Playing the Spinal Chord: Tantric Musicology and Bengali Songs in the Nineteenth Century

Main author: Williams, Richard David
Format: Journal Article           
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id eprints-31947
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
description Across the nineteenth century, Bengali songbook editors applied musicological theory to their tantric religious practices. Responding to the new possibilities of musical publishing, these editors developed innovative techniques of relating the body to music by tying together tantric tropes with music theory and performance practice. Theories about the affective potential and poetic connotations of rāgas were brought into conversation with understandings of the yogic body, cakras, and the visualization of goddesses. These different theories, stemming from aesthetics and yogic philosophy, were put into effect through lyrical composition and the ways in which songs were set to music and edited for printed anthologies. This article considers different examples of tantric musical editorial, and explores how esoteric knowledge was applied in innovative ways through the medium of printed musical literature.
format Journal Article
author Williams, Richard David
author_facet Williams, Richard David
authorStr Williams, Richard David
author_letter Williams, Richard David
title Playing the Spinal Chord: Tantric Musicology and Bengali Songs in the Nineteenth Century
publisher Oxford University Press
publishDate 2019
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/31947/