Dear Editor,
I was amused after reading a letter by Desmond Saul stating that, “Songs can be written in English with the Indian Beat” (08.01.08).
His premise is that the majority of Guya-nese do not understand Hindi, thus writers should be creative and write the songs in English with Indian beats like the Trinidad-ians are now doing.
I must remind the writer that music is a universal language; it knows no race nor language and transgresses all borders.
What must be understood firstly is that the kind of music that Saul is talking about in Trinidad is called Chutney music, a rapidly growing genre in the Caribbean which has its roots in traditional folk music in Northern India.
Chutney music is an experiment with different kinds of genres, one such is soca, however, with the arrival of movies and pop music, it has mutilated traditional folk music tremendously, which has an influence in Indian Classical music.
Composing Indian music is a very meticulous process, where the writer needs to be fully knowledgeable about all the intricacies that follow with the art form.
Indian music is unique in that when creating it, tremendous emphasis is placed on various moods. They are love, comedy, sadness, furiousness, boredom, disgust, wonderment and Peace. That is why after listening to a song, the listener quickly can conclude that the song falls into one of the above moods. In addition to these moods, there has to be an acoustic vehicle to transport these nine moods, and this acoustic vehicle is called the raagas.
Raagas are systematic compositions of certain notes to make a melody.
The rhythmic patterns (taal) in Indian music possess profound mathematical complexity, so that when creating an “Indian song” it is unique and provides deep and satisfying moments to the listener to such an extent that is can obliterate mundane problems. This is the unmutilated form of Indian music. What we listen to today as Indian music is a fusion of different genres and is just designed to create money, nothing else.
In the final analysis, Indian music emanated from the Vedas, and is deemed spiritual which needs to be preserved in its truest form.
Let’s leave writing songs in English to Indian beats to the other composers of different genres.
One great poet wrote, “Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it to rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.”
Yours faithfully,
Somdatt Ramessar