserts like pan whereas in the western classical musical concerts, there is wine, but not every concert offers foods and drinks so it is not compulsory. I learned about the achievements of Indian classical music composers then searched for them online also. I found Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan very good Indian classical music composers. They achieved many things. For example, Pandit Ravi Shankar spread Indian music in Europe specially Paris and got grammy in 1967 and 1972 (“Instrumentalists”).

Similarly, I learned that Ustad Amjad Ali Khan is a very good classical music composer and uses Sarod instrument for playing music. He also took Indian classical music to outside countries and got many awards like Unesco Award, Unicef’s National Ambassadorship, and Padma Bhushan (“Instrumentalists”). On the same source, I learned that his sons Ayaan and Amaan are also doing very good music like their father. The people taught me very important things about Indian music like Raga. Raga is a very old musical kind of the Indian music.

To understand Raga, it is good to think about the twelve basic notes of octave as twelve different colors. A painter forms a painting using few colors out of the twelve colors that are total. Some colors like blue, black, grey, and white form cold theme whereas a painting in which red, orange, and yellow color is used becomes a warm theme. One painter uses a color scheme to form many paintings, but even then all such paintings have a same underlying quality that makes them different from the paintings that use other color schemes.

Same is the case with the rage scale. Raga is explored in specific ranges by verses called as Anupallavi. Niraval is improvisation in Indian music in which an artist chooses one line of lyric and forms many melodies showing the raga. Concluding, it was a very informative and enjoying lesson delivered by the two guests who came to our school. The persons told us these things with very much patience and a very good attitude. After telling us these things, they also listened out questions and gave their answers, which taught us even more things.

It told me many things about the Indian music, like its history, its forms and styles and instruments. All of my friends including me liked the presentation very much. After attending this lesson, I have become fond of Indian music and have developed a taste for it too. I saw the presentation with my friends in the class and then listened the Indian music online after we came home. All of my friends and me liked Indian music very much. It is also very different from the music my friends and me normally listen.

Bibliography: “Instrumentalists.” N.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2012. .