Indian Music
Introduction
What is Indian Music? Indians definitely love music as visibly seen in their cultures. The variety of musical occurrence in India pulls out from effortless melodies of tribal groups to more improved classical music systems as time flies by. It encompasses different mixture of folklore, classical and pop music. The classical music of India’s tradition includes Hindustani and Carnatic music
Heritage/Identity. Indian music is one of the world’s oldest musical traditions originated in the Vedas or the sacred Hindu scriptures which are the core of the Indian culture. The history of this music has developed over the years.
Function of music. It has been a vital part of religious and sociological life of the Indian people. In history, the Islamic statutes in the regions of northern India marked the function of the musicians in the Hindustani music with a dose of a Persian persuasion. Meanwhile, the Carnatic music tradition was typically depends more on the performances in the Hindu’s place of worship. This patterned the religious or spiritual essence in the music culture of India.
Aesthetics. The two foremost subdivisions of Indian music are “raga” which means color or zeal and “tal” which means rhythm. The raga is refers to mood or feeling and regarded as the process of coloring the wits of the listener with sentiment or emotions. In accordance to prehistoric scriptures, the nine moods comprise of romance, humor, sorrow, anger, bravery, fright, hatred, wonder and tranquility. Ragas have seven notes Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni. This is correlated to Western’s Solfa Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti. On the other hand, Tal which literally means clap or rhythm is a complicated arrangement of beat or musical tempo. Tal makes use of hand clapping to be a sign of the start of segments in rhythmic successions or phases (“Indian classical music,” n.d.).
Similarities
Indian music is similar to Indonesian music in terms of their traditional and cultural beliefs. They are both trying to stick with their musical traditions as well as their spiritual views. To add up, the Filipinos and Indians are both colonized by other countries especially the United States of America. Because of this, western influences in music are very noticeable in these two countries concerning music cultures. Also, Philippines and India both love performing music through their films, dances and theater acts.
Differences
Indian music is somewhat different from Indonesian and Philippine music because Indians prefer to be indulged with Classical music. They want to maintain their archetypal musical taste. They are more traditional than Indonesia and Philippines with regards to music and culture.
What’s unique in Indian music is that it does not rely merely on musical instruments. The Tala makes use of hand clapping as a sign of the start of segments in rhythmic successions or phases (“Indian classical music,” n.d.). It is composed of long and short beats that are unaccented and accented. Raga, its tonal organization, is also based on a scale of 5 to 7 notes (Aguilar, 2012).
Indonesian Music
Introduction
What is Indonesian Music? The music in Indonesia is very traditional. Gamelan is the primary facet of the traditional Indonesian music played in an orchestra.
Heritage/Identity. The music culture of the islands of Java, Sumatra, Bali, Flores and other places in Indonesia have been acknowledged and verified by researches conducted by Indonesian and foreign academic scholars and still in constant development. The music of the tribes of native Indonesians frequently integrates recitals and songs that go together with different musical instruments. In the present day, the modern-day music culture of Indonesia influences its neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam and many other countries in the South of Asia.
Aesthetics. The musical instruments in a gamelan include sets of gongs, chimes, drums, flute, and other string instruments accompanied by singers. The most admired gamelan is mostly found in the islands of Java and Bali since these regions have the most contributions to the tradition and culture of Indonesia.
Functions of music. In the music traditions of Indonesia, the gamelan is very sacred for them for they believe that the gamelan has supernatural powers and that each of the instruments used in gamelan are guided by spiritual being. This is the reason why Indonesians all pay respect to the gamelan regardless of whether that are musicians or not, they even offer incense and flowers to the gamelan. Therefore, the musicians who will play the gamelan have to take their shoes off when playing. Also, it is prohibited to go beyond or step on any music instrument in a gamelan, for the reason that the spirits who are protecting the gamelan might get offended by this unnecessary action. Meanwhile, Gong Ageng is the most essential instrument in the gamelan of the Javanese. The Javanese musicians consider that the instrument Gong Ageng is the central and most important spirit of the whole gamelan.
In addition, Gamelan is also linked to individuals in different social groups because of their ways of thinking. The music of gamelan is strictly a group effort performance, and it is only played for the royal family as well as for special occasions like ritual observance, community festivities and puppet shows accompanied by dances in different temples and rituals. Albeit being used for ritual observances and other ceremonies of the royal family, Gamelan is also performed at social gatherings and cultural concerts as a way of welcoming guests, audiences or delegates (Peterman, n.d.).
Similarities
Indonesians and the Filipinos are similar in terms of their musical influences, which come from other countries and they both have many musical groups performing in orchestras and other musical events. While the similarity between Indonesia and Indians are their traditional music approaches and their way of celebrating or performing their music.
Differences
Apparently, Indonesian is different from the other two countries because of their intimate belief and relation to their Gamelan. This is truly the foundation of their musical culture. Indeed, it is very noticeable that Indonesian music culture is demonstrated by the country’s musical creativity and inventiveness, cultural diversification, traditional beliefs of tribes or social groups and other foreign influences. Since the different islands in Indonesia happen to have diverse cultural traditions, this results to a variety of music, dances and performing arts.
Unlike ancient Philippine music that uses things found in nature for their musical instruments, the dominant instruments used in Indonesian music are the string instruments. Moreover, rhythmic ostinatos are used in Gamelan orchestras where each layer has its own unique rhythmic sphere (Weehi, 2011). The layers of pitch are related to the rhythm in a colotomic structure. Moreover, the pulse of gamelan music slows down and speeds up from section to section (Weehi, 2011)
Philippine Music
Introduction
What is Filipino music? The Filipinos dedication and love to music started during the pre-Hispanic period. Ancient Filipinos love to express or convey themselves through folklore and ethnic musical instruments. These early settlers played diversity of musical instruments which include flutes, nose flutes, gong, guitar and other string instruments to play appropriate songs in commemoration of courtship, marriage, and harvest as well as religious celebrations and other Filipino festivities.
At present, one can stumble on different kinds of music in the Philippines’ modern music industry from contemporary, jazz, bossa nova to pop and alternative rock music which is an adaptation and affiliation from different countries especially the United States of America and other western influences. Hence, the Philippines consider music as a regulator and coordinator of their religious and social life. Filipinos maintain the sanctity of music in their lives and consider it as a fine art. Also, the year 1975 was considered as the Philippines’ Golden Age of sacred music (“Philippine music history,” n.d.).
Heritage/Identity. Even during the hardest time of Philippine revolution when the country was invaded by several countries, Filipinos cling to music as an outlet of entertainment and leisure to put off hassle, stress and frustrations. This is the reason why harana, kundiman, sarswela, and the like exist in music history of the Filipinos. The trade associations with Arabs, Indonesians, Hindus, Malaya, Chinese, Japanese, Indo Chinese and other races produced the recitative and two-note music in the Philippines which is the simplest form of Filipino music.
Aesthetics. In early times, Filipinos used palm of leaves, bark of trees, bamboo canes, and sharp stick pieces as a medium in writing before the discovery of pen and paper. Furthermore, with the influences of Chinese and Japanese, the Philippines were able to produce a number of musical instruments during primitive days. These instruments were made out of bamboo and wood. Filipinos also used plucked instruments like guitars, octavina, banduria, laud, and banjo to produce music. There are also different kinds of musical instruments which vary from different regions. Muslim Filipinos used Gansa and Kulintang to create their traditional music while most of the mountain region used gong and bamboo flute.
Similarities
Filipino music is similar to Indian music because of their love for performances, film, music and dances. On the other hand, Filipino music and Indonesian music is somewhat alike in terms of the utilization and creation of musical instruments as well as the birth of their musical group performances.
Both Filipino and Indonesian music also predominantly use string instruments.
Differences
True enough that the Filipino music is very diverse in terms of genre and style. Traditional kinds of music are still there, but the coming out of new music that is contemporary is very noticeable at the present time. This can be depicted as the core difference of Filipino music from the music of the two other Asian countries, for they imbibe changes and develop their musicality through some other influences.
Unlike Indian and Indonesian music, ancient Philippine music predominantly used things found in nature for their musical instruments. In addition, the combination of the music of Christianity and the music of the indigenous religion led to the emergence of secular music, which assimilates the various elements of European secular genres (Anupol et al., n.d.)
Conclusion
The foremost similarity of the cross cultural music of these three Asian countries India, Indonesia and Philippines is the actuality that all music traditions and cultural essence are evolving throughout the years of changes and development as well as by the influences of other countries or cultures. The tradition stays but evolves over time due to foreign influences and imaginative minds of the people who loves music. The development of music can be a means of being diverse and contemporary.
Moreover, another apparent similarity of the three countries is their traditional beliefs and faith for religious worship and rituals as well as for celebrating events about harvest, successes and customary beliefs among others. The emergence and development of music in these three Asian countries has been very noticeable in different religious ordeals of the three countries. Also, they may have different celebrations and festivities but they are similar in incorporating their music to these kinds of observances and feasts.
With regards to musical differences, these three countries in Asia may have different musical instruments, genre, elements and musical styles but they are somewhat comparable or alike in terms on playing or performing their music especially during the times of historic events, royal celebrations, religious observance, tribes’ rituals, community festivities, orchestra, theatric plays and interpretative dances.
Conceivably, the difference between these Asian musical cultures is on how they are able to keep the tradition and uplift the folkloric and traditional kind of music in their countries. For India, they want to maintain their tradition but still incorporate contemporary styles like the one they are doing with Bollywood. In Indonesia, they are still maintaining the people’s belief in the spiritual power of their Gamela as what they accept as true. In the Philippines, music is now very modern because of western influences, but in the countryside and other minority groups in the far flung areas, they still have the traditional and old costumed musical styles and elements.
Since, it is very common to be influenced by other cultures and modern advances in music and technology through different platforms and medium, it is very important for these three Asian countries on how they will be able to maintain the customary and long established culture regarding music as they are inclined to preserve the traditional way of performing music and arts.
Meanwhile, the cross cultural music traditions of India, Indonesia and Philippines encompass musical genres with their distinct characteristics, imaginary and speculative musical conception and its purposes, musical forms and styles, harmonious and metrical structures, various musical instruments, bands and orchestra lyrical compositions and the imagery of choral and instrumental performances. Even if the three countries have different culture and customary traditions, the love for music is very apparent for they have envisioned to be acknowledged by other countries and be musically competitive all over the world.
References
Aguilar, A. (2102, June 18. Elements of Indian music. Retrieved from
http://www.slideshare.net/acaaguilar/elements-of-indian-music
Anupol, Cayabyab, Chuam Luarca, Shinamoto,, Torio, Yumol. (n.d.) Philippine music.
Retrieved from http://aboutphilippines.ph/filer/toledo-cebu/PHILIPPINE%20MUSIC.pdf
Indian classical music. (n.d.). Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved from https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/xbi01
Peterman, L. (n.d.). Indonesian music. Retrieved from
http://trumpet.sdsu.edu/M345/Indonesian_Music1.html
Philippine music history. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.themusichistory.com/philippines-music-history.html
Weehi, J. T. (2011, June 19). Exploring the elements of music. Retrieved from
http://www.slideshare.net/JesseTeWeehi/exploring-the-elements-of-music
