Gurmat Sangeet has been used widely (in recent decades) to refer to the parampara (tradition) against the old term Gurbani Sangeet. Gurmat refers to the wisdom of Guru but "the singing of the bani is not written in Gurbani; that is, Gurbani does not contain any musical notation or the musical notes of any of the 31 rāgas, or any translations of Gurbani. Only the names of the rāgas are included" [1].

Bhai Baldeep Singh also mentions "When tangible records are lost, memories assume extraordinary importance. But, in the case of Gurbani kīrtan, which is singing – hence, an intangible ‘art’ form of Gurbani, the related oral traditions play a significant role in unraveling what is contained in the Word". This oral tradition is where one must dive into the memory streams stemming from Guru's time.

It is important to consider because, in recent times, intangible memory has been largely rejected, Raag standardization has occurred (alongside many other issues) and this has been branded with the new label of Gurmat Sangeet (or Puratan or Revival), which is disingenuous.

Sources

1. Bhai Baldeep Singh (2011) WHAT IS KĪRTAN?, Sikh Formations, 7:3, 245-295, DOI: 10.1080/17448727.2011.637382