Ritigaula: A Study of Improvisation and Discourse in Indian Music

This book, authored by the late Princeton music scholar Harold Powers, discusses a single Indian raga called Ritigaula. Ritigaula’s pitch structure, conventions surrounding its performance, and its treatment in historical Indian music treatises are comprehensively described. Powers’s unique approach to theorizing raga examines raga structure and meaning in this monograph too, from the perspective of musical communication and discourse. From within this perspective, Powers shares his thoughts about music’s connection to language, and the relationship between raga expression and linguistic communication.