Bertie Kibreah (tabla) performs with accompaniment on sitar.
Vocabulary
| śabda | dhvani | sphoṭa |
| vāc | svara | śruti |
| nāda | ākāśa | rāga |
| tāla | kirtan |
Session 07: What is sound, actually?
What is ‘sound’? What makes a sound pleasant or unpleasant? How does sound carry meaning? In the absence of sound—for example, for someone who is deaf or hearing impaired—what does sound ‘mean’ conceptually, socially, aesthetically? How does one navigate the ‘soundscape’?
Readings:
Wilke, Annette, and Oliver Moebus. Sound and Communication : An Aesthetic Cultural History of Sanskrit Hinduism. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2011. Introduction, pp. 1-11.
Rowell, Lewis Eugene. “Chapter Three: Theory of Sound.” Music and Musical Thought in Early India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Doniger, Wendy. The Rig Veda: An Anthology. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981. Hymn 10.71, The Origins of Sacred Speech, pp 61-2.
Friedner, Michele and Benjamin Tausig. “The Spoiled and the Salvaged: Modulations of Auditory Value in Bangalore and Bangok.” Remapping Sound Studies. Durham: Duke University Press, 2019.
Session 08: Hearing and listening
What is the difference between ‘hearing’ and ‘listening’? What does it mean to ‘have an ear’ for something? Can one ‘refine’ their ear like they do their ‘taste’?
Exercise: in this class session we will listen to several works of ‘classical’ and ‘folk’ music from South Asia and make observations about how they produce or evoke thoughts, images, and emotions.
Readings:
Abū al-Fa̤zl ibn Mubārak. The Ain-i Akbari. Translated by H. Blochmann. Calcutta: Rouse, 1873. “The Imperial Musicians.” pp. 611-13.
Śārṅgadeva, Saṅgīta-Ratnākara of Śārṅgadeva: Sanskrit Text and English Translation with Comments and Notes. Translated and edited by R. K. Shringy and Prem Lata Sharma. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1978. pp 2-13.
Schofield, Katherine Butler. “Learning to Taste the Emotions: The Mughal Rasika.” In Orsini, Francesca, and Katherine Butler Schofield. Tellings and Texts: Music, Literature and Performance in North India. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2015. 407-421.