Indian Hindustani Classical Music: A Brief Introduction
War and conquest is often an ugly business, but beauty has ways of taking root and blending together the human spirit even in the most trying of times. In the 12th Century these factors were pivotal to the creation of two forms of music in India that, while they share common roots, diverged to form distinctive and beautiful art forms. Carnatic music maintained a heavily vocal leaning to its compositions, and to this day remains an honored and traditional form of devotional music, while Hindustani was deeply affected by the Islamic influences of their conquerors.
Born from Spirituality, Raised in Conflict
So what exactly is Hindustani music? To the trained ear the Carnatic influences on Hindustani are unmistakable, but while Carnatic music has remained largely unchanged over the past millenia, Hindustani music has embraced the wild creative spirit of the musician. It’s evolution is such that two musicians performing the same ragas (a standardized ‘musical recipe’ of sorts comprised of a set of chosen notes chosen from the 22) do so with such individualistic style that it is often difficult to determine which of these musical compositions are being performed.
Another distinguishing point between the two is the focus on vocals found in Carnatic music. Hindustani music veered from its Carnatic roots on this point by downplaying the role of the human voice and placing more prominence on the instruments being used. This departure arguably gave Hindustani music a much greater range, and a greater freedom to play with different combinations of sounds and style.
From Divisive Beginnings To Renowned Composers
Hindustani music is one of the rare forms of music that can trace the origin of its creation down to a single pivotal moment, one that was shared by the Carnatic style of music and, according to many, also marked the moment of diversion between the two. A composer named Sharngadeva composed a piece known as the Sangita Ratnakara, and this piece has the distinction of being the last mentioned by both the Carnatic and the Hindustani traditions. Those looking to experience Hindustani music would be encouraged to look up the compositions of Shivnath Mshra, Mian Ghulam Nabi Shori, and Hariprasad Chaurasia, all prominent masters of the art.
