REPLAY Festival 2019

Hindustani Music has always been known as practice of an ‘oral’ tradition. What does this mean?

I look into how Hindustani Music is centred around ‘musicianship’ as a tool of transmission, whether from teacher to student or from performer to listener. A training practice based on reiteration and improvisation, the skills of listening and memorising prove central. How has the system evolved through time retaining its core, while at the same time resisting efforts of documentation and systems of notation? I look at these questions while examining the role of the ‘guru’ (teacher) and the ‘shishya’ (student).

This event is part of REPLAY Festival 2019, a three-day, biennial festival of music presented by the Department, showcasing some of the best and most innovative modern, world and classical music at Royal Holloway.