Choral Voices

Rezensionen / Stimmen

Choral Voices is fantastic! In destabilizing notions of culture, colonization, and sound, Sebanti Chatterjee weaves a compelling story of belonging and faith. Through aural participation and multi-sited ethnography readers are transported to the overlooked arenas of identity and indigeneity in contemporary India, with crucial insights for worlds beyond. * Duncan McDuie-Ra, Professor of Urban Sociology, The University of Newcastle, Australia * Choral Voices is an important addition to the growing body of work that challenges fondly held notions of 'East' and 'West.' * Naresh Fernandes, author of Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The Story of Bombay's Jazz Age * This excellent study brings together an understanding of music, sound, voice, indigeneity, sacrality, and the ways in which these are knitted together in the choral music of Shillong and Goa. The book is also a moving personal account of crossing given religious, linguistic, regional, and cultural identities through the practice of music. * Vidya Rao, singer, writer, and editor, Orient BlackSwan publishers * Sebanti Chatterjee constructs a beautifully detailed and captivating ethnographic account of Christian choral singing within contrasting locales in India. Highlighting colonial influence as well as indigenous agency, Chatterjee's account demonstrates the intertwining roles of faith and musical genre in creating a people's sacred imagination. Her book is an important addition to anthropological and ethnomusicological studies of Christian communities. * Monique Ingalls, Associate Professor of Music, Baylor University, USA, and author of Singing the Congregation: How Contemporary Worship Music Forms Evangelical Community (2018) * Sebanti Chatterjee's work is a significant contribution to the emerging field of voice studies in South Asia. Backed by a rich ethnography, it parses choral voices in multiple sites to revisit questions of repertoire, indigeneity and faith practice and in the process indexes a complex set of social relations and meaning making. * Lakshmi Subramanian, Visiting professor of History, BITS Pilani Goa, India *