Sacred Music

There are some websites which share collections of recordings of traditionally executed Divine poetry music of this style, the Gurmat Sangeet Gurbani Keertan. The special thing about it is that some of these compositions are very old, some are “original” in the sense that they were composed by the Sikh Gurus themselves or their musicians during the 16th and 17th century together with the lyrics at the time of their conception.

In contrast to Western music, this music was never noted on paper, but only transmitted orally from teacher to student. In many Indian music schools this way of learning is still encouraged today. However, the music played in today’s Sikh temples is mostly composed in light tunes, sometimes according to Bollywood film tunes or easy listening, and in this sense less original, less effective in its spiritual purpose and musically less challenging and interesting.