Durham E-Theses Gesture in Karnatak Music: Pedagogy and Musical Structure in South India PEARSON, LARA,ANN How to cite: PEARSON, LARA,ANN (2016) Gesture in Karnatak Music: Pedagogy and Musical Structure in South India, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11782/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 GESTURE IN KARNATAK MUSIC: PEDAGOGY AND MUSICAL STRUCTURE IN SOUTH INDIA LARA PEARSON THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC DURHAM UNIVERSITY 2016 ABSTRACT This thesis presents an examination of gesture in Karnatak music, the art music of South India. The topic is approached from two perspectives; the first considers Karnatak music structure from a gestural perspective, looking both at the music itself and at the gestures that create it, while the second enquires into the role played by physical gesture in vocal pedagogy. The broader aims of the thesis are to provide insight into the musical structure of the Karnatak style, and to contribute to wider discourses on connections between music and movement. An interdisciplinary approach to the research is taken, drawing on theories and methods from the fields of ethnomusicology, embodied music cognition, and gesture studies. The first part of the thesis opens with a discussion of differences between practical and theoretical conceptions of the Karnatak style. I argue for the significance in practice of svara-gamaka units and longer motifs formed of chains of such units, and also consider the gestural qualities of certain motifs and their contribution to bh!va (mood). Subsequently, I present a joint musical and motoric analysis of a section of Karnatak violin performance, seeking to elucidate the dynamic processes that form the style. The second part of the thesis enquires into the role played by hand gestures produced by teachers and students in vocal lessons, looking at what is indexed by the gestures and how such indexing contributes to the pedagogic process. This part of the thesis also considers how gestures contribute to the formation and maintenance of common ground between teacher and student. The final chapter brings the two strands of this thesis together to discuss the connections that exist between musical and physical gesture in Karnatak music. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS !! "#$%&'()$*&#+,#'+-*$.%,$(%.+/.0*.1+2222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222+!!! 1.1! Research questions .......................................................................................................... 11! 1.2! Musical context ............................................................................................................... 12! 1.3! Theoretical background and methods ............................................................................. 13! 1.4! Embodied music cognition and perception-action coupling .......................................... 14! 1.4.1! Conceptual metaphor .............................................................................................. 14! 1.4.2! Embodied cognition ................................................................................................. 15! 1.4.3! Early influences on the field of embodied cognition ............................................... 17! 1.4.4! Common coding and mirror neurons ...................................................................... 19! 1.4.5! Interim summary ..................................................................................................... 21! 1.5! Musical motion ............................................................................................................... 22! 1.5.1! Musical motion as metaphor ................................................................................... 23! 1.5.2! Motion created through musical fiction .................................................................. 24! 1.5.3! Motion arising from the gestures of the performer ................................................. 27! 1.5.4! Entrainment to pulse and rhythm ............................................................................ 28! 1.5.5! Types of motion considered in this thesis ................................................................ 29! 1.6! Gesture in ethnomusicology and musicology ................................................................. 30! 1.6.1! Musical gestures ...................................................................................................... 31! 1.6.2! Sound-producing and sound-accompanying gestures ............................................. 34! 1.7! Fieldwork and learning to perform as a research technique ........................................... 37! 1.8! Thesis outline .................................................................................................................. 38! 3! 4,%#,$,5+6(7*)8+9:.&%;+,#'+<%,)$*).+22222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222+=!! 2.1! Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 41! 2.2! Historical and social context of the Karnatak style ........................................................ 42! 2.3! Concert format and improvisation in Karnatak music .................................................... 44! 2.4! The intertwining of svara and gamaka ........................................................................... 46! 2.5! Gamaka and bh!va: gamakas in theory and in practice ................................................. 47! 2.6! Divergence between scalar and motif-based approaches ............................................... 49! 2.7! Svara-gamaka units ........................................................................................................ 52! 2.8! Gestural qualities of svara-gamaka units ....................................................................... 54! >! ?&,%$*)(@,$*&#+,#'+A.7$(%.+22222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222+B!! 3.1! Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 61! 3.2! Coarticulation ................................................................................................................. 62! 3.3! Performance and analytical method ................................................................................ 64! 3 3.4! Notes on the transcriptions and figures .......................................................................... 65! 3.5! R!ga To!i ....................................................................................................................... 67! 3.6! Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 68! 3.7! Discussion of variation in the performance of g!ndh!ra ............................................... 79! 3.8! Wider significance and applications ............................................................................... 81! 3.8.1! Coarticulation in atomistic and gestural conceptions of Karnatak music ............. 82! 3.8.2! Coarticulation and musicology: implications and applications ............................. 83! 3.9! Conclusions to this section of the thesis ......................................................................... 84! =! "#$%&'()$*&#+$&+<,%$+91&8+<:;7*),@+A.7$(%.7+*#+4,%#,$,5+C&),@+-.77&#7+2222222222222222222222+DB! 4.1! Context ............................................................................................................................ 86! 4.2! Research questions .......................................................................................................... 88! 4.3! Background on the vocal teachers participating in the study ......................................... 88! 4.4! Pedagogic formats in South India ................................................................................... 90! 4.5! R!ga !l!pana as it is taught in vocal lessons ................................................................. 92! 4.6! Ethical constraints on gesturing in vocal lessons and performance ............................... 94! E! 4,%#,$,5+6(7*)*,#7F+GH*#*&#7+&#+A.7$(%.+*#+<.',I&I;+22222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222+JK! 5.1! Introduction and methods ............................................................................................... 97! 5.2! Attitudes towards the topic of gesture ............................................................................ 98! 5.3! Themes observed in responses ...................................................................................... 101! 5.3.1! Movement .............................................................................................................