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- Title
Creativity in perpetual motion: Listening in the development of expertise in the Karnatic classical singing tradition of South India.
- Authors
Grimmer, Sophie
- Abstract
Designed to facilitate qualitative insight into the teaching and learning of advanced singing within the fundamentally oral tradition of Karnatic classical music, this research is located at the interstices of the sociology of music education and ethnomusicology. During an extensive fieldwork period in South India, data was collected from interviews with masters (gurus) and students (shishyas) involved directly in Karnatic singing training and from observations of formal and informal learning environments, outside institutional contexts, associated with nine guru-shishya 'hubs'. This article focuses on listening in the teaching and learning processes and its significance for the development of a shishya's musical and vocal development. At all stages of the training, different modes of listening are pivotal in facilitating knowledge of stylistic boundaries, visceral understanding of critical ineffable nuances, a heightened awareness of particular vocal capabilities, and the accumulation of a personalised bank of musical ideas from which a singer can draw in the moment of live performance. Considered central to vital expression within the tradition, Karnatic singers continue to develop and hone an individual 'voice' throughout their lives, drawing creative inspiration from their listening for unique expression within the compositional (kalpita sangita) and improvisatory (manodharma sangita) dimensions of the music.
- Subjects
PERPETUAL motion; CREATIVE ability; SINGING; INDIC music; MUSIC education; ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
- Publication
Music Performance Research, 2012, Vol 5, p79
- ISSN
1755-9219
- Publication type
Article