A Post Modern Analysis of Music with Special Reference to the Tradition of Hindustani Classical Music

Abstract

This paper is an effort to analyze North Indian Classical music under the lens of a post modern condition. The North Indian Classical music is also known by the name Hindustani Music which is highly renowned owning a dedicated listenership worldwide. The study taken up in this paper is interdisciplinary and attempts to analyze Hindustani music with the help of certain Post Modernist tenets. Post Modernism as a movement is colossal. It is an umbrella term for many movements and theories whereas, in this paper, there is no direct use of any particular theory. Rather , it makes use of the basic tenet of post modernism ;  questioning and subverting the established schools of thought so as to show that there are hitherto  unrevealed meanings deep inside. This paper takes up post modernist thinking as a method to show the other side of established notions and how such notions are subverted.  In this study, the subject that is brought under close scrutiny is the ancient ‘gharana’ system of Hindustani Classical Music, the sanctity and sublimity attached to it and also music in general. It also subverts the artist/ audience pair to show that it is not actually the artist alone who is instrumental in making music but the audience too play an important role in it, a role that is sometimes more influential regarding the making of music.

Keywords: Music, culture, discourse