The reception of performance in North Indian classical music

This project aims to establish a new paradigm for the study of the reception of musical performance. Reception is understood here as the result of a complex set of processes, involving both immediate and culturally mediated aspects of experience. This project sets out to investigate how these different processes are interrelated, analysing how the unconscious embodiment of sound; culturally constrained uses of gesture; aesthetic appreciation; and the socio-musical interactions displayed in performance all contribute to the construction of meaning in music. This project, thus, aims to develop a model for the study of music performance which focuses on its reception by both musicians and listeners, setting a framework for music research in which the boundaries between stage and audience become blurred.
The research methodology is based on analysis of audiovisual recordings of performances and interviews with both musicians and listeners, and draws on and combines a number of perspectives and disciplines, including ethnography, study of behaviour and gesture in performance, applied semiotics, and analysis of embodied cognition in music. Questions to be addressed include:
- How does the way people express their experience of music shed light on processes of embodiment of sound, and how does the latter contribute to the construction of meaning?
- How does the unconscious embodiment of music relate to cultural constraints on physical behaviour and how are these manifested in performance?
- What makes a good performance, according to both listeners and musicians? How do musicians and listeners articulate their aesthetic expectations and how do they comment on music performance?
- How are musicians' and audiences' social roles and relationships displayed through performance? How do artists and listeners articulate the dynamics they engage in and experience in performance? How do these dynamics affect the reception of music?
In answering these questions, the research will focus on North Indian classical music: this tradition is in fact an ideal object for this study due to its rich metaphorical discourse, a long history of reflection on aesthetic issues, and a well-structured code of behaviour in performance reflecting clear hierarchies and social roles, both on stage and among the audience. In particular, the analysis will be carried out on a comparative basis, working on two regions - the Indian States of West Bengal and Maharashtra - which boast a rich and fervent art music culture, but are historically, politically and culturally very different. Such a comparative approach will allow me to ascertain whether and in what ways the processes implicated in the reception of music performance relate to cultural background and context.
In summary, this project proposes a significant advance in the study of music performance, contributing a new perspective to the understanding of the processes underlying its reception. It will be of interest to South Asian music scholarship, and also - due to the interdisciplinary nature of the methodology proposed - to musicology, music psychology, semiotics, and research on embodied cognition.