British Forum for Ethnomusicology

Review: [untitled]
Author(s): Maria Lord
Reviewed work(s):
The Illustrated Companion to South Indian Classical Music by Ludwig Pesch
Source: British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 10, No. 1, Music and Meaning (2001), pp. 129
-131
Published by: British Forum for Ethnomusicology
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3060778
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REVIEWS 129 REVIEWS 129
In
summary,
this book
represents
a
lucid and sensitive treatment of a
complex
yet fascinating
area of
contemporary
music-making.
As its subtitle, "Exploring
the klezmer world", suggests,
its
empha-
sis is on the stimulation and facilitation of
further
meaningful exploration
of this
genre, showing ways into, not
claiming
to
be the last word on, modem klezmer, and
encouraging
the creative
yet
contextual-
ized use of material outside the usual
boundaries of
ethnomusicology.
Funda-
mental to the
strength
of this
study
is
Slobin's
recognition
not
only
of the
unique
circumstances
surrounding
Jewish
music but also of the
strong overlap
of
klezmer with other co-territorial musics.
Thus
emphasizing
klezmer's distinctive-
ness
yet avoiding
the
tendency
to
ghettoization
often found in work on Jew-
ish music, Slobin
brings
the musical and
conceptual landscape
of klezmer
right
alongside
that of modem American ethno-
musicology.
Like a
good
travel
guide,
this
book should remain a constant
compan-
ion of those
seriously intending
to
explore
the avenues of this
evolving genre
-
of
those
seeking
to follow the "Fiddler on
the move".
Reference
Slobin, Mark
(1993)
Subcultural Sounds:
Micromusics
of
the West. London:
Wesleyan University
Press.
ABIGAIL WOOD
Christ's
College, Cambridge
acw24@cam.ac.uk
In
summary,
this book
represents
a
lucid and sensitive treatment of a
complex
yet fascinating
area of
contemporary
music-making.
As its subtitle, "Exploring
the klezmer world", suggests,
its
empha-
sis is on the stimulation and facilitation of
further
meaningful exploration
of this
genre, showing ways into, not
claiming
to
be the last word on, modem klezmer, and
encouraging
the creative
yet
contextual-
ized use of material outside the usual
boundaries of
ethnomusicology.
Funda-
mental to the
strength
of this
study
is
Slobin's
recognition
not
only
of the
unique
circumstances
surrounding
Jewish
music but also of the
strong overlap
of
klezmer with other co-territorial musics.
Thus
emphasizing
klezmer's distinctive-
ness
yet avoiding
the
tendency
to
ghettoization
often found in work on Jew-
ish music, Slobin
brings
the musical and
conceptual landscape
of klezmer
right
alongside
that of modem American ethno-
musicology.
Like a
good
travel
guide,
this
book should remain a constant
compan-
ion of those
seriously intending
to
explore
the avenues of this
evolving genre
-
of
those
seeking
to follow the "Fiddler on
the move".
Reference
Slobin, Mark
(1993)
Subcultural Sounds:
Micromusics
of
the West. London:
Wesleyan University
Press.
ABIGAIL WOOD
Christ's
College, Cambridge
acw24@cam.ac.uk
LUDWIG PESCH, The illustrated com-
panion
to South Indian classical
music. Delhi: Oxford
University
Press, 1999. xvii +
376pp., plates,
photographs, notations, glossary/
index. ISBN 0-19-56438-8 (hb.
?18.99).
LUDWIG PESCH, The illustrated com-
panion
to South Indian classical
music. Delhi: Oxford
University
Press, 1999. xvii +
376pp., plates,
photographs, notations, glossary/
index. ISBN 0-19-56438-8 (hb.
?18.99).
With few books on the market that seek to
explain
the
workings
and
history
of the
musics of South India, this volume is a
welcome addition to the list. Pesch is a
practising
Kamatak (South Indian "classi-
cal") flautist who received
training
from
H. Ramachandra
Shastry
and at the
Kalakshetra school in Chennai
(which
gets many
honourable mentions in the
book). He strives to
give
what
might
be
described as an "insider's" view of the
music, with
varying degrees
of success,
and the book is therefore
very
different
in tone from other recent overviews of
the Karnatak
system (see Arnold, 2000;
Powers et al., 2001).
The book
opens (after a substantial
explanation
of the
spelling
and translitera-
tion
systems adopted, xv-xvii) with a
short
description
of the
terminology
and
notation conventions used both in the
book and more
widely by
Karnatak musi-
cians. This covers the svara
(pitches)
and
solmization, "gruti"
(the pitch
at which
the vocalist or instrumentalist sets sa, the
tonic),
and the means
by
which these are
represented
in staff notation. This is well
laid-out and useful information.
Not
limiting
himself to a
description
of
current historical
scholarship,
Pesch then
embarks on
exposition,
at times fanciful,
of the
early history
of music in South
India, drawing
on sources as eclectic as
medieval
European minnesang,
and
claiming widespread borrowings
and con-
fluences that "would have
provided
the
basis for creative
exchanges
similar to
those
taking place
as
part
of
today's
'World Music' movement" (13). His attri-
bution of the reason
why
music is so
assiduously performed by
"all classes" to
the "strain and
anxiety
suffered
during
long journeys"
should be taken with a
bucketful of salt
(14). Similarly,
sentences
such as
"Lofty philosophy
and abstract
ethical
teachings
were
replaced by
emo-
tional involvement and the
ecstasy
of a
personal rapport
with divine incarnations
With few books on the market that seek to
explain
the
workings
and
history
of the
musics of South India, this volume is a
welcome addition to the list. Pesch is a
practising
Kamatak (South Indian "classi-
cal") flautist who received
training
from
H. Ramachandra
Shastry
and at the
Kalakshetra school in Chennai
(which
gets many
honourable mentions in the
book). He strives to
give
what
might
be
described as an "insider's" view of the
music, with
varying degrees
of success,
and the book is therefore
very
different
in tone from other recent overviews of
the Karnatak
system (see Arnold, 2000;
Powers et al., 2001).
The book
opens (after a substantial
explanation
of the
spelling
and translitera-
tion
systems adopted, xv-xvii) with a
short
description
of the
terminology
and
notation conventions used both in the
book and more
widely by
Karnatak musi-
cians. This covers the svara
(pitches)
and
solmization, "gruti"
(the pitch
at which
the vocalist or instrumentalist sets sa, the
tonic),
and the means
by
which these are
represented
in staff notation. This is well
laid-out and useful information.
Not
limiting
himself to a
description
of
current historical
scholarship,
Pesch then
embarks on
exposition,
at times fanciful,
of the
early history
of music in South
India, drawing
on sources as eclectic as
medieval
European minnesang,
and
claiming widespread borrowings
and con-
fluences that "would have
provided
the
basis for creative
exchanges
similar to
those
taking place
as
part
of
today's
'World Music' movement" (13). His attri-
bution of the reason
why
music is so
assiduously performed by
"all classes" to
the "strain and
anxiety
suffered
during
long journeys"
should be taken with a
bucketful of salt
(14). Similarly,
sentences
such as
"Lofty philosophy
and abstract
ethical
teachings
were
replaced by
emo-
tional involvement and the
ecstasy
of a
personal rapport
with divine incarnations
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETH NO MU SI CO LOG Y VOL. 10/i 2001
of
righteousness, grace
and
compassion"
(16) do not fill the reader, who is
expect-
ing
a
pithy description
of the bhakti
movement, with much confidence.
(Claiming
that bhakti reached West Asia
via Sufism is a further confusion.
Tharpar
(1990:264, 306) points
out that Sufism
originated
in Persia, arrived in North
India in the 10th
century and, far from
taking
bhakti back to the west, "influ-
enced its doctrines, as did certain
typically
Muslim
concepts, particularly
those about social
justice".)
In
Chapters
2-4 ("Graceful dialogues", "Variety"
and "Child's
play", 9-34), where Pesch
indulges
in
philosophizing, poetic descrip-
tion and
imaginary history,
the book is
at its weakest.
Chapter
3 is
given
over
to a
mystical interpretation
of William
Hogarth's
The
analysis of beauty,
some-
what
bizarrely,
in the context of the South
Indian bhakti tradition, while
Chapter
4
is a
hymn
of
praise
to Kalakshetra. Quite
what relevance this has to the stated aim
of the book, a
guide
to a musical tradi-
tion, escaped
me and, while not
wishing
to diminish the undoubted
intermeshing
of devotional
religion
and the Karnatak
repertory,
I found this ill-conceived and
confused
mysticism
more than a little
irritating.
However, this forms a small
propor-
tion of the book
(serving
to warn where
Pesch is
coming from)
and should not
put
off someone
looking
for a
practical
guide
to the technicalities of the music.
Things improve considerably
with
Chap-
ter 5
("Instrumental music"),
a
thorough
description
of Karnatak instruments and
the
working
of the ensembles, accompa-
nied
by
black-and-white
photographs
and line
drawings showing
the instru-
ments and
playing positions. And,
in
general,
the rest of the book achieves
what it sets out to do in a clear and well-
informed fashion, with
slight
diversions
when
discussing
the role of the voice in
Kamatak
performance (Chapter 6:58-66).
At its best the book acts like a
dictionary
or
encyclopaedia, giving
lists of terms
and their
explanations
-
for
example,
the
descriptions
of
gamaka (74-6),
which
give
the South Indian terms, a text
explanation
of the movement made
by
the
pitches
and a notation of each
"embellishment".
A familiar, and welcome, sight
to
anyone
who has suffered them, are the
exercises (sarali varisai and alankara)
described and transcribed in the
chapter
on "Music education" (79-85). Often
overlooked
by
other authors, these are the
foundations of Kamatak music
practice,
played
or
sung by
all musicians, and are
evidence of Pesch's status as a
performer.
This is followed
up by chapters
on
raga,
melakarta, and tala (86-152), clearly
laid
out and
explained,
which
skilfully pick
their
way through
the
myriad terms,
concepts
and mathematics thrown at the
hapless
student. If there is a term or con-
cept
that
escapes you,
or
you
are not
quite
sure how it fits into the
system,
this is the
place
to look. Similar is the
alphabetical
list of musical forms that makes
up
Chapter
17
(172-88), again
illustrated
with notated
examples,
indications of
per-
formance situations and references to
composers
and
performers
who excelled
in the form or who added elements to it
(though
for a fuller
explanation
of
ragam-
tanam-pallavi, possibly
the weakest
description
in the list, see Catlin, 1985).
My
favourite and
personally
most
useful
chapters, however, are the bio-
graphical
lists of
composers, performers
and scholars (189-217, 224-65).
In a
musical tradition that is
passed
on
by
one-
to-one oral tuition, lineages
of teacher and
family
are of
great importance and, par-
ticularly
as an outsider, this is a
godsend
for
quickly finding
out who's who. The
following bibliography
and
discography
are
disappointing (266-75) with,
at least
in the
bibliography,
some rather
strange
inclusions and omissions
(for
more useful
130
R E VIE W S 131 R E VIE W S 131
lists of
publications
and
recordings
see
Powers et al., 2001; Arnold, 2000:108-9,
161, 235, 1008-11),
while the disco-
graphy gives
little indication of how the
recordings might
be obtained, whether
they
are still
commercially
available and
what format
they
are in. The
extremely
useful index has been
sensibly
combined
with a
glossary,
which also
gives
alterna-
tive
meanings (for example, "pallavi (1)
the
opening
section or first theme of a
composition
...
(2)
the sole theme of a
ragam-
tanam-pallavi
elaboration"), all of
which are well cross-referenced.
All in all, this book contains some
excellent reference material, clearly pre-
sented in a
scholarly
fashion
(each South
Indian term, for
example,
is
strictly
transliterated), and as a bonus there are
colour
plates
of
paintings
of famous
South Indian
composers by
S.
Rajam.
For
a
handy
reference volume on Kamatak
music, then, buy
this one, but
staple
Chapters
2-4
together
to avoid
wallowing
in the mire of
mysticism
and
speculation.
References
Arnold, Alison
(ed.) (2000)
The Garland
encyclopedia of
world music, vol. v,
South Asia: the Indian subcontinent.
New York: Garland
Publishing.
Catlin, Amy (1985) "Pallavi, kriti of Kar-
natak music:
evolutionary processes
and survival
strategies".
National Cen-
tre
for
the
Performing
Arts
Quarterly
Journal 14.1:26-44.
Powers, Harold et al.
(2001) "India".
In S. Sadie and J.
Tyrrell (eds)
The
New Grove
dictionary of
music and
musicians, pp.
147-272. London:
Macmillan.
Tharpar,
Romila
(1966/1990)
A
history of
India: volume one. London:
Penguin
Books.
MARIA LORD
Marial @
insightguides.
co. uk
lists of
publications
and
recordings
see
Powers et al., 2001; Arnold, 2000:108-9,
161, 235, 1008-11),
while the disco-
graphy gives
little indication of how the
recordings might
be obtained, whether
they
are still
commercially
available and
what format
they
are in. The
extremely
useful index has been
sensibly
combined
with a
glossary,
which also
gives
alterna-
tive
meanings (for example, "pallavi (1)
the
opening
section or first theme of a
composition
...
(2)
the sole theme of a
ragam-
tanam-pallavi
elaboration"), all of
which are well cross-referenced.
All in all, this book contains some
excellent reference material, clearly pre-
sented in a
scholarly
fashion
(each South
Indian term, for
example,
is
strictly
transliterated), and as a bonus there are
colour
plates
of
paintings
of famous
South Indian
composers by
S.
Rajam.
For
a
handy
reference volume on Kamatak
music, then, buy
this one, but
staple
Chapters
2-4
together
to avoid
wallowing
in the mire of
mysticism
and
speculation.
References
Arnold, Alison
(ed.) (2000)
The Garland
encyclopedia of
world music, vol. v,
South Asia: the Indian subcontinent.
New York: Garland
Publishing.
Catlin, Amy (1985) "Pallavi, kriti of Kar-
natak music:
evolutionary processes
and survival
strategies".
National Cen-
tre
for
the
Performing
Arts
Quarterly
Journal 14.1:26-44.
Powers, Harold et al.
(2001) "India".
In S. Sadie and J.
Tyrrell (eds)
The
New Grove
dictionary of
music and
musicians, pp.
147-272. London:
Macmillan.
Tharpar,
Romila
(1966/1990)
A
history of
India: volume one. London:
Penguin
Books.
MARIA LORD
Marial @
insightguides.
co. uk
IAN WOODFIELD, Music
of
the
Raj:
a social and economic
history of
music in late
eighteenth-century
Anglo-Indian society.
Oxford:
Oxford
University Press, 2000.
274pp.,
6 illustrations, 8 musical
exx., 7 tables, appendices, bibliog-
raphy,
index. ISBN 0-19-816433-5.
(hb. ?45.00).
This
stimulating
blend of social and
musical
history
is a
study
of amateur
and
professional
musical life in
"Anglo-
Indian"
society
of the late 18th
century
-
that is, the
English
residents in India
generally working
for the East India
Company.
The main focus is on Calcutta,
a centre that
grew remarkably
and
rapidly
in the course of the 18th
century.
In his
previous published
work Ian
Woodfield has examined both the Euro-
pean
musical culture that was fostered at
this time in India and also the
beginnings
of a
European
interest in the
indigenous
music of India
-
an interest cultivated
differently by
men and women and
destined, after a brief but
energetic
period
of cultural and artistic interaction,
to fade
away.
Warren
Hastings,
the
famous
governor-general
of
Bengal,
was
an enthusiastic
patron
of
scholarship
and
the arts and had himself
sung
"Hindus-
tannie"
tunes; after the
1780s, however,
there was a fast decline in the
English
interest in Indian music and dance and,
as Woodfield
puts it, "the
policy
of non-
interference in Indian life, long
fostered
by
the
Company,
now itself came into
question,
and there was a
growing
tendency
to
promote
the introduction of
Western musical
practices."
It is a
story
told in another context
by
Kenneth Ball-
hatchet in Race, sex and class under the
Raj
(London, 1980), a
story
of
hardening
lines of cultural division in the course
of the 19th
century
linked to social, reli-
gious
and
ideological developments
back
in
England.
IAN WOODFIELD, Music
of
the
Raj:
a social and economic
history of
music in late
eighteenth-century
Anglo-Indian society.
Oxford:
Oxford
University Press, 2000.
274pp.,
6 illustrations, 8 musical
exx., 7 tables, appendices, bibliog-
raphy,
index. ISBN 0-19-816433-5.
(hb. ?45.00).
This
stimulating
blend of social and
musical
history
is a
study
of amateur
and
professional
musical life in
"Anglo-
Indian"
society
of the late 18th
century
-
that is, the
English
residents in India
generally working
for the East India
Company.
The main focus is on Calcutta,
a centre that
grew remarkably
and
rapidly
in the course of the 18th
century.
In his
previous published
work Ian
Woodfield has examined both the Euro-
pean
musical culture that was fostered at
this time in India and also the
beginnings
of a
European
interest in the
indigenous
music of India
-
an interest cultivated
differently by
men and women and
destined, after a brief but
energetic
period
of cultural and artistic interaction,
to fade
away.
Warren
Hastings,
the
famous
governor-general
of
Bengal,
was
an enthusiastic
patron
of
scholarship
and
the arts and had himself
sung
"Hindus-
tannie"
tunes; after the
1780s, however,
there was a fast decline in the
English
interest in Indian music and dance and,
as Woodfield
puts it, "the
policy
of non-
interference in Indian life, long
fostered
by
the
Company,
now itself came into
question,
and there was a
growing
tendency
to
promote
the introduction of
Western musical
practices."
It is a
story
told in another context
by
Kenneth Ball-
hatchet in Race, sex and class under the
Raj
(London, 1980), a
story
of
hardening
lines of cultural division in the course
of the 19th
century
linked to social, reli-
gious
and
ideological developments
back
in
England.