The book represents a major attempt to place music in India in wider perspectives offered by numerous music-traditions which deal with theoretical frameworks of music. It is music theory, pitched at an ambitious high.
In twenty-seven closely argued essays, the author touches divers music centered studies such as religion, philosophy, linguistic, poetics, theatre arts, folklore, aesthetics, musicology as grammar, history, intercultural inquiries, area-studies, oral tradition, inter-art relationships, and Indology.
He insists on keeping performance at the center of his investigations and hence succeeds in avoiding dangers of dry pedantry - whichmay excessively depend on the written material and methodologies developing with it.
Further, all essays are permeated with an intense Indianness, intent on voicing the Indian view -point. However, the writing steers clear of scholastic chauvinism because of the authors genuine and unwavering regard for the ideas, whether indigenous or foreign, that have governed Indian musical behaviour. The effort is an invaluable guide to students of Indian music and culture - presented as mutually dependent entities.
About the Author
Ashok D. Ranade, vocalist (Hindustani) composer, voice-culturist, ethnomusicologist, learnt from Shri Gajananrao Joshi, Pt. Ganu, Pt. Bodas, and Prof. Deodher for twenty years. Studied and taught English and Marathi literature, he has written in Marathi, Hindi and English on music, theatre and culture, audio, multimedia albums, and numerous well-received television presentation to his credit.
I took over as the founder-director of the Music Centre University of Bombay, now Mumbai, in 1969 and soon realized the need to begin a long-term self-learning programme. It required attending to new approaches to music-studies prospering in many other parts of the world. Ethnomusicology, musical acoustics, voice-culture, musical psychology, music-aesthetics, folk-music-researches, investigations into popular music-appealed as new tracks leading to a fuller interpretation of the Indian musical reality-in its unmatched glory and significance. The necessity of getting better acquainted with contributions of various Indian regions also dawned on me.
I began immersing myself in these disciplines and other related branches, holding fast to one principle: to keep the Indian performing tradition at the centre of all scholastic perusals. In view of the inherent performing core of music as a phenomenon, I could hardly have done otherwise.
The twenty-seven essays in this volume are sincere steps towards developing a better grasp of the nature of Indian musico-cultural richness-despite personal limitations of mind, matter and milieu. I hope the aim is well-reflected in the pages to follow.
All the essays have been re-written. A few have been published, in their earlier versions, chiefly in Sangeet Natak, the journal of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, and the NCPA Journal, brought out from Bombay till the 1980s. I record with pleasure and gratitude association with these publications and the interest shown by late Dr. B.C. Deva and the late Dr. Kumud Mehta, as also Mr. Abhijit Chatterjee, the present editor of the Sangeet Natak. I thank Mrs. Shubhashree Dasgupta for preparing the index.
Preface
Index
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