The politics of musical time : expanding songs and shrinking markets in Bengali devotional performance / Eben Graves.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Graves, Eben, author.

Series:

Gale eBooks

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kirtana (Hinduism)--India--West Bengal--History and criticism.

Kirtana (Hinduism).

Hinduism--Prayers and devotions--History and criticism.

Hinduism.

Devotional literature, Indic--History and criticism.

Devotional literature, Indic.

Popular music--India--West Bengal--Religious aspects.

Popular music.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxv, 399 pages) : illustrations, map

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, [2022]

Summary:

"How does sacred music contribute to modern social life in South Asia? Due to time constraints in commercial contexts, Bengali musicians have had to adopt techniques of popular music to promote their own religious musical careers and religious perspectives. The Politics of Musical Time traces a lineage of the devotional song known as kīrtan in the Bengal region of India over the past century to demonstrate the shifting meanings of devotional performance. Focusing on padābalīkīrtan, a long format that combines devotional song and storytelling, Eben Graves examines how expressions of religious affect and political belonging are strained in contemporary, shortened performance time frames. To illustrate the political economy of performance in South Asia, Graves also explores how religious performances and texts interact with issues of nationalism, gender, and economic exchange. Combining ethnography, history, performance analysis, and videos from the author's fieldwork in India, The Politics of Musical Time reveals how, over centuries, devotional performances in East India have used musical time to express ideas about the sacred and the modern"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Accessing Audiovisual Materials

Acknowledgments

Notes on Spelling and Transliteration

Notes on Representing Musical Sound

Notes on Dating Systems

Introduction: Kirtan's Influence Derives from Time

Part I: Genealogies of Kirtan

1. Temporality and Devotional Performance in Bengal

2. The Seeds of Kirtan: Histories and Imaginaries of Devotional Song in Early Modern Bengal

3. Devotional Song Arrives in the City: Histories of Patronage and Images of the Devout Musician in the Colonial Period

4. Institutional Pasts and Professional Futures: Temporalities of Instruction and Performance in Contemporary West BengalPart II: The Devotional Aesthetics of Musical Expansion

5. Word-Pictures: Expansions of Mood and Meaning in Kirtan Song Texts

6. Sonic Synchronies of Tal Theory

7. The Divine Play of the Tax Collector: Musical Expansion, Embodied Response, and Didactic Storytelling in a Lila Kirtan

Part III: The Shrinking Markets for Expanding Songs

8. The Marketplace of Music Festivals: Modern Social Time and Musical Labor

9. Media Markets: Visualization and the Abstraction of Musical Time

10. Conclusion: Kirtan Online

Glossary

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780253064394

0253064392

9780253064400

0253064406

OCLC:

1335121756