READINGS

​This is an initial list of some of the books that I have found most useful in learning about Indian music


Sandeep Bagchi, Nād: Understanding Indian Music;  Mumbai, Eeshwar, 1998. One of the best and clearest introductions to Hindustani music, winsomely illustrated with old drawings.
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Janaki Bakhle, Two Men and Music: Nationalism in the Making of an Indian Classical Tradition; Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005.  A profoundly engaging study of two Vishnus: Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (1860-1936) and Vishnu Digambar Paluskar (1872-1931).

Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, Hindustānī sangīta-paddhati kramika pustaka-mālikā.  1968, Hathras, Sangit Karyalay, 1954-68.  A six-volume treasury of song compositions with sargam and tala notation. 

Joep Bor, et al., The Raga Guide: a Survey of 74 Hindustani Ragas;  Rotterdam, Nimbus Records, 1999.  A highly useful guide: brief, two-page introductions to each raga with brief sung or played examples  on a series of six CDs.

A.H. Fox Strangways, The Music of Hindostan; Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1914. Both dated and timeless.

Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy, The Rāgs of North Indian Music: their Structure and Evolution; Middletown, Wesleyan University Press, 1971. (There is also a later Indian edition.)  Almost encyclopaedic information; accessibly written, with musical examples in sargam as well as staff notation. 

James Kippen, The Tabla of Lucknow: a Cultural Analysis of a Musical Tradition; Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988. See my informal review here. 

T.M. Krishna, A Southern Music: the Karnatik Story; Noida, HarperCollins, 2013.  TMK’s new, exciting, wide-ranging meditation on Carnatic music from a myriad different perspectives. Inspirational. Find him on Youtube also.

Nicolas Magriel with Lalita du Perron, The Songs of  Khayāl.  2 vols & CD. Delhi, Manohar, 2013.  A wonderful  resource: a detailed study of khayāl with transcriptions of the words and music of classic  performances. Reviewed  here.

Peter Allen Roda, ‘Resounding Objects: Musical Materialities and the Making of Banarasi Tablas'. New York University, PhD Dissertation, 2013.  A wonderfully detailed and ethnographically rich piece of research. Publishers, please publish!

Sangirangi. Not a book but an entirely wonderful website that constitutes the life-work of sarangi scholar and player Nicolas Magriel: an astonishing collection of recordings and information about the sarangi and its tradition in present-day India.  

Ravi Shankar,     Raga mala : the Autobiography of Ravi Shankar, ed. George Harrison; Guildford, Genesis Pub. Ltd., c.1997.  Especially good on Panditji’s tutelage under his brother, the dancer Uday Shankar, and their early experiences in Paris and elsewhere.