Dear Arhan Sthapit,

"Melody is fundamental to the Eastern music while harmony to the Western."

This is an erroneous interpretation. The foundation of any music is always the melody. However, just a beautiful melody is clearly not enough to be loved. For example, the famous melody in the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony received such worldwide recognition primarily because of its impressive and brilliant harmony, moreover, in harmony in the orchestra and choir, where brilliant instrumentation is important for every musical instrument and parties for voices. This combination of orchestra and choir just made this melody so famous. Good music is a combination of a beautiful melody with brilliant harmony, however, the prevalence of tremendous harmony over a melody is often the case, for example, in Beethoven’s famous "Moonlight Sonata", we see mostly only brilliant harmony. Yes, there are countries in which there are no bright composers in the classical field, for example, in England or Spain. However, in Russia they are quite enough, considering that Russia is territorially owned more by the East than the West.

Thanks a lot Gennady Fedulov and Aparna Sathya Murthy

Thanks to all the RG members responding affectionately to my question. Please stay safe!

There is more than the mentioned difference regarding melody and harmony, or, more precisely, Eastern sound concept is horizontal while Western is vertical.

The question should define if it refers to what is called "classic music". In this case, (not in other styles such as folklore and jazz) we can state that Western classic music is a written musical culture, while Eastern music is transmitted orally, it is learned by ear or by practice, and then, it has a wide space for improvisation and free ornamentation, while the Western musician plays or sings as exactly as possible what the composer wrote.

Both musical cultures base their melodies on fixed scales but, while Western music has mainly two modes: major and minor, and both can be built (of tones and half tones) on any one of the 12 notes, the Eastern melodic modes are numerous and known as idiosyncratic and built not only of tones and half tones but also of smaller, microtonal, intervals (1/4 tone/ 1/7 tone. etc. etc.) which the Western listeners could hardly hear but which are the delight for Eastern audiences. (Sorry, the subject is too wide)

Respected Susana Weich-Shahak, Thank you very much. Elaborate one! Much appreciated! Could you please share any paper that illustrates the difference between the Eastern and Western music?

Yes, Mohammad Mahdi Karbasbaf

Susana Weich-Shahak made most of the points I would have contributed, so this is somewhat of an elaboration of her remarks.

Perhaps the phrase “Eastern sound concept is horizontal” refers to the relatively highly developed rhythm of Eastern music? In any case, while Western music has some examples of interesting and well developed rhythm (e.g., if Spanish Gypsy Flamenco is included under “Western”, which perhaps it should not be, but Spain is a western European country) , and Western “jazz” certainly has examples of going beyond 3/4 and 4/4 rhythms and their derivatives, nevertheless the rhythm structures used in Classical Indian Music set the highest standard, at least in my opinion and experience.

The other remarkable element of Classical Indian Music is the large set of non-diatonic scales, particularly the Melakarta, but also the North Indian system of “thats”. As Susana Weich-Shahak pointed out, these not only make different use of the twelve-tone system, they go beyond it with microtonal adjustments, and the Melkarta can be represented in the twelve-tone system only by approximations. Even so, I find all of the melas intrinsically beautiful even when forced into such approximations. There are 72 of them, but many are modes of the others, leaving 37 unique heptatonic scales. These serve as parent scales for constructing thousands of “ragas”.

So compared to “Western Music”, Classical Indian Music takes melody and rhythm far beyond the usual boundaries while keeping harmony pretty much in the background.

There is of course much also to be said about the traditional music of the Far East, South Pacific, etc.

Thank you Prof John Wendell Fowler and Susana Weich-Shahak. Excellent elaboration. Highly appreciated. Grateful to you!

There can be reservations for using the term 'Indian' music, however, to capture the Eastern Music as a whole. There are also larger music traditions and schools in Mongolia, China, North and South Korea, and Japan; so are Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and beyond.

A glaring example is the traditional (partly classical) music of Newars, the aboriginals of the Kathmandu Valley (capital of NEPAL). The Newars- an indigenous nationality-- have their language fundamentally different from the languages of the Indian subcontinent, as it has the roots in Mongoloid-Tibeto-Burman language; not Sanskrit. Their traditional music --largely in the form of Buddhist hymns and ballads (known as Daapaa) and non-Indian style genres-- the legacy being handed down from generation to generation from time immemorial, or at least from the Lord Buddha's time (dating back to 2,500 years). The Newar classical music is, therefore, a quaint but more mellifluous blend of the Mongoloid-Tibeto-Burman and north-Indian (or Aryan) music traditions. On the rhythmic front, the Newars’ music tradition has more minute patterns than what north Indian classical music classifies as ‘Taal’s. It needs more rigorous research, though.

Even in India, the north Indian music tradition which is widely popular in the world is essentially different from South Indian one— referred to as the Karnataka Music, inter alia. Shall we safely use the term Eastern Music and prefer using a specific one when we refer to any generic music classified so (as classical music).

Yes, I agree with @John Wendell Fowler here. I can't speak for other musical traditions in Asia, because I haven't received training in them; only 1 quarter in the gamelan vs. 4 years learning sitar. But the main differences between North Indian (Hindustani) classical music and Western classical music to me are the greater emphasis on rhythm, and how ragas are classified and structured. Rhythm or "tal" involves many more options for how many beats you can have in a cycle. Western classical music does sometimes play with numbers of beats unusual for it (5, 7), but it's much more unusual than 5-beat, 7-beat, or 12-beat tals. There is a lot more play with how to subdivide those beats too: one technique, laykari, divides beats into 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 subdivisions (at a slow pace). Again, at least in my own playing experience, these subdivisions are an expected improvisation area, where they're not nearly as expected in Western classical music I've played.

I don't have much to add to others' excellent elaborations of ragas and thaats, the 7-pitch families ragas draw on. :) Ragas are different from thaats in that the thaats (at least in the theory I'm familiar with) provide the basic pitch options; a raga is a set of concepts on how to deal with those pitches. Since one thaat can have lots of ragas, the way a raga distinguishes itself from its related ragas is by what notes it includes and when (i.e. ascending vs. descending), and also motions characteristic of that raga. Microtones are a big part of those characteristic motions in some ragas. Harmony as we think of it in Western classical music isn't really a thing, at least not for the sitar. One could make the argument that a sort of harmony exists, because there's usually some sort of drone involved. Singers often have the tambura with them, sometimes a harmonium, providing the drone. On the sitar, there are high strings ("cik" strings) we use during later parts of performance tuned to a fourth or fifth above the basic pitch. So one could argue that a sort of harmony is there, similar to how one would argue that organum in medieval Western church music might be a sort of harmony. But there isn't any sort of chord theory in Hindustani classical music as far as I know.

If you're curious about more theory, Nazir Jairazbhoy's The Rags of North Indian Music is one of my go-to sources. The Raga Guide: A Survey of 74 Hindustani Ragas is another good one; I use it to learn more about individual ragas that I play or hear.

Emily Vanchella mam, thank you so much. Your elaborate answer is highly appreciated. Thanks once again.

There are elements explaining the tone and equipment in the tonal system. Like array and hardware. There is also this maqam system. However, with the voice changing signs and micro tones involved (we call it coma), musical music is formed with differences. In addition, Tonal music can be explained with seven degrees (I-II-III-IV-V-VI-VII) but we see that these degrees can expand in Maqam music. So imagine that I-II-III-IV-V-VI-VII-VIII-IX-X and some of these degrees are micro tone sounds.

Ercan Baş sir, thank you for the contribution. Appreciated.

Indeed, I agree with Mohammad Mahdi's observations; imporvisation is a very important part in Eastern music and I could observe how the public listening to an Iraki musician's taksim, followed the transitions from one makam to the next one, applauding each new melodic event.,

Thanks a lot, Professor Susana Weich-Shahak, for your continuous contribution

Well if we are talking about Makam music, even the way that the melodies and the scales are constructed and used is tottaly different. In Western music a scale is constructed by a set number of intervals in a specific order. In Makam -Eastern Music- the scale could be constructed out of as litle as three notes (a trichord like i.e. ousak makam) or four five and more. In those "scales" the dominant is not always the fifth, sometimes can be the fourth or the third degree and maybe the most famous differens is the use of non-specified microtunes that would react differently descenting and ascenting.

At some stage in post war European, brass instruments were pitched at an obscure frequency for attaining harmony. Giving the combined orchestra an eery out of shink sound echoing through from distorted brass sounds, which became dramatic tension. So harmony if stretched in its structure and given some sticatto and a different rythme can create new sounds and atmospheres. Can the same be done with melody. Yes it's being done in India throughout the ages with the sitar and voice. Where melody is exaggerated and harmonised at different frequencies.

Edwina Neilan mam, thanks a lot for your contribution. As an amateur vocalist, I can imagine what you mean with doing it with the vocal rendition and sitar in South Asia (which includes not only India, but also Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the like). Thanks