The Ragas of Early Indian Music

Reviews / Votes

This work, based on the author's 1981 doctoral thesis, presents us with by far the most extensive and detailed study of the early raga system yet attempted ... unique and startlingly effective contribution ... Author and publisher have gone to considerable lengths to ensure the quality of text and presentation. No matter how difficult the arguments become they are always presented as clearly as possible, without succumbing to over-simplification or the avoidance of difficult issues. The text is free of typographical and other errors to an astonishing degree, and music examples seem to have been checked with similar thoroughness ... There can be little doubt that this work will come to be regarded as a classic in its field: indeed, a milestone not only in Indic musicology but in historical ethnomusicology as a whole. * Martin Clayton, Bulletin of the School of Oriental & African Studies * Despite the large number of previous analytical studies, the raga has never, to my knowledge, been subjected such a thorough historical treatment. * Anderson Bakewell, Asian Affairs, October 1996 * The subject presents an enormous challenge, and Widdess has met it impressively ... It is often difficult to make even conjectural sense of the data, and Widdess does a remarkably sane job under the circumstances ... Widdess shows it is possible to write beautifully and informatively in the total absence of recrimination and accusation, and the book is an excellent demonstration of the complete dispensability of the confrontational, aggressive, moral high-ground writing which has recently become so common in ethnomusicology. * Robert C. Provine, University of Durham, British Jrnl of Ethnomusicology, Vol 6, 1997 *