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1. History: Classical Indian music has ancient roots, with Raga dating back to the mid-1st century AD. Along with performing arts such as dance and music, Raga have always been an indispensable part of Hinduism throughout history. Some of its ancient texts, such as the Samarveda (~1000 BC), are entirely based on melody, imagining the Raga as a sacred embodiment, a note regarded as a god or goddess with complex personalities. The Sanskrit text of the early 13th century mentioned 253 Ragas. This is one of the most complete historical papers on the structure, technology, and reasoning behind the surviving ragas. Traditions of incorporating Ragas into spiritual music have also been found in Jainism and Sikhism. During the Islamic rule in the Indian subcontinent, especially after the 15th century, the mysterious Islamic Sufi tradition developed devout songs and music called qawwali. It combines the element of Raga and Tala . Buddhism does not prohibit Buddhist monks from playing music or dance, but its focus is on reciting sacred hymns of praise rather than music. |
2. Characteristics: Raga originally means color or passion, and is the basic structure (or format) of music. Ragas need to use a simple melody with a specific combination of notes to lead the listener's emotions. It consists of five to seven notes forming a basic melody and can be freely changed. This type of simple melody is called Raga. There are 300 kinds of ragas in North India, but many are lost, and there are only 60-80 kinds of ragas with traceable records. In traditional customs, whether it is singing or playing, raga is determined based on time, season, and mood. Morning, noon, evening, or spring, summer, autumn, and winter, sad, joyful, or godly raga should not be confused. Ragas are not only fixed melody types, but also include more detailed and abstract situations, emotional appeals, improvisational skills, performance length, and speed control, which will be ever-changing.
Tala comes from Sanskrit. Tala refers to a rhythm, which is similar to the Western beat. Tala's beat is very complex. It is not calculated based on how many unit beats there are in each measure. It must first distinguish how many units of beats there are in each sentence, from 6 beats (3+3), 7 beats (3+4), 8 beats (4+4) or 10 beats (2+3+2+3), 12 beats (6+6) and the most common 16 beats (4+4+4+4), up to more than 100 beats, which can be divided into equal values or unequal values. Tala is the basis of the raga melody structure; therefore, tala and raga are two indispensable pillars of Indian classical music. To experience and listen to Indian classical music, you must first know the talas and ragas.
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4. Example of Morricone music
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