Indian classical music

[Davidatwaypointe]

...for some reason I've been really enjoying Indian classical music. There's a great album called Gathering Rain Clouds by Vishwa Mohan Bhatt that's really blowing me away, and I got a CD by U. Srinivas that's very good.

I'm not noticing any funky-bad spirit about this stuff (I know some CDs I've passed on are devotional); there's also no lyrical content to make me feel I'm paying tribute to some false gods or whatever, so it seems fine. I know that God is God over all this other stuff, anyway, so unless he convicts me otherwise, I don't feel there's a spiritual problem with listening to this.

Has anyone else picked up on this sort of music? Any suggestions? I preview a lot of it at All Music's website, but the genre's catalog is pretty scarce, even in my area.

 

[nicodemus]

I listen to a lot of Indian classical music. I'm married to and Indian woman and we both like it. I tend to stay away from the vocal music because a lot of it is devotional in character, but the instrumental music is pretty. Beware of if you see instrumental selections called bhajans because those are devotional music. In India, people of all different religions both perform and listen to the instrumental music. However, if someone feels it is a stumbling block, stay away from it for sure. Also, be careful with bansuri (flute) music. That instrument has a significance in Hinduism (it was the instrument of Krishna) and a lot of flute players play devotionals. Some players are just flute players, but some add a strong devotional element to their playing. Also, North Indian (hindustani music...which is an Arabic word merely meaning "Indian") is more secularized (as it's performed by Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, etc...) than the more devotional South Indian (carnatic) music, which is more closely related to temple music.

 

[BWV 1080]

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt is incredible, I have Guitar ala Hindustan, which is a good CD. Stylisticly North Indian music is a mix of Muslim and Hindu traditions, so it hardly represents a monolithic spiritual viewpoint.

 

[mdith4him]

I haven't listened to a lot of classical Indian music (I haven't really found anywhere that plays it or where I could listen to it), but I really love their contemporary stuff (from movies or just pop songs). Great stuff.

~M-dith~

 

[stonetoflesh]

Hindustani classical music is awesome, I studied tabla, singing and basic theory a bit in college and grad school. One of the coolest concerts I ever attended was a raga performance by the great bansuri player Hariprasad Chaurasia. Your warning about bansuri music was interesting, I was unaware of the devotional aspect... I don't really know much about Indian sacred music though or how to tell if a raga is influenced by devotional music.

I think my favorite Hindustani music recordings are the ragas by L. Shankar w/Zakir Hussain and Vikku Vinayakram; that 10-string double electric violin just kills me!