ISTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
M.A. THESIS
JUNE 2018
THE SINGING BODY: THE EMBODIMENT PROCESSES IN THE
TRANSMISSION OF MUSICAL KNOWLEDGE – A CASE STUDY OF
PROF. DR. V. BALAJI
Aslı BÜYÜKKÖKSAL
Dr. Erol Üçer Center for Advanced Studies in Music Music Program
Dr. Erol Üçer Center for Advanced Studies in Music Music Program
JUNE 2018
ISTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
THE SINGING BODY: THE EMBODIMENT PROCESSES IN THE
TRANSMISSION OF MUSICAL KNOWLEDGE – A CASE STUDY OF
PROF. DR. V. BALAJI
M.A. THESIS Aslı BÜYÜKKÖKSAL
(409131111)
Thesis Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. E. Şirin ÖZGÜN TANIR Thesis Co-Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Robert F. REIGLE
Dr. Erol Üçer Müzik İleri Araştırmalar Merkezi Müzik Yüksek Lisans Programı
HAZİRAN 2018
İSTANBUL TEKNİK ÜNİVERSİTESİ SOSYAL BİLİMLER ENSTİTÜSÜ
TINLAYAN BEDEN: MÜZİK BİLGİSİNİN AKTARIMINDA
BEDENSELLEŞME SÜREÇLERİ – PROF. DR. V. BALAJI ÜZERİNE VAKA İNCELEMESİ
YÜKSEK LİSANS TEZİ Aslı BÜYÜKKÖKSAL
(409131111)
Tez Danışmanı: Doç. Dr. E. Şirin ÖZGÜN TANIR Eş Danışman: Doç. Dr. Robert F. REIGLE
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Thesis Advisor : Assoc. Prof. E. Şirin Özgün ...
İstanbul Technical University
Thesis Co-Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Robert Reigle ... İstanbul Technical University
Jury Members : Assoc. Prof. Jerfi Aji ...
İstanbul Technical University
Asst. Prof. U. Ulaş Özdemir ...
İstanbul University
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Belma Kurtişoğlu ...
İstanbul Technical University
Aslı Büyükköksal, a M.A. student of ITU Graduate School of.Arts and Social Sciences, student ID 409131111, successfully defended the thesis entitled “THE
SINGING BODY: THE EMBODIMENT PROCESSES IN MUSICAL
TRANSMISSION OF MUSICAL KNOWLEDGE – A CASE STUDY OF PROF. DR. V. BALAJI”, which she prepared after fulfilling the requirements specified in the associated legislations, before the jury whose signatures are below.
Date of Submission : 4 May 2018 Date of Defense : 7 June 2018
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FOREWORD
My gratitude goes to all who helped me during the course of preparation, conducting, and writing phases of this thesis by their active contribution, material and psychological help, and/or just by their supportive presence.
First of all, without my guru, Prof. Dr. V. Balaji, this work would not be possible. His mastery in music and teaching gave me endless inspiration in music and his generosity, understanding, and offerings made this work to come alive. I thank to mataji, Dr. V. Balaji’s wife, Shanti Balaji, for having my husband and me in the intimacy of their house and taking care of us sincerely. I owe special thanks to their daughter Bhairavi Balaji, who kindly read my thesis and suggested the necessary corrections in a very short time. I present my best wishes for all the family of Prof. Dr. V. Balaji.
I would like to give a special thanks to my husband Ertuğrul Küçükbayraktar, for being the strong supporter under hardest conditions both in India and in Turkey, enduring the changes and intensity in our shared daily life, and acting out with love. Throughout our journey in India, so many knowledgeable, wise and nice people helped us to find our way. I must say that I’m impressed by the open-heartedness of the people we encountered. Dear Sheetal Sanghvi, Drupad and Neeraj Mistry, Derya Albayrak, Roy Novick, Syed Salman Chisty, Aparajita Tomer and her husband, Akshay Chadha and Güldeste Mamaç opened our way. I thank to Sukhdev Prasad Mishra who introduced the style of Indian violin to me and treated us with dearest hospitality. I owe a special thanks to Shubha Chaudhuri who was generously spending time with me discussing my thesis, trying to connect me to key people. Additionally, the warm-hearted crew in AIIS Archives and Research Center in Gurugram, Haryana did their best to provide me the material for my thesis.
My advisor, Şirin Özgün Tanır, guided me through the intricate paths of social science research with her keen understanding, clear suggestions, and calm presence. I’m happy that I had the chance to work with her.
My co-advisor Robert Reigle supported me all through my graduate years and has always been kind, generous, and encouraging regardless of the conditions. I especially thank him for asking me repeatedly the important question of what is my genuine interest in research.
I owe special thanks to the jury members Belma Kurtişoğlu, Ulaş Özdemir, and Jerfi Aji for showing their sincere interests in my research and giving valuable suggestions to make it complete.
Özlem Gürkan, being the most positive and smiling librarian on earth, helped me all through my graduate years, too. Robert O. Beahrs shared kindly his knowledge about the embodiment literature and about the research process with me.
I thank all of the interviewees, namely, Perrine Vincent, Gabriele Politi, Arnaud Bourdonnay, and Mari-Line Aubry, for giving their valuable time. Especially, Perrine Vincent inspired me about the focus on embodiment in my thesis.
I would like to thank the scholars in the SEM list for sharing generously their knowledge, including Martin Clayton, Byron Dueck, Richard K. Wolf, Matthew Rahaim, Tomie Hahn, Bruno Deschênes, Caroline Bithell, Rolf Groesbeck, Bernd Brabec de Mori, Jerome Camal, Colin P. McGuire, Melanie Pinkert, Davindar Singh, CedarBough T. Saeji, Lisa Gold, Kim Carter Munoz, Sydney Hutchinson, Esther Kurtz, Justin Scarimbolo, Lois Ann M. Anderson and Grace Toland.
Aslı Bala Aşkan and Merve Aykaç Sönmez were present in the key moments when I felt desperate and kindly helped me out in technical and intangible issues. My dear friends in the department inspired me to continue with my studies. Oğul Köker has been a big help about my jury members and many other details.
My dear soul sisters, Seda Seyrek, Yarden Cohen, Ezgi İçöz, Zainab Lax, Hande Başaran, Melike Doğan, Alaleh Sayedahmadi, and Burcu Kındır generously gave me strength, logistic and psychological support to finalize this project. Sine Boran Art and Olcayto Art helped me out when I was caught in a “writer’s block”.
I owe special thanks to Sinan Erdemsel, a master in playing and teaching of Turkish maqam music, who supported me throughout my music life. In addition, Prof. Dr. Sibel Kalaycıoğlu from METU and Sinan Erdemsel had given their references so that I was able to be in the music program.
Finally, I would like to express my everlasting gratitude to my parents, Gülden and Nejat Büyükköksal. With their beautiful presence, they have been giving me the support, opportunity and love to be who I am ever since we have been together. May 2018 Aslı BÜYÜKKÖKSAL Musician
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS... ix
LIST OF FIGURES ... xi
LIST OF TABLES ... xiii
SUMMARY ... xv
ÖZET... xvii
1. INTRODUCTION ... 1
1.1 Purpose of the Thesis ... 1
1.2 Motivation ... 3
1.3 Methodology ... 4
1.3.1 Doing ethnography as a disciple ... 4
1.3.2 The autoethnographical approach ... 6
1.3.3 Interviews ... 7
1.4 Literature Review ... 9
1.4.1 Embodiment ... 10
1.4.2 Spiritual/religious setting ... 21
1.5 Overview ... 23
2. THE GURU-SHISHYA RELATIONSHIP ... 25
2.1 Introduction ... 25 2.2 The ‘Lesson’ ... 26 2.2.1 The setting ... 26 2.2.2 First part ... 29 2.2.3 Second
part...33
3. TEACHING METHODOLOGY ... 353.1 The Technical Transmission ... 36
3.1.1 Technical exercises ... 36
3.1.2 Linking the exercises to the performance-related material ... 36
3.1.3 ‘First the movement!’ ... 37
3.1.4 Rote repetition ... 39
3.1.5 ‘You can’t change the teacher!’ ... 40
3.1.6 The language ... 43
3.1.7 Notation/textbook ... 47
3.2 Immersion In Music ... 49
3.2.1 Cyclicity ... 51
3.2.2 ‘Take your violin in hand, don’t stop, work!’ ... 53
3.2.3 Focus on music ... 55
3.2.4 Riaz ... 58
3.2.5 The drone ... 61
4. PEDAGOGY... 65
4.1 ‘You Know Friends Kick Each Other. It’s Like a Friendship.’ ... 66
4.2 ‘Try, Do the Mistake!’ ... 67
5. THE SPIRITUALITY – THE SPIRITUAL/RELIGIOUS SETTING ... 71
5.1 Dr. Balaji’s Teaching in Relation to Hinduism and Sufism ... 72
5.2 An Autoethnographical Approach ... 80
6. THE ENGAGEMENT - SOCIO-CULTURAL SETTING ... 91
6.1 Dedication and Submission ... 91
6.2 The Transmission of Ethics ... 96
7. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ... 99
7.1 A Brief Summary………..99
7.2 Preservation, Memorialization, and Mediation ………..102
7.3 The Consent Process and Dialogic Editing……….105
7.4 The Research Question and Answers...107
7.5 RecommendationsForFutureResearch...109
REFERENCES ... 111
APPENDICES ... 115
APPENDIX A: GLOSSARY ………..……….116
APPENDIX B: PHOTOGRAPHS…………...……….119
APPENDIX C: CURRICULUM VITAE OF DR. BALAJI…...…………...…...123
APPENDIX D: BIO DATA OF V. K. VENKATARAMANUJAM………127
APPENDIX E: CONTENT OF THE CDS……..……….128
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1: Map of South Asia………..26
Figure 2.2: Map of North India...27
Figure 2.3: Dr. Balaji, playing the Rajam Bela……….32
Figure 3.1: An example page from the notebook of Dr. Balaji...48
Figure 3.2: The first page of Dr. Balaji’s textbook...48
Figure 3.3: The music room in Dr. Balaji’s house...58
Figure 3.4: The tanpura machine...62
Figure 5.1: The picture of Dr. V. K. Venkataramanujam...76
Figure 5.2: The picture of N. Rajam...76
Figure 5.3: The blessing and gifts by Dr. V. Balaji...90
Figure 6.1: The picture of a plate, presented to Dr. Balaji...94
Figure B.1: The Saraswati statue...119
Figure B.2: Dr. V. Balaji in his room in BHU...119
Figure B.3: Three generations playing together...119
Figure B.4: Dr. V. Balaji’s daughter; Bhairavi Balaji...120
Figure B.5: Dr. V. K. Venkataramanujam playing with Dr. V. Balaji...120
Figure B.6: Dr. V. K. Venkataramanujam together with Ravi Shankar...120
Figure B.7: Dr. V. Balaji with some of his family members...121
Figure B.8: Dr. V. Balaji playing with his son; B. Anantha Raman...121
Figure B.9: The award of “Doyen of the Music World”...121
Figure B.10: Picture of a statue of Lord Balaji...122
Figure B.11: The statue of Lord Shiva...122
Figure B.12: A painting of Lord Hanuman...122
Figure C.1: Rajam Bela...125
Figure C.2: Malviya Bela...125
Figure C.3: Bala Bela...126
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1 Transcription of the first exercise...30 Table 2.2 Transcription of the second exercise...31 Table 2.3 Transcription of the exercise in raga Bhairavi...33
xv
THE SINGING BODY: THE EMBODIMENT PROCESSES IN THE
TRANSMISSION OF MUSICAL KNOWLEDGE – A CASE STUDY OF
PROF. DR. V. BALAJI
SUMMARY
This thesis explores the embodiment processes I have experienced during my study period of violin with Dr. V. Balaji, in Varanasi, India. I investigate the mechanisms, ideas, and belief systems through which the embodiment of musical ideas occurred in my experience. I investigate the issue through examining his teaching methodology, pedagogical approach, the spiritual/religious setting in Dr. V. Balaji’s space, and the mutual engagement by both the teacher and the student. It is designed as a case study about one of the reputable violin players and teachers, Prof. Dr. V. Balaji, living in Varanasi and teaching as a professor of violin in Banaras Hindu University. As a player having legacy in both styles of Indian classical music; namely North and South Indian—Hindustani and Carnatic—music, and as a teacher standing in both systems of university and guru-shishya parampara (master-disciple tradition), he occupies an interesting intersection point representing the up-to-date aspects of transmission of musical knowledge. I focus on the phenomenon by taking my personal experience as the starting point, looking closely at the mechanisms and processes at work in the transmission of musical knowledge by Dr. V. Balaji, and presenting it in relation to the larger Indian context, in dialogue with the literature about the concept of embodiment and the researches about the spiritual/religious aspects of music in India. In the scope of the thesis, I define embodiment as ‘being in the space of Dr. V. Balaji’, in relation to the spiritual/religious setting and the sociocultural context, the bodily changes I experienced that took place mostly "without being an object of conscious pedagogical attention" (Weidman, 2012, p. 219), and the methodological and pedagogical approach of Dr. Balaji in this sense. I look at the processes, which brought my experience further than having a mere technical
learning period to the profound changes in my body and mind. My scope as a case study necessitates the use of self-reflexivity and auto-ethnography. Reviewing the valuable works about Asian music and embodiment until now, with this research, I hope to fill the gap of an elaborate up-to-date study focusing on the transmission of musical knowledge as a case study with an embodiment approach.
xvii
TINLAYAN BEDEN: MÜZİK BİLGİSİNİN AKTARIMINDA
BEDENSELLEŞME SÜREÇLERİ – PROF. DR. V. BALAJI ÜZERİNE VAKA İNCELEMESİ
ÖZET
Bu tezin amacı, Hindistan’ın Varanasi şehrinde Prof. Dr. V. Balaji’yle geçirdiğim keman üzerine öğrenimi esas alarak, müzik aktarımında bedenselleşme süreçlerini incelemektir. Hint Klasik Müziği öğretimi, üniversitelerin kurumsal yapısının son yüzyılda etkisini arttırmış olmasına rağmen esas ve geleneksel olarak hocanın evinde gerçekleşir. Yüzyıllardan beri geçerli olan bu sisteme Hindu geleneğinde guru-şişya, Müslüman geleneğinde üstad-şakir sistemi denmektedir. Sözel aktarım özellikleri açısından Türkiye coğrafyasında özellikle Cumhuriyet öncesi dönemde hakim olan, şimdi kaybolmaya yüz tutmuş usta-çırak sistemiyle benzerlikler göstermektedir. Bu sistem, Hint Klasik Müziği’ni icra eden ve aktaranların modern dünyanın koşulları altında geliştirdikleri adaptasyon ve hayatta kalma stratejileriyle bugüne kadar gelmiştir; üniversite ve çeşitli müzik okullarının yanında geçerliliğini korumaktadır. Prof. Dr. V. Balaji hem bu geleneğin guru sıfatıyla taşıyıcısı hem de Banaras Hindu Üniversitesi’nde keman profesörü olarak iki akımın kesiştiği bir noktada ilginç bir rol oynamaktadır. Kendisi V. K. V. Parampara geleneğinden gelmekte, hem üniversitede ders vermekte hem de şişya tabir edilen ‘çırak’larını (öğrencilerini) evinde verdiği derslerle yetiştirmektedir.
Guru-şişya sistemindeki müzikal bilginin aktarım süreçlerine baktığımızda sözel aktarım geleneğinin özellikleri yanında bedenselleşme süreçlerinin önemli bir rol oynadığını görmekteyiz. Öğretim teknikleri, pedagojik özellikler, ruhani / dini arka plan ve sosyo-kültürel özelliklerin birleşimiyle bedenselleşme süreçleri, müzikal ifadenin aktarımında önemli bir rol oynamaktadır. Bedenselleşme çeşitli yollarla gerçekleşmektedir.
İlk olarak, öğretim tekniklerinde içkin olan, teknik etütler ve kompozisyon dahil tüm müzikal materyalin notaya bağlı kalınmadan aktarılmasındaki kulaktan tekrar ve taklit tekniği bedenselleşmenin gerçekleşmesinde önemli bir etkendir. Geleneksel müziklerin sözel aktarımında dünyada yaygın olan bu teknik, Hint müziğinde doğaçlamanın da bu yolla öğretilmesi nedeniyle bedenselleşme süreçlerine önemli bir alan açmaktadır. Tekniğin öğretiminde öne çıkan diğer bir özellik, Klasik Batı
Müziği’nin tersine özellikle sol elin hareket serbestliğine öncelik vermesidir. Hint müziği tavrında süslemeler, müziğin melodik yapısında belirleyici bir özelliğe sahiptir. Hint müziği keman öğrenimi ve çalımında klavye üzerinde standart yerleri olan pozisyonlar belirtilmemektedir. Süslemeler, kaydırma ve notayı titretme üzerine yoğunlaştığı için sol elin hareketinin akıcı olması büyük önem taşımaktadır. Hatta bunu sağlamak için müzisyenler parmaklarına çeşitli yağlar sürmektedir. Bu hareketin ustadan çırağa aktarımında bizzat ustanın bedensel hareketlerini içselleştirme süreçleri etkindir.
İkinci olarak, müziğin içine girme olarak nitelendirebileceğimiz bir süreç, öğretim tekniğinin yapı taşlarından biridir. Klasik Hint Müziği’nde zamanın dairesel algılanması, dersler sırasında sözel olmayan bir ortamda aktarımın kesintisizliği ve sürekliliği, ustanın da hayat tarzıyla vurguladığı, hayatın merkezine müziğin alınması, devamlı dem sesi veren ve yüksek titreşimli, doğuşkanlar açısından zengin tanpura enstrümanının kullanımı, ve riaz olarak adlandırılan etüt pratiğinin talepkâr bir süreç olması bedenselleşme sürecini ortaya çıkartan etkenlerdendir.
Üçüncü olarak Klasik Hint Müziği’ndeki pedagojik özellikler bedenselleşmenin önünü açmaktadır. Ustanın daimi olarak öğrenciyi sınırlarını zorlamaya teşvik etmesi, beraber geçirilen uzun saatlerde dikkatinin öğrenci üzerinde olması, ve öğrenciyle otoriter bir figür olarak ilişki kurması bunlardan üçüdür.
Dördüncü olarak, ruhani / dini arka plan bedenselleşme süreçlerine alan açmaktadır. Ruhani / dini öğeler Klasik Hint müziğinin vurgulanan önemli bir özelliğidir. M.Ö. 1100’e dayanan felsefi altyapısıyla Klasik Hint müziği, icracıyı ilahi gücün dünyevi olanla iletişiminde bir aracı olarak görmektedir. Bu özellik, Hindu ve Müslüman müzisyenlerde ortaktır. Müzisyenin benliğinin ön plana çıkarılmasından ziyade gurunun temsil ettiği geleneğin nesiller üzerinden aktarımı söz konusudur. Bu noktada müzikal bilginin aktarımında bedenselleşme süreçleri birincil önem kazanmaktadır.
Son olarak, usta ile yüz yüze geçirilen uzun saatler sırasında müzikal ifadenin öğrenimi, ustanın bedeninin duruşu, hareketleri, ve duygusunun ilk başlarda bilinçli, daha gelişmiş öğrenim seviyelerinde bilinç tarafından analiz edilmeden taklidi, ya da edinilmesi yoluyla meydana gelmektedir. Önemli bir etken, Hint Klasik Müziği öğreniminde önemli yapıtaşlarından biri olan, ustayla kurulan neredeyse ailesel ilişkidir. Bir usta öğrenciyi çırağı olarak kabul ederse, kendisini onun babası/annesi olarak ilan etmektedir. Bu ustanın öğrencinin hayatında ne kadar önemli bir yerde olduğunun göstergelerinden biridir. Çırak / öğrenci ustayla sadece ders saatlerini değil, gündelik ve/veya ruhani hayatın pek çok alanını da paylaşmaktadır. Tüm varoluşunun müzikal olduğu kabul gören ustayla geçirilen zamanda aktarımın devam
xix
ettiği düşünülmektedir. Usta, öğrencisini sadece müzikal olarak değil, ahlak, özellikle de bir sanatçının sahip olması gereken ahlak açısından da eğitmektedir. Müzikal bilginin aktarımında bedensel süreçler yukarda saydığım bu etkenlerle meydana gelmektedir. Bu tez, bedenselleşme süreçlerinin derinlemesine bir incelemesini kendi öğrenim sürecimden yola çıkarak, Prof. Dr. V. Balaji üzerine bir vaka incelemesi çerçevesinde müziğin ruhani / dini arka planı üzerine araştırmalar, Klasik Hint Müziği ve bedenselleşme teorilerinden oluşan bir iskelete oturtarak yapmaktadır.
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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Purpose of the Thesis
With a good master, one’s overall musical sensitivity deepens, which becomes applicable to any music style. With guruji1[master], the emotionally intense situation I experience and the high musical energy I am exposed to result in that I gradually become able to understand the music from deep inside of myself; nearly a visceral feeling. This intense exposure and the unique situation that the master practices (does riaz) with the student are first time experiences for me. Guruji’s states while singing, teaching us rhythm, and playing the violin remain with me long after the lessons, even entering my dreams occasionally. (Field diary, 23 December 2017, Varanasi)
One of the things I try to do is to see myself as an extension of the master. To be able to imitate him hundred percent, I try to empty my mind, feel like a blank page, and be transparent. If I accomplish to do this, these moments I observe an intense skill and understanding transfer from the master to my whole body, through my fingers, posture, and arms especially. (Field diary, 27 December 2017, Varanasi)
This thesis explores the embodiment processes I have experienced during my study period of violin with Dr. V. Balaji. I investigate the mechanisms, ideas, and belief systems through which the embodiment of musical ideas occurred in my experience. I explore this issue through examining his teaching methodology, pedagogical approach, the spiritual/religious setting in Dr. V. Balaji’s space, and the mutual engagement of both the teacher and the student in the learning process. It is designed as a case study about one of the reputable violin players and teachers, Prof. Dr. V. Balaji, living in Varanasi and teaching as a violin professor in Banaras Hindu University. As a player having legacy in both styles of Indian classical music; namely North and South Indian music, and as a teacher standing in both systems of university and guru-shishya parampara (master-disciple tradition), he occupies an interesting intersection point demonstrating up-to-date aspects of transmission of musical knowledge (for detailed information about Dr. V. Balaji’s achievements, see
1
The first time common Indian terms appear they will be italicized. Either they will be defined in the text, or they can be looked up in the glossary (Appendix A: Glossary). Thereafter, they will appear without italics.
Appendix C). I focus on the phenomenon of embodiment by taking my personal experience as the starting point, looking closely at the mechanisms and processes at work in the transmission of musical knowledge by V. Balaji, and presenting it in relation to the larger Indian context, in dialogue with the literature about the concept of embodiment and the spiritual/religious aspects of music in India.
In the scope of the thesis, I define embodiment as ‘the coming into existence of musical ideas in the student’s body through the mechanisms at work in the transmission of musical knowledge’. I explore the bodily changes I experienced that took place mostly "without being an object of conscious pedagogical attention" (Weidman, 2012, p. 219) in relation to the spiritual/religious setting and the sociocultural context. Furthermore, I analyze the methodological and pedagogical approach of Dr. Balaji in this sense. Throughout the thesis, I look at the processes, which brought my experience further than having a mere technical learning period to the profound changes in my “body-mind” (Rahaim, 2012). The musical ideas consist of the technical exercises, the rendition of ragas, the rhythmical understanding in Indian music, and the vocal and instrumental rendering of compositions and improvisations. I argue that the transmission of these musical ideas from Dr. Balaji to me occurred mainly through my ‘being in the space of Dr. V. Balaji’, referring to Csordas’ (1993) concept of defining embodiment as “being-in-the-world” from a phenomenological point of view.
Reviewing the valuable works about Asian music and embodiment until now, with my research I hope to fill the gap of an elaborate up-to-date study focusing on the transmission of musical knowledge as a case study with an embodiment approach. The questions that triggered my research process are: How did the embodiment happen? Which techniques and pedagogical tools my guru used to accomplish the musical and socio-cultural states I experienced? What was the contribution of my background and work in that? How was my connection with the guru established? What were the factors that prepared the space for embodiment? Which processes were at work to accomplish this change in the state of my body-mind? I will look at these questions in the light of the theoretical background provided by the literature about embodiment, Indian classical music and pedagogy, the spiritual/religious elements in Indian philosophy and musicology, my fieldwork conducted during our
3
study period with Dr. V. Balaji, and the interviews I made with his former foreign students/disciples.
My research question is:
What are the aspects of embodiment in the transmission process of musical knowledge by Prof. Dr. V. Balaji?
The sub-questions are:
How are the relations of the teaching methodology, the pedagogical tools, the spiritual/religious, and the socio-cultural settings to the embodiment process?
1.2 Motivation
My motivation to conduct this research project is related to my wish to learn Indian music in its own sociocultural context. Not having attended a formal music school, I learned to play the violin in varying settings, both in Western and traditional music contexts. To summarize, I started as a student of a western classical teacher and as a performer in a western classical orchestra, moved to learning various folk musics; such as, Balkan and Klezmer by ear without a formal instructor, then moved to maqam music in Turkey, which can be described as a mix of both, namely, a strong reinforcement of oral transmission techniques accompanied by various instructors. In maqam music education in Turkey, the authority of the conservatory has long replaced the deep-rooted tradition of master-disciple but this tradition is frequently mentioned, idealized and referred to as the core technique to learn maqam music and described in a highly romanticized way. Apart from my long time interest in Indian music, I was attracted to master-disciple relationship in particular. As my quest for an alternative methodology and pedagogy of teaching and learning continued, I started to gain more knowledge about the guru-shishya—or ustad-shagird in the Muslim context—relationship in Indian context which resulted in a journey to India, with the motivation to experience it first-hand to be able to explore its qualities. My study period with Dr. V. Balaji in India revealed the inherent embodiment processes in the teaching of Indian classical music and was emphasized by one of his former students, Perrine Vincent, in the interviews with her over Skype, Internet. Finally, the embodiment processes in transmission of musical knowledge as a case study of Dr. V. Balaji formed the focus in this thesis.
1.3 Methodology
This research is based on the fieldwork conducted in Varanasi, India throughout my study period with Dr. V. Balaji and the interviews I have made with four of his former foreign students via Internet. This period encompasses not only the durations of our lessons but the whole time we spent together; namely, our long conversations about music and life, having meals together with his wife and his disciples, listening to music, watching the videos or the film Apap Masala (2002) by Gilles Apap in which Dr. V. Balaji appears as one of the featured musicians, visiting the Banaras Hindu university where he teaches, and spending time in his workshop where he builds his self-designed violins, and even playing one time an iPad game together. The definition of field research by Goffman (1989) corresponds to my focus on embodiment:
Subjecting yourself, your own body and your own personality, and your own social situation, to the set of contingencies that play upon a set of individuals, so that you can physically and ecologically penetrate their circle of response to their social situation, or their work situation, or the ethnic situation. (1989, as cited in Emerson et al., 1995)
The methods I used in the fieldwork are the participant-observation, the audio and video recordings of our lessons, and the interviews I have made with Dr. V. Balaji. Writing the thesis, I made extensive use of the fieldnotes and a diary I kept during the one-and-a-half-month period, which helped me to build an autoethnographical approach in the course of writing.
In addition, I have made the journey to India together with my husband Ertuğrul, him being a musician as well, so that we both became students of Dr. V. Balaji and he was included in fieldwork setting. That is also the reason why I use we and I alternately in the coming chapters.
1.3.1 Doing ethnography as a disciple
My study period with Dr. Balaji can still be defined in guru-shishya system, which roughly translates as master-disciple system to English, although we could stay only short time in Varanasi and there were also distinct characteristics than the traditional bond present in our relationship. Different than a fieldwork setting, where the researcher has to define her identity and/or role in a new environment, my identity was clear from the first day on, as I e-mailed Dr. Balaji before, explaining him that in
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order to realize my research project, I wished to take violin lessons from him. Dr. Balaji accepted Ertuğrul and me as his students provided a fixed tuition. In the traditional sense, discipleship carries the meaning of a life-long bond and the disciple is dependent on the master not only musically but financially as well, which is a very rare situation now in contemporary India. Still, our relationship revealed the other features of guru-shishya institution that it demanded the devotion, dedication, and discipline from both parties. Qureshi (2009) talks about her experience of learning sarangi with Ustad Sabri Khan as “discipular ethnography”, saying “the discipular way of learning a music culture marks ethnomusicology as an inclusive cross-cultural practice because it counterposes the student's submission to scholar's entitlement to know” (Qureshi, 2009, p. 168). I had a parallel experience of trying to incorporate these two stances in my fieldwork. Dr. Balaji was a verbal person, he liked to converse, tell stories, and make explanations about the theory of music. Though when we were actually playing, the nonverbality was dominant and my questions were out of the role of the shishya, who should traditionally submit to the process and follow the guru. My scholarly questions acted like interruptions in the transmission as well. Gradually, I tried to find a balance and reserved my questions when he himself opened up the verbal space.
Weidman (2012) suggest the concept of “ethnographic apprenticeship” instead of participant observation, where the “nonverbal channels” are at work and not necessarily the verbal explanations of an informant, saying “Apprentices learn by imitation or “body-modeling”: watching, and oftentimes feeling, how their master’s body engages in the task at hand” (Weidman, 2012, p. 217). She argues the emphasis on sight in participant observation technique falls short of understanding the apprenticeship process in its all aspects. She points out that her argument is not only about physicality and quotes Bryant (2005), saying: “Apprenticeship, although it may work through the gradual acquisition of unarticulated bodily-sensorial knowledge, is a deliberate process of self-making that entails becoming a person embedded in a hierarchy of values” (2005, as cited in Weidman, 2012, p. 217). Her suggestion of ethnographic apprenticeship corresponds to my state in the fieldwork where also the other senses were at work apart from sight and a bodily attention was required along with the visual and cognitive ones. In addition, there were both explicit and implicit conveying of socio-cultural meanings and ethical concerns
through the explanations and presence of the guru, placed in an omnipresent spiritual/religious setting, which was an actor itself in the embodiment processes.
1.3.2 The autoethnographical approach
As my research topic is about the profound changes in the states of my body-mind and the underlying processes, which caused the embodiment of musical ideas, I utilized autoethnographical writing in interpretation of the fieldnotes and in making sense of the processes in our relationship with Dr. V. Balaji. The phenomenological nature of the research necessitated the use of self-reflexivity and autoethnography, so that they became useful tools in order to make meaningful interpretations of my experience during and after the fieldwork.
My fieldnotes already contained self-reflexive passages where I investigated my learning process, the effective methods that I discovered during the course of practice and the lessons, which were also implied by Dr. Balaji, and the impressions of our meetings. In addition, I kept a diary, where I felt free to write about the living conditions in Varanasi, the impressions of the life on the street, and the stages of my evolving relationship with the guru. According to Cooley (1997), “By creating a reflexive image of ourselves as ethnographers and the nature of our “being-in-the-world”, we believe we stand to achieve better intercultural understanding as we begin to recognize our shadows among those we strive to understand” (Cooley, 1997, p. 4). Kisliuk (1997) states in a parallel fashion that the shift of emphasis on experience brought the ethnomusicologists to a “reflexive, nonobjectivist scholarship” (Kisliuk, 1997, p. 23) Furthermore, she states:
In any role or profession, in order to act upon the world we need to continually re-express our identities; we get to know other people by making ourselves known to them, and through them to know ourselves again, in a continuous cycle. (Kisliuk, 1997, p. 27)
Cooley (1997) argues that the reflexivity changes “two related aspects of our ethnomusicological heritage” (Cooley, 1997, p. 16) and quotes Clifford (1986b): “First, it works to redress colonial ethnography, that positions the ethnographer outside the culture in an Archimedian [Archimedean] vantage point … Second, reflexive ethnography rejects the science paradigm that conceives of human culture as objectively observable” (1986b, as cited in Cooley, 1997, p. 16-17).
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Ellis et al. state, citing Ellis (2004) and Holman Jones (2005): “Autoethnography is an approach to research and writing that seeks to describe and systematically analyze (graphy) personal experience (auto) in order to understand cultural experience (ethno)” (as cited in Ellis et al., 2011, p. 273]. The self-reflexive writing method during the fieldwork helped me to realize the milestones in my learning period, the changes I observed in my playing the violin and myself overall. To analyze these in relation to my socio-cultural and musical background, including my cultural and musical patterns from previous experiences provided me a clearer understanding about the nature of my relationship to Dr. Balaji. Which motivations brought me to learn Indian music in India? How were my previous experiences of learning music and how do they affect the ongoing learning process? Which relation do I have to the spiritual/religious setting and how it is affected by my belief systems? Dunbar-Hall (2010) in his article about his reflections on learning music in Bali states:
… it [autoethnography] exposes one’s insecurities, forces questioning of assumptions, and requires re-assessment of ways of thinking and believing. For me it created large amounts of knowledge to be learnt and assimilated, not only about music, but also about pedagogy, music as cultural practice, research, and personal interaction. (Dunbar-Hall, 2010, p. 154)
While writing the thesis, looking at the personal turning points in my study period placed beside the deciphered recordings of the conversations and the lessons with Dr. Balaji revealing his acts and views on music, and the interviews with his former students gave me a better insight of which underlying mechanisms, belief and ideational systems were at work, both on a personal and socio-cultural level. I used autobiographical information to provide background for the reader and myself, layered accounts to make sense of the data and literature provided, personal narratives and thick description for the sake of a lively description of experiences.
1.3.3 Interviews
In the course of the fieldwork, I conducted various audio and video interviews with Dr. Balaji. The audio interviews were where I asked questions about his experiences in and thoughts on teaching. In the video interviews, his self-designed and self-made violins, his workshop and his collection of instruments were documented. Although he was very willing to document his violins and his work as a maker, he had been hesitant to do the audio interview where I would ask him questions, still, he accepted to do that, too. Looking back to his hesitation, I realized two important ‘mistakes’ I made in the process. First, Dr. Balaji’s and my thought patterns worked differently.
As I had explicit goals in my mind, he liked to integrate stories in his talking, being swept away to the mood of the story in an associative way and maybe returning to the point I had asked about in the particular question. Though when he wanted to make a point himself, he was definitely hitting that point. Finally, the interview concept was not very meaningful in his universe and I decided to gather the information I needed during the course of our regular conversations. Second, the understanding of what an interview is turned out to be culture-specific. Although I summarized him the topic of the interview as his experiences of teaching, he was suspicious that it was like a test about the limits of his musical knowledge. While I had the expectation of having a conversation-like communication, he saw it like an interrogation. In this case, I should have given him the questions in print or told him beforehand. Both shortcomings were in my responsibility to realize, which I remarked as that the culture blindness is a trap one should be aware of in every step of the research.
I had better results from the interviews done with his former foreign students over Skype and e-mail. I could reach four of his students; Gabriele Politi from Italy, Perrine Vincent, Arnoud Bourdonnay, and Marie-Line Aubry from France. Dr. Balaji kept a diary where his students would write their impressions and contact details after their study periods. As I asked how I could contact his former students, he shared this diary with me and gave his reference. All of the interviewees were violinists and they had various backgrounds of learning and playing, varying from classical training to traditional musics.
My interview questions were:
1. Would you please introduce yourself?
2. How would you name your relationship with music; i.e. professional, amateur, music lover, other than that?
3. What were your motivations to travel India to learn music?
4. How did your perception of music and playing change after your travel? 5. What kind of teaching methods Dr. V. Balaji used?
6. How was your experience about his methods; the effects of the methods, your perception of them?
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7. Can you make a short comparison with the music education you had before? 8. How would you describe the musical and cultural aspects of your study period with Dr. V. Balaji? Originating from different cultural and musical backgrounds, which kind of influences had your study period on you and on him?
Three interviewees preferred to answer via e-mail, whereas we had two Skype sessions with one interviewee from France, Perrine Vincent. The Skype interview turned to be more fruitful as the setting is closer to face-to-face interaction and makes in-depth conversation possible. Therefore, I refer mostly to the answers of Ms. Vincent in the main text, whereas I summarize the other interviewees’ answers at times.
1.4 Literature Review
The writings of music in India reach from the late Vedic times (c. 1100 BCE) until today. The researches on Indian music by the Western scholarship have just started compared to this vast accumulation of knowledge. Keeping this panorama in mind, the literature review moves along the focus of the thesis. Amanda Weidman (2012) refers to Bourdieu, saying, “it is in those things that remain unspoken that the most powerful lessons are embedded” (Weidman, 2012, p. 229). The mechanisms at work throughout the embodiment process happen in a non-articulated, unconscious, nonverbal level. Dard Neuman mentions this in the context of practice demands: “Hindustani music practice demands do not work to burn musical patterns into the mind (...) but rather onto the hands or throat” (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 446). Moreover, the posture while playing, the enactment of the rituals, such as showing respect for the guru, nonverbality during playing, and the dress codes are some of the things that are not instructed explicitly. On the contrary, the student’s body is
expected to adapt through ‘being in the space of the guru’. Here, nonverbality needs clarification as I use it as a concept. On the one hand, nonverbality implies simply not having talks, discussions, or even elaborate directions given by the teacher while playing. On the other hand, it encompasses the transmission of musical knowledge through nonverbal channels, such as directing the student with a blink of an eye, with an exaggeration of a bow movement, or clarifying student’s confusion by playing a musical phrase. Related to these, my goal in this thesis is to reveal the ‘unspoken’ in
the teaching of Dr. V. Balaji, which led me through the intricate ways to become a musician in Indian classical music context.
In this literature review, I discuss the two main components of the thesis, namely the concept of embodiment and the context for spiritual/religious setting of the transmission of musical knowledge in relation to the relevant literature.
1.4.1 Embodiment
As Clayton and Leante (2013) state, the embodiment concept is well established in the disciplines of cognitive science, philosophy and linguistics (Clayton and Leante, 2013, p. 188). There has been an ongoing discourse of embodiment in the disciplines of phenomenology, sociology, anthropology and ethnomusicology, too. One closely related example is the remarkable contribution of the discipline of somaesthetics, which was proposed as a subdiscipline of aesthetics by Richard Shusterman in 1999. Below is a rough definition:
Somaesthetics, roughly defined, concerns the body as a locus of sensory-aesthetic appreciation (aiesthesis) and creative self-fashioning. … It seeks to enhance the meaning, understanding, efficacy, and beauty of our movements and of the environments to which our movements contribute and from which they also draw their energies and significance. … Recognizing that body, mind, and culture are deeply codependent, somaesthetics comprises an interdisciplinary research program to integrate their study. (Shusterman, 2006, p. 2)
Besides valuable contributions in various disciplines, as the scope of the discourse is way beyond the scope of my thesis, I discuss the following approaches below, in relation to the issues I investigate in the next chapters. First, I look at the definitions of embodiment by discussing the works of three groundbreaking scholars cited by the prominent authors in the embodiment issue, namely, Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1962, 1964), Marcel Mauss (1973), and Pierre Bourdieu (1977, 1984). In this part, I discuss the issues of agency of the body, its centrality in our perception of the world, and the concept of habitus, proven to be one of the most useful concepts despite its various shortcomings. Second, I continue with the discussion of two main approaches in anthropology, namely, the semiotic/textual and the phenomenological/embodiment standpoints. At that point, I discuss the concept of being-in-the-world related to the scope of my thesis. Third, I will present the main questions in the fields of phenomenology, anthropology, and ethnomusicology, which are the body-mind-world unity, agency of the body, and embedded social
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meanings in bodily practices. Furthermore, I discuss the former presented three questions in the frame of the ethnomusicologists’ works and present how the scholars deal with them.
When we look for definitions of embodiment, we encounter various suggestions developed in the disciplines of phenomenology, anthropology, and sociology.
Merleau-Ponty is one of the first scholars in phenomenology who assigned the role of being the primary site to know the world to the body. Opposed to the Cartesian tradition of mind-body dualism, where the consciousness is defined as the source of knowledge, he discussed the unity of the consciousness, the world and the human body. Deschênes and Eguchi (2018) sum up Merleau-Ponty's view as that the body provides the mind with “what is necessary to make sense of what is experienced” (Deschênes and Eguchi, 2018, p. 63). Merleau-Ponty (1962) argued that the human body and that which it perceived are intricately intertwined: “We do not have a body; we are the body” (as cited in Deschênes and Eguchi, 2018, p. 63). As Csordas (1993) state:
For Merleau-Ponty, perception began in the body and, through reflective thinking, ends in objects. On the level of perception there is not yet a subject-object distinction–we are simply in the world. Merleau-Ponty proposed that analysis begin with the pre-objective act of perception rather than with already constituted objects. He recognized that perception was always embedded in a cultural world, such that the pre-objective in no way implies a “pre-cultural”. (1964, as cited in Csordas, 1993, p. 137)
According to Merleau-Ponty, the human body acts as the means by which the mind subjectively experiences a shared world. He proposes that it is not an object that thinks but an animate and living form that is shaped by experiences, hoping to reach equilibrium (1962, as cited in Deschênes and Eguchi, 2018, p. 63). Merleau-Ponty’s work remains important as it provided strong arguments about the unity of body and mind. Though Merleau-Ponty himself acknowledged that he didn’t put his theory into the socio-cultural and historical context. As it is recognized in social sciences, the phenomenon of culture wraps the perceptional and experiential processes of human life in every step. Without the cultural analysis, the arguments fall short of revealing the underlying mechanisms in the perception of the individuals as the members of societies.
At this point, Marcel Mauss’ (1973) work comes forward where he placed the embodiment in the context of sociology and anthropology. He argued that in order to develop an understanding of the facts about the bodily practices, we need to understand them from the viewpoints of physiology, psychology, and sociology: “We need a triple viewpoint, that of the 'total man' that is needed” (Mauss, 1973, p. 73). He talked about the techniques of the body as the “physio-psycho-sociological assemblages of series of actions” that are passed on through apprenticeship (Mauss, 1935, p. 85). Furthermore, he is the one who elaborated extensively on the concept of habitus and stated that the 'habits' “vary especially between societies, educations, proprieties and fashions, prestiges” (Mauss, 1973, p. 73).
Habitus has been a concept with a long history in social sciences. According to Bennett (2010), it is one of the key aspects in Max Weber’s (1864-1920) works. Mauss (1973) utilized it as a tool in his research on cultures of colonized peoples. Pierre Bourdieu (1977, 1984) made an influential move, expanded habitus’s definition, and put it into work in his analysis of the French society in 1960s. Tony Bennett (2010) states in the introduction to Bourdieu’s (1984) work Distinction:
The habitus, for Bourdieu, consists in the set of unifying principles which underlie such tastes and give them a particular social logic which derives from, while also organizing and articulating, the position which a particular group occupies in social space. But this, of course, is always a position that is relative to the positions occupied by other social groups. (Bourdieu, [1984] 2010, p. xix)
Bourdieu suggested that it consists of both the physical aspects like posture and accents, and mental aspects like schemes of perception (Bourdieu, 1977). These are determined by the socio-cultural and collective mechanisms “without going through discourse or consciousness” (Bourdieu, 1977, p. 87). He defined embodiment as “a process by which historically emergent and socially embedded practices are turned into “second nature’” (as cited in Weidman, 2012, p. 218). According to Weidman (2012), habitus is “a constellation of variously acquired habits and experiences that produces certain results while itself remaining unnoticed, invisible, and difficult to define or articulate” (Weidman, 2012, p. 229).
Although Bourdieu’s work had been certainly groundbreaking and continues to be influential in social sciences, the recognition of its shortcomings is important. In the overall schemata he built, the possible choices the individual would make, hardly
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finds a place. Given the exceptions, the processes and mechanisms shaping the habitus in the society are seen as the ultimate structures where the free will or deliberate actions are rarely talked about. Bourdieu himself recognized this as the “dilemmas of determinism and freedom, conditioning and creativity” (as cited in Csordas, 1993, p. 152). Despite his main arguments’ call for a keen awareness of existing structures, the phenomena such as pioneering, innovation, and creativity present in social life are hardly revealed. Csordas (1993) claimed, “these are perhaps dualities he was too quick to collapse, however, unless the “conditioned and conditional freedom” of the habitus’s “endless capacity to engender products” includes capacity for its own transformation” (1997, Csordas, 1993, p. 152). Rahaim (2012) points out the same issue: “Bourdieu’s approach tends to focus on unconscious, coercive constraints on the body from above. He rather understates its dialectical counterpart: the deliberate choice of bodily discipline in accord with what one wants to be” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 118). Despite its shortcomings, habitus is one of the key concepts in my research on embodiment, too. Taking it as a concept to understand the underlying mechanisms that shaped my experience and the acquisition of the bodily dispositions, I added the aspect of volition in my research. Here I use the word volition referring to Rahaim (2012), where he underlines the volition of both master and disciple stepping on the path of mutual dedication and close bond. Related to this aspect, I chose deliberately to submit to the unconscious and invisible processes in the establishment of and participation in the habitus in Varanasi, India, in order to reveal and understand how the embodiment of musical ideas works in the context of teaching by Prof. Dr. V. Balaji.
In the next part, I discuss the two main standpoints in anthropological discourse and the concept of being-in-the-world, referring to Csordas, to contextualize the concept of embodiment.
As Winkler-Reid (2014) cites Mascia-Lees (2012) in her review of A Companion to
the Anthropology of the Body and Embodiment, two insights have become central in
the 'anthropology of the body'. The first one treats the body “as object or concept of study to be specified, or pluralized” (Winkler-Reid, 2014, 389). The second insight is relational and defines the stance of the body not separate from the “lived experiences” (Winkler-Reid, 2014, 389). The standpoint of the semiotic/textual
approach of the former is criticized by the phenomenological/embodiment standpoint of the latter, mainly because of the rejection of agency of the body in the world. David Howes (2003) discusses this point by citing Michael Jackson (1983a), that “by taking what is done with the body as the touchstone of anthropological knowledge we can access that meaning in its integrity” (as cited in Howes, 2003, p. 50). Thomas Csordas (1993), on the other hand, elaborates on this point by presenting the problem of the two approaches as the semiotic/textual standpoint of the body as representation and the phenomenological/embodiment standpoint of the body as “being-in-the-world” (Csordas, 1993, p. 136). Csordas draws a distinction between the body and embodiment. He supports his argument on the analogy by Barthes (1986) who drew a distinction between the work and the text: “In parallel fashion, the body is a biological, material entity, while embodiment can be understood as an indeterminate methodological field defined by perceptual experience and the mode of presence and engagement in the world” (Csordas, 1993, p. 135). Csordas argues that both the semiotic and embodimentapproaches should be taken as complementary and not mutually exclusive (Csordas, 1993, p. 136-137). Nevertheless, his argument of understanding embodiment through the concept of being-in-the-world remains strong; he acknowledged that his approach demonstrates a blurred conceptualization of the intersubjective milieu of bodily attention, which he describes as “attending to and with the body” (Csordas, 1993, p. 139). Stating that the act of attending is always culturally constituted, there is ambiguity in the categorization of different kinds of attention. In the scope of my thesis, I adapted the concept of being-in-the-world as ‘being in the space of the guru’, as the main tool through which the transmission of musical knowledge happened. The more I was informed of the bodily dispositions of Dr. V. Balaji and exposed to the elements in his space; such as, the centrality of music in designation of his daily life and the spiritual/religious acts inherent in the music and its transmission, the more fluid and transparent the transmission of musical ideas became. Michael Jackson (1989) describes it as the shared ground of bodies, where we are informed about our own bodies through others’ bodies:
To recognize the embodiedness of our being-in-the-world is to discover ground where self and other are one, for by using one's body in the same way in the same environment one finds oneself informed by an understanding then be interpreted according to one's own custom or bent, yet which remains grounded in a field of practical activity and thereby remains
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consonant with the experience of those among whom one has lived. (1989, as cited in Csordas, 1993, p. 151)
Looking at the main questions in the literature of anthropological and phenomenological discourse about embodiment, we see that they revolve around the body-mind-world unity (the integration of sensational, visceral, kinesthetic and verbal layers of knowledge), the agency of the body, and the interpretation of embedded social meanings in bodily practices. In the part below, I look at these three questions through the works of scholars in the discipline of ethnomusicology.
What are the ethnomusicologists' perspectives on the three issues, namely the body-mind-world unity, agency of the body, and the embedded social meanings in the bodily practices? In the area of embodiment, particularly about the music of Asia, we encounter numerous scholars who elaborated on these issues. Among them, I refer to David Henderson (2009), Amanda Weidman (2012), Clayton and Leante (2013), Dard Neuman (2012), Tomie Hahn (2007), Bruno Deschênes and Yuko Eguchi
(2018), and Matthew Rahaim (2012) for the sake of relevancy of their researches, discussions, and perspectives. They build their arguments predominantly on the phenomenological/embodiment standpoint of the body; obtain a relational stance, linking it to music scholarship. To address these three questions, scholars such as Henderson, Clayton and Leante take into account the physio-biological side and talk about the developments in neurology and cognition, on the other hand, scholars such as Weidman, D. A. Neuman and Rahaim make analysis in socio-cultural context and additionally, support/base their arguments on the concepts borrowed from the very traditions they study.
One of the important questions the scholars deal with is the mind-body dualism. This dualism as the heritage of Plato and Rene Descartes still continues to haunt the Western tradition of thought. Clayton and Leante (2013) refer to Raymond Gibbs (2005) to demonstrate how far the effects of the dualism worked into the perception in the Western thought:
[The] bifurcation of the person into mind and body has subsequently given rise to many other dualisms, including subjective as opposed to objective, knowledge as opposed to experience, reason as opposed to feeling, theory as opposed to practice, and verbal as opposed to nonverbal. Cartesianism has also led to the romantic view of the body as the last bastion of what is natural, unspoiled, preconceptual, and primitive in experience. Bodily movement is
viewed as behavior, with little relevance to language, thought, or consciousness, and not as meaningful action. (2005, as cited in Clayton and Leante, 2013, p. 189)
Opposed to this division, Gibbs (2005) argues that language and thought are direct products of “recurring patterns of embodied activity” and cognition shouldn’t be seen as “purely internal, symbolic, computational, and disembodied” (as cited in Clayton and Leante, 2013, p. 189). Linking it to musical performance, Clayton and Leante (2013) draw examples to singing, where we experience “a direct and embodied knowledge of the relationship between physical tension and musical pitch” through the vocal chords (Clayton and Leante, 2013, p. 195). David Henderson (2009) in his article about the Nepali drumming links the question of mind and body to sensations. He refers to Damasio's (1994) neurological work in that memory preserves not only what happened, but also the basic neural and chemical effects of what happened: “We know something makes “sense” in part because of how it feels” (Henderson, 2009, p. 187). Taking Damasio's hypothesis further, he suggests “in learning how to make musically sound decisions, one draws simultaneously on sensation, emotion, and reason” (Henderson, 2009, p. 187).
Tomie Hahn (2007) suggests that embodiment paves the way for self-understanding of the person: “Since we cannot engage solely our mind in life, it is through our body that the mind makes sense of the world” (2007, as cited in Deschênes and Eguchi, 2018, p. 66). Furthermore, she argues that as the dance movements become “natural, effortless, and spontaneous”, it leads to “self-freedom and self-realization” (2007, as cited in Deschênes and Eguchi, 2018, p. 66).
In the question of body-mind, Rahaim (2012) investigates the acting out of embodiment in the course of performance and the transmission of embodied musical knowledge through generations. In his book (2012) Musicking bodies: Gesture and voice in Hindustani music, we are introduced to two concepts: musicking body and paramparic body. The word musicking is actually first introduced by Christopher Small (1998) as “the present participle, or gerund, of the verb to music” and as a useful conceptual tool (Small, 1998, p. 9). He proposed a new definition for the verb to music: “To music is to take part, in any capacity, in a musical performance, whether by performing, by listening, by rehearsing or practicing, by providing material for performance (what is called composing), or by dancing” (Small, 1998, p. 9). Rahaim doesn’t really make use of the broad definition as proposed in Small but
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confines the concept of musicking to the bodily dispositions and gestures related to the performance practice. He defines the musicking body “as the body that comes alive in the moment of musical performance” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 22). The chain of the teaching lineages carrying the musical knowledge through generations, reaching from the past to the present, is called parampara in the Indian music context (for Dr. Balaji’s predecessors and descendants in V. K. V. Parampara, see Appendix B, figures B.4, B.5, B.6, B.7, and B.8). Coming to the definition of paramparic body, it is “the disciplined disposition of a particular singer's musicking body, developed over many years of training and practice” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 22). According to Rahaim, these concepts cannot be reduced to the flesh-body as an object in the branch of biology but a knowledge accumulated through years of practice in the body. Furthermore, he examines the question of mind and body in the register of Hindi-Urdu language, elaborating on the concepts of dimagh and man, which are used relating to the musical performance practice.
Dimagh is located in the head, is the faculty that analyzes, conflates, distinguishes, and reproduces for evaluation. Man, by contrast, is typically located in the chest, receives and cultivates aesthetic impressions, imagines, and is the seat of more or less permanent effect, particularly enchantment and devotion. (Rahaim, 2012, p. 25)
In my thesis, I refer to the concept of gatra veena in a parallel fashion. Dr. V. Balaji brought it up in one of our conversations to point out that the human body is seen as the singing instrument of god as mentioned in the Vedas. The mind-body unity seems to be present already in the very traditions we study, in the Indian tradition of thought in this case, enacted through music, dance, and theater and articulated in the scriptures since ancient times. Referring to the definitions of dimagh and man, Rahaim comments that these and other “liminal body-mind” activities cannot be divided into mutually exhaustive categories of “subjective mental noumena” and “objective physiological phenomena” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 25-26). He points out that he could call the concept easily as the musicking body-mind: “Musicking, perhaps more than any other familiar activity, defies the handy distinctions between subject and object, mind and body, matters of concern and matters of fact” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 25-26). Rahaim states that he tried to find a balance between the physical aspects of performance and the “musical metaphysics” (Rahaim, 2012, p. 25-26), which rely on the local descriptions, and experiences of the musical universe.
While Rahaim sets his goal for a balance of two approaches, Dard Neuman argues that the “creativity starts apart from a directing mind” (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 427). His research is noteworthy in the sense to understand the underlying reasoning of traditional practice demands of Hindustani music. Though his approach to overcome the duality problem seems to be trapped in the use of the language at times. He tries to avoid this, by saying that his argument is not a positivist one about the neurological processes but an ethnographic one about the pedagogical practice:
That is, I am not suggesting that the cognitive process—or the brain—is inoperative in these preparatory exercises. I am instead suggesting that the cultural sense of the “I that thinks” is kept in check until the “thing that thinks”—the body instrument—is properly trained to direct musical ideas. (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 427)
Coming to the second main question about the agency of the body, we enter the discipline of phenomenology and the cultural analysis in context. One of the pioneering works about this issue in phenomenology is the Ways of the hand by Sudnow (1978). Henderson (2009) connects his arguments to Sudnow's work where he mentions the “sense of detachment” of his body that he experienced during his learning process of jazz piano (as cited in Henderson, 2009, p. 195). Sudnow states that his hands seemed to take over in the process, acting independently of the forced will of the brain. In his descriptions, the agency of the body is represented as independent of the mind’s control mechanisms. Although Sudnow made an important contribution to the phenomenological approach, he falls in the trap of the divisive language use by allocating keen edged different roles to body and mind. Henderson (2009) brought a more clear approach, saying, the bodily knowledge has a procedural nature “that is knowing how to do something rather than knowing something” as opposed to declarative knowledge (Henderson, 2009). He labels it as “thoughtless thought”, as in the quotation below:
My hands became more and more able to produce sounds seemingly on their own, without my having to pay attention to what they are doing. But clearly I must have been thinking about them in some way, and this chapter is in part an exploration of what my teachers did to inculcate in me this capacity of thoughtless thought. (Henderson, 2009, p. 185)
Another argument in the issue of body’s agency during transmission process is presented in Dard Neuman's (2012) work with the focus on the embodiment in pedagogy and creativity in Hindustani music. He referred to the Hindustani instrumentalists that they say “musical knowledge occurs when the fingers can see”
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and supports his idea with quotations from masters, especially from his master Vilayat Khan, such as; “where the hand is moving should not be decided by you” (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 438). Neuman stresses the body autonomy, distinct from the automaticity, where the hands “do not just move on their own according to habit; they rather walk and travel (chalan and barhat) into the spaces (jagah) of a rag with an independent agency” (Neuman D. A., 2012, p. 447).
Neuman proposes that there are three levels in the acquisition of this knowledge. First level is body habits or automaticity, where “the fingers move according to prescription without constant mental directive” (Neuman D. A., 2012). Second level moves into the category of body sight: learning to play without physically looking at the instrument. It is assumed that it just comes through practice. Third level body sight happens when “the fingers and/or throat learn to explore on their own” (Neuman D. A, 2012), meaning that the body gains agency.
Amanda Weidman (2012) argues in a parallel fashion, utilizing the Tamil-Sanskrit concept of gnanam in her work about the learning process of South Indian classical violin (Weidman, 2012, p. 221). Gnanam literally means “wisdom” or “knowledge”, practically defines the bodily disposition showing the mastery of the musician, and is
often used by musicians in relation to musicianship. In South Indian classical music culture, the approach to musical competence is less about “willful agency” and more about “making oneself receptive through listening” (Weidman, 2012, p. 221). Weidman's teacher gave an example of a flutist with the habit of sleeping with an electronic sruti box turned on under his pillow. Therefore, gnanam is a bodily disposition to be invited to enter the body by preparing the bodily conditions so that it can be hosted.
In the arguments of Henderson, Rahaim, D. A. Neuman, and Weidman so far, the agency of the body is seen apart from deliberation and willfulness, due to unconscious and invisible processes that shape the body. In other words, that the body can gain agency, it is supposed to be exposed to and immersed in the repetitive bodily practices and in a way to be reserved from the detached perspective of mental activity about these practices. In the thesis, I look at the mechanisms, processes, and settings that make it possible, paving the way for embodiment of musical ideas.
