We’re all about the fusion here are TRP Berks and we love introducing different genres and styles to our students.
Back in the 1980s, for those of us, ahem, who can remember that far back, the Asian Underground scene gave rise to the bhangra music genre, which steadily become more mainstream in the 1990s and 2000s. Do you remember artists such as Apache Indian and Cornershop? Those hip and upbeat songs ‘Boom Shak-A-Lak’ from Apache Indian and ‘Brimful of Asha’ from Cornershop? The genre and other forms of South Asian music began to influence European pop artists such as Björk, Erasure and Siouxsie and the Banshees, who all experimented with South Asian instrumentation, while Talvin Singh, known for his innovative fusion of Indian classical music with drum and bass, subsequently won a Mercury Music Prize for his album ‘OK’ in 1999.
And The Difference Is…?
In simplistic terms, the main difference between classical Indian music and classical Western music is that the former is improvised and the latter is composed, meaning that Indian classical musical is very melodic and free-flowing compared to the more rigid structure of Western classical music.
Indian musicians learn to play raga (patterns of notes) by imitating and memorising. The music is passed on from teacher to student by oral tradition. Students belong to an extended family of musicians learning from a particular master. This is known as the master-student tradition.
Most Indian classical music is based on a combination of rag (melodic form), tal (rhythmic form) and drone (sustained note).
Indian Classical Music is all about ragas. A raga portrays a mood, a sentiment, expressed through a microtonal scale. There are a number of ragas, each with its own mood and its own corresponding microtonal scale that is based on the natural harmonic series – the natural law of vibrations.
Today, Indian Classical music is influenced by a foreign tonal system that is not based on the natural harmonic series. This is the Western tonal system that has had a big influence on Indian Classical music. Many contemporary Indian Classical musicians now make use of Western instruments such as guitar and drums, as fusion between these two genres grows.
So, take as an example the iconic ‘Brimful of Asha’ by Cornershop, which perfectly blends both genres with a twist on the British club music scene using trance beats and the distorted electric guitar, while also bringing in the emotion and referencing both Western and Punjabi languages. A perfect fusion, you could argue, not to mention the use of Indian and Western instruments: sitar, harmonium, keyboards, dholki, guitar and drums.
For us at TRP Berks, the following lines always evoke the meaning that music is the comfort we all need. For those of you who were born in the CD era, ‘45’ is an RPM speed to play 7” vinyl records on!
“Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow, everybody needs a bosom, mine’s on the 45…”
Harmeet October 16th, 2017
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