As the opportunity for musicians to travel became more accessible and cheaper, the influence of other cultures began to impact composers across the world.
From the Great Exhibition in Paris in 1851 that exposed the West to a plethora of different, exotic cultures, the interest of artists spread like wildfire. The music from India would have a huge influence over many Western composers, spreading later into the world of popular music with bands like The Beatles.
Indian Classical Music Influence on Western Composers
Indian Classical music has a rich heritage. It is as complex as it is beautiful, and many scholarly books can give you a far more in-depth understanding of it than I can in this brief article.
There are, however, two key elements of Indian Classical music that are important to know about to fully appreciate the influence that the culture had on Western composers.
When we refer to Indian Classical music, what we’re often thinking about is Carnatic music. This music dates back centuries. The so-called Father of Carnatic music is Puradara Dasa (1484-1564), who was a monk, composer, and musicologist.
Puradara Dasa is solely responsible for formalizing and collating the diverse styles of Indian music into something close to the Carnatic form. His teachings and influence spread far and wide in Southern India and made a significant contribution to Indian cultural history.
Described as foundational elements, the raga and the tala are key to understanding how Indian music works. Whilst there are many more elements to Indian music than this, think of raga as offering the melodic content and tala bringing the rhythmic aspect of the music.
Both of these components have many more dimensions and are approached in highly creative ways. Remember, raga is not the tune or specific melody but the basis on which melodic content is constructed. The relationship between raga and tala is crucial and intimately connected.
Gustav Holst’s Exploration of Indian Music
A composer who many do not know was deeply influenced by Indian Classical music is Gustav Holst (1874-1934). Perhaps better known for his orchestral suite he titled The Planets, Holst was also fascinated by Indian Classical music. He devoted many years to studying Sanskrit alongside the intricate details of the music of India.
Three compositions that date from the early 1900s show Holst’s initial forays into Carnatic music and the use of ragas. Sita (composed around 1901) and the 1911 Rig Veda Hymns are early examples of using the raga system to generate a new approach to Western composition.
Maya (1901) for violin and piano is also closely linked to a specific raga called Vachaspati. This scale uses all seven tones. If you began on a ‘C’, then the scale would include the following notes: C, D, E, F#, G, A, Bb.
As Holst’s grasp of Sanskrit deepened, he embarked upon an ambitious symphonic project called The Cloud Messenger. This work was composed in 1913 (Op.30) and is a setting of the words of the Sanskrit poet Kālidāsa (4th-5th Century CE).
The poem Holst set has the same title as his composition (Meghaduta in Sanskrit) and contains 120 stanzas. It is considered to be one of Kālidāsa’s most important and influential works. For Holst, The Cloud Messenger was not to be a success.
Despite the outpouring of rich Romanticism, stunning orchestration, and choral writing, combined with exotic, magical subject material, the work almost vanished following its premiere in 1913.
What didn’t help the plight of Holst’s wonderful work was that Europe was on the brink of the First World War and Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was hogging all the headlines and the limelight.
Claude Debussy’s Assimilation of Indian Music
Holst was not alone in taking major inspiration from Indian Classical music. French composer Claude Debussy was equally taken by both Javanese and Indian music following the Great Exhibition.
Debussy was fortunate enough to further his initial experience with a direct encounter with Indian musicians at a concert given by Inayat Kahn in May of 1913.
After the concert, as the story goes, Debussy played the notes back to the performers of each Raga, anxious to know their proper names. From here, Debussy fused Indian elements with his compositions.
What we hear in Debussy’s music is not a weak emulation or pastiche of Indian music, but an assimilation of concepts and culture into his own.
This means if you want to trace these subtle links, you need to listen hard and remember that there are many additional cultural influences embedded into Debussy’s style that can occur in the same piece.
In En Blanc et Noir (1913), for piano, you can hear the use of a drone in the left hand that presents a tonic, dominant pattern similar to that used in some ragas.
Equally, the collection he titled Estampes from 1903 includes a beautiful piece, Jardins Sous La Pluie; there is more than a hint of a raga in the fast-moving right-hand melodic line.
Olivier Messiaen’s Integration of Indian Elements
The intricate and often mesmerizing music of Olivier Messiaen drew from many external influences, including Indian Classical music.
Messiaen devoted considerable time and effort to constructing his unique musical universe that used his modes of limited transposition for melodic and harmonic content plus a sophisticated set of governing rhythmic principles.
These took Messiaen years to fully develop. His methods were assisted by learning about Indian tala, whose precise origins, meanings, and spiritual significance he only discovered later.
Messiaen’s treatment of rhythm closely paralleled the practices in Indian music. Augmentation and diminution of tala, for instance, he commonly employs.
Sometimes Messiaen simply uses a tala directly in his music unaltered; in other works, he applies his devised methods of change or those practices that come notably from Southern India.
In Messiaen’s enormous and brilliant orchestral work, Turangalila Symphony (1946-48), you can discover Messiaen’s use of rhythmic pedals, some that link to harmony, others not. It is immensely complex but unashamedly centered around Indian talas.
John Cage’s Incorporation of Indian Philosophy
John Cage’s music certainly took stock of Indian philosophy following his work with young Indian musician Gita Sarabhai. Sarabhai was quite a revolutionary, being the first woman to play the pakhavaj, a two-headed Indian drum.
Not only was she a consummate performer, Sarabhai was an avid promoter of collaboration and cultural exchange between India and the West. She worked with Cage, teaching him the Indian Classical traditions whilst he taught her conventional Western traditions.
One piece from 1970 that clearly demonstrates the effect Indian music was taking on his work is Cage’s Song Books; Solo for Voice 58. These are microtonal ragas, with the raga devised largely by chance as opposed to being borrowed straight from traditional Indian ragas.
Cage’s ever-popular Sonatas and Interludes demonstrate the strong influence of Hindu aesthetics, and whilst there isn’t a direct usage of Indian Classical techniques, the undercurrent of the philosophy is positively present.