They Sing the Wedding of God: An Ethnomusicological Study of the Mahadevji ka byavala as Performed by the Nath-Jogis of...

They Sing the Wedding of God: An Ethnomusicological Study of the Mahadevji ka byavala as Performed by the Nath-Jogis of...
ISBN-10
0786471409
ISBN-13
9780786471409
Category
Music
Pages
351
Language
English
Published
2013-05-29
Publisher
McFarland
Author
John Napier

Description

In Rajasthan, India, a caste of musicians and mendicants, the Nath-Jogis, sing stories of kings who renounce their thrones to become wandering mendicants. They also sing of a god, Mahadeva, Shiva, who must abandon his world-renouncing life and marry, thus establishing the very caste that tells his story. This is the first detailed ethnomusicological study of the music of this caste, examining how the existential questions of the sung stories--of the conflict between loyalty to families or communities and the transcending desire to renounce the material world--are articulated in musical performances in which the caste's own ethnography is inscribed. Discussing the relationship between the performed repertoire and the caste's identity, the contexts of performance and ways in which familiar stories are effectively retold, the book offers a transcription, translation and musical and ethnographic analysis of one performance, by Kishori Nath, and shows how the questions the performances project are not merely speculative acts of self-identification but also challenges to audiences to consider their own responses.

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