Indian Music

My Indian Music Site

by Teed Rockwell

According to Academia.edu, someone just did a search with the question "Are there two Teed Rockwells?". The answer is that there are at least two, but that they all live in the same skin. For those who want to meet the musical one, you can connect to this link to see and hear videos of my Indian music. (Both Hindustani and Bollywood). There are also links to my twenty years of columns as Music Critic for India Currents Magazine.

Hindustani Music In the 20th Century

by Wim van der Meer

My PhD on Hindustani vocal music. Not available in print anymore, though I have promised to publish a new edition with... more My PhD on Hindustani vocal music. Not available in print anymore, though I have promised to publish a new edition with some additions and corrections. The book contains a lucid description of the workings of Hindustani music and the changes that took place over the century before its fabrication.
The book owes much, nay everything, to my teacher, Pandit Dilip Chandra Vedi - himself disciple of stalwards like Uttam Singh, Bhaskar Rao Bakhle, Faiyaz Khan and Alladiya Khan. Yet, I hope I have critically linked his views to literature and other sources, although inevitably sometimes my stance is biased. Not ashamed!

Gesture and Melody In Indian Vocal Music

by Matt Rahaim

That Ban(e) of Indian Music: Hearing Politics in the Harmonium

by Matt Rahaim

The harmonium is both widely played and widely condemned in India. During the Indian independence movement, both... more The harmonium is both widely played and widely condemned in India. During the Indian independence movement, both British and Indian scholars condemned the harmonium for embodying an unwelcome foreign musical sensibility. It was consequently banned from All-India Radio from 1940 to 1971, and still is only provisionally accepted on the national airwaves. The debate over the harmonium hinged on putative sonic differences between India and the modern West, which were posited not by performers, but by a group of scholars, composers, and administrators, both British and Indian. The attempt to banish the sound of the harmonium was part of an attempt to define a national sound for India, distinct from the West. Its continued use in education served a some- what different national project: to standardize Indian music practice. This paper examines the intertwined aesthetic and political ideals that underlie the harmonium controversy.

Lessons from India: Globalization's implications for music education

by David Hebert

Journal of the Indian Musicological Society, 34, pp.38-46.
Also issued as reprint: Hebert, D. G., (2004). Lessons from India: Globalization’s Implications for Music Education. In R. C. Mehta, M. Hariharan & G. Kuppuswamy (Eds.), Music Education in the Asia Pacific Region (pp. 38-46). Mumbai & Baroda: Indian Musicological Society [reprint of refereed journal article].

Explores issues encountered as foreign educators incorporate Indian music into their teaching, and considers what... more Explores issues encountered as foreign educators incorporate Indian music into their teaching, and considers what contributions Indian educators might make to aid in such endeavors. Definitions are offered for terms that are relevant to the discussion of global music education: nationalism, internationalism, localization, globalization, appropriation, and representation. Even within India, how best to represent Indian music in textbooks is far from clear. The authors and publishers of elementary music textbooks in the U.S. must balance several competing objectives; in this context, they may be reduced to having to choose three or four songs to represent the entire Indian subcontinent in a textbook. Another issue is to what degree the teacher, in teaching a foreign song to a class, should follow the rules of the culture the song represents: The less familiar the teacher is with the culture represented, the greater the likelihood of producing a representation that could be viewed as inappropriate, or that even reinforces negative stereotypes. Four examples of Indian traditional music used in Western educational contexts are given: (1) Yayoi Uno Everett applies Indian music concepts, including traditional Indian percussion vocables, in teaching a Western aural skills music course to university students; (2) William Anderson has suggested having elementary students sing America in both rāgas bhairavī and pūrvī, and having them construct a jaltarang out of bowls filled with water; (3) Gerry Farrell has documented the teaching of traditional Indian music in London schools; and (4) Roseanna Vitro advocates the study and practice of traditional Indian vocal techniques among her jazz voice students. Further guidance from Indian scholars on how best to acquire and represent Indian music traditions is called for.

"Odissi": On the History of a Name

by David Dennen

draft

The Third Stream: Oḍiśī Music, Regional Nationalism, and the Concept of "Classical"

by David Dennen

There's a Jew in the Lotus Flower: Indian Devotional Songs in Contemporary Israel

by Yotam Baum

Pandits in the Movies: Contesting the Identity of Hindustani Classical Music and Musicians in the Hindi Popular Cinema.

by Gregory Booth

Asian Music 36/1, 2005. Pp. 60-86.

The Madras Corporation Band: A Story of Social Change and Indigenization

by Gregory Booth

Asian Music, 28 (1), 1996/97.  Pp. 61-87.

This study considers the history of the Tanjore/Madras Corporation Band in relation to changes in cultural context:... more This study considers the history of the Tanjore/Madras Corporation Band in relation to changes in cultural context: from private processional ensemble in colonial India, to state supported civic ensemble in independent India.  It raises questions regarding cultural interaction in a colonial framework and attempts at the adaptation of foreign cultural elements in India.  The article suggests that economic changes after the collapse of the independent princely states and a shift in the location of artistic patronage from the court centers to the commercial hubs of colonial India allowed for the technical, economic, and cultural possibility of wind band performance. 

Musiciking the Other: Orientalism in the Hindi Cinema

by Gregory Booth

Published in:
B. Zon and M. Clayton (eds.) Music and Orientalism in the British Empire, 1780s-1940s (Chapter 14), Pp. 315-338. 2007. London: Ashgate Press.

Conflict and Confluence: Constructing and Challenging Boundaries at the Ahiri Institute of Indian Classical Music and Dance

by Anna Stirr

Master's Thesis, Columbia University, 2005

The Madras Corporation Band: A Story of Social Change and Indigenization

by Gregory Booth

Asian Music, 28 (1), 1996/97.  Pp. 61-87.

This study considers the history of the Tanjore/Madras Corporation Band in relation to changes in cultural context:... more This study considers the history of the Tanjore/Madras Corporation Band in relation to changes in cultural context: from private processional ensemble in colonial India, to state supported civic ensemble in independent India.  It raises questions regarding cultural interaction in a colonial framework and attempts at the adaptation of foreign cultural elements in India.  The article suggests that economic changes after the collapse of the independent princely states and a shift in the location of artistic patronage from the court centers to the commercial hubs of colonial India allowed for the technical, economic, and cultural possibility of wind band performance. 

Space, Sound, Auspiciousness, and Performance in North Indian Wedding Processions.

by Gregory Booth

Book Chapter Published In: K. A. Jacobsen (ed.) South Asian Religions on Display (Chapter 4), Pp. 63-76. 2008. London: Routledge.

Brass Bands: Tradition, Change and the Mass Media in Indian Wedding Music

by Gregory Booth

Ethnomusicology, 34 (2), 1990. Pp. 245-262.

Traditional Content and Narrative Struc- ture in the Hindi Commercial Cinema

by Gregory Booth

Asian Folklore Studies, 54 (2), 1995. Pp. 169-190.

Traditional Practice and Mass Mediated Music in India

by Gregory Booth

International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, 24 (No. 2 - 1993). Pp. 159-174.

Making a Woman from a Tawaif: Courtesans as Heroes in Hindi Cinema

by Gregory Booth

New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 9 (2), 2007. Pp. 1-26

Taidemusiikkia Suuren Kulttuurin takamailla: mistä on nepalilainen taidemuusikko tehty?

by Lari Aaltonen

published in "Musiikin suunta" 4/2003.