Browsing by Subject "Hindustani music"
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Item The geography of Hindustani music : the influence of region and regionalism on the North Indian classical tradition(2008-12) Grimes, Jeffrey Michael, 1974-; Slawek, StephenThis dissertation explores the influence of regional cultures and, more specifically, of regionally based and regionally determined aesthetic preferences, on the Hindustani classical music tradition. The period from the late 19th century up through the decades following independence in 1947 saw a great deal of change both in Indian society as a whole and, by extension, within the Hindustani tradition. One of these changes was a transition in the demographic profile of the average Hindustani performer from Muslim, essentially low-caste, and hereditary, to Hindu, middle-class, and largely high caste. The other aspect of this demographic transition, namely that there was also a shift in the regional origins of the average classical musician from those native to North India to those native to the two historical regions of Bengal and Maharashtra, has largely been neglected by scholars, including ethnomusicologists. The primary assumption informing this study, then, is that, as almost every aspect of Indian culture varies markedly from region to region (including language, food habits, etc.), the regional cultures of Maharashtra and Bengal must have impacted classical music as it migrated to these regions. I approach this issue in two ways, which I term as the “Inside View” and the “Outside View.” The first represents a combination of the most common approach favored by scholars of Hindustani music, a generally objectivist approach that focuses primarily on biographies of individual musicians and on description and analysis of specifically musical processes, along with the viewpoint of the average Hindustani performer. The answers provided by this approach are partial. I complement this view of modern Hindustani music with the “Outside View,” which examines change in the tradition through the lens of larger social processes, particularly the influence of the tastes or aesthetic preferences of audience members native to these two regions, as well as by other aspects of regional culture, including the impact of semi-classical music genres native to these regions. As such, I not only demonstrate that specifically regional factors have impacted the style of classical music practiced in each of these regions, but also attempt to quantify and describe these changes.Item Instrumental bodies : constructing, curating, and consuming artisans' labors in transnational sitar making(2023-08-10) Kharod, Aruna; Slawek, Stephen; Seeman, Sonia Tamar, 1958-; Davis, Donald R; Nardini, Luisa; Dell'Antonio, AndrewFrom the 1800s onwards, sitar makers and affiliated artisans have shaped transnational cultural, political, and material exchanges of sitar making and music through their labors and roles as economic and cultural agents. However, historical representations that perpetuate Western European and Indian social, labor, and economic theories decontextualize, pathologize, and portray sitar making—alongside other forms of Indian hereditary artisanship—as incompatible with modern economic systems. Representing sitar makers as anachronistic intensifies their political and socioeconomic precarities as largely invisible artisans whose labors sustain vibrant worlds of sitar music in and beyond India. In this dissertation, I argue that five intersecting domains of discourse and practice render invisible sitar-making labors in transnational settings: 1) Indian and Western European social and economic theories of Indian hereditary artisanship; 2) colonial-era portraiture and museum curation of sitars and hereditary Indian artisans; 3) the opposition of constructs of labor and craft in sitar makers’ self-representation and literature on Indian artisanship; 4) leisure musical consumption in diasporic settings; and 5) Indian political policies on handicraft. I uncover connections between these five domains through historiographic and ethnographic research in museums, archives, and with sitar makers in India and the United States. Case studies from this research uncover sitar-making artisans’ roles as dynamic sociopolitical and cultural agents who adapt to and harness changing economic, political, and virtual infrastructures. Theoretically speaking, I draw upon interdisciplinary perspectives from critical organology, South Asian studies, economic and labor theory, and material culture studies to reveal how sitar makers navigate unpredictable material, political, social, and economic conditions. This historically grounded perspective counters contemporary cultural representations that erase or underplay the role of sitar makers in shaping the proliferation and cultural exchange of Hindustani music in India and its diasporas. It also reasserts the importance of historical, sociopolitical, and economic contexts in applications of material culture and ethnomusicological studies. By tracing how sitar makers engage, resist, leverage, and subvert historical processes and narratives through exercising their sociopolitical agencies, this dissertation establishes sitar makers’ roles as instrumental agents of musical and artisanal production.Item SAGAR: South Asia Graduate Research Journal, Volume 02, Number 2(1995) University of Texas at AustinItem Three songs for Hindustani vocalist, soprano and sinfonietta(2018-06-25) Tucker, Tara Avril; Sharlat, Yevgeniy, 1977-; Pinkston, RussellThis musical work by Tara (Akshaya) Avril Tucker was premiered on March 21, 2018 by Saili Oak, Suzanne Lis and the prismatx ensemble. The three songs each explore a different melody from Hindustani Khyal singing, interpreting them in the context of Western orchestration, harmony and form. The first song, Saiyan, is a fantasy on Shobha Gurtu's thumri “Saiyan nikas gaye,” and uses Raag Mishra Bhairavi and Raag Pratiksha. The text by Kamaali (c.15th Century) describes the plight of the body as its lover, the soul, departs. The second song, Geliebte Sakhi - Beloved Friend, winds around a Heinrich Heine text and a slow khyal composition by Ashwini Bhide Deshpande in Raag Bageshree, creating a meditative love song. The final song, Tarana - Dance, is based on abstract syllables (like “ta na na” and “de re na”), and includes snippets of two Tarana compositions by Ashwini Bhide Deshpande in Raag Bhimpalas and Raag Desh. The soprano and Hindustani vocalist explore fast runs as well as lyrical lines.