Definitions
Aesthetics
Concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty of sound or nada.
Chant
Vedic recitation of mantras and invocations.
Embellishment
A term with includes many kinds of tonal colours and melodic movement.
Indian Music
This refers mostly to the North Indian tradition of music.
Mantra
Sanskrit formulae used in recitation, the Hymns of the Vedas.
Mudras
Special hand gestures in Vedic recitation. They are not the same as
those used for yoga, dance and drama.
Ornaments
A western term with limited application compared with the myriad ways
of moving from tone to tone in Indian music.
Raga
Tonal scheme, melodic framework within which a singer or musician works,
‘colour’, ‘mood’.
Sanskrit
A a root language, said to be “well-created” or “perfectly made” speech.
Scale
There are older scale systems which preceded those used in ragas today.
Vocal Music
This is the starting place for all music in the Indian musical tradition.
(background image courtesy of the
American Institute of Indian Studies)
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