- Music history of India
The origins of Indian classical music ("marga"), the classical music of
India , can be found from the oldest of scriptures, part of theHindu tradition, theVedas .Samaveda , one of the four vedas describesmusic at length.The two main streams of Indian classical music are
Hindustani music , from North India, andCarnatic music fromSouth India ."Hindustani music"
Hindustani music is predominantly more than its south Indian counterpart. The prime themes of Hindustani music are
Rasa Lila (Hindu devotionals) ofKrishna and Nature in all its splendour.Bhimsen Joshi , Ravi Shankar,Hariprasad Chaurasia and Zakir Hussain are the arts' most popular living performers. Carnatic music is similar to Hindustani music in that it is mostly improvised, but it is much more theoretical with stricter rules. It emphasizes more on the expertise of the voice rather than on the instruments. Primary themes includeDevi worship,Rama worship, descriptions of temples and patriotic songs. Among the most popular living performers areMangalampalli Balamuralikrishna ,T V Sankaranarayanan ,Madurai T N Seshagopalan andK J Yesudas .Indian classical music is monophonic, and based around a single
melody line. The performance of a composition, based melodically on one particularraga and rhythmically on one tala, begins with the performers coming out in a ritualized order -- drone instruments, then the soloist, then accompanists andpercussionist s. The musicians begin bytuning their instruments; this process often blends imperceptibly into the beginning of the music.Indian musical instruments used in classical music includeveena ,mridangam ,tabla ,kanjira , tambura,flute ,sitar ,gottuvadyam ,violin andsarangi .Carnatic music
Carnatic music or Karnatak music (Sanskrit कर्णाटक सङ्गीतं, Telugu కర్నాటక సంగీతం) is the classical music of
South India , as opposed to the classical music of North India, calledHindustani music .Carnatic music is largely devotional; most of the songs are addressed to theHindu deities . There are a lot of songs emphasising love and other social issues.As with all
Indian music , the two main components of Carnatic music are "raga ", a melodic pattern and "tala", a rhythmic pattern. (One might want to read these pages before proceeding.)Carnatic music, whose foundation lies as far back as 2000 BC, began as a spiritual ritual of early
Hinduism . It grew, along with Hindustani music, out of theSama Veda tradition, until the Islamic invasions ofNorth India in the late12th century and early 13th century. From the 13th century onwards, there was a divergence in the forms of Indian music — the northern style being influenced by Arabic music (yet there are both Hindu and Muslim songs in Hindustani music.)"Carnatic music" is named after the Southern region of the
Indian subcontinent named by western colonists as "Carnatic". This name was used to refer to the region between theEastern Ghats and theCoromandel Coast encompassing much of what is called today asSouth India . Thus the term "carnatic music" was used to denote "South Indian music."See:
Carnatic (region) "See also":
Carnatic classical music
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