Choral Voices

Abstract

Choral Voices addresses a relatively under-researched field in Social Anthropology in India. Drawing from a combination of insights from the disciplines of Sociology, Anthropology, Ethnomusicology, and History, it adopts a multi-sited ethnography in parts of Goa and Shillong across churches, seminaries, schools, university auditoriums, state auditoriums, privately managed auditoriums, classrooms, reality TV shows, festivals, and recording studios. It offers a fresh perspective in delineating a self-conscious sense of indigenousness in constructing choral voices, offering an interplay of standardization, and speaks to questions such as who are the rightful heirs of this musical tradition? How does on distinguish one musical genre from another? And how does one factor in the visual and the aural in the process of musical exhibition?