Sarod: Rooted in Tradition

CP： What is your understanding of Raga？

Zhang Yuzhen （Zhang）： Raga is both a simple and complex concept in Indian music. The word“raga” derives from a Sanskrit word that refers to “color” or “passion”. Raga expresses the internal spirit of the musician. The performer must tap the life experience and merge it into raga to give the music inner spiritual strength.

In the Indian musical tradition， ragas are associated with different times of the day or seasons. Many North Indian ragas are still prescribed for particular times of day or seasons， but South Indian ragas are not associated with any particular time.

Ragas have a scale with seven notes， called swaras. The seven natural notes are Sa， Re， Ga， Ma， Pa， Dha， and Ni. According to historical records， swaras originated with the sounds of birds and animals evoking images of certain colors. For example： Sa is the chatter of the peacock representing green lotus leaves， Re is the chirp of red larks， Ga is the orange bleat of goats， Ma is the white cry of a crane， Pa is the black Nightingale’s voice， yellow Dha is the neigh of a horse or hiss of a snake， and multi-colored Ni is the trumpet of an elephant.

CP： How popular is traditional Indian music in China？ What piques the interest of Chinese audiences？ What are the prospects for traditional Indian music in China？

Zhang： In the last century， Indian music from films such as Awaara Hoon， Caravan and Two Acres of Land had already attracted a fan base in China. In the 1970s and 80s， China continued to invite the famous Indian artists to perform， including dancer Uday Shankar， sitar player Ravi Shankar， violinist Subrahmanyam and others.

This Sarod concert is a first in the history of music exchange between the two countries. The activity created new curiosity in China and encouraged more Chinese people to understand and accept their neighbor India’s traditional music and culture.

On the other hand， along with any culture come national traits and traditions. They all have a restricted and conservative side， and India is no exception. India has a strict system of protecting its arts and stresses one-on-one training when it comes to traditional music inheritance. To further expand its influence， it needs breakthroughs in multiple areas.

CP： Compared with the traditional music of India， what is the most striking charac- teristic of traditional Chinese music？

Zhang： After thousands of years of de- velopment， traditional Chinese music and its Indian counterpart have both formed unique rules and characteristics. The traits of traditional Indian music can be summarized simply as “temperament.” Indian music theory divides each octave into 22 microtones called Suruti. This is an important contributor to the unique “flavor”of Indian music.

Traditional Chinese music chiefly refers to music from before the Qing Dynasty （1644-1911）. In terms of the music itself， traditional Chinese music has a unique scale， rhythm， structural layout， form， and development model. In terms of cultural connotations， traditional Chinese music is closely linked to local dialects and language context. Despite their contrasting cultural backgrounds， Chinese and Indian music do share some things in common.

India has a colonial past， but the people have a strong sense of identity and pride in their own ethnic music and culture. With similar music senses and ancient traditions， how can we promote China’s traditional music to the world？ This is a question on which China should reflect.