The Radical Impulse - Music in the Tradition of the Indian People`s Theatre Association

Music in the Tradition of the Indian People's Theatre Association
Erscheinungsjahr 2017
ISBN: 978-93-82381-92-1
Verlag: Tulika Book

Buch, Englisch, 246 Seiten, Format (B × H): 240 mm x 192 mm, Gewicht: 662 g

The period from the mid-1930s to the end of the 1950s in India saw the cultural expression of a wide range of political sentiments and positions around imperialism, fascism, nationalism, and social transformation. It was a period that covered a crucial transitional phase: from colonialism to a postcolonial context. This transitional period in India coincided with a vibrant radical ethos in many other parts of the world where, among numerous political issues, the aesthetics–politics relationship came to be articulated and debated in unprecedented ways. No history of this period can be written without giving an account of the departures, inventions, and reinventions made by the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) in the fields of drama, music, and dance. Yet music, a very important part of the IPTA's creations as well as the connecting link between the various artistic forms, has not been studied as part of the history of the IPTA movement.

This book attempts to fill this gap in knowledge about the vast musical repertoire of the IPTA. It is about the IPTA tradition's music in a national as well as specifically regional contexts (Bengali, Malayalam, Telugu, Assamese, and Hindu/Urdu in particular), situated within the overall cultural and political context of the transitional period in India, and in the context of a radical impulse emergent in many parts of the world from the beginning of the twentieth century. The book is the culmination of an archiving-cum-documentation project of music in the IPTA tradition undertaken by the author. It can also be read as a songbook, including lyrics and musical scores, revivifying the songs and music of a radical impulse in South Asia.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Damodaran, Sumangala

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikgattungen Theatermusik, Ballettmusik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft Theatergeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Geschichte der Musik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte

Über Autor(innen)

Damodaran, Sumangala
is an academic and musician, whose experience spans teaching and research in economics, development studies and popular music studies. She has taught in Delhi University and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi over a period of three decades, and is presently Director, Gender and Economics with International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs). She is also a visiting professor at Ashoka University, the University of Cape Town and the Institute for Human Development, Delhi. Apart from her academic involvements as an economist and social scientist, she is also a singer and composer. Her archiving and documentation of the musical tradition of the Indian People’s Theatre Association from the 1940s and 1950s resulted in a book titled The Radical Impulse: Music and Politics in the IPTA Tradition (2017) and the album Songs of Protest. She has performed from the documented repertoire extensively in India and abroad. She has collaborated with poets and musicians from South Africa as a founder member of the award-winning Insurrections Ensemble, and has also directed a multi-institutional project around music and migration in pre-colonial AfroAsia from 2016 until the present, which has resulted in two musical productions and a book titled Maps of Sorrow: Migration and Music in the Construction of Pre-Colonial AfroAsia (2023).

Sumangala Damodaran is an economist and a musician involved in teaching and research in economics, development studies, and popular music studies at Ambedkar University Delhi. She has performed extensively from the documented repertoire and has also collaborated with poets and musicians from South Africa in a project titled 'Insurrections.' This is a collaborative project between scholars and musicians, and several universities, in Africa and Asia.