PERFACE

Classical Music is popularly taken to cover a wide domain of serious (read : traditional) music. Shastriya Sangeet (e.g. Khayal, Dhrupad and Tarana) is an important segment of serious music and is usually labelled as "heavy". Examples of ‘light classical" music are tighter discipline as regards ‘raag’ than "Lighter" varieties.

But an universal definition of classical music would cover not only traditional music but also other music adheres to a discipline and retains appeals for many, many years. For example, certain folk music and selected pieces of film music may also quality to become ‘classical’.

The word ‘classical’ in the Conference will be governed by the universal definition. Therefore, when we encounter grey areas like fusion and jazz, we shall deal with them on a case-to case basis as to their being considered as neo-classical idioms.

Beyond ‘light’ classical we have presentations such as Sugam Sangeet, Ghazals and some varieties of folk music. These constitute ‘ light’ music. They are generally non-classical.

Beyond ‘light’ is ‘pop’ (short for popular) music. In this, the musical content generally forsakes melodicity. Instead, polyphony, harmony and a surfeit of rhythm take over. We are not dealing with that type of music here.

As things stand today, audience strength is seen to go up as we come down the ladder; heavy to light. In this Conference we are addressing precisely this problem of diminishing audience as the music gets ‘heavier’. Accordingly, the emphasis will be more on the ‘heavier’ end than ‘lighter’. 

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