Indian Classical Quotes

#1. I was interested in both Western and Indian classical music.

Satyajit Ray

#2. The origins of Indian classical music, not unlike their western counterparts, lie in the Vedas, the ancient Hindu scriptures of 2,000 years ago.

Tariq Ali

#3. I do think that my Indian classical audiences thought I was sacrificing them through working with George; I became known as the 'fifth Beatle.' In India, they thought I was mad.

Ravi Shankar

#4. Kolkata is a musical city. What I like about people here is the lack of diplomacy. Some of the best Indian classical musicians belong to this place. Kolkatans do not go by fashion, but by passion.

Sukhwinder Singh

#5. Indian classical music was born when time barely existed. It developed further within the structures of royal courts and a system of patronage where the ruler or the feudal master determined all.

Tariq Ali

#6. Maybe I'm genetically more inclined to music - but the music I make is so far removed from Indian classical music. I grew up in Texas!

Norah Jones

#7. Indian classical dance is sustained by a profound philosophy. Form seeks to merge with the formless, motions seek to become a part of the motionless, and the dancing individual seeks to become one with the eternal dance of the cosmos.

Nita Ambani

#8. Music is monophonic in the Eastern world, especially if we're talking about Indian music, Persian music. What we have in classical and Western world is harmony. So I think it's a great idea to be able to bring the best of two together and create something new.

Hafez Nazeri

#9. There are so many wonderful, wonderful musicians in the world, I cannot possibly make a distinction between the fact that they might play classical music, or bluegrass, or Irish traditional, or Indian music.

Daniel Hope

#10. My brother had a house in Paris. To it came many Western classical musicians. These musicians all made the same point: 'Indian music,' they said, 'is beautiful when we hear it with the dancers. On its own, it is repetitious and monotonous.'

Ravi Shankar

#11. My big influences are Joni Mitchell, and a lot of classical and Indian music, as well as Nina Simone and the personal blues and jazz of Billie Holiday. Other influences for me include Bjork, Nick Drake, and Sufjan Stevens.

Yael Naim

#12. I basically love classical music. I love a lot of musicians playing together and the whole culture of that, whether it's Indian or it's Western.

A.R. Rahman

#13. Much of Indian science seems intuitive and not bound by the rigid thinking of classical scientists.

Roland Joffe

#14. In the U.K., classical music is composed by individuals and written down. Indian music is based on certain sequences called ragas. When I perform live, 95% of the music is improvised: it never sounds the same twice.

Ravi Shankar

#15. I grew up as a dancer. I did tap, classical ballet, all of that. I did Indian dancing, or Bharata Natyam, classic temple dancing from Madras, originally. My mother always had the great idea that I should learn it.

Roselee Goldberg

#16. When I began competing with the other artists in New York, I discovered classical North Indian music.

Henry Flynt

#17. Indian food is like classical music raga- it takes time to build up to a crescendo.

Shobhaa De