Name: Finding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music
Brand: Amit Chaudhuri

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

9781681374789

Colour

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Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format Books US

Paperback

Format detail

Limited edition

Release date

2021-03-30

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Rando­m Hou­se

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

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Artist

Amit Chaudhuri

Genre US

Music

Label US

New York Review Books

Rest of World

An autobiographical exploration of the role and meaning of music in our world by one of India's greatest living authors, himself a vocalist and performer.

Finding the Raga is more than a book that tries to make sense of the raga, of Indian classical music, and of how Indian music challenges Western notions of what music might be. It is a work of self-inquiry, as might be expected from Amit Chaudhuri, a musician who is also a novelist; a novelist who is also a critic and essayist; a trained and recorded performer in the Indian classical vocal tradition who was also, once, a guitarist and songwriter in the American folk music style and is now a composer and recorded performer in experimental music. Each one of these undertakings and selves signifies turns at different points in life, and each turn and change of direction brings a fresh perspective on music, writing, and what it means to take on and do these things. No category – Indian, Western – is a given in this book. Partly a record of one of the most important turns in the author's life, toward North Indian music, and of its long aftermath, Finding the Raga is also part autobiography set in 1970s Bombay, part essay, and part detailed analysis of how we might grasp the conceptual underpinnings as well as the experience of music. It explores the different ways in which music relates to the world – whether it's through representation or evocation, as in Western music, or through the raga being sung at different times of day and in different seasons, as in Indian music – and also tries to understand what the act of listening involves for individuals and cultures.

Finding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music

Books US