Audience Response and Expressive Pitch Inflections in a Live Recording of Legendary Singer Kesar Bai Kerkar

Abstract

This chapter examines several “snapshots” from a recording by the legendary singer Kesar Bai Kerkar (1892–1977), in which the customary audience response to a concert of classical Hindustani music, in the form of appreciative verbal interjections, is clearly audible. These responses identify “special” moments in the performance, which can be considered particularly expressive. Praat software was used to generate pitch-lines, which elucidate what is happening in the performance at these selected moments. The analyses must be understood within the framework of the music being performed and the ideas about aesthetics of expression. A brief outline of expressivity in the context of Hindustani music is given. The recording is from one genre, a particular period, and one school, and the introductory sketch about expression of emotion and the role of raga in the context of Hindustani music is necessarily a brief synopsis of a vast subject.

The E-music box: an empirical method for exploring the universal capacity for musical production and for social interaction through music

“…Similarly, research on human (ontogenetic) development suggests that music is largely a social endeavour [ 25 ]. When music and dance are social parts of devotional or ritual activity, they are participatory, with the possibility for all members to contribute in different ways: singing, playing an instrument, stamping one’s feet [ 26 ] or verbally interjecting [ 27 ]. Indeed, Malloch & Trevarthen [ 28 ] theorize that, from infancy, the core of human communication and companionship is ‘communicative musicality’ [ 28 ].…”

Book Review: Karen Burland and Stephanie Pitts (Eds.)., Coughing and clapping: Investigating audience experience

“…While comprehensive detail given throughout the volume substantiates the underscoring of the importance of the role of social context, one area worthy of further investigation is applause, which is, somewhat surprisingly considering the book’s title, only sparsely referred to. Although some of the contributing authors discuss the nature and ‘feel’ of audience involvement in improvised jazz performance (Burland & Windsor), in varied music and dance contexts (Stevens et al), and the presence of the audience on live recording (Long), the predominantly Western focus of the volume therefore omits discussion of the arguably more interactive mechanisms of applause featured, for example, during as well as post performance in North Indian classical music (van der Meer, 2014) and the roles which these mechanisms can play in the dynamics of power between audience and performer. Not only could this lead to expanded consideration of areas such as the ‘spontaneous matching (mimicry) of facial muscles’ by audience members to the expression of a singer (discussed in the chapter by Stevens et al, p. 85); furthermore, states of emotional contagion may also contribute to audience perception and be communicated through not only the bodily postures and expressions of the performers (Davies, 2010) but also those of fellow audience members, particularly, as McConachie (2008) notes in his discussion of theatre audiences, when the lighting enables their observation.…”