Ishwa helper Reged: 03/03/02 Posts: 553

Re: Classical 'Indian' Music v Classical 'Hindu' Music [Re: VJR] #14623 - 04/10/02 08:17 AM Edit Reply Quote

That's right, VJR. Ghazal is the name of the poetic form (rhyme pattern) in which the words were put. The music is Indian, sometimes with some Persian or Arabic flavor, but it's based mainly on Raga system and execution. The themes might be philosophical, or romantic or devotional, etc. Folk music is the very inspirational force of classical music. Without the dynamics in the folkmusic, classical music would be a dead tradition. (The same with language) Every classical tradition was a folk tradition before. The court and charismatic courtmusicians made these folk tradition into (semi-)classical ones. In this way Dhruvapada and Khyal became classical and ghazal, tappa, kajri, thumri semi-classical (though thumris have have more status). The classical styles are more in the longer Tals, like EkTal (3->12), TinTal (4->16), JhapTal (5->10), DhamarTal (7-> 14), etc. and the semi-classical ones are in the shorter DadraTal (3->6), Kaharva (4->8), Khemta (5->5. I'm not sure about this one), RupakTal (7->7) and DipchandiTal (7->14), etc. The execution of classical Ragas is more elaborate and longer, with more alamkaras or ornaments, like gamak or vibrato technics, etc. ........more to come