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Trixie Le
after school/camerata/ music IBSL
Mr.Eschenfelder
4 January 2014

Musical Investigation Rough Draft

In the west, starting from the 1920s, jazz began to develop and flourish to modern times,
while over in the east , Hindustani Classical music has dominated Indian musical culture for
centuries. Although these two cultures reside on polar sides of the earth, they have much more in
common than what meets the eye. In order to compare these two musical cultures, the two pieces
Walkin composed by R. Carpenter a late 20th century jazz piece and Pancham Se Gara
composed by Anoushka Shankar, a fine example of Hindustani classical music. The composers
of both pieces similarly rely on the use of a wide range of dynamics, heavy ornamentation, and
improvisation in the two pieces to express the pieces.
In the two pieces, there is an apparent use of dynamics throughout. In Pancham Se
Gara, it starts off soft and kind of ominous and immediately becomes louder after the first few
measures. It starts off with this very ominous beginning to give off a sort of relaxed mood of
peace. Walkin on the other hand, starts off at a mezzo forte to gradually becoming a mezzo
piano early in the piece. Doing this gives strong introduction. As many millions of other music
pieces and works, dynamics are an often used to exhibit a sense of mood and expression in a
piece, making it colorful and lively. In the cases of examining these two pieces, the use of
dynamics is absolutely fundamental.

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Ornamentation is a large characteristic of these two pieces and especially of the two
musical cultures. In the Pancham Se Gara ornamentation is done by both the tabla and the sitar.
Although, the sitar in this case, often keeps the main melodic times, at many points in the piece,
the composer adds in many points of ornamentations in the piece. However, the use of
ornamentation is not as distinct in the introduction of the piece, it increases and becomes more
apparent as the piece progresses. Unlike Pancham Se Gara, Walkin provides the sense of
extremely noticeable ornamentation right when the piece begins in the first phrase by piano. This
piece also relies on ornamentation from beginning to end. Most of this ornamentation is down in
Walkin by the piano and it became particularly noticeable to me through frequent use of trills,
mordents, and turns.
Improvisation which is a distinguishing element in jazz, is used in both pieces Walkin
and Pancham se Gara. In Walking, the piece consists of a large chunk of the song being
improvised by all the instruments. An example is near the end of the piece when the musician
engages in a double bass solo that he or she goes on for about a good 2 minutes. This can also be
seen in Pancham Se Gara by the tabla in the background while the sitar occupies the main
melodic part. The tabla player continues to sort of maintain a similar rhythmic structure while
continuing to improvise at certain points in the piece. Likewise with Walkin it becomes a bit
more apparent near the end of the piece as it progresses and coherently increases tempo.
Other than the elements of music that are mentioned above, these two pieces a few
similar miscellaneous musical qualities as well. First off, the two pieces both use a small
ensemble of percussion and string instruments. In Walkin a piano, double bass, and a set of
drums are used and in Pancham Se Gara a tabla, which is a membranophone percussion
instrument, and a sitar is used. Not only that, but the two pieces are played in a small range of

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octaves. Indian music is already traditionally restricted to four octaves of range since it is often
based on a humans voice. Although jazz is not restricted to certain octaves in range, a
considerable small amount of range is used in the piece Walkin. A common musical tool,
syncopation is also utilized extensively in both pieces, especially after the first few phrases. For
jazz and traditional Indian music, syncopation is a very common aspect. This can be examined in
Walkin by noticing that the double bass is not always on beat with the drums and that some
phrases seem a bit different or funky from the other parts, creating the effect of a disturbance
of the regular flow of rhythm in a sort of unexpected manner. Likewise, in Pancham Se Gara
the sitar often utilizes a sort of unexpected variety of rhythms throughout the piece; it can be
seeing when hearing how the tabla and sitar are sometimes off from each other.
This goes to show how two musical pieces from two completely different cultures can
contain many similar musical elements and aspects despite being an Atlantic Ocean apart. These
two very sounding different pieces contain these very similar qualities and musical techniques to
complete a very similar goal of an expression of sounds in the form of beauty.

Word count: 831

Bibliography:

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"Ornaments." OnMusic Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Jan. 2014.

"Musical Syncopation." Musical Syncopation. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2014.
"Alankar (ornamentation) in North Indian Classical Music - Sadhana's RaagHindustani."Alankar (ornamentation) in North Indian Classical Music - Sadhana's RaagHindustani. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2014.
"Syncopation." Syncopation. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2014.
KAMIEN, Roger. Music: An Appreciation. N.p.: McGraw-Hill, 1996. Print.