Theorizing the Local: Music, Practice, and Experience in South Asia and Beyond
Over the past four decades, the "globalized" aspects of cultural circulation have received the majority of scholarly-and consumer-attention, particularly in the study of South Asian music. As a result, a broad range of community-based and other locally focused performance traditions in the regions of South Asia have remained relatively unexplored. Theorizing the Local provides a challenging and compelling counterperspective to the “globalized,” arguing for the value of comparative microstudies that are not concerned primarily with the flow of capital and neoliberal politics. What does it mean for musical activities to be local in an increasingly interconnected world? To what extent can theoretical activity be localized to the very acts of making music, interacting, and composing? Theorizing the Local offers glimpses into rich musical worlds of south and west Asia, worlds which have never before been presented in a single volume. The authors cross the traditional borders of scholarship and region, exploring in unmatched detail a vast array of musical practices and significant ethnographic discoveries-from Nepal to India, India to Sri Lanka, Pakistan to Iran. Enriched by audio and video tracks on an extensive companion Web site, Theorizing the Local is an important study of South Asian musical traditions that offers a broader understanding of 21st-century music of the world.
1101395368
Theorizing the Local: Music, Practice, and Experience in South Asia and Beyond
Over the past four decades, the "globalized" aspects of cultural circulation have received the majority of scholarly-and consumer-attention, particularly in the study of South Asian music. As a result, a broad range of community-based and other locally focused performance traditions in the regions of South Asia have remained relatively unexplored. Theorizing the Local provides a challenging and compelling counterperspective to the “globalized,” arguing for the value of comparative microstudies that are not concerned primarily with the flow of capital and neoliberal politics. What does it mean for musical activities to be local in an increasingly interconnected world? To what extent can theoretical activity be localized to the very acts of making music, interacting, and composing? Theorizing the Local offers glimpses into rich musical worlds of south and west Asia, worlds which have never before been presented in a single volume. The authors cross the traditional borders of scholarship and region, exploring in unmatched detail a vast array of musical practices and significant ethnographic discoveries-from Nepal to India, India to Sri Lanka, Pakistan to Iran. Enriched by audio and video tracks on an extensive companion Web site, Theorizing the Local is an important study of South Asian musical traditions that offers a broader understanding of 21st-century music of the world.
19.59 In Stock
Theorizing the Local: Music, Practice, and Experience in South Asia and Beyond

Theorizing the Local: Music, Practice, and Experience in South Asia and Beyond

Theorizing the Local: Music, Practice, and Experience in South Asia and Beyond
Add to Wishlist
Theorizing the Local: Music, Practice, and Experience in South Asia and Beyond

Theorizing the Local: Music, Practice, and Experience in South Asia and Beyond

Overview

Over the past four decades, the "globalized" aspects of cultural circulation have received the majority of scholarly-and consumer-attention, particularly in the study of South Asian music. As a result, a broad range of community-based and other locally focused performance traditions in the regions of South Asia have remained relatively unexplored. Theorizing the Local provides a challenging and compelling counterperspective to the “globalized,” arguing for the value of comparative microstudies that are not concerned primarily with the flow of capital and neoliberal politics. What does it mean for musical activities to be local in an increasingly interconnected world? To what extent can theoretical activity be localized to the very acts of making music, interacting, and composing? Theorizing the Local offers glimpses into rich musical worlds of south and west Asia, worlds which have never before been presented in a single volume. The authors cross the traditional borders of scholarship and region, exploring in unmatched detail a vast array of musical practices and significant ethnographic discoveries-from Nepal to India, India to Sri Lanka, Pakistan to Iran. Enriched by audio and video tracks on an extensive companion Web site, Theorizing the Local is an important study of South Asian musical traditions that offers a broader understanding of 21st-century music of the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780190450236
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 09/03/2009
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 18 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Richard K. Wolf is Professor of Music at Harvard University. He is the author of the book The Black Cow's Footprint: Time, Space, and Music in the Lives of the Kotas of South India (Permanent Black, 2005 and University of Illinois Press, 2006), which was awarded the Edward Cameron Dimock, Jr. Prize in the Humanities, and Reciting Remembrance: Resonances of Popular Islam in South Asia (University of Illinois Press, forthcoming).

Table of Contents

Contributors ix

Note on Transliteration xi

List of Maps xiii

1 Introduction Richard K. Wolf 5

Part I Bodies and Instruments

2 Women and Kandyan Dance: Negoriadng Gender and Tradition in Sri Lanka Susan A. Reed 29

3 Listening to the Violin in South Indian Classical Music Amanda Weidman 49

4 Local Practice, Global Network: The Guitar in India as a Case Study Martin Clayton 65

Part II Spaces and Itineraries

5 Constructing the Local: Migration and Cultural Geography in the Indian Brass Band Trade Gregory D. Booth 81

6 The Princess of the Musicians: R&abar;ni Bhatiy&abar;ni and the M&abar;ngani&abar;rs of Western Rajasthan Shubba Chaudhuri 97

7 Music in Urban Space: Newar Buddhist ProcessionalMusic in the Kathmandu Valley Gert-Mattbias Wegner 113

Part III Learning and Transmission

8 Disciple and Preceptor/Performer in Kerala Rolf Groesbeck 143

9 Sina ba S&ibar;na or "From Father to Son": Writing the Culture of Discipleship Regula Burckhardt Qureshi 165

10 Handmade in Nepal David Henderson 185

Part IV Theorizing Social Action

11 Modes of Theorizing in Iranian Khorasan Stephen Blum 207

12 Zah&ibar;rok: The Musical Base of Baloch Minstrelsy Sabir Badalkhan 225

13 Varnams and Vocalizations: The Special Status of Some Musical Beginnings Richard K. Wolf 239

Glossary 265

Notes 277

Bibliography 299

Name Index 315

Subject Index 319

From the B&N Reads Blog
Page 1 of

Customer Reviews