The Quest to Indian Classical Music

The Quest to Indian Classical Music: Let us start at the beginning and go as far back as we can, right down into the very roots of our music. Indian classical music is said to have originated from the Sama Veda. This is one of the oldest forms of music known to man. Scholars tell us that this music is at least three thousand years old.

Perhaps even more. However, what is important to remember is that it has come down to us orally through these centuries and has been assimilated into life. What you will now hear is the chanting of the Sama Veda.²

Before we start on our journey into the world of Indian classical music, it might be good to be clear about what we are seeking and what our goal is. Let it be understood, at the very start, that music cannot be taught through tapes, however, profoundly they may be conceived. These tapes only attempt to communicate the delight and the bliss of an art, to which hundreds of men and women have given themselves, right down to our own times.

[ The Quest to Indian Classical Music ]

1. Bismillah Khan Shehnai Raga Lalit

2. Chanting of the Sama Veda

 

What is this art? Where lies its mystery and its magic? What is it made of?
How does the man who responds to music learn to live it and eventually become a musician?
This is what we shall try to find out in these tapes. We have made a very special effort to keep the technical elements of our music to the bare minimum.

Yes, we do talk of Swara at some length, for example, but this is because it is the mysterious living center of everything that is immortal in our music. We talk of the Tanpura from which, it must be said, even the Swara is born. We talk of the Guru Shishya Parampara, that curious relationship of love and obedience, which has distinguished every branch of learning in this country and is in fact the truest act of transmission in our culture.

We discuss Raga-those little seeds from which a magnificence is born again and again. The Gharanas too take a bow in these tapes, those households that have preserved and distilled the art and kept it safe from curious eyes through centuries of turbulence and change. We talk of Tala, that magical play of time and language, which is truly the throb of blood in the heart of a song.

[ The Quest to Indian Classical Music ]

And, as we proceed, we talk of some mysterious truths, like Nadopasana, the invocation of the Word or the Primordial Sound. Let us listen to a well-known Bhajan. Here we have a Sanskrit Shloka which refers to Nadopasana, that discipline that lies at the very core of our music.

Since our music requires neither prior knowledge nor expertise from the listener, except a desire to know and the ability to recall the music that the listener himself has heard with pleasure and some enchantment, there are no qualifying barriers in it. And knowing about music is the least important part of our music.

For to enjoy it we neither need exceptional intelligence nor exceptional scholarship. Many of our greatest musicians have known only music and rarely concerned themselves with formal education. We have just to lean back and let the music take us on a journey of discovery.

3. Shubha Mudgal-Vocal-Sanskrit ShlokaShl

[ The Quest to Indian Classical Music ]

What this tapestry to do is to de-mystify and dejargonise our music, to lift it out of the sharp controversies of intellectual disputation and commend it into the realm of experience, so that we might discover that there is, within each of us, a canny listener, capable of responding to the wonder and bliss of our music. If in these tapes this magic which is unique to our ethos comes through freely, then at least a hint would have been given of its immortal essence and the rest must properly be silence (4).

The Quest : Indianan Classical Music
The Quest: Indianan Classical Music

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    • 02 – Sri Aurobindo Society – Alaap, Part – 1 Vol – 1 – The Quest

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