Indian Classical Music

In this video, I was able to see a very good example of classic Northern Indian classical music. This piece of music featured many pieces of classic music from gharana. The beginning of the piece has a soft drone from an unknown instrument that is not revealed in the piece. However, I am almost absolutely certain that it is a chordophone. This drone is very commonplace in many Indian classical pieces.

This performance only had two instruments but they still manage to produce an excellent piece of music. The sitar was amazing. It was only the second time that I had ever seen it played. (The first time being an episode from The Office.) During the performance, the sitar played the same set of notes over and over. The fast repetitive notes provided a good backdrop that aided the tabla. Without the sitar, the tabla player would not have been able to do all the intricate variations that he does. The high notes that the sitar constantly plays kept me interested throughout the whole time.

However, I found the tabla to be the main focus of the performance. The tabla is a membranophone which consists of two drums for each hand of the musician. Throughout the song, the tabla created a rich variety of rhythms. With the help of the sitar, the tabla was able to
produce many variations and it was even able to improvise many parts. Those improvisations kept the music very lively and interesting.

All in all I really enjoyed this music. I was thoroughly entertained during the whole piece.