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Ustad Vilayat Khan with sitar
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Maybe you first heard the droning sounds back in the 60's
with the sounds of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, or Stevie
Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered". The sitar
introduced the world to Indian culture and music. But there
is more to Indian music than just the sitar.
Indian music is classified into two geographically based
styles: Hindustani music refers to Northern Indian music and
is the tradition most westerners are familiar with; Carnactic
music being the Southern Indian style. Within these areas,
multiple styles flourish in a manner similar to the various
styles of Blues (Chicago, Mississippi Delta, etc..). Both
Hindustani and Carnactic music share a common trait that separates
these musics from non-Indian music, reliance on one instrument
for melody and no harmony. In other words, there are no chords
in Indian music, just melody which is improvised upon.
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Sarangi
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Hindustani music utilizes a "Raga" (pronounced
râg, as the final A is silent) system for notes. One
could think of this as an ordered scale, with a prescribed
set of rules. These rules dictate which notes can be played
when ascending, descending, ornamented, or emphasized. Some
ragas can contain as few as 5 notes, or as many 8. These rules
and structures give each raga a character which differentiate
it from many similar ragas. An Indian virtuoso (sometimes
referred to as Pandit or Ustad) will spend decades mastering
all of the possibilities of just 1 raga. Many ragas are associated
with specific times of day, emotions, mythological stories,
and natural elements.
In a typical concert, 3 performers are present: an instrumentalist
such as a sitarist, a percussionist who usually plays two
hand drums referred to as Tabla, and a third musician playing
a long necked instrument called the Tambura. The Tambura provides
a drone for the music and does not vary from this purpose
for the whole piece. The instrumentalist and percussionist
engage in a series of improvisations based on the raga for
a majority of the piece, sometimes lasting hours in length.
In the case of Jugalabandi, two instrumentalists may be present
to improvise with each other and the percussionist as well.
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Ustad Ali Akbar Khan with Sarod
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Instrumentally, the sitar is the most prominent of Indian
instruments. Many other instruments are equally important
and beautiful sounding. The Surbarhar is the bass version
of the sitar with a low and strong voice. The Sarod resembles
a small guitar-like instrument with a metal fretboard. The
bamboo flute represents the wind instruments in Hindustani
music. The Sarangi is one of the most rare but powerful Indian
instruments as its bowed sounds are said to most closely imitate
the human voice. Each instrument is capable of executing long
sustained passages or quick melodic phrases.
For further research into Hindustani music, we highly recommend
the music of many masters. For sitar, Pandit Ravi Shankar
is the most visible, while other sitarist such as the late
Ustad Vilayat Khan demonstrate a different style that is equally
beautiful. St. Louis is home the greatest living Surbahar
player Ustad Imrat Khan. Ustad Ali Akbar Khan is the leading
Sarod player, also having a school for Hindustani music in
San Francisco. Ram Narayan is one of the few practitioners
of the Sarangi. For tabla, one can easily find the works of
Zakir Hussain who has appeared on many Western and Indian
recordings. Regardless, we hope you discover the wealth of
Indian music for your own listening pleasure.
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