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Orchestration in Indian Music

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If we move a bit forward in time we come to the Baroque period or the period of Bach and Handel. During this period the use of Keyboard reached new heights. This was the time we had Clavichord or Well­Tempered Clavichord and Bach created some unforgettable music with the Clavichord. It was unbelievable how Bach mastered the Keyboard at that time. Even after 300 years nobody has been able to exceed Bach’s mastery in Keyboard or its successor the Piano. However, most of the music in the Baroque period was “horizontal” music. Polyphonic music with multiple counter melodies running in parallel with the melody line. These were divided often into different rhythm groups. Although Bach started as an organist he later moved to Harpsichord and he took this concept of orchestration to new heights. Although composers like Arcangello Corelli and Valerie led the path to orchestration, it was Bach who fully developed orchestration. We can compare Bach’s horizontal Baroque style with our “Dhrupad” style. With similar seriousness and solid foundation. After this came the classical age and Beethoven led and dominated this classical age with Mozart. They tried to give a “vertical” feel to the horizontal polyphonic music with multiple parallel streams. A bit like our melodies which have vertical movement. You will notice that Bach's compositions besides the melody line have various chord progression. I have an example of that and I will demonstrate that later. Although Mozart music is dominated with melody, Beethoven took the melody to esoteric heights by bringing in philosophy into it. Bringing in one hand the mankinds fight for freedom, his courage and his unstoppability and in the other hand his softness and his kindness. Shakespeare is considered as the greatest writer. Similarly Beethoven is considered the greatest in the world of music. This lasted quite a few years. Nothing lasts forever ­ so changes came. Just like in our country. From “Dhrupad” came “Khyal” and then came “Thumri”. Similarly, in the west changes came. So, from Baroque came the “Classical” music. Classical music in those days had some constraints by using only fixed scales like the major and the minor scale. This is the time when the Romantic age came when movements started to remove these constraints. This was the twentieth century and the famous names during the Romantic period were Mendelssohn, Brahms, Franz Liszt etc. They tried to get out of those constraints and opened up the music or gave it more freedom. This has happened in India also when Rabindranath Tagore experimented with melodies which were based on our traditional raags but not strictly following the rigorous raag structure. This was done to create the melody which would be compatible with the lyrics and this gave rise to our “Adhunik” or modern songs. Some were successful and some not ­ but this was the beginning of our romantic age. In the west classical music in this romantic age reached new heights. Following this, in the beginning of the twentieth century we saw the beginning of “Impressionistic music”. It is not easy to describe or explain this impressionistic music in a few words. In the west the painters usually use the expression ïmpressionistic”. In France we had painters like Monet, Cezanne etc. They said that they do not want to paint something as it stands but rather as they perceive it or their “impression” of it. This may not look like the object or the person they are painting at all. By this time, the musical vocabulary had expanded and enriched considerably. So, impressionistic music would be very similar. 


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