Comparison of North Indian and South Indian Classical Music

India is a subcontinent cut off from the rest of Asia by jungles, deserts, and the Himalayas. For this reason, Chinese influence has not, in any considerable amount, affected the classical music of India. Instead, the Muslim invasions of 600 A.D., as well as some Persian influences, account for the majority of differences in Northern Hindusthani music from the Southern karnataka sangeeta. And although British Colonialism introduced clarinets, violins, and trumpets to Indian classical music, it did not change the essence of the music in any meaningful way.

The Ivaraku Jucinadi, composed by Tyagaraja is a song that uses the sankarabharanam Raga. A raga, which means “That which colors the mind.”, is a set of notes like a Western scale that is used to define the emotions and

Hindusthani music of Northern India is very similar to the karnataka sangeeta in most ways, but small variations make the end sound of the two pieces is very different. They both use the raga as the basis for the song. The drone establishes this at the beginning and throughout in both types of music. Also the general idea of the music is the same. Gamaka is used heavily to give the music character while the song remains fixed and stable on the key tones of the raga which give the music its overall sound and mood. The Sitar used in the Hindusthani music has a very different timbre when compared to the soft and smooth sound of the bamboo flute, but the heavy use of microtones is common in both. The tabla also has a much different sound than the mridangam. The low bass note of the tabla helps to reinforce the pillar tone while the mridangam is too high to resonate a precise pitch.

This representation of karnataka sangeeta is played by master musicians. Under their skillful manipulation the song comes to life. The beginning improvisations set a basis for the rest of the song. The mood is determined by this beginning, and remains unchanged throughout. As I mentioned before, the piece seems very calm. The theme introduced and developed in the Kriti is very pleasant and Viswanathan and Raghavan brilliantly take that theme and bring it to a climax in the Svara Kalpana by first doubling the speed and than using shortened phrases. The drum solo develops beautifully, and the end of the Svara Kalpana serves to keep the tones of the raga throughout the solo. Overall, the raga is made to be the most important aspect of the song. Everything returns to the pillar tones, and the theme set in the pallavi. This makes the song stable even when Viswanathan explores the upper ranges of the octave in the Alapana.

These two excellent works of Indian classical music are excellent examples of how the Muslim and Persian influences on Northern India influenced the sound and style of Hindusthani especially on the timbre of the instruments and the tone of the music, but the fundamentals and the elements of the music remain very closely related and hard to distinguish. This results in a very noticeable difference when listening to the music, but after careful analysis, the similarities between

Some topics in this essay:
Sruti Box, Svara Kalpana, Ramnad Raghavan, Northern India, Sitar Hindusthani, Ivaraku Jucinadi, Kalpana Viswanathan, Gamaka Hindusthani, Southern Indian, Plateau India, classical music, svara kalpana, pillar tones, karnataka sangeeta, indian classical music, indian classical, pillar tone, tones raga, tala cycle, types music, drum solo, theme set pallavi,