MUSIC111 test 1 terms

Babylon Zoo

A British rock band formed in 1992 in Wolverhampton, England. They are best known for the song "Spaceman", which gained considerable exposure through its use in a popular Levi's jeans TV advert in the United Kingdom in late 1995.

Guru

A Sanskrit term that connotes someone who is a "teacher, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field

Mudra

Unique signature of Carnatic composer

Violin

Used in Carnatic music.

Pandit

A teacher of any field of knowledge in Hinduism, particularly the Vedic scriptures, dharma, Hindu philosophy, or secular subjects such as music.

Tani Avarttanam

Extended improvisation by percussionist in Carnatic music usually played after the main composition

Syama Shastri

He (1762-1827) is one of the most renowned composers of Carnatic music. He is the oldest among the Trinity of Carnatic music, Tyagaraja and Muthuswami Dikshitar being the other two.

Muthuswami Dikshitar

He (March 24, 1775 - October 21, 1835) was a South Indian poet and composer and is one of the Musical Trinity of Carnatic music. His compositions, of which around 500 are commonly known, are noted for their contemplative nature and for capturing the essence of the raga forms through the vainika (veena) style that emphasises gamakas.

L. Subramaniam

He (born 23 July 1947) is an acclaimed Indian violinist, composer and conductor, trained in the classical Carnatic music tradition and Western classical music, and renowned for his virtuoso playing techniques and compositions in orchestral fusion.

Udit Narayan

He is a Bollywood playback singer whose songs have been featured mainly in Hindi language and Bollywood movies. Besides Hindi, he has sung in many other languages including Maithili, Bhojpuri, Nepali, Kannada, Tulu, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Garhwali, Sindhi, Punjabi, Odia, Assamese, Meitei and Bengali.

Johnny Kalsi

He is a British Indian dhol drum performer residing in London. He rose to prominence as a former member of Transglobal Underground and the founder of the Dhol Foundation. He also is a member of the Afro Celt Sound System and The Imagined Village.

Panjabi MC

He is a British musician of Punjabi descent. He is best known for the worldwide bhangra hit, "Mundian To Bach Ke" of 2002, although it originated from 1998, and "Jogi", of 2003. Allmusic has called him "one of the most prominent names in bhangra".

Apache Indian

He is a British singer/song writer and reggae DJ. He is noted for a distinctive vocal style that is a fusion of Indian, Jamaican and English cultural elements. Hewas the earliest UK artist of Asian origin to make an impact on the UK charts with a series of hits during the nineties.

Channi Singh

He is a British-Indian bhangra musician, known as the "godfather" of bhangra in the West. He is the co-founder, lead singer, producer, and director of Alaap. He came from Malerkotla, Punjab to the UK in 1975 and gradually started the popularity of Punjabi music among the Punjabi youth in the UK, forming the Alaap group in 1977 with Harjeet Gandhi, Randhir Sahota and Inder Kalsi.

Bally Sagoo

He is a British-Indian record producer. Born in Delhi, India, he was raised from an early age in Birmingham. He has been active in the recording and entertainment industries since 1989. He is the producer of albums and the mastermind behind songs and remixes.

Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande

He is a Hindustani classical music vocalist from Mumbai. She pursues the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana, although also influenced by Mewati Gharana and Patiala Gharana. She is known for her rendering of 'Kabir Bhajans' [1]

Chhannulal Mishra

He is a Hindustani classical singer from Banaras, a noted exponent of the Kirana gharana (school) of the Hindustani classical music and especially the Khayal and the 'Purab Ang' - Thumri.

Krishna

He is a major Hindu deity worshiped in a variety of different perspectives. He is recognized as the Svayam Bhagavan in his own right or as the absolute incarnation of Lord Vishnu. He is one of the most widely worshiped and popular of all Hindu deities.

Diamond Duggal (DJ Swami)

He is a music producer, DJ, songwriter and guitarist. He is also the leader of UK pop/electronic/Bhangra band Swami.

Amjad Ali Khan

He is an Indian classical musician who plays the Sarod.

A.R. Rahman

He is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, music producer, musician and philanthropist. His works are noted for integrating Indian classical music with electronic music, world music and traditional orchestral arrangements. His body of work for film and stage has given him the nickname of "the Mozart of Madras", and Tamil commentators and fans call him Isai Puyal (English: the Musical Storm).

Anup Jalota

He is an Indian singer and musician, best known for his performances in the Hindu devotional music bhajan and the Urdu form of poetry, ghazal.

Ranganayaki Rajagopalan

He is an award-winning veena instrumentalist and winner of Presidential Award for Carnatic Instrumental Music.

Rama

He is the seventh avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu. He is the central figure of the Hindu epic Ramayana, which is the principal narration of the events connected to his incarnation on Earth, his ideals and his greatness.

Rabindranath Tagore

He was a Bengali polymath who reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

T. Viswanathan

He was a Carnatic musician specializing in the Carnatic flute and voice. Viswa, as T. (Tanjore/Thanjavur) Viswanathan is often called, was the grandson of the legendary Veena Dhanammal, considered and remembered as the greatest exponent of Veena, the South Indian lute.

Ali Akbar Khan

He was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod. Trained as a classical musician and instrumentalist by his father, Allauddin Khan, Khan also composed several classical ragas and film scores.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

He was a Pakistani musician, primarily a singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis. He could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours. Extending the 600-year old Qawwali tradition of his family, he is widely credited with introducing Qawwali music to international audiences.

Amir Khusro

He was a Sufi musician, poet and scholar. He was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent. He was a mystic and a spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi. He is reputed to have invented certain musical instruments like the sitar and tabla. He wrote poetry primarily in Persian, but also in Hindavi. A vocabulary in verse, the Ḳhāliq Bārī, containing Arabic, Persian, and Hindavi terms is often attributed to him.

Purandara Dasa

He was a composer, singer and one of the chief proponents of the South Indian classical music (Carnatic Music). In honor of his significant and legendary contributions to Carnatic Music, he is widely referred to as the Pitamaha (lit, "father" or the "grandfather") of Carnatic Music.

Raga

Basic compositional form of Indian music

Mahdya

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Vilambit

An introductory slow tempo, or laya, between 10 and 40 beats per minute, used in the performance of a raga in Hindustani classical music.

Jhala

Conclusive part of Hindustani composition; characterized by melody being overtaken by percussion

Svara

Connotes a note in the successive steps of the musical octave

Shishya

Disciple of a guru

Miyan Tansen

He was a prominent figure of North Indian (Hindustani) classical music. Born in a Hindu family, he learnt and perfected his art in the northwest region of modern Madhya Pradesh. He began his career and spent most of his adult life in the court and patronage of the Hindu king of Rewa State, Ram Chand, where Tansen's musical abilities and studies gained widespread fame. This reputation brought him to the attention of the Mughal Emperor Akbar, who sent messengers to Ram Chand requesting him to join the musicians at the Mughal court. He did not want to go, Ram Chand encouraged him to gain wider audience, and sent him along with gifts to Akbar. In 1562, about the age of 60, the Vaishnava musician he joined the Akbar court, and his performances became a subject of many court historians.

Swami Haridas

He was a spiritual poet and classical musician. Credited with a large body of devotional compositions, especially in the Dhrupad style, he is also the founder of the Haridasi school of mysticism, still found today in North India.

Uday Shankar

He was an Indian dancer and choreographer, best known for creating a fusion style of dance, adapting European theatrical techniques to Indian classical dance, imbued with elements of Indian classical, folk, and tribal dance, which he later popularised in India, Europe, and the United States in 1920s and 1930s.He was a pioneer of modern dance in India.

R.D. Burman

He was an Indian film score composer, who is considered one of the seminal music directors of the Indian film industry. From the 1960s to the 1990s, he composed musical scores for 331 films. He was mainly active in the Hindi film industry as a composer, and also provided vocals for a few of compositions.

S.D. Burman

He was an Indian music composer. A member of the Tripura royal family, he started his career with Bengali films in 1937. Later he began composing for Hindi movies, and became one of the most successful Bollywood film music composers. He composed music for over 100 movies, including Hindi and Bengali films. Apart from being a versatile composer, he also sang songs in light semi classical and folk style of Bengal. His Son was also a celebrated music composer for Bollywood films.

Asad Ali Khan

He was an Indian musician who played the plucked string instrument rudra veena. He performed in the style dhrupad and was described as the best living rudra veena player in India by The Hindu.

Alla Rakha

He was an Indian tabla player. He was a frequent accompanist of sitar player Ravi Shankar.

Naushad

He was one of the foremost music directors for Hindi films and is particularly known for popularizing the use of classical music in films.

Tyagaraja

He was one of the greatest composers of Carnatic music or Indian classical music. He was a prolific composer and highly influential in the development of the classical music tradition. Tyagaraja composed thousands of devotional compositions, most in Telugu and in praise of Lord Rama, many of which remain popular today. Of special mention are five of his compositions called the Pancharatna Kritis (English: "five gems"), which are often sung in programs in his honour.

Ravi Shankar

He's Ravi ****ing Shankar!

Ustad

Honorific term denoting mastery

Gharana

In Hindustani music, this is a system of social organization linking musicians or dancers by lineage or apprenticeship, and by adherence to a particular musical style. It also indicates a comprehensive musicological ideology. This ideology sometimes changes substantially from one of these to another. It directly affects the thinking, teaching, performance and appreciation of music.

Devadasi

In South India, this is a girl "dedicated" to worship and service of a deity or a temple for the rest of her life. The age group of a girl to be converted as jogini is 8-16 years. The dedication takes place in a Pottukattu ceremony which is similar in some ways to marriage. Originally, in addition to taking care of the temple and performing rituals, these women learned and practiced Sadir (Bharatanatya), Odissi and other classical Indian artistic traditions and enjoyed a high social status as dance and music were essential part of temple worship.

Alaap/Alaapana

Introductory section of Hindustani composition which develops raga

Pallavi

Literally "phrase tempo variation"; forms thematic line of a given composition and contains first two lines of a song

Jor

Part of alap in Hindustani composition which comes after the first alap and before the jhala

Svara kalpana

Raga improvisation using Indian solfege (sa, ri, ga, etc.) after composition has been completely explored and developed; arrives in Pallavi section

Harmonium

This instrument remains important in many genres of Indian music. For example, it is a staple of vocal North Indian classical music concerts. It is commonly found in Indian homes. Though derived from the designs developed in France, it was developed further in India in unique ways, such as the addition of drone stops and a scale-changing mechanism.

Jati

Rhythmic pattern in Indian music

Gat

See: Bandish

Veenai Dhanammal

She (1867-1938) was a highly accomplished Carnatic musician, and the torchbearer of the school of Carnatic music that goes by her name. She was both a vocalist and a performer on the Saraswati veena.

T. Brinda

She (1912-1996) was one of the representatives of the Veenai Dhanammal school of Carnatic Music. She was primarily a vocalist, although she also played the Veenai.

Lata Mangeshkar

She is an Indian playback singer, and occasional music-composer. She is one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in India. Her career started in 1942 and has spanned over seven decades. She has recorded songs for over a thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional Indian languages and foreign languages, though primarily in Marathi and Hindi.

Alka Yagnik

She is an Indian playback singer. She is noted in Hindi cinema for a career spanning over three decades.

Asha Bhosle

She is an Indian singer. She is best known as a playback singer in Hindi cinema, although she has a wider repertoire. Her career started in 1943 and has spanned over six decades. She has done playback singing for over a thousand Bollywood movies. In addition, she has recorded several private albums and participated in numerous solo concerts in India and abroad.

Saraswati

She is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, arts, wisdom and learning worshipped throughout Nepal and India .

M.S. Subbulakshmi

She was a Carnatic vocalist. She was the first musician ever to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour She is the first Indian musician to receive the Ramon Magsaysay award, often considered Asia's Nobel Prize, in 1974 with the citation reading "Exacting purists acknowledge [her] as the leading exponent of classical and semi-classical songs in the carnatic tradition of South India."[3][4]

D.K. Pattammal

She was a prominent Carnatic musician and a playback singer for film songs in many Indian languages. She along with her contemporaries M. S. Subbulakshmi and M. L. Vasanthakumari were (and still are) popularly referred to as the Female trinity of Carnatic Music. This trio initiated the entry of women into mainstream Carnatic Music.

Sruti

Smallest gradation of pitch which the human ear can detect

Tala

Term for musical meter in Indian classical music

Gamaka

Term for ornamentation in Indian classical music

Drut

The concluding section, in fast tempo (or laya), between 160 and 320 beats per minute, of the performance of a vocal raga in Hindustani classical music.

Nada-Brahma

The philosophical notion foundational to Indian classical music which suggests that the universe was created by the energy of sound

Khyal

This is the modern genre of classical singing in North India. Its name comes from an Arabic word meaning "imagination". It is thought to have developed out of Dhrupad introducing frequent taans and alankars in it. It appeared more recently than dhrupad, is a more free and flexible form, and it provides greater scope for improvisation.

Vedas

These are a large body of knowledge texts originating in the ancient Indian subcontinent. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism.

Asian Dub Foundation

They are an English electronica band that plays a mix of rapcore, dub, dancehall and ragga, also using rock instruments, acknowledging a punk influence. Their distinctive sound also combines indo-dub basslines, searing sitar-inspired guitars and traditional sounds, shot through with fast-chat conscious lyrics.

The Dagar Brothers

They were Ustad Nasir Zahiruddin (1933-1994) and Ustad Nasir Faiyazuddin (1934-1989), a pair of North Indian singers of dhrupad. They were the 19th generation of an unbroken chain of the Dagarvani Dhrupad tradition.

Laxmikant-Pyarelal

They were a popular Indian composer duo who composed music for about 635 Hindi movies from 1963 to 1998, working for almost all notable filmmakers / directors

Natya Shastra

This is a Sanskrit Hindu text on the performing arts.The text is attributed to sage Bharata Muni, and its first complete compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE but estimates vary between 500 BCE and 500 CE. The text consists of 36 chapters with a cumulative total of 6000 poetic verses describing performance arts. The subjects covered by the treatise include dramatic composition, structure of a play and the construction of a stage to host it, genres of acting, body movements, make up and costumes, role and goals of an art director, the musical scales, musical instruments and the integration of music with art performance.

Tabla

This is a South Asian membranophone percussion instrument (similar to bongos) consisting of a pair of small drums. It has been a particularly important instrument in Hindustani classical music since the 18th century, and remains in use in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.

Manqabat

This is a Sufi devotional poem, in praise of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the son-in-law of Muhammad, or of any Sufi saint. In Qawwali, these are sung to music.

Sarangi

This is a bowed, short-necked string instrument from India as well as Nepal which is used in Hindustani classical music. It is the most popular musical instrument in Western part of Nepal and said to most resemble the sound of the human voice - able to imitate vocal ornaments such as gamaks (shakes) and meends (sliding movements).

Thumri

This is a common genre of semi-classical Indian music. The form is connected with dance, dramatic gestures, mild eroticism, evocative love poetry and folk songs of Uttar Pradesh, though there are regional variations. The text is romantic or devotional in nature, and usually revolves around a girl's love for Krishna.

Bandish

This is a fixed, melodic composition in Hindustani vocal or instrumental music. It is set in a specific raga, performed with rhythmic accompaniment by a tabla or pakhavaj, a steady drone, and melodic accompaniment by a sarangi, violin or harmonium.

Qawwali

This is a form of Sufi devotional music popular in South Asia: in the Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan; in Hyderabad, Delhi in India as well as Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet and many parts of Bangladesh. It is part of a musical tradition that stretches back for more than 700 years.

Kriti

This is a format of a musical composition typical to Carnatic music, an Indian classical music style. They form the backbone of any typical Carnatic music concert and is the longer format of a Carnatic music song.

Dhrupad

This is a genre in Hindustani classical music. It is one of the oldest forms of compositions in the classical Indian music and a form that is also found in its Carnatic tradition.

Rudra veena

This is a large plucked string instrument used in Hindustani classical music, one of the major types of its kind played in Indian classical music. It has a long tubular body made of wood or bamboo with a length between 54 and 62 inches. Two large, round resonators, made of dried and hollowed gourds, are attached under the tube. Twenty-four brass-fitted raised wooden frets are fixed on the tube with the help of wax. There are 4 main strings and 3 chikari strings.

Tambura

This is a long-necked plucked string instrument found in various forms in Indian music; it does not play melody but rather supports and sustains the melody of another instrument or singer by providing a continuous harmonic bourdon or drone.

Mridangam

This is a percussion instrument from India of ancient origin. It is the primary rhythmic accompaniment in a Carnatic music ensemble.

Vidwan

This is a person who has vidyā (knowledge) of a particular science or art. This term is usually used for indian classical musicians to denote their scholarship and experience in performing classical music concerts.

Sitar

This is a plucked stringed instrument used mainly in Hindustani music and Indian classical music. The instrument is believed to have been derived from the veena. It flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries and arrived at its present form in 18th century India. It derives its distinctive timbre and resonance from sympathetic strings, bridge design, a long hollow neck and a gourd-shaped resonance chamber.

Ghazal

This is a poetic form with rhyming couplets and a refrain, each line sharing the same meter. It may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in Arabic poetry in Arabia long before the birth of Islam. It is derived from the Arabian panegyric qasida. The structural requirements are similar in stringency to those of the Petrarchan sonnet. In style and content, it is a genre that has proved capable of an extraordinary variety of expression around its central themes of love and separation.

Sarod

This is a stringed instrument of India, used mainly in Indian classical music. It is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound, in contrast with the sweet, overtone-rich texture of the sitar, with sympathetic strings that give it a resonant, reverberant quality. It is a fretless instrument able to produce the continuous slides between notes known as meend (glissandi), which are important in Indian music.

Hamd

This is a word that is usually written in Arabic, Persian, Punjabi, or Urdu and means a poetic piece in praise of God. The word "Hamd" comes from the Qur'an. A Qawwali performance usually includes at least one of these, which is traditionally the first song in the performance.

Pakhawaj

This is an Indian barrel-shaped, two-headed drum, a variant and descendant of the older mridang.

Saraswati veena

This is an Indian plucked string instrument. It is named after a Hindu goddess, who is usually depicted holding or playing the instrument. There are several variations of this, which in its South Indian form is a member of the lute family.

Sufi

This is often defined as "Islamic mysticism," "the inward dimension of Islam," or "the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam," is a mystical trend in Islam "characterized ... [by particular] values, ritual practices, doctrines and institutions" which began very early on in Islamic history and which represents "the main manifestation and the most important and central crystallization of" mystical practice in Islam.

Bhajan

This literally means "sharing". It also refers to any song with religious theme or spiritual ideas, in a regional Indian language. It has no prescribed form, or set rules, is in free form, normally lyrical and based on melodic ragas. It belongs to a genre of music and arts that developed with the Bhakti movement.

Naat

This refers to poetry in praise of Allah and his Prophet Muhammad. The practice is popular in South Asia (Bangladesh, Pakistan and India), commonly in Pashto, Bengali, Urdu or Punjabi language. People who recite this are known as naat khawan or sana'a-khua'an. Exclusive "praise to Allah" and Allah alone is called Hamd, not to be confused with this, which contains "praise to the prophet Muhammad"

Kingdom of Mysore

This was a kingdom in southern India, traditionally believed to have been founded in 1399 in the vicinity of the modern city of the same name. The kingdom, which was ruled by the Wodeyar family, initially served as a vassal state of the Vijayanagara Empire. With the decline of the Vijayanagara Empire (c. 1565), the kingdom became independent. The 17th century saw a steady expansion of its territory and during the rule of Narasaraja Wodeyar I and Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar, the kingdom annexed large expanses of what is now southern Karnataka and parts of Tamil Nadu to become a powerful state in the southern Deccan.

Silk Road

This was an ancient network of trade routes that were for centuries central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent connecting the East and West from China to the Mediterranean Sea.

Mughal Empire

This was an empire in the Indian subcontinent, established and ruled by a Muslim Turkic dynasty of Chagatai Turco-Mongol origin from Central Asia. The dynasty, though ethnically Turco-Mongol, was Persianate in terms of culture.

Vijayanagara Empire

This was based in the Deccan Plateau region in South India. It was established in 1336 by Harihara I and his brother Bukka Raya I of Sangama Dynasty. The empire rose to prominence as a culmination of attempts by the southern powers to ward off Islamic invasions by the end of the 13th century. It lasted until 1646, although its power declined after a major military defeat in 1565 by the Deccan sultanates. The empire is named after its capital city of Vijayanagara, whose ruins surround present day Hampi, now a World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India. The writings of medieval European travelers such as Domingo Paes, Fernão Nunes, and Niccolò Da Conti, and the literature in local languages provide crucial information about its history. Archaeological excavations have revealed the empire's power and wealth.