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ABSTRACT
The paper looks at the circulation of music in new spaces produced by technologies of recording, amplification, and transmission. It argues for the making of new categories that go beyond ‘classical’ and ‘popular’ especially in the context of southern India and the tradition that is identified as Carnatic music. It looks at Radio and televisual broadcasting to capture new listening communities and their acoustic aspirations. It argues for new radio geographies that reinforced identity of regions and their practices and gave them greater leverage in relation to the nation and national pool of resources. In contrast the television as a medium of spectacle and entertainment impacted listening experiences quite differently even as it expanded the viewership beyond the confines of the nation space.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Mathew Allen, “Tales Tunes Tell: Deepening the Dialogue between ‘Classical’ and ‘Non Classical’ in the Music of India.” Yearbook for Traditional Music 30, Citation1998: 22–52. Stephen Hughes, “Music Boom in Tamil South India Gramophone, Radio and the making of mass culture”, Historical journal of Film Radio and Television, Citation2002, No. 4, Pp.445–473.
2. Amanda Weidman, “Can the subaltern Sing? Music, language, and the politics of voice in twentieth century south India.” Indian Economic and Social History Review, December Citation2005. Lakshmi Subramanian, “A Language for music: Revisiting the Tamil Isai Iyakkam.” Indian Economic and Social History Review (March Citation2007).
3. Simon Frith, “Look, Hear The Uneasy Relationship of Music and Television.” Popular Music 21.3 (October Citation2002): 277–290.
4. The Indian Listener, 7 August 1936.
5. P&J 4348 Report on Broadcasting in India See section on programmes.
6. B.N. Goswami, Broadcasting: New Patron of Hindustani Music. Sharada House, New Delhi, Citation1996.
7. Dr.Sumati Mutatkar, “Evolution of Indian Music.” Radio Sangeet Sammelan, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, The Publications Division, Government of India Report, Citation1955. Pp.15
8. The Indian Listener Vol.1, 7 August 1956 p.784, “We have even heard of a pious old lady, the mother of a large family of radio enthusiasts, who monopolizes the receiving set in the morning and in the solitude of her room sits in front of the radio listening in a devotional mood to the holy words of the Gita. Rumors have also floated in that on one occasion, the Qawwali worked a few listeners up into a state of ‘wajd’ (ecstatic trance), much to the detriment of the radio set around which they were gathered’ (Accessed on 23 January 2021) https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/THE_INDIAN_LISTENER/gcTdDwAAQBAJ?hl=en)
9. Musicians via the radio played a key role, women artists like M.L.Vasanthakumari for instance, sang effortlessly for the silver screen, as she did for a kachheri both of which were replayed by the radio with the result that regimes of listening subtly changed. Singing with Tyagaraja Bhagavatar and releasing an extraordinary range of popular Tamil songs, she left a lasting imprint on the playback genre, some elements of which carried into concert aesthetics and into middle class listening regimes.Michael Kinnear, The Gramophone Company’s First Indian Recordings 1899–1908.Popular Prakashan, Bombay, Citation1994.
10. David Lelyveld, “Upon the Subdominant: Administering Music on All-India radio.” Social Text 39 (Citation1994): 111–127. Also see Jawhar Sircar, Published: http://jawharsircar.com/assets/pdf/Vividh_Bharati’s_Role_in_’Unifying’_the_Indian_Nation_Jawhar_Sircar.pdf
11. The sammelan concerts were intended to both reiterate and redefine the national classical idiom as well as to align it with regional cultural articulations. These included publishing initiatives as well – the decision to include notations and serious articles on music in the Indian Listener, Akashvani being interesting instances in point. Radio Sangeeth Sammelan, Citation1955 p.21.
12. For other regions too, the Radio took care to articulate regional musical identities – programs such as Raga parichaya from Cuttack handled melodies that were popular in Orissa and were studied with care and textual references. Similarly, we hear of the national music of Bihar and Orissa, of devotional music for Jallandhar in the form of Sade Sant Kavi that featured the songs of Baba Farid Indian Listener, Vol. XV No. 1, 1950. Pp.11–12.
13. Some of them, notably Voletti Venkateswarulu (1928–89) even worked as program producer and brought in innovative programs like the Bhakt Ranjani and the Sangitashikshana. Voletti, played a key role in foregrounding notated music as he used radio programs to develop a corpus of 250 notated compositions so as to ensure greater dissemination at a regional IOL, London, Government of India Department of Communications. Notes of the Press Conference on Broadcasting August 1938 dated Shimla 2 August 1938 No.F/120/4/38 – P/JH/S)
14. The Hindustan Standard, 1954
15. The Indian Listener, 1954.
16. Indian Listener December 26, 1950
18. Aspects of Indian Music
20. ‘Carnatic music in America – then and now’, The Hindu, December 23, 2010
21. Gayathri Sundaresan, ‘An Idol among TV shows” Sruti, 12 February.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Lakshmi Subramanian
Lakshmi Subramanian is Professor of History at BITS Pilani, Goa. Retired as professor of History from the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta and holds the position of Associate Fellow in the Institute of Advanced Studies, Nantes. Her specialization is in the fields of economic and maritime history and in that of music and the performing arts in twentieth century South Asia. Some of her prominent titles include The Sovereign and the Pirate Ordering maritime subjects in India’s western littoral (Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2016), Three merchants of Bombay. Penguin India, 2012 and From the Tanjore Court to the Madras Music Academy: A social history of music in South India. O.U.P. New Delhi, 2006. Email: [email protected], [email protected]