Beginning with Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, Indian art music is renowned internationally for its improvised raga performance. This ancient tradition has for centuries been transmitted orally within the seclusion of hereditary families. Few such families remain today, and not enough is known about their central contribution to the life of Indian music. Master Musicians of India reveals this rich world through profiles and interviews of key musicians from this tradition.

Beginning with Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, Indian art music is renowned internationally for its improvised raga performance. This ancient tradition has for centuries been transmitted orally within the seclusion of hereditary families. Few such families remain today, and not enough is known about their central contribution to the life of Indian music. Master Musicians of India reveals this rich world through profiles and interviews of key musicians from this tradition.

Peter Lavezzoli, Buddhist and musician, has a rare ability to articulate the personal feeling of music, and simultaneously narrate a history. In his discussion on Indian music theory, he demystifies musical structures, foreign instruments, terminology, an

One of Library Journal's "Best Arts Books of 2020" The definitive biography of Ravi Shankar, one of the most influential musicians and composers of the twentieth century, told with the cooperation of his estate, family, and friends For over eight decades, Ravi Shankar was India's greatest cultural ambassador. He was a groundbreaking performer and composer of Indian classical music, who brought the music and rich culture of India to the world's leading concert halls and festivals, charting the map for those who followed in his footsteps. Renowned for playing Monterey Pop, Woodstock, and the Concert for Bangladesh-and for teaching George Harrison of The Beatles how to play the sitar-Shankar reshaped the musical landscape of the 1960s across pop, jazz, and classical music, and composed unforgettable scores for movies like Pather Panchali and Gandhi. In Indian Sun: The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar, writer Oliver Craske presents readers with the first full portrait of this legendary figure, revealing the personal and professional story of a musician who influenced-and continues to influence-countless artists. Craske paints a vivid picture of a captivating, restless workaholic-from his lonely and traumatic childhood in Varanasi to his youthful stardom in his brother's dance troupe, from his intensive study of the sitar to his revival of India's national music scene. Shankar's musical influence spread across both genres and generations, and he developed close friendships with John Coltrane, Philip Glass, Yehudi Menuhin, George Harrison, and Benjamin Britten, among many others. For ninety-two years, Shankar lived an endlessly colorful and creative life, a life defined by musical, emotional, and spiritual quests-and his legacy lives on. Benefiting from unprecedented access to Shankar's archives, and drawing on new interviews with over 130 subjects-including his second wife and both of his daughters, Norah Jones and Anoushka Shankar- Indian Sun gives readers unparalleled insight into a man who transformed modern music as we know it today.

Veteran musician and sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan writes a deeply personal book about the lives and times of some of the greatest icons of Indian classical music. Having known some of these stalwarts personally, he recalls anecdotes and details about their individual musical styles, bringing them alive.

This is the first history of Indian music and musicians during the transition from Mughal to British rule, c.1748-1858.

Daniel M. Neuman offers an account of North Indian Hindustani music culture and the changing social context of which it is part, as expressed in the thoughts and actions of its professional musicians. Drawing primarily from fieldwork performed in Delhi in 1969-71—from interviewing musicians, learning and performing on the Indian fiddle, and speaking with music connoisseurs—Neuman examines the cultural and social matrix in which Hindustani music is nurtured, listened and attended to, cultivated, and consumed in contemporary India. Through his interpretation of the impact that modern media, educational institutions, and public performances exert on the music and musicians, Neuman highlights the drama of a great musical tradition engaging a changing world, and presents the adaptive strategies its practitioners employ to practice their art. His work has gained the distinction of introducing a new approach to research on Indian music, and appears in this edition with a new preface by the author.

This Is A Book Of And About The Classical Music Of North India, Among The Oldest Continual Musical Traditions Of The World. This Volume Introduces The Great Richness And Variety Of The Different Styles Of Music As Taught By One Of The Century`S Greatest Musicians, Ali Akbar Khan.

An interesting and readable book about the master musicians of the medieval Islamic world.Taking as its subject the world of medieval Islamic music, Three Master Musicians deals with the three men who led artistic life in Abbasid Baghdad in the 9th century. Two of these men were Ibrahim al-Mawsili and his son Ishaq who were musicians to caliphs and aristocrats and kept the equivalent of a latter day academy of music. The third man featured in Dr. Caswell's new book is Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi - a remarkable musician for his time. He was the son of a caliph and the uncle of several caliphs (and he himself held the caliphate of Baghdad for a brief spell being known as the Black Caliph due to his colour). Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi was a wonderful musician with a formidable vocal range who popularised singing and is said to have created the 'modern' mode of Arabic singing.Three Master Musicians is an in-depth look at the medieval music makers who changed Arabic music forever.