Village and Town Music of Nepal and India

The forested hills and valleys of the eastern Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh, India attracted Rudyard Kipling a century ago, and more recently, for different reasons, ethnomusicologist Roderic C. Knight. Seeking to document the little-known musics of the region, Knight packed a notebook, movie and still cameras, and a tape recorder onto his motorcycle and sought out the musicians in their villages. The results are presented in these scenes: twelve musical performances and numerous scenes from daily life in 1982. At the time, Super 8 sound movie film was the medium of choice; the digital mini-cam was far in the future. These films, converted to video and digitally edited with the able assistance of Elio Trabal (Oberlin College 2004), capture events of two types: rural music that is today as isolated as it was then, and urban festive music that is as vibrant and current today as it was when filmed. Accompanying the DVD is a CD-ROM with a 36-page booklet that may be viewed on screen