Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T09:27:01.451Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The North Indian Sarode and Questions Concerning Technology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2020

Matthew James Noone*
Affiliation:
University of Limerick, Ireland

Abstract

In three previous issues of OS (10/1, 2005, 13/3, 2008 and 19/2, 2014) a range of scholars explored non-Western instrumentation in electroacoustic music. These issues addressed concerns about sensitive cultural issues within electroacoustic music. This article builds upon this discussion through an examination of a number of electroacoustic composer-performers using non-Western instrumentation. This discussion will include the voices of ‘Western’ electroacoustic composers using non-Western instruments or sounds sources. It will also document some of the work of non-Western electroacoustic composers who incorporate traditional material or indigenous instruments in their music. Special attention will be given to the complexity of being in-between musical cultures through a critical engagement with theories relating to hybridity, orientalism and self-identity. In particular, this article will focus on my own practice of composing and performing electroacoustic music with the North Indian lute known as the sarode. It will discuss both cultural and artistic concerns about using the sarode outside the framework of Indian classical music and question whether Indian classical music can ever be ‘appropriately appropriated’ in an electroacoustic context. Two of my recent compositions will be explored and I will outline the development of my practice leading to the creation of a new ‘hybrid’ instrument especially for playing electroacoustic music.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aubert, L. 2007. The Music of the Other New Challenges for Ethnomusicology in a Global Age. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Bagchee, S. 1998. Nad: Understanding Raga Music. Bombay: Eeshwar.Google Scholar
Bhabha, H. K. 1994. The Location of Culture. Abingdon: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Bhagwati, S. 2019. Personal correspondence, 12 April.Google Scholar
Blackburn, M. 2013a. New Shruti. http://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/2186/ (accessed 4 September 2019).Google Scholar
Blackburn, M. 2013b. Interview between the composer and collaborator. www.milapfest.com/news/new-shruti-for-sarod-and-electronics/ (accessed 5 September 2019).Google Scholar
Blackburn, M. 2014. Editorial. Organised Sound 19(2): 107–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackburn, M. 2017. Other People’s Sounds: Examples and Implications of Borrowed Audio. Electronic Music Studies Network: Communication in/through Electroacoustic Music, 5–8 September, Nagoya, Japan.Google Scholar
Blackburn, A. and Penny, J. 2014. Imaginary Spaces: New Malaysian Performance Contexts for Intercultural Exploration. Organised Sound 19(2): 164–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burtner, M. 2005. Ecoacoustic and Shamanic Technologies for Multimedia Composition and Performance. Organised Sound 10(1): 319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowdery, J. R. 1990. The Melodic Tradition of Ireland. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press.Google Scholar
Croft, J. 2007. Theses on Liveness. Organised Sound 12(1): 5966.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Souza, R. C. 2005. The Use of Brazilian Folk Instrument Sounds in a Concerto for Computer and Orchestra. Organised Sound 10(1): 31–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gluck, R. J. 2004. Free Sound within Culturally Specific Practice Evolving Culturally-Grounded Creative Practice Motivation for Cultural Specificity. Proceedings of the International Computer Muisc Conference, Barcelona, September.Google Scholar
Gluck, R. J. 2005. eSaz: A non-Western Instrument in the Context of a Live Electronic Performance System. Organised Sound 10(1): 21–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gluck, R. 2007. eShofar as a Culturally Specific Live Electronic Performance System. SEAMUS 19(Fall): 1016.Google Scholar
Gluck, R. J. 2008. Between, within and across Cultures. Organised Sound 13(2): 141–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
He, J., Kapur, A. and Carnegie, D. A. 2014 Contemporary Practices of Extending Traditional Asian Instruments Using Technology. Organised Sound 19(2): 136–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heidegger, M. 1977. The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Holryde, P. 1964. Indian Music. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Ishii, H. 2018. Japanese Electroacoustic and Japanese Instruments. Contemporary Music Review 37(1–2): 4966.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jairazbhoy, N. 2011. The Rags of North Indian Classical Music: Their Structure and Evolution. Mumbai: Popular Prakashen PVT.Google Scholar
Keyes, C. J. 2005. Recent Technology and the Hybridisation of Western and Chinese Musics. Organised Sound 10(1): 51–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khan, A. 2018. Personal Correspondence, 15 August.Google Scholar
Kim, J. H. 2019. Living Tones Compositions. www.jinhikim.com/compositions.html (accessed 5 September 2019).Google Scholar
McNeil, A. 2004. Inventing the Sarod: A Cultural History. Calcutta: Seagull Books.Google Scholar
Naylor, S. 2014. Appropriation, Culture and Meaning in Electroacoustic Music: A Composer’s Perspective. Organised Sound 19(2): 110–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noone, M. 2016. The Mongrel Metaphor: An Arts Practice Response to Understanding Musical Hybridization. Ethnomusicology Ireland, 4. www.ictm.ie/the-mongrel-metaphor-an-arts-practice-response-to-understanding-musical-hybridization-matthew-mattu-noone/ (accessed 18 November 2019).Google Scholar
Said, E. 1978. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Said, E. 1993. Culture and Imperialism. Vintage.Google Scholar
Sridhar, K. 2013. Correspondence, 4 April.Google Scholar
Taylor, T. D. 2004. Global Pop: World Music, World Markets. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Yadegari, S. 2002. The Radif as a Basis for a Computer Music Model: Union of Philosophy and Poetry through Self-Referentiality. PhD dissertation, University of California at San Diego.Google Scholar

DISCOGRAPHY

Hayes, T. and Noone, M. 2018. An Tara-Faha Rain. Realach Records.Google Scholar

Noone supplementary material

Noone supplementary material 1

Download Noone supplementary material(Audio)
Audio 1.2 MB

Noone supplementary material

Noone supplementary material 2

Download Noone supplementary material(Audio)
Audio 5.5 MB