Time in Indian Music is the first major study of rhythm, metre, and form in North Indian rag , or classical, music. Martin Clayton presents a theoretical model for the organization of time in this repertory, a model which is related explicitly to other spheres of Indian thought and culture as well as to current ideas on musical time in alternative repertoriesnullincluding that of Western music. This theoretical model is elucidated and illustrated with reference to many musical examples drawn from authentic recorded performances. These examples clarify key Indian musicological concepts such as tal (metre), lay (tempo or rhythm), and laykari (rhythmic variation).

Time in Indian Music is the first major study of rhythm, metre, and form in North Indian rag , or classical, music. Martin Clayton presents a theoretical model for the organization of time in this repertory, a model which is related explicitly to other spheres of Indian thought and culture as well as to current ideas on musical time in alternative repertoriesnullincluding that of Western music. This theoretical model is elucidated and illustrated with reference to many musical examples drawn from authentic recorded performances. These examples clarify key Indian musicological concepts such as tal (metre), lay (tempo or rhythm), and laykari (rhythmic variation). More generally, the volume addresses the implications of performance practice for the organization of rhythm and metre. Written in a clear and accessible style and illustrated with 102 music examples and diagrams, it will appeal to anyone interested in Indian aesthetic forms and the study of musical time.

Winner of the James Tait Black Prize for Biography An autobiographical exploration of the role and meaning of music in our world by one of India's greatest living authors, himself a vocalist and performer. Amit Chaudhuri, novelist, critic, and essayist, is also a musician, trained in the Indian classical vocal tradition but equally fluent as a guitarist and singer in the American folk music style, who has recorded his experimental compositions extensively and performed around the world. A turning point in his life took place when, as a lonely teenager living in a high-rise in Bombay, far from his family’s native Calcutta, he began, contrary to all his prior inclinations, to study Indian classical music. Finding the Raga chronicles that transformation and how it has continued to affect and transform not only how Chaudhuri listens to and makes music but how he listens to and thinks about the world at large. Offering a highly personal introduction to Indian music, the book is also a meditation on the differences between Indian and Western music and art-making as well as the ways they converge in a modernism that Chaudhuri reframes not as a twentieth-century Western art movement but as a fundamental mode of aesthetic response, at once immemorial and extraterritorial. Finding the Raga combines memoir, practical and cultural criticism, and philosophical reflection with the same individuality and flair that Chaudhuri demonstrates throughout a uniquely wide-ranging, challenging, and enthralling body of work.

This Book Introduces To Lay Readers The Basic Concepts Of Indian Music To Aid A Fuller Appreciation. Raga. Its Melodic Base, Is Examined First, With Scales And Figures Employed Where Necessary. Chapters On Tone And Rhythm Follow.The Many Forms Of Composition - Kheval, Thumri, Kriti - Are Explained Historically, And The Lives Of The Masters Briefly Touched Upon. Also Discussed Is The Folk Base Of Classical Music - Particularly The Devotional Forms That Abound. Folk And Concert Instruments Of A Wide Range Are Described, And Their Canons Of Classification Expounded.The Author Has Covered Hindustani And Karnatak Music; The Parallel Treatment Not Only Makes For Comprehensiveness, But Brings Out Common Features To The Benefit Of Those Familiar With Either System. The Approach Being Historical, The Study Of Evolving Codes And Canons Leads Naturally To A Consideration Of Music In The Modern Milieu.Illustrated With Over 80 Drawings, The Book Is Intended To Serve As A Primer For Those At Home And Abroad Who Seek The Enrichment India'S Ancient Music Offers.