ABSTRACT

This article presents the results of an empirical study of performers and audiences in a performance of North Indian rāg performance. Analysis of audiovisual recordings is employed to explore how the performers and listeners experience the metrical and formal structures of a rāg performance, and the gestural and verbal involvement of listeners in the performance. The results shed light on the ways in which participants experience the music’s temporal organization, and in particular the function of tāl in structuring both a social sharing of time and a gradual intensification and focusing of the group’s attentional energy. The performance is described as being constituted collaboratively by all its participants, and a new model of audience involvement is presented, distinguishing participation from response.