The Grammar of Carnatic Music
KGV's book “The Grammar of Carnatic Music” published by Mouton de Gruyter, Germany (2007) applies the principles of modern linguistic theory to Carnatic music. The unique feature of the book is that it has an accompanying MP3 CD with music demonstration by him and the artist Sri Sanjay Subrahmanyan.
As a follow up of the book, the departments of Musicology and Linguistics, Utrecht University, the Netherlands and CNRS, Paris III and Paris VIII invited him to present a paper “Markedness in Language and Music” followed by a recital on April 23 rd and April 26 th, 2008 respectively.
BOOK REVIEW: by Walter de Gruyter, Dec 30, 2007 - 342 pages.
This book argues that Carnatic music as it is practiced today can be traced to the musical practices of early/mid eighteenth century. Earlier varieties or 'incarnations' of Indian music elaborately described in many musical treatises are only of historical relevance today as the music described is quite different from current practices. It is argued that earlier varieties may not have survived because they failed to meet the three crucial requirements for a language-like organism to survive i.e., a robust community of practitioners/listeners which the author calls the Carnatic Music Fraternity, a sizeable body of musical texts and a felt communicative need. In fact, the central thesis of the book is that Carnatic music, like language, survived and evolved from early/mid eighteenth century when these three requirements were met for the first time in the history of Indian music. The volume includes a foreword by Paul Kiparsky.
Read Excerpts from the book Here(link opens in a new tab)
Indian edition is now available (published by Motilal Banarsi Das, New Delhi, reasonably priced approximately Rs. 900 available with Carnatic Book House, Chennai.