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Cool Stuff: Indian and Arabic Music



Indian and Arabic music!


1.  If you take a look at history and different places around the world, you will notice that music is ALWAYS a humungous part of any culture. This is no exception for the cultures found throughout the subcontinent of India. Something that is particularly interesting is the modern interpretation of ancient Indian music. There are many syncretic styles and blends of Indian music with other modern genres of music. An example of this is the first Hindi rap album: "Thanda Thanda Pani"by Harjeet Singh Sehgal. This album is a remake of "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice. This is really intriguing because the style of "Vanilla Ice" is very different from traditional Hindi music. Sehgal is actually an engineer by profession, but chose to be a performer on the side. His music video "Dil Dhadke" was the first ever Indian music video to be shown on MTV Asia. He has also given music for a movie called "Bhoot Uncle" and for "Bhootnath returns". As you can see, mixing Hindi music with other styles can make for a very successful outcome!


Here is a video of "Thanda Thanda Pani"by Harjeet Singh Sehgal:





2. Although the Indian culture has prioritized music for multiple millennia, there was not an official Indian music school until the early 1900's. The first school of music in India is called "Gandharva Mahavidyalaya". It is located in Lahore, which was a part of India in the early 1900's but is not currently a part of India. The founder of this school was Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar. He founded this school on May 5th, 1901. With the help of funds raised by concerts, public support, and donations from the high classes of society, the school was made possible. Vishnu Digambar returned to a different part of India called Mumbai in September 1908 to start a new branch of "Gandharva Mahavidyalaya". This branch eventually became the main school after the Independence of Lahore and other parts of India were declared.  


Here is a picture of the students at Gandharva Mahavidyalaya: 




3. When you listen to Arabic music, you hear many different aspects that are not displayed when listening to music from the western hemisphere. The Arabic singing style sounds more nasal, and has a larger emphasis on the consonants of each word, rather than the vowels. This is virtually the opposite of music found in the western hemisphere, and I think there is a pretty good reason as to why. Through researching the Abjad, which is essentially an Arabic alphabet, I noticed that there are only symbols for consonants. In fact, the Arabic alphabet, Abjad, does not even have vowels in it! Arabs use insignificant figures called "vowel marks" to represent the vowels in Arabic. This would naturally explain why the consonants are more of a priority in Arabic music!


Here is an image containing a diagram of the Abjad:



Bibliography:

https://emojisarebald.com/2016/05/09/interesting-facts-about-indian-music-bollywood-movies/

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/delhis-gandharva-vidyalaya-completes-75-years-186099-2014-03-24

https://stepfeed.com/8-fun-facts-you-might-not-know-about-arabic-4746

https://forum.unilang.org/viewtopic.php?t=53658

Comments

  1. Victoria's Virtuous Musical JourneyJanuary 30, 2021 at 8:12 PM

    I really enjoyed reading your blog! One intriguing thing that I learned was that there was not an official Indian school of music until the early 1900's.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Zelena J HullJanuary 31, 2021 at 11:10 AM

    Before the music school do you think people that didn't have access to learn from a master might of taught themselves? I know that teaching yourself is done nowadays, but I wonder how they did it before they had computers and how often it was.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tisha is Treble February 1, 2021 at 8:09 PM

    Hey Madeline!! It's surprising to hear that there wasn't a music school in India until the early 1900's. Imagine all the music that existed before and we don't know what they sound like today (insert sad face here). Also, I love Harjeet's rendition of "Ice Ice Baby." You can definitely hear the traditional hip hop mixed with the Hindi music styles. Thank you for this!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Aimee BoudreauFebruary 1, 2021 at 11:16 PM

    Hi Madeline, I loved this post! I think that what the idea that, in Arabic music, the consonants are more noticeable because the language is pretty much just consonants is interesting! I never knew much about how Arabic was read, just that it was in the opposite direction, so learning more about it was cool! i also thought it was interesting how there wasn't any music school in India until the 1900's.

    ReplyDelete

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