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It's Not Fusion: Hybridity in the Music of Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa

This thesis concerns the performance of identity in the music of Indian American jazz musicians Rudresh Mahanthappa and Vijay Iyer. In combining the use of Indian classical music elements with jazz, Iyer and Mahanthappa create music that is inextricably tied to their multifaceted identities. Traditional musicological analysis is juxtaposed with a theoretical framework that draws on postcolonial theory and the history of Asian immigrant populations to the U.S. I chronicle the interactions between Indian and Western music and link it to larger issues of Asian American identity formation and activism through music. Through interviews and transcriptions of studio recordings, I identify specific compositional and improvisational strategies of the musicians. I emphasize the role of individual agency in the formation of second-generation identities, drawing attention to the distinct ways that Iyer and Mahanthappa approach their music. Finally, I connect this research to a larger discourse on Indian American artistic identity.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc177203
Date12 1900
CreatorsGovind, Arathi
ContributorsFriedson, Steven M. (Steven Michael), 1948-, Hayes, Eileen M., Murphy, John P. (John Patrick)
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
FormatText
RightsPublic, Govind, Arathi, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved.

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