Hindustani (North Indian) and Carnatic (South Indian) music are usually considered as two quite distinct musical areas with differences in nomenclature, style and musical grammar. The division in many ways reflects the different cultural and political history of the two areas: South India with its relatively undisturbed Hindu culture producing a music very heavily tied to tradition, conservative in outlook, proud of its rigorous conformity to Sanscrit texts, and earlier saint/composers; Hindustani music, coming from an area which has seen 4000 years of almost continuous invasion and migration beginning with the Aryans and finishing, hopefully, with the English, naturally enough reflects the syntheses it has undergone and is less restricted by inherited convention, although a marked respect for tradition is a prominent part of all Indian music. One effect of this division is that there is a much heavier emphasis on improvisation to be found in Hindustani than in Carnatic music. And the type of attitude customarily associated with improvisation -experimental, tolerant of change, with an interest in development - is much more readily found in the music of the North than that of the South. But in practice, the presence of improvisation is of central importance to all Indian musIc. Derek-san
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 15:27:01 +0000
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