Semiosis in Hindustani Music

José Luiz Martinez

Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 2001 - Music - 396 pages

For thousands of years music in India has been considered a signifying art. Indian music creates and represents meanings of all kings, some of which extend outwardly to the cosmos, while others arise inwardly, in the refined feelings which a musical connoisseur experiences when listening to it. In this book the author explores signification in Hindustani classical music along a two-fold path. Martineq first constructs a theory of musical semiotics based on the sign-theories of Charles Sanders Peirce. He then applies his theory to the analysis of various types of Hindustani music and how they generate significations. The author engages such fundamental issues as sound quality, raga, tala and form, while advancing his unique interpretations of well-known semiotic phenomena like iconicity, metalanguage, indexicality, symbolism, Martinez`s study also provides deep insight into semiotic issues of musical perception, performance, scholarship, and composition. An specially innovative and extensive section of the book analyzes representations in Hindustani music in terms of the Indian aesthetic theory of rasa. The evolution of the rasa system as applied to musical structures is traced historically and analyzed semiotically. In the light of Martinez`s theories, Hindustani music reveals itself to be both a delightfully sensuous and highly sophisticated system of acoustic representations.

Contents

• The Signification of Indian Music: 1
• Seegers unified field theory: 17
• Seegers universe of value: 19
• Tarastis three dimensional mode: 26
• 3: 31
• Tarastis model of musicological cognition: 32
• Hattens model of growth in a musical style: 36
• A Peircean Semiotic Theory of Music as Applied: 53
• Conclusion 369: 56
• Schaeffers classification of sound characters: 58
• The logic of the categories: 63
• Bibliography 377: 69
• Sign diagrams: 71
• Levels of representation: 72
• The immediate interpretant: 74
• The determination of a dynamical interpretant: 75
• The final interpretant: 79
• 5580: 84
• Structure of cautal and ektāl: 93
• Raga malkauns according to Bhatkhaṇḍe: 99
• Khayal Jhanana jhanana: 114
• Gaṇeśa Paran oral tradition according to Probir Mittra: 124
• Chāyās in marū bihāg: 131
• Dhrupad addressed to Emperor Akbar: 139
• Rāga darbārī kānhḍā mukhya ang: 163
• Masitkhānī gat in rāga mālkauṁs: 182
• Razākhānī gat in rāga khammāj: 183
• Tagores Jadi tor dāk: 190
• 1: 228
• Jati system a generative diagram: 229
• Jātis representing śrigara aṁśa M P: 236
• 2: 245
• The seven primary gramarāgas: 246
• Ragas derived from pañcama and their meanings BD: 254
• Rāgas derived from kaiśika and their meanings BD: 255
• Hindola and its derived rägas: 265
• Suddhapañcama and its derived rāgas: 266
• 4: 271
• Raga suddhabhairava rāgiṇīs and putrās: 274
• Rāgiņī saurāṣṭrī RV 4 41: 290
• Rāgiṇī bhūpālī RV 4 36: 291
• Rāgiņī dhanāśrī RV 4 31: 292
• Rāgiṇī varāṭī RV 3 46: 293
• Ragiņi saindhavi RV 4 33: 294
• Rāgiṇī rāmakṛtī RV 4 20: 295
• Raga kalyāņa RV 4 33: 297
• Rāga nāṭa RV 4 45: 298
• Rāga hammīrā RV 4 25: 299
• Rāga hinḍola RV 4 14: 300
• Raga lalita RV 4 28: 301
• 5: 302
• Gambhir rāgas: 318
• Raga bhairavĨ: 319
• Rāga śrī: 320
• Taral or cañcal rāgas: 321
• Rāga miyaṁ kī toḍī: 325
• Rāgas komal re āsāvarī and pīlū: 326
• 4: 332
• Raga hindola RV: 338
• Semitonal shift in hindola: 344
• Vilambit khayal in toḍī Ab More RāmRām KPM: 350
• Aesthetic rapture as the spiral of interpretants: 366
• 88: 378

Bibliographic information

• Title: Semiosis in Hindustani Music; Volume 15 of Music and Dance Series; Volume 9 of Performing arts series
• Author: José Luiz Martinez
• Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 2001
• ISBN: 8120818016, 9788120818019
• Length: 396 pages
• Subjects: Music / Ethnic