Singing the Classical, Voicing the Modern

Singing the Classical, Voicing the Modern PDF Author: Amanda J. Weidman
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822388057
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 367

Get Book Here

Book Description
While Karnatic music, a form of Indian music based on the melodic principle of raga and time cycles called tala, is known today as South India’s classical music, its status as “classical” is an early-twentieth-century construct, one that emerged in the crucible of colonial modernity, nationalist ideology, and South Indian regional politics. As Amanda J. Weidman demonstrates, in order for Karnatic music to be considered classical music, it needed to be modeled on Western classical music, with its system of notation, composers, compositions, conservatories, and concerts. At the same time, it needed to remain distinctively Indian. Weidman argues that these contradictory imperatives led to the emergence of a particular “politics of voice,” in which the voice came to stand for authenticity and Indianness. Combining ethnographic observation derived from her experience as a student and performer of South Indian music with close readings of archival materials, Weidman traces the emergence of this politics of voice through compelling analyses of the relationship between vocal sound and instrumental imitation, conventions of performance and staging, the status of women as performers, debates about language and music, and the relationship between oral tradition and technologies of printing and sound reproduction. Through her sustained exploration of the way “voice” is elaborated as a trope of modern subjectivity, national identity, and cultural authenticity, Weidman provides a model for thinking about the voice in anthropological and historical terms. In so doing, she shows that modernity is characterized as much by particular ideas about orality, aurality, and the voice as it is by regimes of visuality.

Singing the Classical, Voicing the Modern

Singing the Classical, Voicing the Modern PDF Author: Amanda J. Weidman
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822388057
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 367

Get Book Here

Book Description
While Karnatic music, a form of Indian music based on the melodic principle of raga and time cycles called tala, is known today as South India’s classical music, its status as “classical” is an early-twentieth-century construct, one that emerged in the crucible of colonial modernity, nationalist ideology, and South Indian regional politics. As Amanda J. Weidman demonstrates, in order for Karnatic music to be considered classical music, it needed to be modeled on Western classical music, with its system of notation, composers, compositions, conservatories, and concerts. At the same time, it needed to remain distinctively Indian. Weidman argues that these contradictory imperatives led to the emergence of a particular “politics of voice,” in which the voice came to stand for authenticity and Indianness. Combining ethnographic observation derived from her experience as a student and performer of South Indian music with close readings of archival materials, Weidman traces the emergence of this politics of voice through compelling analyses of the relationship between vocal sound and instrumental imitation, conventions of performance and staging, the status of women as performers, debates about language and music, and the relationship between oral tradition and technologies of printing and sound reproduction. Through her sustained exploration of the way “voice” is elaborated as a trope of modern subjectivity, national identity, and cultural authenticity, Weidman provides a model for thinking about the voice in anthropological and historical terms. In so doing, she shows that modernity is characterized as much by particular ideas about orality, aurality, and the voice as it is by regimes of visuality.

A Dictionary of South Indian Music and Musicians

A Dictionary of South Indian Music and Musicians PDF Author: P. Sambamoorthy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Get Book Here

Book Description


Saṅgītaśiromaṇi

Saṅgītaśiromaṇi PDF Author: Emmie Te Nijenhuis
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004644709
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 631

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Saṅgītaśiromaṇi, "Crest-jewel of Music", is a major Sanskrit work on Indian musicology dealing with traditional musical theory and performance practice, composed in 1428 A.D. by a board of scholars.

Veena Dhanammal

Veena Dhanammal PDF Author: Lakshmi Subramanian
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000084469
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 166

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book looks at the life and music of Veena Dhanammal (1866–1938), considered the embodiment of ‘classicism’ in Karnatik music. It locates her art within the cultural, social and intellectual milieu she inhabited, allowing readers to track the changing musical landscape of southern India, as a process of urbanisation — beginning in the late nineteenth century — resulted in Karnatik music’s movement from a ritual and courtly location to a modern, secular form of entertainment in the city space.

The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan

The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan PDF Author: Day
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Get Book Here

Book Description


Sons of Sarasvatī

Sons of Sarasvatī PDF Author:
Publisher: Global Academic Publishing
ISBN: 1438471858
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 516

Get Book Here

Book Description
Traditional Indian pāṇḍitya (scholarship) has a long and distinguished history but is now practically extinct. Its decline is remarkably recent—traditional pāṇḍitya flourished as recently as 150 years ago. The decline is also paradoxical, having occurred precipitously following a broad and remarkable flowering of the tradition between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. The important questions this decline poses are the subject of much ongoing work. The intellectual history of the period is still under construction, and the present book represents a major contribution to the project. A notable impediment has been the lack of critical biographies of significant thinkers in this tradition. The importance of personal and social context for reconstructing intellectual histories is widely understood. In the classical Indian intellectual tradition, however, authors systematically exclude such context, making intellectual biography something of a rarity—very rare in English and sparse even in the regional languages. This book contains translations from the original Kannaḍa of the biographies of Garaḷapurī Śāstri, Śrīkaṇṭha Śāstri, and Kuṇigala Rāmaśāstri of nineteenth-century Mysore, all representing the highest echelons of traditional pāṇḍitya at this critical period of transition. Their fields are literature, grammar, and logic, respectively. The biographies focus on the personal lives of these scholars and their many contexts. These biographies are almost contemporaneous accounts, reflecting firsthand knowledge. The translations are accompanied by copious footnotes as well as appendices drawn from the relevant primary sources.

The Journal of the Music Academy, Madras

The Journal of the Music Academy, Madras PDF Author: Music Academy (Chennai, India)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 172

Get Book Here

Book Description
Vols. 2- include the Proceedings of the Madras Music Conference, 1930-

Devotional Sovereignty

Devotional Sovereignty PDF Author: Caleb Simmons
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190088893
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Get Book Here

Book Description
Devotional Sovereignty: Kingship and Religion in India investigates the shifting conceptualization of sovereignty in the South Indian kingdom of Mysore during the reigns of Tipu Sultan (r. 1782-1799) and Krishnaraja Wodeyar III (r. 1799-1868). Tipu Sultan was a Muslim king famous for resisting British dominance until his death; Krishnaraja III was a Hindu king who succumbed to British political and administrative control. Despite their differences, the courts of both kings dealt with the changing political landscape by turning to the religious and mythical past to construct a royal identity for their kings. Caleb Simmons explores the ways in which these two kings and their courts modified and adapted pre-modern Indian notions of sovereignty and kingship in reaction to British intervention. The religious past provided an idiom through which the Mysore courts could articulate their rulers' claims to kingship in the region, attributing their rule to divine election and employing religious vocabulary in a variety of courtly genres and media. Through critical inquiry into the transitional early colonial period, this study sheds new light on pre-modern and modern India, with implications for our understanding of contemporary politics. It offers a revisionist history of the accepted narrative in which Tipu Sultan is viewed as a radical Muslim reformer and Krishnaraja III as a powerless British puppet. Simmons paints a picture of both rulers in which they work within and from the same understanding of kingship, utilizing devotion to Hindu gods, goddesses, and gurus to perform the duties of the king.

Indian Music Literature

Indian Music Literature PDF Author: Mohammed Haroon
Publisher: Indian Bibliographers Bureau
ISBN:
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 158

Get Book Here

Book Description


Indian Classical Music and the Gramophone, 1900–1930

Indian Classical Music and the Gramophone, 1900–1930 PDF Author: Vikram Sampath
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000590747
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Get Book Here

Book Description
In 1902 The Gramophone Company in London sent out recording experts on "expeditions" across the world to record voices from different cultures and backgrounds. All over India, it was women who embraced the challenge of overcoming numerous social taboos and aesthetic handicaps that came along with this nascent technology. Women who took the plunge and recorded largely belonged to the courtesan community, called tawaifs and devadasis, in North and South India, respectively. Recording brought with it great fame, brand recognition, freedom from exploitative patrons, and monetary benefits to the women singers. They were to become pioneers of the music industry in the Indian sub-continent. However, despite the pioneering role played by these women, their stories have largely been forgotten. Contemporaneous with the courtesan women adapting to recording technology was the anti-nautch campaign that sought to abolish these women from the performing space and brand them as common prostitutes. A vigorous renaissance and arts revival movement followed, leading to the creation of a new classical paradigm in both North Indian (Hindustani) and South Indian (Carnatic) classical music. This resulted in the standardization, universalization, and institutionalization of Indian classical music. This newly created classical paradigm impacted future recordings of The Gramophone Company in terms of a shift in genres and styles. Vikram Sampath sheds light on the role and impact of The Gramophone Company’s early recording expeditions on Indian classical music by examining the phenomenon through a sociocultural, historical and musical lens. The book features the indefatigable stories of the women and their experiences in adapting to recording technology. The artists from across India featured are: Gauhar Jaan of Calcutta, Janki Bai of Allahabad, Zohra Bai of Agra, Malka Jaan of Agra, Salem Godavari, Bangalore Nagarathnamma, Coimbatore Thayi, Dhanakoti of Kanchipuram, Bai Sundarabai of Pune, and Husna Jaan of Banaras.