No wonder I can never tell where the verses and the refrains are and why they really do all sound the same to me because they’re all original compositions. No offense to the music and culture but the music really does goes nowhere to me.
Ye do.
What would be the point if every crazy person played the same thing…
There are Rules…
Slan,
D. 
Listen a bit harder, or longer.. it’s there.
Slan,
D. 
I love ragas. Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” is my favorite.
I prefer Joplin’s “Ragatime Dance”.
I would like to hear your ideas first, but I’ll put in my two bits. I’m a student of a Western tradition in which melodies seem structured - maybe “prescribed” is the better word - but at its higher levels the tradition actually urges variation and improvisation on a theme (sound familiar?), so at the end of the day some apples and oranges are to me sometimes just fruit. Not trying to be cute or dodge the issue, here; I do think this way - that is, ferreting out how things are not different - so it’s hard for me to touch on cultural, cross-cultural, and psychological markers without a starting point unless, aside from the feelers I just sent out, we’re comparing present-day Western Classical to Indian Classical.
I would say that the subject is enormously multifaceted, and analysis of it would require scribing a scholarly tome. I’d rather be as concise as possible. If it’s possible.
good save old boy! 
I was beginning to worry that we would be back at “hot dish” 
Huh. Find the similarity in THIS to anything else worldwide. “The food of my people”, indeed. What braniac told him to put in cheddar cheese? Ptui.
Maybe he once ate at the Pour House Bar & Grill in North Bend, WA, and was inspired to improvise. You see, their specialty is “Cheesy Tots”.
Hmph. If we’re goin’ black tie, Minnesotans put a layer of tater tots on top just for fancy. NO CHEESE.
tater tots?
peel an onion…so’s ya can chop it?
cheddar doesn’t sound so weird (he is from Wisconson, isn’t he?)
did he get that from the same cookbook my mother had?
am I so glad I’m not there anymore?
Born in the Twin Cities (so much for roots!), dragged by his parents unasked to live in Wisconsin for some dark reason he doesn’t reveal, and now lives in Manhattan, fercryinoutloud.
A cosmopolitan history like that will do a number on yer priorities.
When you say “based on dance accompaniment” are you referring to Bach?
Tal, this is your thread. Please tell us what you’d like to talk about. We’re an easy bunch, really.
Thats awfully nice of you but I have already done that. Of course I cannot and will not prescribe how people choose to engage, in terms of their content, tone, sincerity, humour etc as long as no offense is meant.
I want to converse and I await something that will trigger a response from me.
I invite group’s enjoyment.
I agree with Crookedtune, Talisiga, you need to go first and lay out a concept of what you want to discuss. Like Nano said, this is a huge topic. Supposedly, you are the expert on this.
I am an expert on what other’s think about a paragraph in an article?
I assure you no offense was meant. It was just an awkward way to initiate a discussion.
On topic: Yes, it’s interesting that most cultures have different genres of music. Some have their roots in dance accompaniment. Some are created willfully as classes of art. Some are conceived as vehicles for intellectual or spiritual exploration. You can draw parallels between cultures. I think this is what you were looking to discuss. I agree that it’s an interesting subject.
Yes, for instance, South Asia has different genres of music within it - not only diversified on account of the many cultures. language groups, religions and so on but alsio diffrent levels of music. High art dance music, folk dance music, trance music, court music, temple music, tribal driven music, scripture driven music, snob driven music etc.
Traditional Irish music (not just dance tune obsession - the whole of it) is a tradition of a small island with many regional variations whereas South Asia has UMPTEEN “irelands” within it each with its own regional variants and each of those “irelands” is as different to the other as Scotland is to Holland and the Basques to the Lithuanians. And independent of these there are tribes from a timeless zone traversing the fences and picket lines of entrenched peoples.
South Asia has been a hotbed of ACTUAL continous multiculturalism for thousands of years to an extent not known in any other region of the planet. The USA is the modern counterpart Appalachian, Cajun, Blues, European driven art music, Latino, Gospel, Jazz, pop etc etc, but only a neophyte
So it isn’t easy to compare Irish music with South Asian unless one is discerning about what elements will hit the nail on the head. It is like comparing a fruit market with different varieties of apples, cherries and pears with a fruit market with umpteen varieties of 30 distinct fruits.
So, your point is that Dr. Sharma was oversimplifying in his high-level comparison of eastern and western forms?