Author: N A Jairazbhoy
Publisher: Popular Prakashan
Year: 2011
Language: English
Pages: 248
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788171543953
Description
Why does Indian music have its present form? How can we understand and interpret its distinctive features? An Aura of mystery has always surrounded the theory and practice of Indian music and now, with its influence ever strengthening in the West, a Study as lucid and penetrating as that made by Professor Jairazbhoy is of special significance.
Its subject is the Rags, and the whole tonal and scalar basis of north Indian music. The important features of the idiom arc considered in detail- the structure of melody, the effect of the drone, ornamentation and intonation, the function of accidentals and so on. These are related to a brilliant and well-documented survey of the evolutionary processes that have shaped the Rags of today. With many cross references between Eastern and Western music traditions, the author shows how north Indian music is a dynamic, and not a static, system, and the principles that emerge from his fascinating discussion cannot fail to illuminate the idiom for both theoretician and listener. Those approaching Indian music for the first time will find the concise explanation of Musical theory and its historical background a Model of clarity. Specialists in the field will find here many Original contributions to Ethnomusicology in general.
This brand new edition contains an essay entitled 'What Happened to Indian Music Theory? Indo-Occidentalism?' published in 2008 in Ethnomusicology the journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology.
The subject of this book is the Rags, and the whole tonal and scalar basis of north Indian music. The important features are considered in detail-the structure of melody, the effect of the drone, ornamentation and intonation, the function of accidentals and so on.
These are related to a brilliant and well-documented survey of the evolutionary process that have shaped the Rags of today. With many cross references between Eastern and Western music traditions, the author shows how north Indian music is a dynamic, and not a static, system and the principles that emerge from his fascinating discussion cannot fail to illuminate the idiom for both theoretician and listener.
A free Audio CD with a new essay on Indian Music Theory and Indo-Occidentalism.
Contents
Contents
Preface to the New Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Acknowledgements
Note on Transliteration and Pronunciation
Introduction to Technical Terms
Introduction to the Historical Background
1. An Outline of Present-day North Indian Classical Music
2. Basic Elements of Theory
3. That
4. The Effect of Drones
5. Evolution of the Circle of Thats
6. Alternative Notes
7. Transilient Scales
8. Symmetry, Movement and Intonation
Summary
Appendix A: - The Systems of thirty-two Thats
Appendix B: - Description and Notation of Recorded Music Examples
Bibliography
Index