This book provides a socio-cultural analysis of khayal bandishes composed by Ne’mat Khan ‘Sadarang’ and Feroze Khan ‘Adarang’. It argues that deciphering khayal bandishes as cultural symbols provides an understanding of the constitution of medieval Indian society and shows how society gets represented via such symbols. The author examines the cultural forces that nurtured the context of compositions by Sadarang and Adarang. She touches upon the cultural exchanges between Hindu and Muslim communities through scholarly and philosophical discourses to create a rationale for khayal as a syncretic form of art. A unique contribution to the study of Indian culture and music, the book will be an indispensable resource for students, teachers, and researcher scholars of South Asian studies, Hindustani music, cultural studies, history, and medieval Indian society.

As thumri moved from the courtesan salon to the Public concert hall, its style and image changed drametically in accordance with the evolving aesthetic of its new bourgeois patrons. Thumri in Historical and stylistic perspectives constitutes a welcome and significant contribution to the study of Hindustani music and south Asian culture in general.

Illustrations: With an Audio Cd Description: The writings on Indian music have been mostly on theoretical aspects and mainly by theoreticians and not by practising musicians. It is still rare to find a woman performer who has written on music performance from different angles. In Enlightening the Listener, Prabha Atre, a noted vocalist examines with a liberal and holistic approach various aspects of a contemporary North Indian classical vocal music performance for a lay listener. While doing this she critically and objectively tries to seek in the context of changing times new meaning appropriate to what has come down from tradition. Her academic background, analytical mind, logical approach and communication skills put this book in a special category. This book deals with various aspects of music performance as also persons and institutions involved in 'Music making'. Dr. Atre's diverse experience as a singer, composer, teacher and thinker has lent authenticity to this work. From a point of view of a lay listener, she unfolds artistically the creative process of music making and thus gently guides the reader towards better appreciation. The accompanying cassette with illustrations is an added feature of this book. Listening to it will help the reader to identify the musical material and forms and gives an idea of the techniques involved.

This monograph presents a diverse collection of articles on Indian Art Music based on analytical work aided by computational tools. The book focuses mainly on the current practices in music and its representation in audio recordings, a perspective that is particularly relevant to oral traditions. It presents a rare and unique example of collaboration between musicians, musicologists, scientists, and engineers. The presentation brings together various aspects of research on Indian art music that benefits from audio processing or computing, ranging from musicology to information retrieval to instrument modeling. It is hoped that the monograph will serve as an accessible introduction to computational approaches for Indian art music in particular, and ethnomusicology more generally.

This book is perhaps the first comprehensive guide to understanding all the aspects and finer nuances of Hindustani classical music. It is aimed at the serious listener, that is, someone who may not have had any formal lessons himself in this performing art, but who, nevertheless, has picked up an initial interest in listening to classical music, and is, therefore, seeking to know more about its underlying structure, system and traditions. By explaining in a straightforward and extremely readable style, the basic features of Indian music, how time and melody are structured, the main principles of r?ga delineation and development, and the various genres and styles of vocal as well as instrumental performances, the book aims to enhance the serious listener’s understanding of Hindustani music, and heighten his appreciation of this art form. This book includes a glossary of musical terms, a select discography and a select bibliography.

This book makes an extensive study of the art and culture of Awadh during the Nawabi period (c. 1722-1856), with a focus on the city of Lucknow. The work takes up evidence available in a variety of primary and secondary sources, especially in the Persian and Urdu languages, in its study of visuals and artefacts, as well as performance traditions and craft techniques which are derived from this period. Highlighting the literary milieu of the period, and the developments in the realm of music, painting, architecture and industrial arts, this volume also explores how some of the arts and crafts assumed considerable European colour, and demonstrates how the ethos of the syncretic Indo-Persian culture, the renowned ganga-jamuni tahzib, remained intact.

About the Book A NUANCED AND POWERFUL MICROHISTORY SET AGAINST THE SWEEP OF INDIAN HISTORY. Dharmman Bibi rode into battle during the revolt of 1857 shoulder to shoulder with her patron lover Babu Kunwar Singh. Sadabahar entranced even snakes and spirits with her music, but eventually gave her voice to Baba Court Shaheed. Her foster mothers Bullan and Kallan fought their malevolent brother and an unjust colonial law all the way to the Privy Council—and lost everything. Their great-granddaughter Teema paid for the family’s ruination with her childhood and her body. Bindo, Asghari, Phoolmani, Pyaari … there are so many stories in this family. And you—one of the best-known tawaifs of your times—remember the stories of your foremothers and your own. This is a history, a multi-generational chronicle of one family of well-known tawaifs with roots in Banaras and Bhabua. Through their stories and self-histories, Saba Dewan explores the nuances that conventional narratives have erased, papered over or wilfully rewritten. In a not-so-distant past, tawaifs played a crucial role in the social and cultural life of northern India. They were skilled singers and dancers, and also companions and lovers to men from the local elite. It is from the art practice of tawaifs that kathak evolved and the purab ang thumri singing of Banaras was born. At a time when women were denied access to the letters, tawaifs had a grounding in literature and politics, and their kothas were centres of cultural refinement. Yet, as affluent and powerful as they were, tawaifs were marked by the stigma of being women in the public gaze, accessible to all. In the colonial and nationalist discourse of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this stigma deepened into criminalisation and the violent dismantling of a community. Tawaifnama is the story of that process of change, a nuanced and powerful microhistory set against the sweep of Indian history.