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

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

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.

The Other Classical Musics offers challenging new perspectives on classical music by presenting the history of fifteen parallel traditions. Winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for Creative Communication 2015 There is a treasure trove of underappreciated music out there; this book will convince many to explore it. The Economist Whatis classical music? This book answers the question in a manner never before attempted, by presenting the history of fifteen parallel traditions, of which Western classical music is just one. Each music is analysed in terms of itsmodes, scales, and theory; its instruments, forms, and aesthetic goals; its historical development, golden age, and condition today; and the conventions governing its performance. The writers are leading ethnomusicologists, and their approach is based on the belief that music is best understood in the context of the culture which gave rise to it. By including Mande and Uzbek-Tajik music - plus North American jazz - in addition to the better-knownstyles of the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent, the Far East, and South-East Asia, this book offers challenging new perspectives on the word 'classical'. It shows the extent to which most classical traditions are underpinnedby improvisation, and reveals the cognate origins of seemingly unrelated musics; it reflects the multifarious ways in which colonialism, migration, and new technology have affected musical development, and continue to do today. With specialist language kept to a minimum, it's designed to help both students and general readers to appreciate musical traditions which may be unfamiliar to them, and to encounter the reality which lies behind that lazy adjective'exotic'. MICHAEL CHURCH has spent much of his career in newspapers as a literary and arts editor; since 2010 he has been the music and opera critic of The Independent. From 1992 to 2005 he reported on traditional musics all over the world for the BBC World Service; in 2004, Topic Records released a CD of his Kazakh field recordings and, in 2007, two further CDs of his recordings in Georgia and Chechnya. Contributors: Michael Church, Scott DeVeaux, Ivan Hewett, David W. Hughes, Jonathan Katz, Roderic Knight, Frank Kouwenhoven, Robert Labaree, Scott Marcus, Terry E. Miller, Dwight F. Reynolds, Neil Sorrell, Will Sumits, Richard Widdess, Ameneh Youssefzadeh

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.

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.