1. Asian Religious Traditions

2. -As cultures become more permanently established, their religious practices become more formalized.
-Permanent structures are built for worship and meditation.
-These houses of worship reflect the nature of the beliefs and practices of a religious tradition.
-The same is true of music featured in religious services.

3. Hinduism
-Hinduism is one of the oldest religions still practiced in the world.
-The greatest concentrations of Hindus are found on the Indian subcontinent, in Bali, and in the mountain kingdom of Nepal.
-Hindus worship a variety of gods and goddesses, each with his or her own name, shape, and character.
-The three most important gods are:
-Brahma – creator of all beings
-Shiva – the destroyer
-Vishnu – the preserver.
-Together the three form the Trimurti, popularly known as the Hindu Trinity.

4. -Hindus believe in reincarnation, the rebirth of the soul into a new bodily form.
-According to Hindu teaching, all creatures are in a process of spiritual evolution.
-Through righteous living, or dharma, each has the capacity to achieve a higher caste, or social station in the next life.

5. Music in Hinduism
-Many natural connections exist between faith and the arts, which are inseparable in Hinduism.
-Kritis (krih-tees) – Hindu religious songs that are sung in praise of a particular god or gods.
-Many kritis were composed in Southern India during the 18th and 19th centuries.
-The composers were deeply religious individuals, many of whom are considered today to be Hindu saints.
-Kritis are usually sung by a solo artist in a concert setting.

6. -Much Indian music uses the principle of theme and variations.
-Sometimes the variations are improvised, sometimes composed. In kritis, the variations are both composed and improvised.
-An example of only composed variations is “Bruhi Mukundeti”.
“Bruhi Mukundeti”

7. “Bruhi Mukundeti”
-In this kriti, the poet asks his tongue in the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit to keep repeating the different sacred names of God (Keshala, Madhava, Govinda, Krishna, Sadanand, Radha, Ram).
-The repeated utterance of God’s names is, in itself, often seen as a religious act.
-“Bruhi Mukundeti” has 7 lines to the song with the words “Bruhi Mukundeti” serving as a type of refrain and cadence.
-Typically a violin and a barrel-shaped drum called a mrdangam (mir-dun-gum) accompany the singing.

8. Buddhism
-Hinduism, which traces its roots to around 1500 B.C., sprung from the collected teachings and beliefs of many people.
-In the 6th century B.C., a Hindu scholar named Siddhartha Guatama began teaching a variation of Hinduism. Eventually the sect grew into a separate religion.
-Siddartha’s followers called him Buddha, meaning “Enlightened One”.
-In time, the new religion took on the name Buddhism. After 2,500 years, this faith still guides more than 200 million people in Asia and else where.

9. -Buddhists believe that in order to attain enlightenment the individual must look inward, not to any gods.
-They believe that gods do not intervene on earth.
-The ideal is to shed earthly desires to reach a state of nirvana.
-Nirvana – a peace of mind devoid of any desires or thoughts of pleasure.
-It is also believed that a life well lived brings rewards in the next life.

10. Music in Tibetan Buddhism
-In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, chants and instrumental music are a unique blend of musical styles.
-These Buddhists view music as a means for preparing the mind for spiritual enlightenment.
-Choral chants and instrumental hymns are important parts of monastic rituals.

11. Overtones
-Many chants ae performed primarily by a single Tibetan monk, although two other voices interject syllables of the chant.
-The main voice has been trained to produce choral overtones.
-Overtones – the series of faint tones that are generated when any one tone is sounded. It gives the effect of many voices.
-Theses overtones show that the sounds we hear are more complex than just a single tone.
-A string, for example, vibrates as a whole but also in smaller segments – halves, thirds, fourths, fifths, and so on. These secondary vibrations produce harmonics.
-Harmonics – a series of tones generated by a fundamental tone.

12. -Only a few monasteries in Tibet teach monks how to sing in overtones
-Only a few monasteries in Tibet teach monks how to sing in overtones. The technique is generally not taught in the West.
-Performing the chant this way requires extraordinary skill developed which much discipline and practice.
-This skill is viewed as an integration of the powers of mind, body, and speech.
-It represents the existence of a reality beyond our day-to-day perceptions.
-In this way, the Tibetan Buddhists believe music is connected directly with the deities who guide them to higher states on consciousness.
Tibetan Throat singing: