Traditional, Folk, Fusion, and Confusion: Music and Change In
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Traditional, Folk, Fusion, and conFusion: Music and Change in the Newar Communities of Nepal Subhash Ram Prajapati A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2018 Reading Committee: Shannon Dudley, Chair Christina Sunardi David Henderson Ratna Maya Magarati Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Music ©Copyright 2018 Subhash Ram Prajapati University of Washington Abstract Traditional, Folk, Fusion, and conFusion: Music and Change in the Newar Communities of Nepal Subhash Ram Prajapati Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Shannon Dudley Music This dissertation explores the musical changes in the Newar communities from the 1920s to 2018. For centuries, the indigenous people from Kathmandu, the Newars have been practicing predominantly Hindu and Buddhist culture, inviting comparison with India before the Mughal invasion of the sixteenth century. Since Nepal was never invaded by the Mughals, the scholars argue that the Newars and their music offer us a glimpse into an archaic South Asian culture. The Newar musical culture, which is often contemplated as untouched tradition that has been in practice for centuries, these days is undergoing a lot of rapid changes in content and the context mainly as a result of media, migration, and modernization. In a relatively short period of time, there has been a huge increase in women participation in traditional music, the caste barrier has been heavily relaxed and some traditional musicians have paved a way for commercialization. On the one hand, traditional and folk music has been revitalized in many communities through newly formed gender and caste inclusive music groups. On the other hand, the music has been recontextualized and repositioned by changing repertoire, playing styles, modifying instruments and fusing with various other musical instruments, styles, and genres. This study focuses on these changes and analyzes these from the viewpoints of the ecology of music culture, modernism, and Newar musical identity. In this study, I examine the historical narrative, current position and an overall health of traditional Newar music in a global perspective of the ecology of music cultures. This study shows that the presumably static Newar music tradition is changing as musical performances are separated from their ritual context in various ways and degrees, a change that I characterize as a shift from practice to performance. The study also examines the relationship between “traditional” ritual music and “modern” styles that incorporate pop and world music. I review socio-political influences, motivations of musical changes and argue the appearance of fusion music as “indigenous modernity” or “alternative modernity”. I demonstrate new musical groups have brought significant changes in Newar music tradition in terms of gender and caste inclusiveness as well as financial sustainability. I also demonstrate that the new groups have developed a strong sense of ethnic identity. This study contributes to the ethnographic literature on musical tradition and change with special attention to gender, modernity, and discourses on ethnic and national identity. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... V LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................... VII NOTES ON THE TRANSLITERATION ............................................................................. VIII VOWELS .................................................................................................................................... VIII CONSONANTS .............................................................................................................................. IX ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ X DEDICATION .......................................................................................................................... XIII CHAPTER 1: THE BEGINNING ............................................................................................... 1 BACKGROUND .............................................................................................................................. 1 RESEARCH OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................. 2 MUSIC AND CHANGE .................................................................................................................... 5 NEWAR MUSIC AND CHANGE ....................................................................................................... 8 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................................. 10 STUDIES OF NEWAR MUSIC ................................................................................................................ 10 STUDIES OF NEWAR MUSIC AND CHANGE .......................................................................................... 12 FIELDWORK & METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................. 16 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS AND CONCEPTS ........................................................................... 19 TRADITIONAL, FOLK AND FUSION ...................................................................................................... 19 ECOLOGY OF MUSIC CULTURE ........................................................................................................... 21 INDIGENOUS MODERNITY/ ALTERNATIVE MODERNITY .................................................................... 21 ROADMAP .................................................................................................................................. 22 i CHAPTER 2: NEWAR MUSIC FROM PAST TO PRESENT ............................................. 24 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 24 TRADITIONAL NEWAR MUSIC .................................................................................................... 25 CATEGORIZATION OF NEWAR MUSIC ................................................................................................. 26 INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC ...................................................................................................................... 27 VOCAL MUSIC .................................................................................................................................... 29 SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND MUSICAL SPACE ................................................................................ 32 THE NEWARS AND NEWAR MUSIC IN ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL NEPAL .................................... 37 THE NEWARS AND NEWAR MUSIC IN THE MODERN PERIOD ...................................................... 41 EARLY SHAH PERIOD (1769-1846) ..................................................................................................... 42 RANA PERIOD (1846-1951), LITERARY/RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS, AND THE BIRTH OF A NEW GENRE OF MUSIC ............................................................................................................................................ 43 REVOLUTION OF 1951, DEMOCRACY, AND THE REVITALIZATION OF TRADITIONAL NEWAR MUSIC 49 PAṄCHĀYAT (1962-1990) ................................................................................................................... 52 REBIRTH OF DEMOCRACY FROM 1990 TO THE PRESENT ................................................................... 54 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 56 CHAPTER 3: CHANGES IN ECOLOGY OF NEWAR MUSIC .......................................... 57 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 57 ECOLOGY OF MUSIC CULTURE ................................................................................................... 58 ECOLOGY OF NEWAR MUSIC ..................................................................................................... 61 SYSTEMS OF LEARNING MUSIC ........................................................................................................... 61 MUSICIANS AND COMMUNITIES ......................................................................................................... 65 SOCIAL STRATIFICATION OF THE MUSICIANS ...................................................................................................... 65 BĀJAṄ GUTHI: SOCIAL MUSIC INSTITUTIONS ...................................................................................................... 69 CONTEXTS AND CONSTRUCTS ............................................................................................................ 70 ii PERFORMANCE CONTEXTS ................................................................................................................................ 70 GENDER ROLES ................................................................................................................................................ 71 THE IDENTITY MOVEMENT ................................................................................................................................