Binding: Paperback
Description: Presents a new history of how Hindustani court music responded to the political transitions of the nineteenth century. How far did colonialism transform north Indian music? In the period between the Mughal empire and the British Raj how did the political landscape bleed into aesthetics music dance and poetry? Examining musical culture through a diverse and multilingual archive primarily using sources in Urdu Bengali and Hindi that have not been translated or critically examined before The Scattered Court challenges our assumptions about the period. Richard David Williams presents a long history of interactions between northern India and Bengal with a core focus on the two courts of Wajid Ali Shah (1822 1887) the last ruler of the kingdom of Awadh. He charts the movement of musicians and dancers between the two courts in Lucknow and Matiyaburj as well as the transregional circulation of intellectual traditions and musical genres and demonstrates the importance of the exile period for the rise of Calcutta as a celebrated center of Hindustani classical music. Since Lucknow is associated with late Mughal or Nawabi society and Calcutta with colonial modernity examining the relationship between the two cities sheds light on forms of continuity and transition over the nineteenth century as artists and their patrons navigated political ruptures and social transformations. The Scattered Court challenges the existing historiography of Hindustani music and Indian culture under colonialism by arguing that our focus on Anglophone sources and modernizing impulses has directed us away from the aesthetic subtleties historical continuities and emotional dimensions of nineteenth - century music.
Title: The Scattered Court Hindustani Music In Colonial Bengal
Author(s): Williams Richard David
Publisher: The University Of Chicago Press
Barcode: 9780226825458
Pages: 272 Pages, 14 Halftones, 2 Line Drawings
Publication Date: 4/25/2023
Series: Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology
Category: Music