Copyright by Jeffrey Michael Grimes 2008 - The University of Texas ...

with traditions based in urban centers. Thus, Hamilton (1989) deals with sitar music in
Calcutta, Kippen (1988) examines tabla playing in Lucknow, Neuman (1990) examines
the social organization of Khyal singers, along with saarangii and tabla players in Delhi
itself, etc. Of course, many of these studies (including those of Kippen and Neuman) are
located within the North Indian region (in Uttar Pradesh) and are considered ‘traditional’
and historically significant centers, so a discussion of regional tendencies or differences
likely would not suggest themselves in such contexts. However, even Hamilton, while he
both discusses the fact that Calcutta is a relatively new center for classical music and that
many musicians have migrated there from outside Bengal in the last century, and
summarizes the history of Calcutta and some of its unique and uniquely Bengali cultural
features, he makes no explicit connections between the style of classical music practiced
in Calcutta and Bengali culture per se.
To these studies that either (like Wade) deal with region briefly in a broader
discussion of the history of the tradition or specific genres or musicians or focus on
traditions based in specific urban centers, could be added those that deal with an
essentially regional phenomenon (or simultaneously regional and national), but
consistently argue that these phenomena are of national import and/or are representative
or parallel to processes that take place in other regions. Bakhle’s aforementioned
monograph Two Men and Music (2005) (which deals with Maharashtra and
Maharashtrian musicians and music reformers) and McNeil’s Inventing the Sarod (2004),
are two examples, although McNeil’s study, which covers the history of the sarod, does
deal with a much larger cultural zone than just Bengal (even if Bengal has been the most
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