[nwrep]

When I lived in India, there was a program at the university where I worked that strove to expose Indians to the great music of the West, billing it as of approximate maturity and complexity to the incredible catalog of Indian music. Apart from those two musical traditions, and to a lesser extent the musical developments of the Orient (maybe not as towering as the symphony but in some cases far more sublime), there just isn’t a comparable body of musical work.,

There is one big difference between Western and Eastern musical traditions.

Harmony.

Western music has the world's only tradition of harmony, discovered, nurtured, and perfected in the West, culminating in the tradition of Bach-Mozart-Beethoven. Eastern, including Indian or Chinese music, has no native Harmony. That music is purely melody and rhythm. Whatever harmony you hear in those musical traditions today is harmony learned and borrowed from the west in the past 100-200 years.

[Texan Tory]

“There is one big difference between Western and Eastern musical traditions.

Harmony.

Western music has the world’s only tradition of harmony, discovered, nurtured, and perfected in the West, culminating in the tradition of Bach-Mozart-Beethoven.”

On the topic of harmony, I have recently been listening to various Baroque composers, and I came across the music of a French composer by the name of Jean-Philippe Rameau. It turns out that he was a renowned music theorist as well as a composer, and much of what he wrote was on harmony. His system of harmony is the basis of most 20th-century harmony textbooks. And his music, to me, is stunning in its use of harmony as well as rhythm. I think that his orchestral compositions for opera and ballet are some of the best ever written. As an example of his superb use of harmony, please listen to Rameau’s beautiful “Entree de Polymnie.”