Carnatic and Hindustani Music

Odin Tito

There are two main sub genres of Indian music, Hindustani and Carnatic.

These are the two classical music of India

Hindustani music is predominately in North India and Carnatic is mainly in South India.

Indian Music

Music that originated from Vedic ritual chants(Indian traditions).

Hindustani music focuses on the vocal performance and less on the instrumental, but there is still some instrumental Hindustani music.

Hindustani Music

There are six different types of Hindustani music:

Dhrupad – old man style of singing, performed with a tambura and a pakhawaj.

Khyal – based on vocally improvising and expressing emotions Tarana – fast paced songs, convey a mood of elation Tappa - rolling pace based on fast, subtle, knotty construction Thumri - lyrics are typically in a proto-Hindi language, romantic Ghazal - Persian form of poetry, used in pop and folk songs

Evolved from ancient Hindu traditions, it is one of the two sub genres on Indian music.

Carnatic music is performed in an ensemble, where Hindustani music is performed solo vocal and drums.

Carnatic Music

There are different elements in Carnatic music such as:

Sruti - refers to musical pitch Swara - type of musical sound that is a

single note Raga system - set of rules for building

a melody Tala Systems - a fixed time cycle or metre

Indian Instruments

The End

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindustani_classical_music#Types_of_compositions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnatic_music

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_India

Bibliography