I am not saying there are no differences. I am saying these differences in #2 and #3 above are not intrinsic to gender but rather culturally induced.Rsachi wrote:Thenappan,
I am not a musician. I am listening to music for 60+years. I can clearly perceive gender-based differences in musical output, as I listed in my opening post.
I also feel ragas and compositions and sahitya have gender orientations. It is a question of rasa. But I do not want anyone to apply gender-based discrimination for that reason. I am also not implying anything cheap or erotic.
I see 3 elements of gender influence:
1. Female/male voice.
2. Raga & manodharma differences.
3. Sahitya and rasa-based differences.
I dont know exactly what you mean by compositions/sahitya having gender orientation. Going on a limb here I am assuming that you are talking about something like, say, a lullaby. A typically female singer may sing it differently from a typically male singer but we learn these things from the milieu. But I also have listened to male singers with astonishingly delicate voices and I feel that the male singer could be trained to sing just like that typical female singer singing a lullaby.
Please elaborate on ragas having gender orientations. I have heard this concept of rag and ragini in Hindustani music but I never thought that had a solid basis in experience. For example take the association of megh malhar with rain. It is just our training that makes us think of rain when someone sings megh malhar, nothing intrinsic to those notes or phrases.
-T
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