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

cultures of Maharashtra and Bengal must have impacted classical music as it migrated to
these regions.
I approach this issue in two ways, which I term as the “Inside View” and the
“Outside View.” The first represents a combination of the most common approach
favored by scholars of Hindustani music, a generally objectivist approach that focuses
primarily on biographies of individual musicians and on description and analysis of
specifically musical processes, along with the viewpoint of the average Hindustani
performer. The answers provided by this approach are partial. I complement this view of
modern Hindustani music with the “Outside View,” which examines change in the
tradition through the lens of larger social processes, particularly the influence of the tastes
or aesthetic preferences of audience members native to these two regions, as well as by
other aspects of regional culture, including the impact of semi-classical music genres
native to these regions. As such, I not only demonstrate that specifically regional factors
have impacted the style of classical music practiced in each of these regions, but also
attempt to quantify and describe these changes.
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