Dynamics of Melodic Discourse in Indian Music

Abstract

This chapter presents an analysis of a performance of Indian classical music in the ālāp style, with reference to the compositional principles underlying unscripted (improvised) performance. From the point of view of a listener to a de-contextualized CD recording, how is the ālāp audibly structured as a discourse? It is suggested that the artist’s manipulation of pitch and contour schemas allows the listener to form schematic and dynamic expectations, and that the rāga, which is a combination of two independently existing rāgas, is analysed by the performer into its contrasting component parts.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 29 citations exist upstream.