Music under development: children’s songs, artists, and the (pancayat) state

In September 1993, Gopal Yonjan (an important personality in the field of Nepali music) released a book-plus-cassette set with songs for children. The cover of the book shows children in dresses typical of different Nepali regions, and these children hold up musical symbols from both East and West: the note-syllables of sa, re, ga, ma, and pa together with a treble clef and an eighth note. On top of this, the name of the book, Git Manjari, is inscribed into the five lines of Western staff notation. In the book – beside the lyrics and saragam notation of the songs – there are instructive comments. These comments are obviously there to educate the music teacher as much as the students. It is suggested how each song can be performed (group, solo singers, with dance, from stage, etc.), illustrations show where the various notes are on the keyboard, and there are comparisons into Western ways of putting music on paper (D major scale, tone-names, etc.). As to the lyrics, we meet in one of these songs a greedy cat, and in another song we are treated with one didactic proverb for each of the ten fingers of the two hands. All the songs – which are targeted at children between four and ten years old – are also found on the accompanying cassette. Of course, it was not his songs for children that elevated the late Gopal Yonjan (1943-1997) to be seen as one of Nepal’s (and Darjeeling’s) absolute top musical artists. He is remembered as a composer, as a songwriter, as a part of the legendary Mitjyu constellation with Narayan Gopal, as a flutist, and maybe as a studio-owner and college teacher (of music, at the Padmakanya Campus). Among his works, one might mention songs such as Birsera pheri malai nahera (sung by Narayan Gopal, lyrics Nagendra Thapa), Makhamali colo cahidaina (the radio hit sung by Mira Rana), or Kalakala salasala (the hit from the film Kanchi where Aruna Lama sang Chetan Karki’s lyrics). In the context of Gopal Yonjan’s oeuvre, the songs for children in Git Manjari appear marginal. In a similar way children have been assessed as marginal in Nepali studies (Gellner 2004). One of the most striking developments during Nepal’s last half century is certainly the explosive growth in schools (see, for instance, Liechty 2003: 57–8, 212–14, 264). The implications of this explosion for youth culture are thoroughly investigated in for instance Mark Liechty’s (2003) study of the rising middle class, and in the studies on various new forms of Nepali music by Paul Greene (2001, 2002/03; Greene & Henderson 2000; Greene & Rajkarnikar 2000). Children’s songs, on the other hand, remain unmentioned here as well as in the research at large – as the overviews of Nepal’s musical scenes in the leading music encyclopedias (Moisala 2000; Wegner et. al. 2005) testify. Indeed, marginality seems to be characteristic of children’s songs, whatever the context in which we consider them. They are – as the Gopal Yonjan case illustrates – on the fringe of the modern musical developments in Nepal, where the central genres have been those of modern songs and (folklorized) folk songs. And in the educational context, children’s songs appear as similarly marginal. Compared to the compulsory, comprehensive teaching – with centrally approved textbooks – in Nepali and social studies, singing was an activity on the periphery of school practice and music was not even an explicit part of the curriculum (Ragsdale 1989: 118; see further below). Yet this marginality may well be deceptive. As I hope will be clear in course of this article, studying children’s songs, as cultural artifacts and as artistic and educational practices, lands one on important, contested and central ground.Original publication: Ingemar Grandin, Music under development: children’s songs, artists, and the (pancayat) state, 2005, Studies in Nepali History and Society, (10), 2, 255–293. Copyright: Nepal Studies Group, http://www.asianstudies.emory.edu/sinhas

Raga Basanta and the spring songs of the Kathmandu Valley : A musical Great Tradition among Himalayan farmers?

Original publication: Ingemar Grandin, Raga Basanta and the spring songs of the Kathmandu Valley: A musical Great Tradition among Himalayan farmers?, 1997, European Bulletin of Himalayan Research, (12-13), 57-80. http://www.digitalhimalaya.com/collections/journals/ebhr/index.ph

“To change the face of this country”: Nepalese progressive songs under pancayat democracy

This is a study of a contemporary Nepalese artistic genre. But it is also an analysis of political rhetorics and of one of the means by which the political parties were able to build up mass support during the time they were legally banned. During the three decades of partyless Pancayat Democracy, the parties were confined to working underground, undercover in the guise of student unions, and – as they did from its very inception (Rose 1965: 360, 365) – within the pancayat system itself. How, then, to capture, convince and convert the masses? Progressive songs – pragati!"l g"t – were part of the “cultural front” specifically aimed to reach beyond the dedicated party workers and to “the people”. This cultural work – conceived as the first step in the enlightenment of the people – included street dramas; the street poetry revolution (Hutt 1991:142); and the musical performances and cultural programs (with a mix of dramas, dances, and songs) of which progressive songs were the most important component.Original publication: Ingemar Grandin, “To change the face of this country”: Nepalese progressive songs under pancayat democracy, 1996, Journal of South Asian Literature, (29), 1, 175-189

A Young Person’s Guide to the Cultural Heritage of the Kathmandu Valley : The Song Kaulā Kachalā and Its Video

There is no doubt that the Newar culture of the Kathmandu Valley has attracted a lot of scholarly attention. The presentation of Newar culture in focus here, however, is very different from the scholarly literature. It is made for Newars by Newars; it is in the form of a song with a video, not a scholarly text; and it is a presentation for children, not for learned readers. The song is called Kaulā Kachalā. Within its small format, this song video plays up a very rich picture of Newar civilization and is positioned in and illuminates important problem areas and debates such as ethnic politics and cultural heritage, and cultural vulnerability and sustainability. Date of actual publication: 13 december 2015</p

A Young Person’s Guide to the Cultural Heritage of the Kathmandu Valley : The Song Kaulā Kachalā and Its Video

There is no doubt that the Newar culture of the Kathmandu Valley has attracted a lot of scholarly attention. The presentation of Newar culture in focus here, however, is very different from the scholarly literature. It is made for Newars by Newars; it is in the form of a song with a video, not a scholarly text; and it is a presentation for children, not for learned readers. The song is called Kaulā Kachalā. Within its small format, this song video plays up a very rich picture of Newar civilization and is positioned in and illuminates important problem areas and debates such as ethnic politics and cultural heritage, and cultural vulnerability and sustainability. Date of actual publication: 13 december 2015</p

Raga Basanta and the spring songs of the Kathmandu Valley : A musical Great Tradition among Himalayan farmers?

Original publication: Ingemar Grandin, Raga Basanta and the spring songs of the Kathmandu Valley: A musical Great Tradition among Himalayan farmers?, 1997, European Bulletin of Himalayan Research, (12-13), 57-80. http://www.digitalhimalaya.com/collections/journals/ebhr/index.ph

One song, five continents, and a thousand years of musical migration

In 1986, the senior Nepali composer Amber Gurung invited some musical friends to his home to record a few of his songs. There were Tarabirsingh Tuladhar, the sitarist; Prakash Gurung played the tabla, and Madanji the guitar. From Amber Gurung’s own family of gifted musicians, Kishor Gurung played the keyboard while Amber Gurung himself sang and played the harmonium. I was there to do the tape recordings. Among the songs we recorded at that time was Aankhaale malaai (which later was re-recorded in the Saanga studio and issued on the cassette Kaile lahar, kaile tarang). This is a typical Nepalese modern song. But the song itself, the arrangement, and the instruments with which it was performed altogether show traces of musical processes, flows and movements that encompass five continents. And to unravel all this will take us through more than a thousand years of musical migration.Original publication: Ingemar Grandin, One song, five continents, and a thousand years of musical migration, 1995, Saragam Muscial Quarterly, (1), 1, 56-65

A study of the influence of exhaust gas recirculation and stoichiometry on the heat release in the end-gas prior to knock using rotational coherent anti-Stokes-Raman spectroscopy thermometry

Heat release in the end-gas prior to autoignition was investigated using different experimental methods including transducers for heat flux and pressure as well as rotational coherent anti-Stokes-Raman spectroscopy, which is a laser-based method for non-intrusive instantaneous thermometry of the gas. The time history was examined in the cases of mixtures of various stoichio-metries, where some were diluted with exhaust gas recir-culation (EGR). The measured temperature history was compared with the isentropic temperature calculated from the cylinder pressure trace. This comparison revealed a difference in heat release from low-temperature reactions in the end-gas for the various mixtures tested at a constant indicated mean effective pressure and a fixed position of 50 per cent burnt charge. It is shown that lean mixtures tend to exhibit the highest knock intensity, mainly due to a decrease in specific heat, as compared to the richer mixtures, which result in an earlier knock onset and as a consequence higher knock intensity. Furthermore, the comparison of temperatures indicates that the rich mixtures have a high heat release from low-temperature chemistry, which to some extent negates the higher specific heat of the charge. As a consequence, a slight enrichment of the charge can lead to higher knock intensity in comparison with a stoichiometric mixture. In spite of the lower specific heat of the charge when a stoichiometric charge was diluted with cooled EGR, these mixtures showed a very low tendency to knock