UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title When “Unheard Sound” (Re)Sounds: Affective Listening, Ethical Affects, and Embodied Experience in Sikh Sabad Kīrtan Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1vx572rs Author Kaur, Inderjit Publication Date 2016 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California When “Unheard Sound” (Re)Sounds: Affective Listening, Ethical Affects, and Embodied Experience in Sikh Sabad Kīrtan By Inderjit Nilu Kaur A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Music in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Bonnie C. Wade, Chair Professor Benjamin Brinner Professor Charles Hirschkind Professor Tamara Roberts Summer 2016 © Inderjit Nilu Kaur. All Rights Reserved. Abstract When “Unheard Sound” (Re)Sounds: Affective Listening, Ethical Affects, and Embodied Experience in Sikh Sabad Kīrtan by Inderjit Nilu Kaur Doctor of Philosophy in Music University of California, Berkeley Professor Bonnie C. Wade, Chair In Sikh religious practice, listening to sung sacred poetry (sabad kīrtan) is the chief means of worship and a central part of everyday life for Sikhs around the world. While it is the sacred-text (sabad) that is held as primary and inviolable, and music is regarded as secondary and flexible, it is the musical rendering of sabad that is the most widely practiced worship activity. In this dissertation I explore the combined role of sabad and music in the lived experience of congregants participating in sabad kīrtan. Based on ethnographic research, I propose that sabad kīrtan listening is a primarily affective practice that also constitutes an epistemic site where ethicality is experienced as embodied sensation rather than as mentalist reasoning; that sabad kīrtan occasions are listening ecologies where affect becomes imbued with ethicality. My investigation explores how music heightens those ethically-imbued affective experiences—that is, the ways in which music works on the sensorium to deepen such sensations. I focus on three types of sensations that I found to be particularly intensified among congregants in different kīrtan occasions, namely feelings of affection, and of awe, and the experience of aura. I analyze the role of musical sound from the three main contemporary musical genres of sabad kīrtan – the most popular “light” genre, the fast growing AKJ (Akhand Kīrtani Jatha) genre, and the historical, in revival, “classical” genre. Thus, highlighting the contributions of diverse musical means in rich experiences among congregants, I critique the objectification of musical sound in recent scholarship on sabad kīrtan, and the binarized authenticity discourses among some Sikh musicians as well as scholars focused on the classical genre. I argue that the multifaceted affective work of musical sound is contextual even within a tradition, i.e., in its different musical sub-collectivities. Shifting the focus from musicians to listeners, I draw attention to the crucial interpretive work of reception in the representation of traditions and assessment of change over time, proposing what I term “multiple authenticities in motion.” 1 To my mother i Contents Contents ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………………….…….. ii List of Figures ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. iv Acknowledgments ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. vi Chapter One: Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 1 Listening to Sabad ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3 Listening Contexts ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4 Diverse Musical Genres and Styles of Sabad Kīrtan ………………………………………………………. 5 Field Site ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………16 Body-sensorial Ethnography ………………………….…………………………………………………………… 17 Analytical Framework and Perspectives Affective Listening ………………………………………………………………………………..………… 18 Listening to “Unheard Sound” ………………………………………………………………………… 21 Ethical Affects ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 23 Relaxed Attentiveness ……………………………………………………………………………………. 27 An Affective Ecology ………………...……………………………………………………………………. 28 Sensory Experiences Awe, Aura, Affection …………………………………………………………………………… 33 The Taste in the Body …………………………………………………………………………. 35 Making Time …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 37 Scope of Study …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 39 Chapter Outline …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 40 Chapter Two: Time vistas: ‘Awe’-some Technologies of the Light Genre …………………………….... 43 Awe as Ethical Affect …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 43 Awe, Ethics, Temporality in Cognitive Studies ……………………………………………………………. 45 Awe, Ethics, Temporality in Sabad Kīrtan …………………………………………………………………... 47 Oneness in the Multiple ………………………………………………………………………………………….…. 59 Time Vistas of Awe ……………………………………………………………………………………………….……. 60 Conclusions ….………………………………………………………………………………………………….………... 61 Chapter Three: Ethical Sensations: Affective Attunements in the AKJ Genre ………………….……… 63 The AKJ (Akhand Kīrtani Jatha) and its Marked Affection for the Guru ………………….…… 63 AKJ Kīrtan …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 66 Sounding the Divine ……………………………………………………………………………………………..……. 73 Affective Attunements, Ethical sensations ………………………………………………………….……... 80 Dynamic Affects, Dynamic Attending …………………………………………………………………………. 82 Conclusions ……………………………………………………………………………………….………..…………….. 85 ii Chapter Four: (Spell)Bound by Bandish: Embodiment in the Time of Aura, and Communities of Gurmat Sangīt ……………………………………………………………………… 86 The Aura of Gurmat Sangīt ………………………………………………………………………………………… 86 Aura and Access ………………………………………………………………………………………………………... 87 The Aura in the Musicology in Guru Granth Sahib ……………………………………………………… 88 Musical Performance of Aura ………………………………………………………………………………..….. 94 Body-sensorial Musical Knowledge, the Social Sensorial, and Sensorial Social ……….….. 99 The Sensorial in Language ………………………………….………………………….…………………….….. 111 The Body-sensorial in Gurmat Sangīt versus North Indian Classical Music ……………..… 112 Conclusions ………………………………………………………………….………………………………………..… 113 Chapter Five: Multiple Authenticities in Motion: Styles and Stances in Sikh Sabad Kīrtan …... 115 Musical Diversity in Practice and Theory ………………..…………………………….………………….. 116 The “Classical” Genre and its Others …………………….…………………………….……………………. 118 Multiple Authenticities ……………………………………………………………………….……………………. 122 Authenticity as Stance ………………………………………………………………………….………………….. 126 Conclusions ………………………………………………………………………………………….………………….. 128 Concluding Thoughts ……………………………………….…………………………………………..……………………… 129 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……. 132 Appendix A: Rāg, rāg-variants and ghar number designations in the Guru Granth Sahib ……… 152 Appendix B: Scholarship on Sikh Sabad Kīrtan …………………………………………………..…………………. 154 iii List of Figures 1.1 The Guru Granth Sahib 1.2 Gurdwāra San Jose, California, USA 1.3a Main Hall, Gurdwāra San Jose, California, USA 1.3b Bowing to the Guru Granth Sahib 1.4 Ensemble in the light genre, Bhai Harjinder Singh Srinagar Wale 1.5 Vājā (harmonium) 1.6 Tabla 1.7 AKJ ensemble with kartāl in the foreground and congregation in the background 1.8 Tānpura 1.9 Instruments historically used in sabad kīrtan, now increasingly adopted in the classical genre (rabāb, saranda, dilruba, tāus, jori, mridang) 1.10 Features of the three main musical genres of sabad kīrtan 1.11 Typical contemporary sabad performance structure in the three main musical genres of sabad kīrtan 1.12 Dholaki, kartāl and chhainé 1.13 The Sikh Khanda 1.14 The Guru Granth Sahib on pedestal, with attendant 1.15 Parshād at Gurdwāra San Jose 1.16 Dhādi ensemble of Bhai Lakhwinder Singh Johal 2.1 Awe, temporality and ethicality in cognitive studies 2.2 Awe, temporality and ethicality in Sikh sabad kīrtan 2.3 Rhythmic layers in jhaptāl 2.4 Wave representation of jhaptāl 2.5 Sant Anoop Singh’s ensemble at Gurdwara San Jose, California 2.6 Langar at a gurdwāra in Delhi 3.1 Articles of Faith (Panj Kakkār – Five Ks) 3.2 Amrit Sanchār 3.3 Bhai Randhir Singh (1878-1961) 3.4 AKJ ensemble and congregation, led by Amanpreet Kaur 3.5 Congregation, AKJ samāgam 3.6 AKJ ensemble and congregation including kartāl player 3.7 Chorus melody of “Mat Bisras Re Man” 3.8 A phrase diminution in Chorus Line 1 3.9 Further phrase diminution 3.10 Wāheguru chant, with open hand tabla bāyān strokes 3.11 Nagāra drums 3.12 Tabla detail 3.13 Ethical affect, AKJ samāgam 3.14 Langar at Gurdwāra Guru Nanak Nishkam Seva Jatha, Birmingham, UK 3.15 Dynamic attending in AKJ kīrtan iv 4.1 Broad layout of sabads in Guru Granth Sahib 4.2 Poetic/musical forms in rāg sections in Guru Granth Sahib 4.3 Poetic/musical forms, authors, and ghar-number designations in the Sĭrirāg section in the Guru Granth Sahib 4.4 Rabāb belonging to Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) 4.5 Gurmat Sangīt Ensemble led by musician-scholar Dr. Nivedita Singh (on tānpura) 4.6 Gurmat Sangīt ensemble led by rāgi Bhai Balbir Singh (elder on vājā) 4.7 Pakar and mukh ang in pedagogical material in the Bay Area 4.8 11th generation rāgi Bhai Avtar Singh and ensemble including his son Bhai Kultar Singh with author at podium 4.9 Melodic structure of Rāg Kedāra 4.10 Chorus of “Sarni Ayo” in Rāg Kedāra, Punjtāl 4.11 Chorus line 1 of “Sarni Ayo” in Rāg Kedāra, Tīntāl 4.12 Three subtle variations in pakar in first chorus line of sabad “Har Gun Gavoh” in Rāg Kedāra 5.1