Music in South India: The Karnatak Concert Tradition and Beyond: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture (Global Music Series)

The five chapters of the book cover many types of music found in South India. The first chapter introduces the concept of song in South Indian music, with in-depth explanations of bhajans and kritis. The second chapter discusses the key elements of Carnatic theory, the raga and the tala. The third chapter explains the elements and sequencing of a Carnatic concert. The fourth chapter covers various sociological topics related to music in South India, including the differing traditional roles of women and men, recent changes in musical traditions, and musical families. The fifth chapter includes information about a variety of other topics, special features of Keralite music, cinema music, and cross-cultural collaborations. The book closes with a 5-page glossary, a selection or resources grouped by type (reading, listening, viewing, etc.), and an index. The book is amply illustrated with high quality black and white photographs of performers, instruments, and common sights of India.

A very valuable part of the book is the music CD attached to the back cover. Readers who have limited familiarity with the music can listen to samples of the items being discussed rather than simply read about them. The availability of relevant samples is noted throughout the text with a CD icon. Many samples are also accompanied by exercises described in gray boxes in the text. Technical descriptions of the pieces on the CD are kept short and concise for the text; however, more detailed descriptions can be accessed through Matthew Allen's Website at Wheaton College. In order to read the additional descriptions though, you will need to have a very up-to-date version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (I have not been able to get the pages to work using Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0). It's too bad that this additional material couldn't have been included in some way on the CD, and it's also too bad it's only available in a very limited format instead of simple HTML or at least something older PDF readers can handle.

I found this book to provide a very clear introduction to many aspects of Carnatic music. The sections on tala, ragas, and gamakams were particularly clear to me, even as a Western reader with a limited background in Western music theory. The explanations of kritis and the elements of a Carnatic concert were also quite well done. Some of the suggested exercises, on the other hand, seemed somewhat artificial or unrealistic, particularly for readers with no prior background in Carnatic music. After reading the book through, I also came away feeling as if something were missing. Technically, the descriptions are very nicely done, but the book doesn't quite communicate the enormity of the role of music in South Indian culture, perhaps due to tight space constraints. In any case, the book would make a fine introduction to the theory and culture of Carnatic music for an ethnomusicology course, especially if the instructor modifies the exercises somewhat and adds supplemental readings about the role of music in the culture of South India.