Examines the relationship between the structures provided by tradition, and the actual performance in reconsideration of the nature of 'tradition' in dhrupad. Includes a transcription of a compete dhrupad performance. First book-length study of an Indian vocal genre to be co-authored by an Indian practitioner and a Western musicologist

The concept of raga forms the basis of melodic composition and improvization in Indian classical music. This study traces the early history and development of the concept in the pre-Islamic period. It draws on early Indian theoretical sources, and focuses especially on the examples of notated melodies that they contain. This book should be of interest to musicologists and music students interested in ethnomusicology, historical musicology, music theory, mode and monody, and improvisation as well as sanskritists and other Indologists.

Dapha, or dapha bhajan, is a genre of Hindu-Buddhist devotional singing, performed by male, non-professional musicians of the farmer and other castes belonging to the Newar ethnic group, in the towns and villages of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. The songs, their texts, and their characteristic responsorial performance-style represent an extension of pan-South Asian traditions of raga- and tala-based devotional song, but at the same time embody distinctive characteristics of Newar culture. This culture is of unique importance as an urban South Asian society in which many traditional models survive into the modern age. There are few book-length studies of non-classical vocal music in South Asia, and none of dapha. Richard Widdess describes the music and musical practices of dapha, accounts for their historical origins and later transformations, investigates links with other South Asian traditions, and describes a cultural world in which music is an integral part of everyday social and religious life. The book focusses particularly on the musical system and structures of dapha, but aims to integrate their analysis with that of the cultural and historical context of the music, in order to address the question of what music means in a traditional South Asian society.

This is the fifth volume in a series of books devoted to the history, documentation and analysis of music in Asia. The five essays each have a different focus ranging from historical change in the Turkish classical repertoire, speech-tones and vocal melody in Thai court song, ritual theatre music in ancient India, pieces for biwa in calendrically correct tunings and an investigation of the sources for Japanese flute scores from the fourteenth century.

Examines the relationship between the structures provided by tradition, and the actual performance in reconsideration of the nature of 'tradition' in dhrupad. Includes a transcription of a compete dhrupad performance. First book-length study of an Indian vocal genre to be co-authored by an Indian practitioner and a Western musicologist