North Indian Music Research Papers (original) (raw)

2025

Situated in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, the city of Rampur has historically been a focal point of politics and cultural heritage. Its history is infused with a mosaic of cultural pluralism and political importance. Yet, while there are Urdu works on the subject by local authors, there is a noticeable scarcity of historical works in English on the city and its evolution over time. This dearth is particularly conspicuous considering its historical value and the unique sociopolitical significance it occupied during its princely era during the late-eighteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries. It is in this context that Razak Khan's book excels as an effective contribution and fulfils a long-standing intellectual void. Minority Pasts is a pioneering and comprehensive exploration of the history and politics of Rampur, which holds significant importance in both colonial and postcolonial Indian history. The book covers the transitions and shifts in Rampur's governance, traversing its phases from the princely era to colonial rule, and then into the postcolonial period. The book is also important because it proposes fresh ways of looking at politics, changes and development in princely states by shifting the focus from rulers to subjects. It also encourages the reader to move beyond the so-called divide between the 'modernists' and the 'traditionalists', and to explore the complexities of creating local identities and public culture. A big asset of the book is the rich array of sources it is based on. It draws upon archives and oral histories in Persian, Pashto, Urdu, Hindi and English. Khan also delves into colonial records, including private papers of colonial officials, gazetteers, census and annual reports covering revenue, education, administration and judicial proceedings. In addition, the author explores written sources from the Rampur state itself, such as its administrative reports, surveys, letters of rulers and diaries. This helps him uncover both the projections and self-perceptions of the princely elite. To gain a sense of the public culture in Rampur, the study focuses on Urdu newspapers like Dabdaba-e-Sikandari, Naiyyar-e-Azam and Najm-ul-Hind, which were published across various qasbas and cities of Rohilkhand. The author also extends beyond courtly texts and colonial archives by

2025, University of California, Santa Cruz

This dissertation excavates a forgotten history of Hindustani (North Indian) art music in the United States beginning with Bengali musician and restaurateur Sarat Lahiri (c. 1897-1941), whose name surfaces peripherally in the academic literature on American composer Henry Cowell (1897-1965), the New School for Social Research, and the 1930s Manhattan restaurant trade. By tracing scattered archival references to Lahiri and reconstructing a network of his collaborators, my research centers the migrations and activities of musicians from colonial India in the decades preceding Indian independence in 1947. These early-twentieth-century migrants navigated a world shaped by European colonialism, global anticolonial movements, nativist racism and legal exclusion in the United States, and the exoticist fantasies and commercial pressures of American Orientalism. They traversed social and economic landscapes characterized by sweeping change, unexpected encounters, and unforeseen hardships. Lahiri’s career in New York between 1923 and 1941 provides a means of engaging the Orientalism of the era, including its expressions in modernist movements in music and dance, and considering how this dynamic milieu shaped the everyday lives of working immigrant musicians. As I situate Lahiri and his contemporaries in contexts ranging from the local to the global, I discuss the involvement of artists, activists, and intellectuals from the Indian subcontinent across multiple domains of American cultural production in the early twentieth century.

2025

"Dhir Dhir" is a unique subject of current interest among tabla performers and teachers in India. "Dhir Dhir" is used in many musical traditions with varying styles. In this paper, I discuss how this technique can be effectively taught using modern virtual platforms. The work aims to identify effective teaching techniques and state frameworks applicable to Sri Lankan students in their virtual classrooms. Further research intends to analyse methods subjectively used by Indian teachers and performers of different levels in their online demonstrations. In my discussions, I address problems and issues regarding the implementation of this technique, such as the current controversy among some regarding the best time to learn "Dhir Dhir" sound production for optimal impact on tabla learning. The lack of empirical study regarding this matter raised the importance of the research. Research for this study was conducted using on YouTube channels that include "Dhir Dhir" demonstration and lessons. Sixty-eight videos were observed and considered before making precise conclusions. Subjective analysis was used as research methodology with an outline while observing the visual materials. According to prevailing circumstances, video materials are the only substitute way to convey the methods of Dhir Dhir playing to the students. Four significant styles and methods have been identified through observations that could be implemented on local study programs. The study revealed that no one mentions the exact time to introduce the "Dhir Dhir' composition in students' careers. Overall, I conclude that the implementation of "Dhir Dhir" contains practical implications that needs to be pursued in order to assess the correct method for effective sound production with long term practices.

2025, Brill’s Encyclopedia of Sikhism, Volume 2

2025, Cahiers d’ethnomusicologie. Anciennement Cahiers de musiques traditionnelles

2025, International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts.

In the Middle Ages every Social-Political movement had taken a theological form and the Bhakti movement in India of the medieval times was an idealistic manifestation of the socio-cultural realties of the time.The development of social system consists of a process of structural adaptations generated by cultural coherence and innovations from indigenous or extraneous sources.Interests of society's cultural complexes compete for institutions within a social system ,till the tensions are resolved either through integration by consonance or dissonance .The Bhakti movement performed this task by performing at different levels. Its vernacular poetry/ songs provide the country with a sense of shared richness and its literature puts forth a spirit of tolerance for everyone and a tendency to encompass rather than exclude. Bhakti tradition perceived India's democratic vision without distinction of language, religion, cast and community. This Paper intends to touch upon inclusion of hymns/poetry of Saints and Bhaktas from medieval times, as "Bhagat Bani" in the Adi Granth. An attempt has also been made to analyse and explore, how despite different vernacular expressions of regions and periods, inclusion of Bhakti Poetry as "Bhagat Bani" is entirely unaffected from linguistic, social, and cultural boundaries. The research paper concludes with the submission that, since medieval times, Bhagat Bani, is a successful unique example in the dissemination of sense of equality, cultural unity through amalgamation of Vernacular languages and egalitarian components leading humankind towards Peace and Harmony.

2025, Shodh Drishti (An International Peer Reviewed Refereed Research Journal), Vol. 12, No. 12.2,

The Sitar is considered as a leading music instrument in the North Indian classical music; and it is an excellent plucked stringed instrument which has its own playing techniques. Many musicians have contributed to the development of the sitar. The Modern Sitar Players too presented many performances after improving the style and techniques of Playing Sitar. So with playing improvement we have to give priority about the sound process to uplift its elements. This paper investigates about how to use technical aids when sitar players are performing Hindustani solo performance in sitar on the stage. With suitable technical aids they perform become better. While artists are performing sitar they use technical aids like proper sound system as suitable microphones and suitable pickups, monitor systems etc. Their sitar performances become high qualitative performance with using suitable quality equipment and systems. There are basically 3 main ways to pickup a sitar sound, using a condenser microphone, a dynamic microphone, or a transducer. A dynamic microphone uses for live performance and a transducer use when playing with a group or other instruments to avoid feedback. Secondary, the important technical aid is sound monitors. Stage monitor systems are speakers on stage pointing towards the performers to help them hear themselves. The first thing is sitar sound should be real sitar sound on live stage. The second thing is separation of sitar and Tabla. Then the musician can perform sitar on his real mood. In result, this study May help to understand how and why using with benefit technical aids when Indian sitar players are performing Hindustani solo performance in sitar on the stage.

2025, Pure Entertainment: Parsi Theatre, Gender, and Performance - published my Primus Books

This book brings together my best-known work on the Parsi theatre. Fourteen essays written over the past twenty-five years are assembled here for the first time. Parsi theatre was a type of live stage performance popular throughout urban India from the 1870s to the 1930s. It originated in Bombay with the educated Parsi community and then quickly spread across the subcontinent. By the end of the nineteenth century, Parsi theatrical companies had travelled to South-East Asia and even beyond.

2025, Canadian Acoustics

The rate at which time appears to pass is not uniform, but may vary depending on a number of factors. Time perception may be influenced both by the attentional state of the perceiver and by the characteristics of stimuli to which a person is attending O rnstein, 1969). Several researchers have suggested that time perception is most generally related to the amount of processing activity . Others have attempted to develop a theory of time perception based on the concept of an internal clock . This paper concerns the perception of time during music listening. Although many studies of musical time have focussed on sensitivity to rhythm and meter (e.g., Longuet-Higgins & Lee, 1982), few have examined the ability of listeners to judge duration over several bars. In a study by , listeners were presented excerpts from pieces by Stockhausen (Experiment 3) and by Mozart (Experiment 6). The excerpts all differed in duration, but had an average duration of about 30 seconds. Listeners were asked to judge the duration of each excerpt, and were also asked to rate each excerpt on a number of subjective scales, such as com plexity, variedness, and com pleteness. Regression analyses suggested that judgements of duration were highly veridical, and were apparently not influenced by the subjective characteristics of the excerpts.

2025, International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews

Music is always a human marvel in the time frame, language and culture. Furthermore, it has become a fragment of the social heritage of many regions. The current paper analyzes and talks about how a specific type of music, along with its fame, takes the position of alternative music in style and introduction. The aim and the objective to conduct this study are to understand the background of the famous Bhojpuri traditional song-Kajri‖ and how it is can be categorized as under musical communication. The focus of the examination is to grasp the communicative aspects of-Kajri‖ and some more about their way of entertainment. Apart from collecting fresh data of tradition, religious beliefs of the indigenous cultures, the emphasis was laid on the qualitative assessment of the data and comparing them. And, Secondary data had been collected from library search, Journals, Books, and web sites pages. The paper will essentially be in view of the Indian melodic setting, especially Hindustani Music. Traditional and semi-classical music is a sort of music that has a norm, style, punctuation, standards, and performed by gifted artists. Indeed, to see and appreciate tones requires some knowledge and understanding of the genre. Then again, people's music is a sort of customary music of average folks of a specific local area generally to portray a verse.

2024, Vageeshwari

Hindustani classical music is a very expressive art form. Through its development during medieval times, the melodic mode (also known as the Raga) has been expressed through paintings. These raga(s) along with their consort, the Ragini (s) are picturised beautifully by artists in the ragamala paintings. This study aims to delve into one such parent raga Deepak, and its Ragini (s), and study it through the semiotic analysis of the paintings.

2024, Sangitika

Hindustani music in its entirety is made up of iconic depictions constituting cultural and musical references. This research article takes into account Charles S. Peirce's study ofHypoicons (which are true representations of icons), puts it into the reference of icons in Hindustani music and its subsequent application in musical images, diagrams and metaphors.

2024, Literature & Theology

This essay examines some limitations of the critical framework deployed by theorists of modern secular Punjabi literature to establish the distinct of this genre and the nature of secular poetic consciousness in contradistinction from so called "medieval theocentric" literary genres such as gurbāni-better known as Sikh scripture. An important consequence of this reclassification of the "secular modern" versus "medieval sacred" literature, was the de-ontologization of the notion of Word (śabad), achieved by disinvesting the concept of śabad of connection to reality, self and world-making. I offer a different way of reading genres such as gurbāni which not only defy oppositional categories such as premodern/modern, secular/religious, but equally caution us from straightforward identification with the post-secular, post-modern, or post-human.

2024, Music of the Twenty-First Century Diasporas: Research and Methods.

2024

Beyond the Binary explores the intersection of gender with cross-cultural identity in composer Reena Esmail's professional life and choral music. This intersection manifests in her musical style, which accesses the resonant spaces between Western and Indian classical music. I argue that it is through the convergence of Esmail's gender identity with her cross-cultural identity that her compositions challenge gender norms and break down perceived barriers between East and West, inviting her listeners into an intersectional feminist space. This project synthesizes musicological, theoretical, and ethnographic methods, and is meant as a starting point for choral musicians and scholars to consider cultural difference and its impact on choral music. What begins as a consideration of social themes within Esmail's life and work culminates in a practical musical analysis and performance practice guide to aid conductors in preparation of Esmail's music. The compositions discuss...

2024

The purpose of this position paper is to advocate for marriage equality and the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ individuals within Sikh gurdwaras. Though the paper advocates for the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ Sikhs, the report does not provide a model... more

2024, Naad Nartan

Havēlī Saṅgīta is a specialised form of music of the Puṣṭi Mārga tradition founded by Śrī Vallabhācārya, performed at the
Vaiṣṇava temples of north, west and central India. The musical and compositional style is Dhruvapada. The musical compositions
of Havēlī Saṅgīta, set in specific rāga-s and tāla-s are sung accompanying the worship or sēva performed during the day. Havēlī
Saṅgīta comprising precomposed as well as improvisational music, has been handed down through oral tradition over the years.
The practitioners of the authentic form are few in number. During the pandemic period, a few musicians of this tradition have
used the internet, particularly social media, for performance, archiving and teaching music. The present study aims to analyse
the effectiveness of the internet in preserving and propagating Havēlī Saṅgīta. The methodology is qualitative, descriptive and
exploratory. The data for this study comprises internet archival recordings and interviews with experts. Key findings of the study
are: authentic features of Havēlī Saṅgīta have been mostly preserved, while some adaptations are also seen.
Key words: Havēlī Saṅgīta, temple music, music performance, pedagogy, archive, online

2024, American Understanding of India

Sometimes the time lag between a paper presented and a paper published can extend to decades. Although this paper was published in 2001, it was actually based on a conference held in the mid-1980s. So it is obviously very much dated.

2024, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi And Kirana Gharana: Some Observations

Of arts, some are demonstrable, others indemonstrable; and demonstrable are those the construction of the subject whereof is in the power of the artist himself, who, in his demonstration , does no more but deduce the consequences of his operation. [...] Thomas Hobbes-The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmsbury, ed. Sir William Molesworth (London, 1839-45), vii 183-4.

2024

The term Taal and Theka are relative concepts in Tabla playing where Taal is intangible and Theka is tangible version of any Taal. The primary purpose of any Taal is to measure the length of music. In other words we can say that the Taal is the yardstick of Music. Theka is a practical expression through the basic syllables of Tabla and Dugga which represent the nature of any particular Taal. The structure of Taal is always stable and fix in the form of divisions, Taali-Khali kriya and not flexible compared to a Theka. Whereas Theka is depended and based on the structure of a Taal and without Taal we cannot think about Theka. In north Indian Music we find various Taal of similar metric cycles and its provision for various forms in Music. This paper aims to discuss the provision of Taal and Theka in Tabla Playing.

2024

Tabla is inevitably an important percussion instrument in North Indian / Hindustani classical music today. Undoubtedly it is one of the most advanced, capable, useful and popular instrument of Indian Music. Due to its peculiarity Tabla is well known and well appreciated across the globe. Tabla has its own rich and varied language, also it has an enriched repertoire compared to any other percussion instruments till date. The structure of Tabla makes it a special instrument the use of permanent Syhai on Dugga and its finger techniques make it possible to produce delicate as well as powerful sounds for the compositions successfully. The language of Tabla is created through variety of sounds and aesthetics of language is based on the mixture of vowel-consonant sound used in it. Language and Nikas technique plays an important part in various forms of compositions in Tabla playing. These compositions are divided into two parts i.e. Extendable and Non Extendable compositions.

2024, Kutap

In the sphere of Indian musical tradition, “folk” and “classical” music have long been topics of discourse. However, the debate has mostly been one-sided, either highlighting the differences between these two styles in an attempt to determine which is greater or if more brings forward their fusion or confluences. What has received less attention is the inter-derivation and inter-relationship between both, which, if established, would contribute to the chasm of Indian musical democracy as well as strengthen the socio-cultural integrity of the country. In this article,
we will analyse the inextricable linkage between folk and classical music, especially deriving the folk roots to various Indian ragas, trace the path of how pure-folk melodies have gradually been integrated into Hindustani classical music as distinct musical styles, and emphasise the significance of sustaining the unspoken connection that exists between them.

2024

Cet article aborde la question des relations entre musique et croyance, plus largement entre art et dévotion religieuse, dans le contexte de la tradition carnatique (Inde du Sud). Il revêt la forme d’un court récit qui mêle la réalité – celle des faits observés, des paroles entendues, des documents collectés lors de voyages de recherche en Inde – et la fiction. L’invention littéraire a avant tout permis, à travers la création d’une histoire, de relier plusieurs expériences de terrain dans une même trame narrative, de leur donner corps et, par le jeu de la description objective et de l’interprétation, naturellement subjective, de poser la problématique de l’art, de sa nature et ses usages. Dans ce texte, un musicien, nommé Hari, sera irrésistiblement attiré par une carrière de virtuose et amené à prendre une cruelle décision : satisfaire ses désirs musicaux et les attentes de son auditoire, au péril de la vie de ses proches. Dans divers rituels, certains actes peuvent avoir des effet...

2024, Cahiers D Ethnomusicologie Anciennement Cahiers De Musiques Traditionnelles

Il fit cette offrande chantée avec beaucoup d'art. Mais, se demanda-t-il, pourquoi ce chant ? » 2 S. Rāmanujam Le prêtre baissa le voile devant l'image divine. La nuit venait de tomber. La pūjā 3 était achevée. Les récitations et les chants qu'avait entonnés Hariprasād laissèrent bientôt place au vrombissement des hautbois et aux roulements des tambours. L'énergie du rituel s'était transmise dans leurs sons mats et éreintants. Odeurs moites et entêtantes des offrandes, fumée opaque de l'encens : la cérémonie avait captivé tous les sens. Sur la fresque du sanctuaire, Viṣṇu, étendu sur l'immortel serpent, dormait. Immergé dans l'oubli du sommeil, il goûtait le rasa 4 du monde à venir qui, bientôt, jaillirait de son rêve. Aux portes du temple, la foule des dévots regagnait déjà l'âpre quotidien des hommes. Le virtuose Cahiers d'ethnomusicologie, 25 | 2014

2024, Swar Sindhu

In the 21st century, Hindustāni Classical Music has seen its adaptation onto various kinds of instruments viz, Aerophones, Chordophones, Membranophones, and Idiophones. Jalataraṅga / Jalataraṅgaṃ / Jaltarang is an Idiophonic solo concert instrument in Hindustāni Classical Music where musicians have performed exclusive Rāga concerts. This study through casestudy method attempts at exploring the performance of Rāga Bhūpāl Tōḍi on Jalataraṅga and analysing the approach to Rāga and the playing techniques. Analysis has been done for the Introductory-Ālāp segment of the Rāga presentation with respect to the following parameters - relative duration, range of svara-s explored, structure of ālāp, approach to rāga phrases, and playing techniques. This study leads to understanding the approach to performing Hindustāni Classical Rāga-s on Jalataraṅga.

2024, International Journal of Humanities & Social Science Studies (IJHSSS)

The tradition of Hindustani Classical Music is age-old. Different forms under this music evolved out of Indian Classical Music in due course time. Raga is the core of Indian Classical Music and the prevailing Cultural tradition as well. Various Classical and Semi-classical Forms of Hindustani Classical Music such as Dhrupad, Dhamar, Khyal, Tappa, Thummri, Tarana etc. had been exercised by the Court-musicians and the Gharana Maestros since from the medieval period in northern India. Gharana, an exclusive feature or system in Hindustani Classical Music, is meant for maintaining the standard and variety. The practice of the same has also meticulously been observed among the Performers and Practitioners belonging to specified Gharanas till the twentieth century. The overall standard as well as the versatility of such music is being found gradually deteriorated in spite of the foundation of numerous institutions under the Department of Higher Education across the country as well as consistent practice and performances among the learners both from institutional and private segments.
This paper intends to find the cause of the concurrent problem through proper analysis and the solution at the same time.

2024, Cracow Indological Studies

2024, The Book Review

"UNISH SHATAKER BANGLA SAHITYE HINDUSTANI SANGEET" by Anindya Bandopadhyay was published in 2022. The book, written in Bengali by Bandopadhyay, is an interesting and easy read on the subject of musical writing in the nineteenth century... more

2024, Nineteenth Century Music Review

Abstract: Print created the urge to innovate new modalities of musical knowledge production and dissemination in nineteenth-century Bengal. Publication of music books made the bifurcation between music theory and practice clearer, but... more

2024, Acoustics of Empire: Sound, Media, and Power in the Long Nineteenth Century

From the book, Acoustics of Empire, edited by Peter McMurray and Priyasha Mukhopadhyay -- the complete work is Open Access and available from Oxford University Press. This chapter explores the interaction and dialogue between early... more

2024, The Hindu

's latest book is an invaluable addition to the few on Indian music. The book is not only an evidence of her scholarship and intensive research in a subject that many do not know about, but is also a riveting page turner. Her evocative bring alive the world of music in that era. Confining herself to the period between 1748 and 1848, "one of the most significant periods of change for Hindustani music", Katherine rues that the period has not been "properly mapped". The reason, "a pervasive belief" that the musicians were illiterate. The 2000-year-old tradition of writing sangita shastras stopped during this period, and Musicians from the Mughal era who shaped Hindustani music Katherine Butler Schofield's Music and Musicians in Late Mughal India presents a well-researched slice of music history.

2024, The Routledge Companion to Global Film Music in the Early Sound Era

The chapter explores the initial years of the sound film made in the Indian subcontinent, a period marked by a paucity of surviving film prints. By tracing the contributions of key figures of the period and the varied cultural backgrounds they belonged to, the chapter attempts to bring to life the astonishing range of sounds and musical influences that continue to impact filmmakers and composers. By studying surviving songs and examining film magazine reviews and, most importantly, the precious interview and composition notes of the music composer Madhavlal Master for the serial Hatimtai (1933), the chapter examines how the introduction of sound film technology heralded fascinating ways of engaging with sound and music, both familiar and new.

2024, Gulmohur Quarterly

This is a reflection on Kaifiyat exploring its various themes, artistic sequences—that have been presented in the film in a non-linear dreamlike form, drawing at length on a long-form interview that I had conducted with the filmmaker.

2024

This paper is inspired in part by the necessity for examination of the cross-cultural application of musical terminology, and suggests that such examination is illuminating of both our understanding and of our own interpretative assumptions. I examine the term "heterophony", both in general and in how it is used to describe melodic accompaniment, or sangat, in North Indian music. I argue that the value of heterophony as a term of translation lies in its insistent multivalence, its imprecision. I emphasise the importance of understanding both musical processes and the aesthetic and socio-musical factors that help to determine and are represented therein.Ovaj je tekst djelomice nadahnut potrebom za ispitivanjem međukulturalnih primjena glazbene terminologije. Nakon kratkog navođenja primjera za takve probleme ispitivanjem primjene termina \u27drone\u27 (trubanj) sugerira se da takvo ispitivanje može osvijetliti i naše razumijevanje vlastitih interpretativnih pretpostavki. Is...

2024, Analytical Approaches to World Music

Buddhist monks at Wutaishan in Shanxi Province, China perform melodies on shengguan wind instruments that seem to move to lower and lower pitches while actually remaining in the same narrow range. Pitch paradoxes such as octave cycling have been documented in music of Africa and Europe, but this is the first such example from East Asia to receive scholarly attention. This article examines how the pitch and timbre of the flute, double reed pipe, and mouth organ work together to create the auditory illusions in shengguanyue. It also argues that the discovery of pitch paradoxes in this repertoire should inspire scholars to undertake more rigorous analysis and more detailed transcription in order to discover the complexities that might be hidden inside what seem to be simple Chinese traditional tunes.

2024, Granthaalayah Publications and Printers

This research explores the intricate interplay between feminism and the musical landscape of North-east India, focusing on the state of Assam, Sikkim, and Meghalaya, delving into both traditional and contemporary expressions. In the region known for its diverse cultures, the study aims to elucidate the place of women in traditional music, analyze the representation of women in contemporary genres, and the feminist that are prevalent in the North-east Indian music tradition and industry. Through ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and a comparative analysis of gender dynamics in the industry, the research seeks to uncover the ways in which music acts as a conduit for challenging and reshaping societal perceptions of gender roles. The findings aim to contribute to the global discourse on feminism in music while providing nuanced insights into the unique cultural context of North-east India. This research not only adds to academic knowledge but also holds practical implications for fostering gender equality and empowerment within the regional music scene.

2024

Brought up in a predominantly dhrupadi ambience, Tagore perhaps could not come to terms with the predominantly khyal-based transition of Hindustani music that took place since the 1920s. He maintained an uneasy alliance with the latter... more

2024, Springer

It is a well-known fact that most western music is based on equal temperament, but Indian music is based on just intonation. However, the west has always been in the lead in creating electronic music processing tools like keyboards and software like Ableton Live. These instruments and programmes made by the west and intended mainly for Western music are increasingly used in Indian film music and a lot of fusion music (Equal temperament).A quantitative assessment is required to determine how severe the compromise is when using this software or instruments for Indian music production. We discovered that, despite numerous papers stating the distinction between the two types of scales (just intonation and equal temperament), there isn't a single thorough study that carries out trials and documents the honour. We are conducting this study for the first time. In this piece, we experiment with numerous Indian instrumental and vocal compositions to compare equal temperament with merely intonated scales. We discovered that the compromise is minimal when the music is mostly instrumental but significant when it is vocal. We also identified intriguing patterns in the musical notes (of Indian music) that were "closer" to the equivalent equal temperament notes than just intonated notes by examining the frequency values. For this study's sake, we evaluate plain notes exclusively; we do not examine musical notes containing the words "gamakam" or "meend." Since only plain notes are discussed in this text, Carnatic and Hindustani music can benefit from them. Finally, we make the dataset available to the general public to encourage more research in this area.

2024, Royal Music Association Research Chronicle

Global music history projects have become increasingly popular in recent years. Going global has its advantages: it develops conversations between researchers working on disparate regions; it sheds light on larger frameworks that are less evident on smaller scales of analysis; it decentres how we teach music history; and it retraces a global hinterland for music systems that have conventionally been called 'Western'. At the same time, the global history approach raises challenges for researchers working on the world beyond Europe. In particular, there is the danger of unintentionally reinstating Eurocentrism, either by uncritically exporting research questions based on the European experience to the wider world, or by narrowing our focus onto those musicians and scholars who engaged with European ideas and practices, especially in colonial settings. This work is valuable, but it also comes with risks. This essay considers these problems through a case study: a largely forgotten music scholar, Goswami Pannalal, who travelled and taught across north India in the late nineteenth century. Examining his musicological study in Hindi, the Nād Binod ('Sonic Delight', 1896), I consider how far asking 'global' questions might shed light on his work, and offer an alternative reading based on a 'significant geographies' approach.

2024, Sikh Formations

This piece revisits my 2012 article for Sikh Formations titled 'From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric,' which gave a revised history of Yogi Bhajan's Kundalini Yoga, and narrates its reception and influence in subsequent years, especially since 2020 with revelations of abuse by Yogi Bhajan and within 3HO institutions. It argues that 'From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric' played a role as both a threat to legitimacy and then a tool of crisis management for 3HO, and the reception of the article highlights the importance of Yogi Bhajan's yoga and claimed titles during the longer history of 3HO through the present moment.

2024

Sangeet-Ratna Narhar Buwa Patankar was a revered singer from the tradition of Bhaskar Buwa Bakhale. This article reviews the life and discography of Narhar Buwa Patankar. The article was written on the request of Dr Suresh Chandvankar,... more

2024

Numerous studies have been conducted on the connection between music and the brain, and it has been established that listening to music directly affects brain activity and stimulation. The potential benefits of music therapy, which uses music as a tool for healing and fostering well-being, have come to light in a number of circumstances. However, there is a gap in understanding the effects of Indian classical music (ICM) on the brain and its therapeutic applications. In this work, the authors propose a systematic approach for identifying brain regions evoked to live ICM stimuli, considering input and output uncertainties. The brain responses are captured through 24 channel Electroencephalogram (EEG) cap, which is utilized to allocate electrodes to different regions of the brain. The proposed region specific near-automated framework based on eigen perturbation framework provides a measure to capture the time evolution of brain activity for the melodic transition or transition from a ...

2024

How can we train adults in listenership for Indian Hindustani music belonging to a different culture? Can mimetic comprehension of beat patterns using hand gestures and visual feedback improve rhythm perception and recognition ability? Culture influences the processing of music rhythm, but the precise aspects are still unknown. We developed a rhythm training setup to perform a music cognitive study and investigate the effects of visual feedback enforced mimetic comprehension of Hindustani Rhythmic Beat Patterns (also called Talas) on participants with different musical cultural background. The participants were trained in three different Talas: Tintal (16 beats), Ektal (12 beats) and Jhaptal (10 Beats). We investigated whether the participants are able to (1) detect the "Sam", which is the starting beat of every beat cycle by pressing the key "s" on keyboard while listening to the audio excerpt and (2) recognize the Tal in 12 different audio excerpts of Hindustan...

2024, PRANAV JOURNAL OF FINE ARTS

Jhālā is an integral part of the sitār recital, and the sitār players have been using this aṁg as the concluding section since 1900. Several texts describe the variations as Ulat Jhālā, Sulat Jhālā, Thok Jhālā, Kattar Jhālā, and other variations like bol-designs on the cikārī. There are significant studies on the evolution of sitār, playing styles, techniques, and construction. Roychoudhary, B and Bandyopadhyay, Sripada mentioned different types of Jhālā but did not describe them under the reference of Imdadkhani Gharana. Roychaudhary also enumerated various forms of Jhālā as subsections of 12-aṁg ālāp. The current investigation identified the characteristic forms of Jhālā, the components carried forward and percolated through the lineage of Imdadkhani Gharana. The research identified and studied 30 sample videos of Imdad Khan, Inayat Khan, Vilayat Khan, and Shujaat Khan from the YouTube repository. The data covers 118 years, from 1904 to 2022, as referenced on YouTube. These recordings were critically analysed. The findings reveal that the basic structural form of Jhālā remained intact, with a few additions in variations with the transitions from one generation to the next.

2024, Women's Link Women's Link: An International Bi-Annual Peer Reviewed Jamia Journal Volume 31 Issue 1 (January 2024), ed. Simi Malhotra

Despite their widely divergent historical and cultural moorings, two recent films, Anvita Dutt Guptan’s Qala (2022) in Hindi and American director Todd Field’s Tár (2022) in English coincide in instrumentalizing and implicating the gendered politics of exclusion built into the institution that is music. Both films study close relationships between and among its women practitioners. Both offer an ambivalent representation of women as tragic victims and perpetrators, often in the same person, with a view to exposing the complex dynamics of power, discrimination and mental health in circles of music.
This auto-ethnomusicological article also argues that both texts occasion certain closely interrelated contingent readings as to the unresolved tension music as an art-form generates within itself. This friction between its abstracted ideal or ethos and its socially embedded praxis becomes a key determinant in the two films’ treatment of women’s equations with women and men in their respective cultural and historical milieus.
The article places the two films in perspective by cross-referencing select other film-texts with music as theme and setting. In doing so, it seeks to demonstrate where exactly Qala and Tár mark a shift from the historicity and politics of musical cultures explored in earlier Indian and Western cinema respectively.