ABSTRACT

This article provides justification for the minority scholar trained in ‘elite’ music analysis (my term) to apply voice-leading analysis to rock band Indian Ocean’s fusion number Kandisa. In so doing, I find a meaningful new way to address decolonisation debates in music. Born and schooled in India, and now based in Ireland, I first reflect on recent tensions around music theory’s white racial frame as argued by Philip A. Ewell in his 2020 article 'Music Theory and the White Racial Frame', for Music Theory Online. I ask what this means for a minority scholar whose non-luxury training in Western art music (henceforth WAM) and its theory has – curiously – placed me on the fringes of music academe. A close reading of Kandisa is presented next, as an engagement with musical minutiae via a language that I argue is far more accessible and meaningful (to me, my fellow Indian friends and colleagues, and the band members themselves) than any ‘Indian’ music terminology. Recognising the potential for this viewpoint to cause a stir amongst ethnomusicologists who have had the double good fortune to train in WAM as well as its Indian counterparts, I recontextualise Kandisa through the lens of decolonisation literature which includes Audra Lorde, Tuck and Yang, and Sunaina Kale, to name just a few.

摘要

本文为受过“精英”音乐分析（我的术语）训练的少数民族学者将声音引导分析应用于摇滚乐队印度洋的融合数字Kandisa 提供了理由。通过这样做，我找到了一种有意义的新方法来解决音乐中的非殖民化辩论。在印度出生并接受教育，现在居住在爱尔兰，我首先反思了最近围绕音乐理论的白人种族框架的紧张局势，正如 Philip A. Ewell 在他 2020 年为Music Theory Online发表的文章“音乐理论和白人种族框架”中所述。我问这对少数派学者来说意味着什么，他在西方艺术音乐（以下称为 WAM）及其理论方面的非奢侈训练——奇怪地——让我处于音乐学院的边缘。仔细阅读坎迪萨接下来介绍的是，通过一种我认为比任何“印度”音乐术语更容易理解和有意义（对我、我的印度朋友和同事以及乐队成员自己）的语言来参与音乐细节。认识到这种观点可能会在有双重幸运地在 WAM以及印度同行中接受过培训的民族音乐学家引起轰动，我通过包括 Audra Lorde、Tuck 和 Yang 以及 Sunaina 在内的非殖民化文学的镜头重新审视了 Kandisa羽衣甘蓝，仅举几例。