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Hindustani Music and...
Hindustani Music and the Aesthetic Concept of Form
by: Anjali MittalIt studies the concept of form in the context of art, specifically Hindustani music. It investigates the underlying philosophical aesthetics and some aesthetical concepts and analyses the basic forms of raga and tala.
₹720.00
ISBN: 9788124601341
Year Of Publication: 2009
Edition: 2nd
Pages : ix, 174
Language : English
Binding : Hardcover
Publisher: D.K. Printworld Pvt. Ltd.
Size: 25 cm.
Weight: 550
With its roots in the Samaveda (which treats it as a divine art), music in India has a long, splendid tradition. Over the centuries, it has absorbed fresh influences and experimented with new forms to finally evolve into two meticulously codified classical systems: Hindustani and Carnatic. In todays growing library of writings on Hindustani music, Anjali Mittals research is yet another valuable addition adopting, as it does, a viewpoint which has been neglected so far, namely, the viewpoint of contemporary western aesthetics. It is for the first time that this monograph examines the concept of form in Hindustani classical music. In this context, analytic attention has been focussed on some select compositions in dhruvapada, dhamar, tarana, vilambit and drut khyal genres of Hindustani classical vocal music. A wide variety of drut tanas has also been analysed in terms of notation and linear diagrams. Such diagrams, in fact, distinguish the present volume. Analysis of some rhythm-cycles and rhythmic patterns is another feature of this book. Thoroughly documented and written in a jargon-free language, the study includes a contextual discussion of aesthetics, artistic expression, aesthetic predicates and, above all, the concept of artistic form. The work may be expected to interest all those who want an analytic understanding of what form (or bandisha) means in the region of Hindustani classical vocal music.
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Sale!Hindustani Music Today ₹540.00
Stating that Hindustani music should be rightly termed Art music and not classical music, the book begins by discussing the features of Art music and presents an approach to appreciating Hindustani music. It provides a detailed understanding of the components of the raga experience in Hindustani music, including their time theory and the role of Gharanas of the musical tradition.
It deals with genres of raga-based vocal music which have been performed over the last five centuries: Dhrupad, which has its moorings in devotional music; Khayal vocalism shaped by Sufi influences; the thumree, which originated as an accompaniment to the Kathak dance; and the tappa, adapted from the songs of camel drivers in the north-west frontier. It takes up the use of instruments in Hindustani music, especially the Rudra Veena, Sitar, Surbahar, Sarod, Santoor, the Shehnai, Pakhawaj, the Hawaiian Guitar and many others, giving an account of their origin, performing styles and lineages relating to them.
Throughout, the emphasis is on contemporary trends in Hindustani music and its prospects in the future. It mentions the significant practitioners of Hindustani music, both vocal and instrumental.
The volume will interest lovers of Indian music and also scholars who want to have a greater understanding of its traditions, its contemporary appeal and trends in practice. -
Sale!Elements of Hindustani Classical Music ₹675.00
Hindustani classical music, a jewel in the crown of the Indian musical tradition, has become increasingly popular in South India and abroad over the last few decades. This book attempts to present a detailed and comprehensive discussion of the fundamental concepts and aspects of Hindustani classical music. It begins with an account of the history and evolution of Hindustani classical music by taking up developments in a chronological order. It explains a number of terms and processes involved in the performance of Hindustani classical vocal music. In an interesting discussion, it mentions the various famous gharanas of the genre and deals with the life-histories of some of their eminent musicologists and singers. The musical instruments which are used in accompaniment to the vocal singing in Hindustani music are described. It also details the rags which are frequently presented in contemporary musical concerts, highlighting the important features of each.
The book will be useful to all those who wish to learn and acquire knowledge of Hindustani classical music. It will be of interest to all practitioners of Hindustani classical music. -
Sale!Hindustani Sangeet and a Philosopher of Art ₹765.00
The book is decidedly the very first of its kind. It seeks to weigh some basic facts and concepts of Hindustani sangeet (music, rhythm, and Kathak dance) against the art theories of Susanne K. Langer, an eminent aesthetician of the recent past; but nowhere without meticulous attention to the text of her writings. The expression theory of art has for long dominated the history of aesthetics. At the hands of Langer, however, the theory takes a new turn. She conceives of art not as a direct self-expression of the artist’s immediate affective state, but as a symbolic expression of his knowledge of what she terms variously as felt life, sentience, or forms of feeling. Drawing freely upon examples from the region of Hindustani sangeet, the present book accepts Langer’s protest against the popular view of artistic expression, but contends that there is a good deal in our music and dance which has nothing to do with feeling, and is admired simply because of its sweetness, clarity, shapeliness, and accordance with grammatical norms. In the chapter on music, while discussing Langer’s emphasis on commanding form in a total performance, the author proposes a quite new definition of raga which seeks to integrate the various points in its traditional characterizations. The third chapter too, which deals with Langer’s view of rhythm, is not merely explanatory, but ventures to propose a fresh and fairly defensible definition of rhythm. The closing chapter, devoted to dance, not only essays to meet some key objections to Langer’s writing on this art, but clarifies some atypical language that she uses in this context: apparition of vital powers; the dynamic image; virtual realities; and the created, superhuman dance-personality. But perhaps the two most striking features of the book are: first, a lucid exposition of the essentials of Langer’s aesthetics in the opening chapter; and, second, abounding illustrative references to Hindustani sangeet.
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Sale!Art as Dialogue ₹180.00
This refreshingly original work presents a totally new methodology for understanding the concept of aesthetic experience. The traditional model of explaining this experience through the dichotomy of the creator, beholder or critic on the one hand, and the object of art, on the other is challenged and replaced by the new model which the author prefers to call dialogue a dialogue between the subject and the object, I and Thou. The epistemological and ontological methods which rely heavily on the bifurcation of the subject and the object fails to reveal the true nature of the experiential whole that forms the real core of aesthetic experience. The authors innovative methodology holds the promise for transcending the bounds of all such limitations and distinctions. Most significantly, the conception of art as dialogue is stipulated to work not as a means, but as an end, i.e., the consummation of art-experience itself. In this scheme the principle of relationship, not the substance, constitutes the reality of aesthetic experience and the model allows one to encompass within its scope the pre-linguistic, linguistic and trans-linguistic phases of the relationship between the man and the art. Dr. Biswas long training in Phenomenology and Existentialism makes his study of Martin Buber and Michael Polanyi lucid and stimulating. And his immense interest in Modern Indian Philosophy results in a superb analysis of Tagores and Radhakrishnans aesthetic approach
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Sale!Hindustani Sangeet: Some Perspectives Some Performers ₹540.00
There are three major ways of looking at Hindustani sangeet. An easy-to-follow discussion of its basic concepts is one. A truthful and sympathetic, yet not merely laudatory, account of the life and art of some of its masterly exponents is another. Both these approaches have been fairly common so far. The third way, which has not yet received the attention it deserves, tries to dwell upon Hindustani music, rhythm, and (Kathak) dance explicitly in relation to philosophy and philosophers of art. It is from this point of view that the present book should be welcome. It does not, however, overlook the first two approaches. Besides quite a few essays that explore the aesthetical aspects of Hindustani music, the book takes a renovative look at Kathak dance, and engages the reader in a discussion of how far our music can be regarded as spiritual. These and some other key features should make this book acceptable to both rasikas and musicologists.
