Bollywood and Hollywood

8/8/2019 Bollywood and Hollywood

1/23

British Forum for Ethnomusicology

An Understanding between Bollywood and Hollywood? The Meaning of Hollywood-Style Musicin Hindi FilmsAuthor(s): Anna MorcomSource: British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 10, No. 1, Music and Meaning (2001), pp. 63-84Published by: British Forum for EthnomusicologyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3060772

Accessed: 25/10/2009 15:29

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless

you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=bfe.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed

page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

British Forum for Ethnomusicology is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to

British Journal of Ethnomusicology.

http://www.jstor.org
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3060772?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=bfehttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=bfehttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/3060772?origin=JSTOR-pdf


2/23

ANNAMORCOMAn understanding between Bollywoodand Hollywood? The meaning ofHollywood-style music in HindifilmsThe symphonic style of Hollywood film music has become a standard part ofthe backgroundmusic, and some of the instrumental sections of songs, in Hindifilms since around 1950. Music is used in both songs and backing scores toexpress aspects of drama and narrative, and Hollywood-style symphonic musicand some of its distinctive techniques have become an important part of thatexpression. This paper examines some examples of the use of Hollywood-stylemusic in Hindifilms and considers what this phenomenon can tell us about thecreation of meaning and affect and the interplay of universal and culture-specific elements.

IntroductionSince the coming of sound, virtually all commercial Hindi films have containedsongs. These "film songs" are a ubiquitouspresence in urban southAsia, wheretheir popularity transcends most distinctions of age, class, caste and religion,and their consumption stretches far beyond the context of their parent films.Backgroundmusic has also been used extensively in most Hindi films since thelate 1940s. Although songs are composed prior to shooting, they are arguablyas much based around the film and the scene as is the background music,which is composed after shooting. Film directors give music directors a greatdeal of information about the music that the film and the song situationrequire,including details of the story, the charactersand dramaticsituation, the visuals(locations, cinematography),action and timing.1Stylistically, there is considerable overlap between song and backgroundscore. Some sections of songs sound more like background music, breaking

I See chapter2 of my forthcoming hesis "Hindifilm songs andthe cinema" for an accountof the productionprocess of Hindi film songs and chapter3 for a discussion of the situ-ational natureof film song style. This article is adapted rompartof chapter4 of thatthesis,"Music,narrative ndmeaning n Hindifilms".BRITISHJOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGYVOL. 10/i 2001 pp. 63-84


3/23

64 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.10/i 2001

markedly from the idiom of the song. Such sections, which serve the visualsrather than the song as such, may be omitted from the audio version of thesongs that is released on cassette and CD. Similarly, the background scoreoften uses and adapts material from the songs, and some of the backgroundmusic is sometimes included on the published audio recording. Songs andbackground scores of Hindi films are further linked by the fact that all songcomposers also compose background scores, although as they become morefamous and hence expensive, many compose the (less high-profile) backgroundscores only for bigger releases.The appearanceof Hollywood-style music in Hindi films is easily traceableto a direct influence from Hollywood2 and also to technological advancesaround 1950 that made the recording of large ensembles more feasible.3 Fromthe point of view of meaning this usage raises two questions. First, is thismusic used in the same way (i.e. are the same techniques used in the samedramatic situations to create the same effects) as it is in Hollywood films?Second, if it is, how is this possible if music is understood to be a culture-specific semiological system rather than a universal language? In addressingthese questions, this article returns to an old debate concerning musicalmeaning, which has revolved around the poles of musical meaning beinginherent in the sounds or arbitraryand culturally learned (see Shepherd andWicke 1997, chapter 1). It also leads to a considerationof the coding of foreignand native music in Hindi films.The assessment of musical meaning in Hindi films will be carried outthroughan interpretationof the narrativecontext. This is not without problems.Music itself is active in the creation of narrative meaning rather than justsupporting it (Cook 1998; Gorbmann 1987:14-18; Kalinak 1992:20-39);therefore, interpreting musical meaning from narrative context is prone tocircularity,particularlywhen carried out by a foreign student. I have tried tominimise this risk by focusing on scenes exemplifying emotional extremes or"monopathicemotion" (Brooks 1991:58), which are very much a feature of themelodrama of Hindi films (Vasudevan 1989, Thomas 1995). Furthermore,I have tried to focus on interview material from composers and directors andobservations of music-making in the Hindi film industry carried out duringnine months of fieldwork in Bombay between 1998 and 2000. Unfortunately,ithas not been possible to carry out any formal audience research, which wouldcontribute greatly to this topic. Owing to space considerations, only a smallnumberof examples are discussed in detail here. However, this research drawson the viewing andhearing of hundreds of Hindi films and film songs.2 Many composers have been and are interested in Hollywood film music and Westernorchestras.KeshavraoBhole (1964), Naushad(interviews,15 November 1998 and 20 April1999) and JatinPandit,of the music directorduo Jatin-Lalit(interview,4 November1998),are just a few. See Dwyer (2000:106) and Vasudevan(1993) on various aspects of theinfluence of Hollywoodon Hindi films.3 Interviews: Mr Damle (4 April 2000) and NarayanMulani and Suresh Chandravankar(6 March2000).


4/23

MORCOM The meaning of Hollywood-style music in Hindi films

Hollywood-style music in Hindifilms: some examplesMother India (1957) is possibly the most successful film in the history ofIndian cinema.4 The story takes place in a pre-partition,pre-modem village andfollows the life of Radha (Nargis), who arrives there as a young bride. Hermother-in-law has taken a loan from the evil and cunning Sukhilal, whichplunges the family into a desperate struggle for survival, made even worsewhen Radha's husband dies. Her younger son Birju grows up rebellious, full ofanger at Sukhilal and thirsting for revenge, and Radha struggles to keep himout of trouble. Eventually, Birju goes too far and assaults Sukhilal. In so doinghe is wounded and hides from the furious villagers. Radha tries to save Birjubut gets into trouble herself, at which point Birju saves her. When he is out ofdanger, he leaves her and runs off. She runs after him, and starts to sing therefrain, "Omere lal dad..." ("O come to me my darling, I'll embrace you, I'llhide you in my heart").Both the lyrics and the visuals of the song express theintense love of the mother for the son and her desire to protect him from harm.This song is not based on any particular rdga, but is rdga-like and Indian instyle, possibly a mixture of several ragas.After the last refrain, the song moves into a coda where there is a drasticchange of mood. Although Birju was running away from his mother duringthesong, he kept looking back, apparently responding to her words, and appearedvulnerable, clutching his wounded shoulder. In the coda however, he stopslooking back. As the coda begins there is a shot of Birju running along a roadtowards the camera, having shaken off his mother.As he reaches close up, helooks up slowly, glowering. We then see him grab a gun, mount a horse andride off with a group of young men. We see the wedding procession of Rupa,Sukhilal's daughterwhom Birju loathes and plans to abduct as revenge. Birjurides down to where the procession is passing and draws up to the palanquinwhere she is seated. The coda ends here. Whilst the song is an expression of themother's love for her son, the coda shows an outright rejection of this love anda giving way to rage and is profoundly disturbing. In turning away from hismother, the archetype of goodness in the moral universe of the Hindi film(Thomas 1995:165-8), Birju is seen to be rejecting the most fundamentalkindof love and moral goodness and heading for certain disaster.The coda is very much in Hollywood style. It uses a large symphonic-typeorchestra with strings, woodwind and trumpets. It is played in a loud andheavily accented style. There is liberal use of violin tremolos in bars 11-12,20-3 and 27-8. Extensive chromatic movement is found in the musical linesand sequences in bars 14-18 and 26, and heavy use of the diminished 7th inbars 13 and 20-4. There is also metrical ambiguity, with the section waveringbetween a 6/8, 3/8 and in bar 26, an 8/8 feel. The musical line is mostly4 As ticket prices increase, recent hits keep "breaking all box office records", but in realterms, few films can rival the commercial success of Mother India or its status of all-timeclassic in Hindi cinema. The only possible contenders are Kismet (Gyan Mukherjee 1943),Mughal-e-Azam K. Asif 1960), Sholay (Ramesh Sippy 1975), HumAapkeHain Koun...!(Sooraj Barjatya1994), and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge(AdityaChopra1995).

65


5/23

66 BRIT ISH JO URNAL OF ETH NO MU SICOLOG Y VOL. 10/i 2001

REFRAINVoice m y iJJi~0 e- rel -I a gjid tu ha ko-ga le la gg I di la

6 CODAVoice la

nmk tujhbe..chu pd I~ O- me-re id aI jiStrings II

10Tptj II;~~J

Strings VWI )14

Strings lfyg# IF I1 'i18

Tpt ~I ~ fStrings

23

Tpt~ 7JII ~ IStrings 7

26

Strings ~l29

Strings' PIi 1Figure 1 Final refrainand coda of "0 mere I/I 5 ji" (Onlythe violinand trumpetlineshave been transcribed,since it was not possible to hear all the parts clearly enough totranscribethem.)


6/23


Clarinet

Bass Clarinet

Trumpets

Strings

4Cl.

B. Cl.

Tpts

tl'S:t I i 1Xt^ - - I - It^ . # j 1 # - J _ A : 14

[$2-J-. I.II J.l" r J I f #r 'i: fJr l: tt IIVt) I '

Figure2 The statue scene

chromatic, full of large leaps, and unmelodic, in the sense of melody as "anextended series of notes played in an order which is memorable andrecognizable as a discrete unit (hummable, if you will)" (Kalinak 1992:5).A furtherexample of Hollywood-style music in a Hindi film is a scene fromanother all-time classic of Hindi cinema, Mughal-e-Azam (1960), a historicalromance telling the tragic story of the love of Emperor Akbar's son Salim(Dilip Kumar) for the maid Anarkali (Madhubhala). In this scene whereAnarkali first meets Salim, a gift of a statue is presented to Akbar. Because thestatue was not finished in time, Anarkali had to take its place. Salim unveilswhat he believes to be a statue by shooting an arrow at the clasp that fastens itscovering. This moment is filled with fear, alarm and suspense as we see anarrow heading towards the flesh and blood heroine. During this moment, theclassical sitar music, which has been playing softly in the backgroundthroughout the scene, suddenly changes into a loud, heavily accented phrasebuilt around the whole-tone scale, played in brass, clarinet, bass clarinet andtremolo strings. There is also a prominent tritone leap between bars 4 and 5 inthe clarinet and bass clarinet, and metrical ambiguity with the move into 5/4time in bar 3.An example of such music in a modem Hindi film is from Raja Hindustani(1996) in the scenes where the villains, having engineered a bitter fightbetween Raja the hero (Aamir Khan) andAarti, the heroine (KarismaKapoor),then present each of them in turn with forged divorce papers to try to split themup permanently.This is a terrible moment in the film. Having seen Aarti, therich Bombay girl, and Raja, the small-town taxi driver, fall in love and getmarriedagainst all the odds, their separationand, worse still (particularly n theIndian context), the possibility of divorce seems to be going against what isdestined and what is morally right. As Aarti reads the papers a look of shockand horror comes over her face. This is accompanied by a highly unmelodic

67


7/23

BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.10/i 2001

Strings

Strings

'LF I I----I-4 g,J ,1 i \ t ' f Ir oo I@#r #r


8/23


largeness, an epic feeling (Gorbmann 1987:81-2). This is the case with thescores of Mother India and Mughal-e-Azam, both epic films, which use thesymphony orchestra andWesternchorus extensively.The sound of massed strings playing melodic lines, another Hollywoodfavourite, is also found ubiquitously in Hindi films. As in Hollywood, it iscommonly used as a way of signifying romance. However, this is only part ofthe vocabulary of romance in both Hollywood and Hindi films. For romanticscenes in Hindi films, melody, often in the form of a song, is accompanied bymany other instruments such as sitar, sarod, Indian flute and guitar, and in avariety of more or less hybridised styles ranging from Indian classical, lightclassical and folk to Westernpop or symphonic. Furthermore,the associationsof these melodic styles is likely to be different in Hindi and Hollywood films.

Musical universals?As these few examples illustrate, there is a degree of crossover in the use ofHollywood-style music in Hindi and Hollywood films, which is particularlyevident in scenes of disturbance,discomfort, trauma,fear and evil. The use ofchromaticism, diminished 7ths, accents, unmelodic motifs, tritones, ostinatos,"stingers" and so on in these scenes is so similar to their use in Hollywoodfilms that it would be possible for Hollywood and Bombay composers to scorefor these scenes in either location.7This is certainly not the case for other typesof scene, such as romantic scenes (whether happy, sad or erotic), celebratoryscenes such as festivals or weddings, or devotional scenes. The use of thesymphony orchestra and choruses for big-canvas, epic sound is also common toboth traditions,as is the use of the bluesy saxophone music for "bad"women.Such a convergence of meaning is intriguing in these two contexts. How isthis apparently foreign music able to be used successfully in Hindi films?Before jumping to any conclusions about universality, it is necessary toinvestigate how these Hollywood cliches may be creating their effects in bothcontexts. The Hollywood/Western context is taken here to be tonal music. Forthe Indian context, I have been guided by interview material, work by otherscholars and also material from classical rdga theory, to which many filmcomposers - even contemporary ones - referred in discussions. Althoughclassical rdga music is only one partof Indianmusic, it is the only partthathasprovided a body of theory, which makes it useful in the discussion of evencontemporary film music. Those aspects of raga theory drawn on in the dis-cussion below relate to some of the broadermelodic properties of rdga, whichare applicable to much folk music melody and, more importantly, to thesongs, devotionalsongs, andseasonalsongs. Westernchorusesare used extensivelyin songsandbackground core, often singing to "ah"and singing in harmony.The Westernchorusesin the film industrymostlycompriselocal Christian ingers.7 Comic scenes also share many conventions in Hindi and Hollywood films, such asstaccato andpizzicato,but an investigationof these conventions s beyondthe scope of thisarticle.

69


9/23

BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETH NO M US I CO LOGY VOL.10/i 2001

"Indian"modal melodies (Arnold 1991:139-41, 166-8, 173-5, 188-9) or eventhe hybridand Westernmelodies used in film music.The use of bluesy saxophone music in both Hindi and Hollywood films tomark a woman as unvirtuous is almost certainly a convention learned fromHollywood. In Hollywood films, it may be seen as originating in the context ofAmerican society in the early decades of sound film, where this type of musiccarried for many "implications of indecency and promiscuity through itsassociation with so-called decadent forms such as jazz, the blues, and ragtime"(Kalinak 1992:120). There is no reason why these musical forms would carrysuch connotations in the Indian context. In Hindi films, the bluesy saxophonemay partly evoke loose sexual morals through being clearly Western in origin.However, a lot of other classical or popular Western music is used in Hindifilms without this association.The use of a large ensemble like the symphony orchestra and choruses forepic feeling, grandeurand augmentation of effect may be based on an iconicassociation between a large ensemble and economic power and hence grandeur.Arnold notes how "orchestral size not only indicated musical choice orfinancial well-being but became a status symbol for the music director"(1991:175). Naushad explained to me how doubling or tripling a melodic linein different octaves would bring grandeurto it: "this is a single melody in oneoctave, and if you divide it into three octaves then a feeling of greater grandeurwill certainly come." He went on to explain the reasoning behind the use ofbigger ensembles in film music in terms of their effect of grandeur:Previously everythingused to be in one octave. Then, in order to bring afeeling of greatergrandeur to the music], the films startedgraduallyusingmore instruments.They took piano- pianoisn't an Indian nstrument.Theytook sitartogetherwith the piano;the mandolintoo. And notjust that,theytook the Spanishguitar oo... (Interview,20 April 1999).8Anil Sharma, a contemporary producer, and director of Gadar - Ek PremKatha (2001), commented similarly on the use of symphony orchestras:"these

kinds of films [that] I am making, because they are big canvas films, you haveto have symphonies and those kinds of things to enhance the effects inbackground and song" (interview, 15 April 1999).9 With the association oflarge ensembles with economic power, it is possible that big ensembles andchoruses may be able to evoke grandeurand breadthin many culturalcontexts.8 "Single melody hai, ek octave par, aur usko tin octave me ap agar divide karengetograndeur yadaajaega",and"Pahlesingle melody hoti thi. Film6 ne phirusme, usko zyadagrandeuraneke lie, zyadainstrumentka dhiredhire istemal suri kiya.Piano bhi laya, pianoto Indian nstrumentnahThai, sitarke sathpianobhl laya,mandolinbhi laya.Phiryahl nahi,uskesathphir spanishguitarbhi laya..."9 He also said that the ear of the Indianpublicwas so tuned to Westernmusic now thattheywould not accepta commercial ilm or film songs withoutanyWesternmusic.

70


10/23


It is important to note that although the symphony orchestra is Western inorigin, its use is not necessarily perceived as Western. Naushad emphasizedthat, for example, "Ojanewalo" from Mother India played in full orchestraisnot "Western" since the melody is Indian, based on rag Megh. Its effect,however, is augmented and made grander by this orchestration(interview, 15April 1999).What of the techniques that are used in disturbing scenes in Hindi andHollywood films? In the context of Western tonal music, sounds that upsettonality or cause tonal ambiguity can cause discomfort and have unpleasantassociations, such as fear, suspense, evil and so on. Rhythmic ambiguity canalso have a parallel disturbing effect (Brown 1994:8). Herrmann's music forHitchcock films, for example, helps to create the feelings of discomfort,irrationalityand suspense that is characteristic of these films by playing withthe normal expectations of tonality (Brown 1994:150). Extensive chromaticmovement, whole-tone scales, diminished 7ths and the tritone all upset tonalmusic's means of providing stability by creating and fulfilling expectations.10However, all these techniques can be and are used within tonal music toprovide desirable (and resolvable) tension.Extensive chromatic movement, whole-tone scales and diminished 7ths allupset tonality in the context of Western tonal music, but what effect do theyhave in the context of Indian music? The first importantpoint to note is thatthese features do not exist in any Indian musical system. The music directorNaushad Ali explained and demonstrated how the whole-tone scale iscompletely outside of the raga system: "No rag can be made in [the whole-tone scale]", and it is only when you add a half-note interval to the whole-tonescale that a rdga can be formed.11He also described the whole-tone scale asbeing dpka ("yours"), originating in Western and not Indian music. When Iinquiredhow this whole-tone scale felt to listen to, he replied that it was alwaysused for "effect", "where there is some distortion ... mental destruction ... youplay these notes in places like that"12 interview, 20 April 1999). It is used forexactly this purpose in the example of the statue scene of Mughal-e-Azamdescribed above. Because the whole-tone scale is alien to the rdga system andalso to common genres such as film song, devotional song and wedding songs,it can evoke discomfort or disturbance. This is a different, though parallel,reason to why it can evoke discomfort in Western tonal music by providingtonal ambiguity. This quality of disturbance or distortion is not universal, asproved by the fact that the whole-tone scale appearsextensively in the contextof music by Debussy and other early twentieth-centuryFrench composers thatis not normally considered to be disturbing.Extended chromatic movement is also "foreign" to the north Indian rdgasystem (Jairazbhoy1975:48). The Hindustanigamut is theorized as comprising10 See also Tagg (1998) for a discussion of the use of the tritonein detective music in TVand film.J "Ismekol ragnahl bansakta ab takhalf-notenahl milaefigeap."12 "yeh aksar effect ke lie istemal karte haim... jaha distortion hai kuch ... mentaldestruction..."

71


11/23


seven scale degrees, which occur as the "natural" suddh) notes (swaras), four"flattened"(komal) notes, and one "sharp"(tlvra) note: Sa, komal Re, suddhRe, komal Ga, suddh Ga, Ma, tlvra Ma, Pa, komal Dha, suddh Dha, komal Ni,suddh Ni. These can be represented in Western terms as:13C, Dl', D, EL,E, F,F#, G, AL,A, BL,B.Altogether this produces twelve swarasthdns,or "notepositions", which aretheoretically a semitone apart, although in practice intonation varies and issignificant to the character of rdgas.14However, although the twelve swaras-thans are theoretically equivalent to the chromatic scale of Western music,notes are not conceived in this way in Indian music. They are not laid out intheoretical works as a chromatic scale, but as the seven notes and theirflattened and sharpenedvariants. The chromatic scale appearsin no raga and inno common technical exercise either. Direct chromatic movement is verylimited in Indian music. Whilst rdgas do use both flat and natural,or naturaland sharp, versions of swaras, they normally do so with crooked (vakra)motion rather than direct motion. For example, whereas it would be possible tohave A, BL,A, B, C in a phrase of a rdga, it would not normally be possible tohave A, BL,B, C. The normal maximum direct chromatic movement possiblewould be of two semitone intervals in a row, such as B, C, DL',or example. (Anexception to this is MTyakTMalhdr, which can be performed with both komalNi and shuddh Ni (BL,B) in succession. MTydkrMalhdr is considered to be oneof the most "difficult"and heavy rdgas of Hindustani music, partlybecause ofthis chromaticism.)

Extending Naushad's example of the whole-tone scale, it can also be under-stood why direct chromatic movement can evoke disturbanceand discomfort inthe Indian context, because it violates the normal logic of the rdga system andalso is not a partof the melody of film songs, wedding songs, devotional songs,seasonal songs or other regional repertoires. Again, there is no evidence toprove that chromaticism has some universal ability to cause discomfort, butthis capacity does appearto be common to both Westernand Indian contexts.Diminished 7ths are a well-worn way of evoking fear or dread in Westerntonal music. Again, like the whole-tone scale and extended chromaticmovement, they are alien to the rdga system. Like the whole-tone scale, thediminished 7th arpeggio (C, EL,F#,A), contains neither the natural fourth nornaturalfifth degree of the scale. Its four notes also form two tritones, C-F# andEL'-A,making it highly dissonant (see below). Although there are rdgas thatcontain the notes of the diminished 7th arpeggio, these notes in isolation do notform any rdga or any otherkind of Indianmelody.

13Sa is the base or tonic note, and its absolutepitchis fixed accordingto the instrumentorthe singer'scomfort. Where absolutepitchis not relevant, o representSa as C is convenientbecause theguddh,komal and tivra swaras translateneatlyinto natural, lat andsharpnotes.14This system of twelve theoretically equal semitones to the octave goes back at least atleast as far as the fifteenthcentury n Indianmusic andpossibly as farbackas the eighth(oreven the sixth)century(Widdess1995,chapter8).

72


12/23


There is much evidence that the tritone is a dissonant interval in Indianmusic. In The ragas of north Indian music, Jairazhboyrefers to the interval ofthe tritone as dissonant, "The half-way point of the twelve semitones of theoctave is Ma# (F#),but the dissonance of this note to the ground-note shouldpreclude its use as the end and beginning of a register"(1975:76). The tritoneinterval found in every diatonic scale also disruptstetrachordalequivalence, theability to repeat a phrase in either tetrachord,which is an importantsymmetryin Indianmusic caused by the accompanying drones. Jairazbhoy argues thatthenegotiation and balancing of this dissonance is a central dynamic in the evolu-tion and characteristic movement of ragas (1975:76). Very few rdgas useprominenttritone steps. One such rdga is Sri, in which the intervalof komal Reto Pa, (D; to G) is very prominent.This is considered a difficult, heavy raga.A musical line that is not melodic, is "unhummable"and has many large,especially dissonant intervals can be a source of discomfort in the context ofWestern tonal music and is used in this way in Western film music (Kalinak1992:5-6). Melody is an even greater focal point in Indian music than it is inWestern. In classical music, raga itself embodies melody. Folk music, such aswedding songs, seasonal songs and devotional songs, is also melody-based, asis film song, however Western or hybrid the tune. The use of only a few notes,very large leaps, and the emphasis of dissonant intervals, or extended chroma-ticism, as shown in the examples from Mother India and Raja Hindustani, willtake a musical line out of the scope of raga and also out of the scope of folkmelodies or film melodies. In this way, we can see why unmelodic lines canevoke disturbance in the Indiancontext.The tremolo is a classic means of evoking fear and suspense in Westernmusic. Fear, anger and upset cause the speaking and singing voice to tremble,and so a trembling note can iconically refer to a trembling voice and evokethese feelings. Interestingly, just as the English word "tremolo" means"trembling", the Hindi equivalent kampan also means shaking or trembling(from fear or cold). Ravi Shankar notes that "fury or excited anger" (raudrarasa) as in the fury of nature "can be shown in music through many fast,'trembling' ornaments, producing a scary, vibrating effect in the low notes"(1964:26). However, whilst kampan and other unsteady notes evidently can beused for negative effect in the Indian context, this is not by any means theironly possible effect. Tremolos are used extensively in the jhala section ofinstrumentalclassical music, for example, which is not normally found to bedisturbing.Kalinak sees ostinatos as evoking discomfort "throughsheer accumulation,a kind of musical Chinese water torture"(1992:93). Although Chinese watertorturepresumably has the same effect on any human being, it is not possible,without extensive research, to comment on the effects of its purportedmusicalversion. Ostinatos are a part of much Western,African and African-Americanmusic, where they are not necessarily considered disturbing, although a singlemotif would rarely be repeated indefinitely in isolation in any of these styles,but would more usually form a partof an overall musical texture. At this stage,it is not possible to assess whether the use of ostinatos in Hindi films is simply

73


13/23

BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL. 10/i 2001

learned from Hollywood or whether it may have a deeper, physiological reasonbehind it, andindeed, if its use in Hollywood is anythingmore than an arbitrarycultural code.The use of the "stinger"or sudden, accented loud chord/soundfor shock oralarm in Hollywood and Hindi films apparentlyworks through an identifiablephysiological mechanism. Whatever the chord or note played, it is the sudden-ness and the loudness that provides a shock, in the same way that any suddenunexpected, especially loud, noise can make someone jump. This seems toparallel the startle response, which is "an invariantresponse in humans to asudden, intense stimulus, such as a loud noise like a revolver shot." Thisresponse is found "in humans from infancy to old age, and in primates as wellas many other mammals"(Robinson 1995:55).Although there are musical techniques common to Hollywood and Hindifilms that appear to have a physiological aspect to them, this does notnecessarily mean that they will have universal applicability. Middleton hasargued that there are gestures in music and musical expression that are linkedto the body and somatic states15and sees these gestures as "underlaidwith stilldeeper generating 'gestures': kinetic patterns, cognitive maps, affectivemovements" (1993:177-8). However, rather than seeing these gestures ascross-culturalphenomena, he sees them as "deep structuresor principles whichgive unity to a music culture",and even the more deeply generating "gestures"are "probablyspecific to a culture too: people seem to learn to emote, to orderexperience, even to move their bodies, through locally acquired conventions".He continues by noting that according to "modern genetic theory ... it isimpossible to find, or to conceive of finding, even the smallest, the mostembryonic bit of human nature which is not alreadynurtured.Human nature isalways already encultured" (1993:178). However, although there can be noassumption that a given musical element or gesture can communicateuniversally even if it has a physiological basis, it does seem probable that amusical effect is more likely to be applicable to a wider range of cultures orcontexts if its expression is rooted in a physiological response, and the morebasic the physiological response is, the more universal its potential is likely tobe. For example, it would surely be easier for any human being to learn asudden, loud chord/note as a code for shock rather than rdga Bahdr as"expressing the natural beauty and joy of the spring season" (Bor 1999:28).Tagg cites categories of "extremely general bio-acoustic types of connotation"as musical universals, such as relationships between volume and timbre andcertain types of physical activity: "nobody yells jerky lullabies at breakneckspeed" (1993:20-2). However, without extensive cross-cultural research, it isnot possible to do anythingmore than speculate on these issues.It must be emphasized that the above discussion of musical features ismeant to indicate how and why these techniques can produce these effects andtheir potential to produce these effects, not that they must necessarily do so.15 Peter Kivy introduces a similar concept of "contour" in The Corded Shell (1980;discussedin Robinson1994:13-22).

74


14/23


There are no hard and fast rules about what effects certain aspects of musicproduce.Even a technique with a probablephysiological basis like the "stinger"does not have an automaticeffect of shock, since there are always other factorsin the musical, cultural and performance contexts that govern a listener'sreaction and which may well be more significant than its physiological effect.However, it is also to be noted that sounds are often used in a particularlystarkand exaggerated way in film music in order to produce relatively unambiguouseffects, which are furthermultiplied by using several techniques at once. Thisis even more so in the music of melodramaticfilms, where emotions tend to beportrayedin an extreme and "monopathic"form musically as well as throughnarrative.In the example from Mother India above, there are not just a hint ofchromaticism, the diminished 7th, tremolo and unmelodic motifs but theextended and unrelenting use of all of these techniques, which hones in on,exploits and multiplies their individual potentials to produce an effect ofdisturbance,distortionor disasterwithin the Indian context.Hollywood techniques can be seen to be working in Hindi films through arange of mechanisms. Some, like the bluesy saxophone music, appear to bearbitrary, learned conventions. Others, such as the use of the symphonyorchestraand large choruses for grandeurmay have a potential for applicationin a range of cultures, due to the common association of size and scale withwealth and grandeur.There are a number of techniques such as the stinger,tremolo and ostinatos and various ways of manipulating pitch, tempo andvolume that may well rely at least in part on physiological gestures for theircommunication. However, cultural codes and the effects of the musical andperformance contexts will still be at work, and it is impossible at this stage todo more than speculate on their use in both Hindi and Hollywood films. Manymusical techniques, such as extended chromaticism, the whole-tone scale,diminished 7ths, tritones and unmelodic lines are able to work similarly in boththe Indian and Western contexts owing to coincidental reference points orcompatibilities in the logic of both musical systems. Their meanings are neitheruniversal nor arbitrary. n the Indian context, either these techniques are recog-nized as dissonances within the raga system or they generate discomfort bybeing outside the rdga system or other forms of Indian melody altogether,therebyconstituting an antithesis of Indian music.The coding of Indian music and ragaThe compatibility in meaning of these Hollywood techniques for evokingdisturbancewithin Indian music explains their successful accommodation intoHindi films. But why is raga or other types of Indian music or song not used inscenes of disturbanceor discomfort in Hindi films? And why is moving out ofthe field of rdga, folk or film melody necessarily disturbing?As soon as thefocus of "O mere ladla j'd moved from the mother's love for her son to theson's breaking away from her love and his turningto a path of wrongdoing, thesong ended, and the modal and raga-like Indian melody and Indian musicallogic in general were rapidly abandoned.

75


15/23

BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUS ICOLOGY VOL. 10/i 2001

Strings

Trumpets

Introduction) r^JSj^J' IJI 1I- rI -[-' I I rffFigure4 Introductiono MuhabbatkThu.thTahanipe roye

In the statue scene from Mughal-e-Azam, when the arrow is shot, theclassical sitar music that is playing is supersededby the motif built aroundthewhole-tone scale. When the tension and fear of the unveiling are over andthe festive atmosphere is restored, sitar music again begins to play in thebackground.The example from Raja Hindustani is similar. When Raja is presented withthe divorce papers, after he has vented his fury his dialogue turns to one of thestrongest positive ideologies of Hindi cinema as he announces that he willnever give Aarti a divorce because for him, marriageis for life. Aarti, after theinitial shock, also ultimately announces that she will never divorce Raja, evenif he wants her to, because for her, marriage is for ever. By the time Aarti aswell as Raja has been shown to hold such an unwavering belief in love andmarriage,there is an overwhelming sense that love and goodness will triumphand villainy will be thwarted. All traces of diminished 7ths, semitones andunmelodic motifs vanish, and the utterly catchy song and theme tune of the

film comes in, PardesTpardesT.Any music director will tell you that the music of songs or backgroundscores is made according to the film and the scene. The use of a Westernidiomin Raja Hindustani is justifiable, as it is set in the modem era, but we may wellask why films like Mughal-e-Azam or Mother India use any sounds of non-Indian origin at all. This is particularlyso in the case of a composer who is anavowed traditionalist. Although Naushad insists that Indian melody or ragashould be the base of film music, he admitted that there were places where itwas necessary to break a raga or move out of the scale (thdth) entirely. In afamous song scene from Mughal-e-Azam,Anarkali is depicted in the dungeonin chains, singing of the false nature of love in a song in rag Darbdrt,"Muhabbat ki jhuithi kahani pe roye". The introduction to the song showsAkbar being given an ultimatum issued by Salim to free Anarkali. Akbar,alreadyfurious at the fact thathis son is in love with a maid, is further ncensedby this and tosses it aside, apparentlydeterminedto thwarthis son's love. Theintroduction to this song, transcribed in Figure 4, uses the notes of ragDarbari, but in a way which mostly violates the characterof the raga itselfsuch as in the emphasis of the tritoneinterval Ab(strings) to D (trumpets)(bars14-19). When I inquired why the introduction was not also in rag Darbariproper,Naushad explained how, in a situation where background-stylemusic1616 The introduction o Muhabbatktjhu-thikahani is partof the song, but also similar tobackgroundmusic in terms of style andmayhave been composedpriorto shooting.

76


16/23


is used for an effect alongside a song in a raga, "we put the rag aside for awhile, and we forget the scale of the rag and its emphasized notes for a shortwhile because we want an effect there."17The idea that pure rdga and Indianclassical music are not suitable for scenes of disturbance was also implicit inNaushad's views on modem Hindi movies: "The move to violence-based filmshas affected music, because if you make such a [violent] subject ... then wherecan radgDarbdrl or radg hupali come?"18(interview, 20 April 1999).The music director Vishal Bharadwajalso expressed the opinion that purerdga and Indian music were not usually appropriatefor deeply disturbing orunpleasant scenes. He said that the playing of solo instruments like the sitarand sarod was "so sweet" and could not give a really bad effect. He later saidthat a disturbingeffect throughIndian music could be possible, especially withthe use of percussion instruments or some of the "odd scales" (for instancethose that are non-diatonic, using augmented 2nds), but it was easier throughWestern symphonic-style music: "nasty things and the fear and this, it's veryeasy to do throughWestern music" (interview, 16 March2000). The mention ofthe "odd scales" of classical music to evoke disturbance is interesting.Although these scales are a part of classical music, film songs are now neverwritten in them. As film music has moved further from classical music, thesescales have become increasingly marginal, and hence potentially able to evokedisturbance in the context of Hindi films. An older music director may haveseen this differently.Ravi Shankar,who has scored music for several Indian films, though notcommercial Hindi films, also touches on this point in a discussion of the ninesentiments or rasas. Bhaydnak rasa (the fearful), he writes, "is difficult toexpress in music through one instrument (though a symphony orchestracoulddo it easily), unless there is a song text to bring out its exact meaning".Bibhatsa rasa (the disgusting), he continues, "is also difficult to show throughmusic". Bibhatsa and bhaydnak rasas "are used more for drama than music"(1964:26). It is the rasas of s'a-nta,karuna and sringdr (the peaceful, patheticand romantic), however, which with their "gentle and subtle qualities areespecially well suited to our music, because of their spirituality". RaviShankar's score for Pather Panchali (1955) shows these beliefs put intopractice. All the music of this film is Indian, and music does not accompanyany scenes of revulsion, fear, ruin or disaster. There is no music accompanyingthe long scene where little girl Durga falls ill and dies. Music returns as karunarasa takes over and the family grieves the loss.Shiv Kumar Sharma is anotherrenowned classical musician who has com-posed music for films - in his case, commercial Hindi films. He also said thatin the rdga system, the unpleasant, disturbing emotions are not usuallyexpressed: "we take soft rasa in rdga system, and most of the rdgas are17 "Vahrag ke un sur6 thori der samne rakhtehue, rag ka thath,vadi samvadTo hoti, vahusko thorl der ke lie bhula dete haim islie ki vaha effect cahie."18 "Lekin vahl kuch asar music me bhi a gayi hai islie ki jab subjectap vaisa banaenige[violent] ... to usmephir ragDarbarf a rag BhopalT ahaaega?"

77


17/23


expressing soft moods like romance, spiritual meditative mood, happy mood,sad mood, not anger and repulsive mood" and that when performing music"normallywe go there to give happiness and good feeling". However, in dramait is necessary to evoke all the moods. He explained that this could be donewith Indian music by taking several notes out of a raga or mixing several ragasand creating discord. He gave the example of a South Indian raga, Machispalli,that has the notes Sa, tivra-Ma, Ni (C, F#,B1)in it. In the rdga,the notes are used in such a way they don't sound discord ... Now if youjust takejust these three notes ... this is discord. ... [A] rag must have fivenotes. So if you just pick up [a] few notes from a rdg and play [them]ondifferent nstruments, ou will createrepulsiveness.(Interview,6 March 000)

This is a similar technique to Naushad's of "forgetting"the raga's structure norderto create an effect.The music director Uttam Singh also said it was possible to create a feel of,say, villainy with a typically sweet, romantic rdga like Bihdg, by using clustersof notes from the raga rather than the raga in its proper form (interview, 6April 2000). He also said that lots of percussion could be used to produce adisturbingeffect.Although ragas can be adapted to express disturbance, disaster etc., it isoutside their usual treatment and they would not normally be performedin thisway. However, this has not always been the case. In the Natyas'adstra haratalists a range of situations, emotions and moods where songs known as dhruvascould be sung duringthe performanceof ancient Indian drama. Lath commentshowthere seems to be hardly any shade of human feeling or nuance of asentiment where a dhruva could not be used ... They could be sung insituations pregnantwith turbulentemotions, whether of the pleasant orunpleasant ort ... (c.1975:95)Bharata also links jdtis, early modal forms of Indian music, to different rasasaccording to their predominant note, thus linking some jatis with bTbhatsa(disgusting), bhayanak (terrifying) and raudra (angry) rasas (Widdess1995:39). This indicates that melodic forms were believed to express all therasas.Until around the end of the first millennium jdtis and ragas were primarilyassociated with dramatic performance, where they presumably were used forportraying all shades of emotion present in the drama. In Matafiga's Brhad-desg, dating from late first millennium CE (Widdess 1995:x) ragas are linkedwith "specific dramaticmoods, characters and situations".However, rdgas laterbegan to be given "more esoteric or religious associations, for example, with aspecific time of day, astronomical constellation, or presiding deity" (Widdess1995:44). Modem classical Indian music is most strongly associated withbhakti devotion, and the link with drama has become quite obscure. Classical

78


18/23


song texts deal overwhelmingly with romantic themes, devotional themes, suchas the praise of certain gods (dev stuti) in the case of dhrupad texts, or mostcommonly a combination of the two with the parallel of romantic love for loveof God according to the bhakti devotional tradition.However, classical or light-classical music has remained associated with anumber of dramatic forms. Nineteenth-century Marathi drama, for example,based its music mostly on classical ragas, but also drew from various lightclassical, devotional and folk styles (Ranade 1986). Whilst Ranade does notdiscuss the issue of music and dramatic mood in detail, he mentions withreference to Balgandharva,one of the greatest Marathistage singers, that "it isknown that his contemporariesset high value in intense emotionalism in musicand realised their aim chiefly through displaying two primary colours ofmusical pathos and aggression" (Ranade 1986:69). This seems to indicate thatdisturbing scenes could be expressed in song (there was no backing musicin Marathi drama until the 1930s through the influence of films; Ranade1986:85-7). Perhaps ragas not normally used to express disturbingfeelings innon-dramaticmusic could be used to do so in drama with the help of "a songtext to bring out [the] exact meaning", as Ravi Shankar mentioned withreference to bhaydnakrasa in music (1964:26).NautahkT s a traditional musical dramatic form that is sung throughoutrather than spoken and uses light classical, popular and folk genres (Hansen1992:213-20). All types of situation must be expressed throughmusic, actingand lyrics. However, again, there is not enough detail on this aspect of music inpublished works on NautahkT o comment on the role of music, and if, forexample, light-classical, folk or popular genres are adaptedfrom non-dramaticuses in order to express disturbing scenes. The memoirs of Keshavrao Bhole,the Marathi theatre and film music composer, also indicate the use andadaptation of Indian ragas for disturbing scenes in early Indian films. Hedescribes the use of rag Hin.dol in the chant from the opening scene ofAmritmanthan(1934): the film

begins in an atmosphereof fear.There is a hideous statue of the goddess,the Priest(a "villain")and his men gather n the dark: he Prieststanding nthe middle swathed in shadow. 'Killer of demons, the victorious GoddessChandika',goes theprayer n slow, ominous chant(MazheSangeet 1964, translated xcerpts n Ranade(ed.) 1991:53).It is perhaps the distancing of classical music from drama and its closeassociation with bhakti devotionalism that has caused classical music and rdgato be mostly dissociated from emotions or moods such as fear, fury, horrorordiscomfort in a modem cultural form like the Hindi film. In Hindi films, it ismusic that falls outside the field of rdga that usually evokes these kinds ofemotional and dramatic states. If rdga evokes the sacred and love, then movingout of the field of rdga can evoke disturbance,distortion, disruptionor damageto that sacred, the propermoral universe and love. It is not possible to say morespecifically what any particularpiece of music that violates the field of rdgaexpresses without some kind of context. We can understandthat it expresses

79


19/23

BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.1 0/i 2001

"some distortion ... mental destruction",but whether this is the "distortion"ofa son breaking away from his mother and goodness, a threat to the life of theheroine, or a threat to the union of hero and heroine is specified in the contextof the scene and the film only. It is possible to tell whether we are in or out ofthe field of rdga, but nothing more specific in emotional terms.Although this discussion has referred to classical rdga, since 1970 classicalmusic has been used very little in Hindi films. In later films in particular,thedistinction between rdga and the antithesis of rdga can more meaningfully beseen as one between the melodic and the unmelodic. The techniques such asextended chromaticism, tritones, whole-tone scales and diminished 7ths, to-gether with a lot of large leaps, such as in the example from Raja Hindustani,disrupt not just rdga and classical melody but folk melody and film songmelody too whether they are Indian in character,hybrid or highly Western. Inthe context of folk music, melody and song are not usually associated withimpending disaster, evil, destruction of good, and so on, but with devotion,festivals, weddings and life-cycle rituals. In the context of Hindi films, songsand melodies (in the backgroundscore or song sequences) tend to accompanyromantic scenes, or victorious scenes, where good is winning or fighting back,as well as the same devotional, life-cycle ritual and festival contexts as folkmusic. I have never seen a character singing a song that solely expresses anemotion such as fury, revenge, terror,horror or any other disturbance of themoral universe. If these emotions form part of a song sequence then they willbe expressed during the instrumental sections of the song rather than as a partof the vocal melody. Furthermore,most of the singing in Hindi films is done bythe hero and heroine, the characters most associated with goodness andupholding the moral universe. The charactersmost associated with the destruc-tion of goodness, the villains, do not sing at all.19 When I inquired why avillain such as Gabbar Singh from Sholay (1975), one of the most evil andsadistic characters of Hindi cinema, did not sing, most people found the idealudicrous. Milind (of music director duo Anand-Milind) commented that "Theterror of Gabbar will go off if he sings" (interview, 3 March 2000). MusicdirectorUttam Singh similarly said, "he's a bad guy, he can't sing" and that ifhe did, he would not seem so bad (interview,6 April).

With this coding of melody and song in folk music and in Hindi films, it ispossible to see why something that is unsingable and antithetical to melody canevoke disturbance,distortion and destruction of all the positive associations ofmelody and song.This coding of rdga and melody also perhaps explains how Indian per-cussion music can be used for disturbing scenes, something many musicdirectors mentioned, because of the absence of rdga and melody. Indian19 Anti-heroessing, butthey are not evil like villains. They are often fighting againstestab-lished society but helping the underdog.Their behaviour is always mitigated by tragiccircumstances that have led them astrayand, most importantly,by the fact that they arenevercompletely alienated from theirmother,the embodimentof moralgoodness in Hindifilms (Thomas1995:172).

80


20/23


percussion (tabla) is used in Pardes (1997) in the climax scene where the herofights with the villain. This, however, is still very unusual for a commercialfilm, the only example I have come across. It is more common in art films,which are realist in style, and not concerned with the ethos of "big screenentertainment".ConclusionsThis paper's initial examination of the use of Hollywood techniques in Hindifilms found a considerable amount of mutual compatibility between the usageof certain musical techniques in both Indian and Western film music. Thismight be considered surprising,considering that Indian and Western musics areusually thought of as very different or even contrasting. Although there was noconclusive evidence that any of the other crossovers are examples of musicaluniversals, Nettl's words on this topic springto mind:

There are musical systems, there are musics, but they are more readilyconnected,morereadilyunderstoodat least in some respects by the novice,than are true languages. Despite enormousvarietyof musics, the ways inwhich people everywherehave chosen to make music are more restrictedthantheboundariesof the imaginable. (Nettl,1983:43)Many of the "Hollywood" techniques most commonly found in Hindi films

conveniently constitute an antithesis of raga and classical melody and also filmand folk song melody, which are associated to a greater or lesser degree withthe sacred, love, romance and celebration. They can therefore be used as apowerful means to express distortion, destruction and disturbance of thesequalities in a range of dramatic situations. It is not the fact that this music ismostly Western in origin and probably came from Hollywood that makes itnegative in this way, but ratherthat it is profoundly at odds with the stronglypositively coded phenomenon of raga or melody. Although the West asopposed to India tends to imply a threat to the moral universe in Hindi films,there are many Western techniques such as large ensembles, harmony andpopular styles that are used without such associations in Hindi films. The useof Western music is not consistent in any straightforwardway with the moralcoding of the West in its meaning, and it involves many more factors than therehas been space to explore here.Although dramaticforms before sound film must have used or adaptedragaand other forms of Indian music to express these kinds of disturbances ofdistortions, in Hindi films, apparently Hollywood-inspired techniques havemostly taken over. Why modem composers usually switch into a Westernsounding idiom, borrowing from Hollywood, rather than adapting traditionalresources is not entirely clear. It is perhaps a combination of several factors.These Hollywood cliches are highly effective in the Indian context, they coveran area that contemporary Indian music deals little with, and they have theadded advantageof evoking grandeurwhen used in a big ensemble. Moreover,

81


21/23

BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETH NO M US I CO LOG Y VOL.1 0/i 2001

these techniques were available in scenes from Hollywood films and wereeasily copied, especially given that a considerable number of musicians avail-able in Mumbai (including Parsis and Goan Christians) were capable ofplaying such music.Aside from raising issues relating to music and meaning, this investigationinto Hollywood-style music in Hindi films also reveals that the use of Westernmusic in Hindi films is not just a factor of global fashions and Western orHollywood cultural hegemony. Although Hindi film songs are commonlydiscussed as an independenttraditionof popularmusic that has little to do withfilms, the musical style of Hindi film songs and background scores, includingthe level and style of Western music used, is profoundly shaped by thecinematic and dramatic context.

ReferencesArnold, Alison (1991) Hindi Filmi Git: on the history of Indianpopular music.Ann Arbour,MI: University Microfilms International.Authorized facsimile(1996) made from the microfilm mastercopy of the original dissertation(Ph.D.), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,1991.Bhole, Keshavrao(1964) Mazhe Sangeet: RachanaAni Digdarshan. Translatedexcerpts, in Ranade (1991), pp. 49-63.Bor, Joep, ed. (1999) The rdga guide. Wyastone Leys: Nimbus Records with

RotterdamConservatoryof Music.Brooks, Peter (1991) "The melodramatic imagination."In Imitation of life: areader on film and television melodrama, pp. 50-67. Detroit: Wayne StateUniversity Press.Brown, Royal S. (1994) Overtones and undertones: reading film music.Berkeley and London: University of California Press.Cook, Nicholas (1998) Analysing musical multimedia. Oxford: ClarendonPress.Dwyer, Rachel (2000) All you want is money, all you need is love: sex andromance in modern India. London: Cassell.Gorbmann, Claudia (1987) Unheard melodies: narrative film music.Bloomington, IN: IndianaUniversity Press.Hansen, Kathryn(1992) Grounds or play: the NautahkT heatre of north India.Berkely, CA: University of California Press.Jairazbhoy (1975) The rdgas of north Indian music: their structure andevolution. Bombay: PopularPrakashan.Kalinak, Kathryn(1992) Settling the score: music and the classical Hollywoodfilm. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press.Kaufman,Walter (1976) The ragas of south India. Bloomington and London:IndianaUniversity Press.Lath,Mukund (c. 1975) "Bharata Muni and Hindi films." In Jijnasa: Ajournal of the history of ideas and culture, pp. 84-106. Mylapore, Madras:KalpadrumaPress.

82


22/23


Middleton, Richard (1980) Studying popular music. Milton Keynes: OpenUniversity Press.(1993) "Popular music analysis and musicology: bridging the gap."Popular Music 12.2:177-90.Nettl, Bruno (1983) The study of ethnomusicology: twenty-nine issues andconcepts. Urbana:University of Illinois Press.

Rajadhyaksha, Ashish and Willemen, Paul (1999) Encyclopaedia of Indiancinema: new revised edition. London: British Film Institute and Delhi:Oxford University Press.Ranade, Ashok D. (1986) Stage music of Maharashtra. New Delhi: SangeetNatakAkademi., ed. (1991) Sangeet Natak - Film music in perspective. vol. 100, April-June 1991. New Delhi: Sangeet NatakAkademi.Robinson, Jenefer (1994) "The expression and arousal of emotion in music."The Journal of aesthetics and art criticism 52.1:13-22.(1995) "Startle."The Journal of Philosophy 92.2:53-74.Shankar,Ravi (1964) My music my life. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing HousePvt Ltd.Shepherd, John and Wicke, Peter (1997) Music and cultural theory.Cambridge:Polity Press.Tagg, Philip (1993) "'Universal' music and the case of death." CriticalQuarterly,35.2:54-85.20(1998) "Tritonalcrime and music as 'music'." In S. Miceli, L. Gallenga,

L. Kokkaliari (eds) Norme con ironie: scritti per i settant' anni di EnnioMorricone, pp. 273-312. Milano: Suvini Zerboni.Thomas, Rosie (1995) "Melodrama and the negotiation of morality inmainstreamHindi film." In Carol Breckenridge (ed.) Consumingmodernity:public culture in a south Asian world, pp. 157-82. Minneapolis andLondon: University of Minnesota Press.Turino, Thomas (1999) "Signs of Imagination, Identity, and Experience: APeircian Semiotic Theory for Music."Ethnomusicology43.2:221-55.Vasudevan, Ravi (1989) "The melodramatic mode and commercial Hindicinema." Screen 30.3:29-50.(1993) "Shifting codes, dissolving identities: The Hindi social film of1950s as popular culture." Journal of Arts and Ideas 23.4:51-79 (plusappendix).Widdess, Richard (1995) The ragas of early Indian music: modes, melodies,and musical notations from the Gupta period to c.1250. Oxford: ClarendonPress.

20 Pagenumbers itedin thisarticleareaccordingo those n a copy printedromPhilipTagg'swebsite,,hicharenumbered-24.

83


23/23

BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.1 0/i 2001

Films citedAmrithmanthan (1934) Prabhat Films. Director, V. Shantaram; music,21Keshavrao Bhole.Devdas (1935) New Theatres. Director, P. C. Barua; music, Rai Chand Boral;PankajMullick.Pather Panchali (1955) West Bengal Government. Director, Satyajit Ray;music, Ravi Shankar.Mother India (1957) Mehboob Production. Director, Mehboob Khan; music,Naushad;lyrics, Shakeel Badayuni.Mughal-e-Azam (1960) Sterling Investment Corp. Director, K. Asif; music,Naushad;lyrics, Shakeel Badayuni.Sholay (1975) Sippy Films. Director, Ramesh Sippy; music, R. D. Burman;

lyrics, Anand Bakshi.Raja Hindustani (1996) TIPS Films. Director, Dharmesh Darshan; songs,Nadeem-Shravan;backgroundmusic, SurendraSodhi; lyrics, Sameer.Pardes (1997) Mukta Arts. Director, Subhash Ghai; songs, Nadeem-Shravan;lyrics, Anand Bakshi; backgroundmusic, VanrajBhatia.Note on the authorAnna Morcom obtained a B.A. degree in ethnomusicology and Hindi from theSchool of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London University. She iscurrently completing her Ph.D. on the cinematic dimension of Hindifilm songs. Aside from Indian film music, Indian music, films, and popularculture, her interests include Hindi and Urdu language, Tibetan music,and singing. Address: 24 Lawn Crescent, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3NS;e-mail: [email protected]

21 Unless otherwise stated, songs and background music are by the given music director.

84

Documents

Bollywood and Hollywood