"Music is the Expression of Art in melody and harmony,both in composition and execution." But of course,it is-the art of expression through melody.
However a common man(I am one),a music-lover who can sensuously appreciate the art and the artist,the melody and its composer,finds this definition a bit chauvinistic.
Let me explain.This definition must have been reached upon from the perspective of a musician or conceived by a musician,the artist who experiences Inspiration at different moments of his daily life,and proceeds,in his inspired state,to express the emotions engulfing him through melody.The common man rarely experiences Inspiration in his surroundings himself with his restricted sensitivity(that is why he is the Common Man),but he,as a music-lover,identifies with those emotions when he listens to the melody.It is the musician who does the expression of emotions for the listener who submerges his soul in the interplay of emotions.
To the common man,music is the Art of Expression in Melody.(An artist creates Art,a connoisseure appreciates the art in his own personalised way).I went into the above-mentioned intricacies of dry definitions,something which is irrelevant in discussions of Art for a reason on which I shall elaborate soon.
In execution of music,only two systems are harmonically possible-the Melodic System in which these is progression by succession of of single notes,and the Harmonic System-where the melody progresses by groups of notes called Chords.
I went into the dry details of definitions because I am an Indian and proudly so when I proudly arrest that it is the genius of India that contributed to the music world,the Raga system which is easily the zenith any melodic system could ever touch to glorify.The outstanding feature of Indian music is this system,in which Raga is a distinct musical entity by itself,possessing well-defined characteristics.The ideal of Absolute Music is perhaps realised in the concept of the Ragas.
The concept of the Raga and its elaboration-the 'Raga Alapana',are something unique as far as the realm of melody is concerned,only to be found in Indian music.There is no Alapana(elaboration)in any other system of music,particularly Western Classical Music-I mentioned the name because this is a form or system of music which follows a particular creative pattern,and it has thrown up to be savoured by the music-minded,innumerable gems of melodies which have been immortalized by the genius of composers like Brahms,Wagner,Beethoven,Mozart,Handel-the list is exhaustive.It definitely commands a distinctive status of its own in the world of music.An overwhelming majority of the creations of Western Music employ only one Raga,called the Major Scale(which corresponds to Sankarabharanam of the Indian Raga system.Compositions (or Symphonies)with a Minor Scale do exist in Western Classical Music though the usage is sparse.And different schools of Western Music use a slightly different combination of notes for the Minor Scale,so one cannot really describe the Western Classical Music system as compact as ambiguities regarding usage of notes in scales have continued to exist.(Of course my rigid qualification does not intend to deprive Western Music of any of its glory it spans through time or of the greatness it has been concurred upon).Talking about Minor Scales,it commands a great deal of space in Indian Classical Music,and it is called 'Kiravani' or 'Natbhairavi'. So the Raga system is structurally moulded in two distinct formats-the Major Scale,the Sankarbharanam,and the Minor Scale,the Natbhairavi.
In the Orient especially in China and Japan,the music is sustained consistently by two scales.Yet Indian Music stands out by its intrinsic brilliance that originates from the conceptualisation of melody-something which is solely Indian and has its roots in the Indian way of Thought-Concept or Philosophy which exists in the behavioural genetics of India.
Indian Music uses not one or two,but some 863(till date,the exact number should be verified by the qualified,expert commentator/connoisseure of music) scales or Ragas.This would seem utterly paradoxical to the Western musician who has been trained within a rigid framework.
Here is where one can connect with the philosophical mind of Indian stalwarts who laid down the infrastructure of music,some 6,000 years ago.The CONSTRUCTION of a scale or Raga is done by using the notes of Sankarabharanam and Natbhairavi,notes of the Major and Minor Scales which resonate together,or is in absolute harmony(here the laws of Acoustics can be mathematically applied through the logarithms of integral calculus to confirm the perfection of harmony).Here comes the gem-the EXECUTION of the constructed scale can be done in 863 ways,or combinations of notes.These combinations were not formalised by trial and error,they were figured upon by the Indian philosophical mind which delved deep into the essence of spirit-the spirit of life around it which manifested itself through the sound of Nature,the sound of her flora and fauna.The concept of 'sound of fauna' can be frowned upon by the Occidental philosopher or even physicist,but even a dewdrop does make a sound,sending ethereal waves of vibration through air-its frequency(units of wave-lengths superimposed on the temporal axis)might not fall within the audible range of a human being(20-20,000 per second).It can be 'heard' on thoughtful meditation into the spirit of beings(unfortunately I cannot prove it within the limits of modern mathematics or physics but that won't deem me as failed!).
The constructed Scale,during sonic execution of the ancient Indian musician(beginning with elaboration or 'Alapana')touched these ethereal notes giving rise to hundreds of Scales,NAY Ragas.The scale is only the skeleton and it necessitates the incorporation of life,body and musical status.It necessitates the incorporation of 'spirit'.
These are specific notes in a scale which can be pinpointed to accurate perfection through which the melody travel in high sophistication to touch those ethereal notes of nature with the aid of inimitable graces called 'Gamakas'.The result is a unique flexibility which renders Indian Raga music with Freedom,the freedom of the spirit of Nature,filling up its essence with hundreds of Ragas.Indian Music was conceptualised by our ancient forefathers millenia back by the realisation of the Spirit of nature,through its sounds.One is not surprised when connoisseures speak about the Spirituality of Indian music,while trying to understand it.
With a mind mainly working through the intricacies of the left cerebral hemisphere(I am right-handed),its cognitive feelers conditionally restricted to the 5 'anatomical' sense-organs,I can hardly comprehend the mind behind the creation of music.
Where Western Symphony is made through artistic combination of notes,the Indian Raga is created by spiritual combination of notes which move from one to the other in endless varieties of curvaceous travel because Freedom of Spirit do not follow archaic regularity,(unlike the Western Symphony,where the progression of consonant and assonant pairs of notes is strictly linear).Adorned and vitalized by the Gamakas,a scale is transformed into a Raga with a distinctive personality and identity of its own.Thus each Raga has a self-identity,a Swarupa.The great music teacher of the 19th.century,Alauddin Khan could visualize the Swarupa during rendition of a Raga-a fact which has been passionately corroboraated by two of his illuminous disciples,Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Pundit Ravi Shankar.While the former studied to complete 'the course' of 14 years,the latter left training after 10 years-a subject of lifelong regret by his great master(Ravi Shankar married Annapurna Devi,the 'spirit daughter' of Alauddin Khan.)In the forts of Jaisalmer and Jodhpur,we can still find frescos where medieval artists have painted some of the traditional Ragas,portraying them as human beings.I find it mind-boggling to comprehend the level of awareness in India for sound edifices.
The genesis of music can be traced back to the Vedic period.Though three different sounds were used to chant the hymns of the Rig Veda,it is the Sama Veda where notes of melody were conceptually formatted to produce 'Sama Gana' around 4500 B.C,where the Raga system has its primordial seeds.Broadly speaking,a meditation-ritual of the Vedas takes the literature from Rig Veda,the ritual to be observed from the Yajurveda,and the musical representation from Sama Veda.From there,Indian music evolved gloriously and went on to develop a vitalized,embodied form-a form which would continue to mesmerize music-lovers and inspire composer-philosophers for thousands of years,yet retaining its original form to the core.
Essentially,music is the brightest gem adorning India's culture.The fact that history of Music is mutually interactive with the history of human society,is best corroborated while studying Indian Music.I leave the socio-anthropological aspect to the learned and the specialist to comment upon.Like all Indian music-lovers,I shall continue to draw nourishment from the Great Music that India represents in concept,thought and realization-the endless reservoir of vibrant energy with which the Indian mind continues to progress with the stream of Time.
To be Indian is a matter of pride.Truely.
Note: I suspect I might have portrayed the face of Indian Music with gross inadequacies.I understand many more relevant informations could have been mentioned.The inadequacy of data arises from the inadequacy of quantitative thought that I might possess.I apologise for that.This write-up was not meant to be an informative commentary on Indian Music.It was the sheer impulse of the moment that compelled me to share my delight with all of you while reflecting upon Indian Music on a beautiful night under the stars.
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