The Cultural Setting of South Indian Music

Music in both its aspects of performance and appreciation may be considered a form of social action, and, as such, it involves a particular cultural context as well as of social organization. The culture provides not only the conventions regarding the performance and appreciation of music, it also normalizes the subjective attitude or in terms of which music is experienced. Thus a given culture is relevant to the defining of what is or is not music and also to its perception: to what is and is not heard in a given performance. Singing out of tune, for example, may be much less irritating to one audience than it is to those trained in different musical traditions. It is a difference in the selective attention of the respective audiences. Finally, the meaning elements of the musical experience are interpreted within what might be called the ideology of the cultural tradition. The feeling tone generated as a response to musical performance is somewhat ambiguous and its articulation is normalized by the ideology. Structural governing the setting and occasion of musical performances may re-enforce or conflict withthe prevailing ideology, for the content of the musical experience can be affected by the place and time of performance

Diverse Musicological Studies · History · Music History and Culture · Musicology and Musical Analysis

• From Prince to Populace

  Jon B Higgins•Asian Music•1976

  Add to list

• Caste from Below

  Open Access•Chinnaiah Jangam•South Asia Research•2016

  Add to list