Western Classical music in the East

[bernhard]

Hi Rohansahai

I understand that you are from India and I have a question for you:

India has a very rich musical tradition and a classical music in everyway comparable in beauty and complexity to Western Classical music.

So, how "popular" is Western Classical music in India? I could not recall any famous Indian pianist, so I google for "Indian pianists" and Google replied: "Do you mean to search for Indian Scientists" he he .

I thought, can it be that bad?

So how did you get to play “Western” classical piano, and is your teacher Indian too? And is there any Indian composer of Western style classical music?

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[bernhard]

In fact I would be interested in hearing answersd to this question from anyone from the East.

There seems to be quite a lot of Chinese piano students in the forum, and like India, China has a rich musical tradition. So what is the status of Western Classical music inChina? How did you get to get involved with it, and are there any Chinese composers in Western style?

And again the same question for Indonesians, Taiwanese, Singaporeans, Koreans, Japanese. Tibetans (any Tibetan pianist?) etc.

Best wishes to all,
Bernhard.

[bernhard]

Actually let us extend the questionto anywhere in the world where European classical music is not that well-known (Africa, South America etc.)

[Daevren]

I get the idea that the currect generation of indian classical musicians are very well informed about western styles of music. Both jazz and western classical. But the problem is that western classical music and hindustani and karnatic music (the classical music from north and south india) are way different while jazz is somewhat similar.

So indian classical musicians can easily switch to jazz while western classical is something totally different. They are kind of stuck with listening to it.

How many people actually learn western classical instead of Indian classical music, I don't know. I hope the most people learn indian music

And the general polulation is probably very unaware of western classical, just like people in Europe are unaware of the 4000 year old musical tradition in India.

This is just the impression I get, I have never been in India.

And about China, Japan and S-Korea, isn't classical western music very popular there? I know its the only kind of western music they accept in China, and in Japan they also love western hard rock.

Tibetans? I have no idea

I think all this stuff should be mixed up alot more. More fusion styles. I am still looking to compose something using an indian raga. But when you harmonise a raga you get alot of dissonant chords, augmented and diminished triads. That makes no sense, those raga's aren't supposed to be chords or harmonies.

So how can I get raga melodies and western harmonies? I have no idea. I guess physics won't allow it. I am still looking into it, why not make it atonal (semi)harmony? With raga based melodies.

I think this stuff should be explored by more people.

[rohansahai]

Well Bernhard, I'm not surprised that you asked this question.
To be very direct, in the entire country a very small community of people (the Parsees) pursue Western Classical music. Zubin Mehta is one of them. Hardly anyone else, apart from some rare exceptions understands western classical music. To my knowledge, there are just three people other than myself in my city who play the piano. In the metros, it is more popular which is evident from the fact that you have one or two schools purely devoted to western classical music: you have the Delhi School of music and similar ones in Calcutta, Mumbai, Bangalore and Goa(this one because of Portuguese influence).
My teacher was one of the RARE non Parsees who pursued the piano and won a scholarship to study in Russia where he ultimately stayed for 10 years,studying under a student of Gilels. He is presently teaching in Los Angeles. Actually he misses his homeland a lot, so he comes here for about three months every year and that is when he teaches me (for free, mind you). He is by far the best of the entire Indian lot and as a teacher, I can't imagine anyone better anywhere.
Coming back to the point, Indian music and Western music are poles apart (jazz comes close, as many of you rightly pointed out). You have a bunch of combinations of notes, called a raga giving a particular effect or feel and the performer freely improvises on it. Not many Indian Classical musicians know much about Western Classical music.(Most of them hold the misconception that Western music means the rock pop stuff). Those who know something are totally opposed to the ideology that you are playing something that has been written down by SOMEONE ELSE and that you can't change or modify it in any way.
In conclusion, all I can say is that a very very low percentage of people here know about W.C. music and for me, its extremely difficult to find a receptive audience to play for! But, there is some audience in the metros, again, because of the Parsee community who live there in colonies. I guess, you would have got an idea by now? Any further questions, I'll be pleased to answer.
Regards,
Rohan.
 

[namui]

Hi Bernhard,

In Thailand, there is a big difference between major ciities like Bangkok (and about 3 - 5 others) and many other cities (almost 70). In Bangkok, western classical music concerts are held at least once every month held by world class musicians like Midori (violin) in July and Pletnev (piano) last month. In most of these concerts, the hall will be full of audiences. A lot more frequent are held by semi-professional musicians. In good CD store, the number of classical CDs on the shelf is about the same as that of Jazz CDs.

Still, it's popularity should be considered very small compared to pop music especially Thai pop. In big cities, the popularity of western classical music is comparable to Thai classical music. But in smaller cities, Thai classical music will be much more popular.

Those are just my perception. But I have been a true minority concerning musical interest in Thailand.


regards,

namui

PS By the way, I have posted a question to you in a subject of "Performance forum" titled "Case of incremental speed increases" after you have replied Nick a few times.

[john pitts]

Hi, I see this thread is a little old, but in case interested, I have written two books of Indian music for piano:
How to Play Indian Sitar Rāgas on a Piano (2020, 2nd edition) ISBN 979-8664008531
Indian Rāgas for Piano made easy (2020, 2nd edition) ISBN 978-1659067255
 
The paperback books are available individually from https://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B07GX535RR
or www.pianoraga.com

“If you are curious about rāgas, composer John Pitts’ method books are exactly what you need …a great introduction to a very different genre of classical music …well researched and rich in detail …demystifying the Indian classical genre for western audiences and opening the door to a new way of understanding music.” Evelyn Dias, Piano Magazine, Summer 2021
 
“Studying John Pitts’ innovative books could fundamentally change your perspective on music. …Both books are fascinating and deserve wide currency.”  Murray McLachlan, International Piano Magazine, Jan/Feb 2021
 
“Five stars to John Pitts for his exhaustive and absorbing book on a timeless music” John Carpenter, WAIF FM, December 2020
 
“I can see this book being extremely useful to: those who teach world music and would value a keyboard approach to it; classical pianists wanting a wonderfully approachable insight into Indian music; and anyone teaching pupils of Indian heritage.” Fiona Lau, Music Teacher Magazine, July 2018
 
“a fascinating and unique product!” Christopher Norton, October 2017
 
“bursting with information, ideas, and advice… truly monumental… a lot of fun” Dr Gail Fischler, Piano Bench Magazine, December 2017
 
“fascinating” Dr Angela Miller-Niles, American Music Teacher Magazine, October 2017
 
“endlessly fascinating” Allan Cronin, NewMusicBuff, February 2017
 
“…I strongly recommend the book to pianists with an eye and an ear to the East…” Dr Jonathan Katz, International Piano Magazine, September 2017
 
“If you have any interest in this esoteric arena… I can’t imagine a better primer than this.” Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb-International, March 2017
 
“a very well produced and informative book”
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