Music of the Raj

Book excerpt: Music of the Raj is a study of musical life in late eighteenth-century Anglo-Indian society, based on the unpublished correspondence of an extended network of families. The writers of these letters - amateurs with a passionate commitment to the art of music - provide a perceptive commentary on many of the major issues of the day: the stylistic change from Baroque to Galant, the replacement of the harpsichord with the pianoforte, the establishment of the musical canon, and the growing economic and cultural influence of women musicians. Among the topics discussed are the transport, tuning and maintenance of instruments, the relationship between amateur pupil and professional teacher, the conduct of the domestic musical soirée, the role of glee singing in courtship, and the musical education of children. An account is also given of the growth of an expatriate musical culture among the European inhabitants of early colonial Calcutta, and the musical tastes of major Anglo-Indian figures such as Robert Clive, Warren Hastings, and Sir William Jones are assessed. English attitudes to Indian music is an important theme, especially as manifested in the fashion for the Hindostannie airs, transcriptions of Indian melodies in European musical language. The study concludes with an examination of the musical lives of wealthy nabobs back in England, where they immersed themselves in Indian musical culture, taking the Grand Tour, supporting opera at the Kings Theatre, and employing fashionable Italian teachers for their children.