The Music of Hindustan
Book Specification
Item Code: | IMD24 |
Author: | A. H. Fox Strangways |
Publisher: | Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd. |
Language: | English |
Edition: | 1994 |
ISBN: | 8121506433 |
Pages: | 374 (B & W Illus: 15, Tables: 2) |
Cover: | Hardcover |
Other Details | 8.8" X 5.8" |
Weight | 680 gm |
Book Description
About the Book
This book is a scholarly treatise on the basic features, principles, and systems of Hindustani music. For the preparation of the book, the author has culled together the varied information on this vast subject from his own field-work and first-hand sources and has handled this difficult subject with rare acumen. He has described and discussed in great detail the Hindustani classical music and Indian folk music including its lesser known aspects like bardic songs, lullabies, devotional songs and the like, in his view, in Indian music the element of melody is dominant as opposed to the element of harmony in the European.
Strangways work is not merely an adumbration of the theoretical aspects of Indian music but is an in-depth study illustrated by examples. He has very successfully been able to explain the nuances typical of Indian music.
In the twelve chapter the author has, besides dealing with the scale, mode, raga, grace, tala, drumming, the saman chant, form and melody, also given introductory remarks describing the milieu of Indian music and the legendary and historical background of Indian music.
This book will serve as an invaluable introductory work for those interested in Indian music. Along with the wide range of examples in each category of Indian music, the author has also explained and illustrated the material intelligible to the Western scholars. The book should prove to be of sustained interest both to experts and those interests in music.
INTRODUCTION
The understanding of music as affected by national characteristics | 1, 2 |
By an antiquated system | 3 |
by the absence of harmony | 4, 5 |
By difference of content | 6, 7 |
Causes of the particular form taken by Indian music due to the conservatism of India | 7 |
to its size | 8 |
to its climate | 9, 10 |
A concert | 11-13 |
The future of Indian music | 14-16 |
A Musical Diary
Conditions under which these songs were collected and caution with which they should be received | 17, 18 |
Chanties and labour songs | 19-21 |
Occupation songs | 20-27 |
Nagpur, Central Provinces | 29-31 |
West coast | 32-8 |
Travancore | 39-45 |
Maratha bards | 46, 47 |
Conclusion | 48, 49 |
A Musical Diary (continued)
Garhwalis | 50-6 | |
Gurkhas | 57,58 | |
Panjabis, Cuttack dance | 59 | |
Bhavnagar | 60, 61 | |
Lullabies | 62-7 | |
Children's songs | 68 | |
Conclusions | 69-72 |
Legend, History, and the Present Day
Absence of the historical sense | 73, 74 | |
Legend | 75-82 | |
History | 83-5 | |
The present day | 86-90 | |
Subbanna and Seshanna of Mysore | 86 | |
Ramachandra of Trivandrum | 88, 89 | |
Sourendro Banerji of Calcutta | 88 | |
Chandra Prabhu of Bhavanagar | 90 | |
Rabindranath Tagore | 92-9 |
The Scale
The facts of folk-song and folk-instruments | 100-4 | |
List of Sanskrit authorities | 105 | |
Technical terms | 106-8 | |
The gramas, | 109-12 | |
Bharata | 113 | |
Date of his system | 114 | |
His twenty-two srutis | 115-18 | |
South India | 119, 120 | |
Transilient scales | 122-6 | |
The sruti in practical music | 127-9 | |
And in European music | 130-3 |
Mode
Scale and mode | 134-6 | |
Indian conception of mode | 137-9 | |
The Greek parallel | 140-3 | |
Mode in actual practice | 144, 145 | |
Appoggiatura | 146-147 | |
Absolute pitch | 148 | |
Grama and Rag | 149 | |
Ancient and modern mode | 150 |
Raga
The table of Raga | 151, 152 | |
Appropriate times and seasons | 153 | |
Sources of Raga | 154, 155 | |
Tessitura | 156 | |
A Raga is not a tune | 157 | |
but it conforms to law | 158, 159 | |
Conjunct motion | 160-2 | |
Harmony and harmonization | 163, 164 | |
Instances of Raga | 165-9 | |
Re-entrant Raga | 170 | |
The drone | 171-3 | |
Comparison with European melody | 174-6 | |
and with the ecclesiastical modes | 177, 178 | |
Imitation | 179 | |
The intervals chosen in melody have no basis in harmony | 180 |
Grace
Grace is inherent in the note, not an appendage to it | 181, 182 | |
Two main kinds of grace | 183 | |
Comparison with Scotch graces | 184, 185 | |
and Hungarian | 186 | |
Grace in the Sanskrit theory | 187 | |
The Mohammedan Tappa | 188, 189 | |
Grace my be traced to Sanskrit pronunciation | 190 |
Tala
Stree and quantity | 191, 192 | |
Sanskrit metres | 193-200 | |
The transition from poetical to musical metre | 201-3 | |
Metre in music | 204-8 | |
The Carnatic system of Time | 209-14 | |
The Hindostani system | 215, 216 | |
Comparison with the European system | 217-24 |
Drumming
Indian and European drumming | 225, 226 | |
Drums | 227 | |
Drum-words | 228, 229 | |
drum-phrase | 230 | |
and drum-variants | 231, 232 | |
Instances | 233-40 | |
Augmentation and diminution | 241 | |
and 'convergence' and 'cumulation' | 242 | |
The drum used ornamentally not structurally | 243-5 |
The Saman Chant
The Rgveda accent | 246-8 | |
The Samaveda | 249-52 | |
Its 'form' | 253 | |
Its rhythm | 255, 256 | |
Its scale | 257-9 | |
Its original nucleus | 260 | |
Consonance | 261, 262 | |
The Gandhara grama | 263 | |
The Saman scale as transilient | 264 | |
The musical hand | 264, 265 | |
The early Greek scale | 266 | |
Instances of Saman chant | 266-73 | |
Notation | 273 | |
Some technical terms | 274-6 | |
A vocal scale | 276-9 |
Form
Amsa and drone take the place of our dominant and tonic as the basis of form | 280, 281 | |
The Kirthanam | 282-5 | |
Other forms | 286 | |
The Khyal | 287-99 | |
Subsidiary forms | 299, 300 | |
Specimens of Raga | 301-16 | |
The cycle of Raga | 217-19 |
Melody
Melody is homogeneous | 320-2 | |
Conjunct and disjunct motion | 322-8 | |
Climax | 328-30 | |
Tessitura | 330-4 | |
Rhythm cross-metre | 334-6 | |
Analysis of a European | 337 | |
and of an Indian melody | 338 | |
Their characteristics contrasted | 338-42 |
APPENDIX I | 343 | |
APPENDIX II | 345 | |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | 346 | |
GLOSSARY AND INDEX | 353 |