Re: Loopers-Delight-d Digest V98 #197

[evening <evening@ulster.net>]

>but, how much of music may be put down to cultural change and how much to
>reaction to existing music? i wonder this about non-western (especially 
indian) 
>music.. (i wonder how much the raga has changed over the last i dunno... 
>1000 
years) it 
>seems every musical action has an associated musical reaction... was 
>(is?) 
grunge

I'm not a scholar of Indian classical music but I do study tabla (& some 
raga) and accompany some classical soloists from time to time. My 
impression is that the music has constantly changed over time and much 
like western music the changes are brought about by technology, commerce, 
war. migration etc...

One attitude that I admire is that tradition isn't  scoffed at ( as in 
"been there, done that" ) but augmented.  To help as music evolve is 
thought of as a duty to all of the teachers who passed the tradition on. 
One of my teachers said recently "being a rooted in and maintaining a 
tradition while at the same time striving for new sounds is  not 
contradictory"

Of course I've only recently started to appreciate this viewpoint - maybe 
another 20 yearsof practice & I'll gain a bit more wisdom...

jmw