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a peer-reviewed quarterly journal on literature
E-ISSN 2457-0265
Acerca de
Erothanatos
Scholarly Article
Subhadrakalyan Rana
Redefining Contemporaneity: Seeing the Tradition as the New Contemporary
Volume
8
Issue
4
Pages:
58-73
Keywords:
music, tradition, contemporaneity, classical, individuality
doi:
Abstract
Music undergoes significant expressional changes owing to the parallel changes in the time it belongs to as art adapts itself to the changing time. Such developments are reflected directly in its expressions. It can be assumed, that the impact of the social changes making art look ‘relevant’ or ‘contemporary’ seemingly contributes to the perpetuation of art. The difference of times apposes the binary of tradition and contemporaneity to the further binaries of old and new. When the individual talent rises as part of both tradition and the contemporary, tradition after a point itself becomes contemporized. This paper aims to elucidate the various aspects of the coexistence of tradition and contemporaneity in Indian classical music and Rabindrasangeet. The paper also aims to discuss the contemporary time necessitating a change in art, the presence of tradition in contemporaneity, and the acceptance of tradition as the new contemporary.
About the Author(s)
Subhadrakalyan Rana completed his postgraduate studies at the Department of Comparative Indian Language and Literature, University of Calcutta, and is now pursuing his second postgraduate course in English literature from St. Xavier's College (Autonomous), Kolkata. A practitioner of Indian classical music, Subhadrakalyan Rana combines music and literature which makes his area of study rather interdisciplinary. He has presented his papers on both music and literature in a few national and international seminars in and around Kolkata. He has recently published his paper, 'The Narrative of a Bandish: Towards Understanding the Representation of Women in the Songs of Khayal', as a chapter in the book, 'Gender and Media.' He has also been working on Rabindrasangeet and writing scholarly articles on the reception of Indian classical music in Rabindrasangeet in various e-journals. Subhadrakalyan Rana writes creative articles too, and has contributed as a junior journalist to The Statesman, Voices; TTIS – The Telegraph in Schools; and Young Metro, The Telegraph. His first poetry anthology, ‘Embers and Ashes’, came out earlier this year, and was endorsed by notable poets, Pritish Nandy and K Satchidanandan. Among his few notable performances is his recent Tabla-Tarang solo at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, Mumbai.
