Music in North India Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture

by Ruckert, George E.

• ISBN13: 9780195139921
• ISBN10: 0195139925
• Format: Package
• Copyright: 2003-12-11
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Music in North India is one of several case-study volumes that can be used along with Thinking Musically, the core book in the Global Music Series. Thinking Musically incorporates music from many diverse cultures and establishes the framework for exploring the practice of music around theworld. It sets the stage for an array of case-study volumes, each of which focuses on a single area of the world. Each case study uses the contemporary musical situation as a point of departure, covering historical information and traditions as they relate to the present. Visitwww.oup.com/us/globalmusic for a list of case studies in the Global Music Series. The website also includes instructional materials to accompany each study. North India is home to a wealth of musical traditions composed of many different styles, genres, and practices. Music in North India provides a representative overview of this music, discussing rhythm and drumming traditions, song composition and performance styles, and melodic and rhythmicinstruments. Drawing on his experience as a sarod player, vocalist, and music teacher, author George Ruckert incorporates numerous musical exercises to demonstrate important concepts. The book ranges from the chants of the ancient Vedas to modern devotional singing and from the serious andmeditative rendering of raga to the concert-hall excitement of the modern sitar, sarod, and tabla. It is framed around three major topics: the devotional component of North Indian music, the idea of fixity and spontaneity in the various styles of Indian music, and the importance of the verbalsyllable to the expression of the musical aesthetic in North India. Featuring vivid eyewitness accounts of performances and descriptions of interviews with performers, Music in North India examines the form, structure, and expression of North Indian music while also illuminating its profoundreligious and cultural significance. A 70-minute CD containing examples of the music discussed in the text is packaged with the book.

Author Biography

George E. Ruckert is Senior Lecturer in Music at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He became a student of the renowned Indian sarodist Ali Akbar Khan in 1967. A cofounder and administrator of Khan's center for North Indian classical music in California, he has also performed and taught this music widely in the U.S., Canada, India, and Europe. He has composed for orchestra, film, and dance productions and has published four books on the classical music of North India

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
CD Track List
Modernity and Tradition	p. 1
Affect	p. 18
Teaching, Learning, and Performing Music	p. 33
Rhythm and Drumming	p. 40
Song and Performance	p. 52
Instrumentals, Melodic and Rhythmic	p. 65
The Old World Joins the New	p. 81
Glossary	p. 89
Resources	p. 96
Index	p. 99
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.