ABSTRACT
The North Indian (or Hindustani) music tradition to which we commonly refer as ‘classical’ is a form of art music which developed in a courtly environment under aristocratic patronage.1 Before the twentieth century, it was generally played by a group of mostly hereditary performers for the appreciation of an elite audience of connoisseurs. After the abolition of the courts, during the last century, Hindustani classical music became the domain of the growing Indian middle classes, many of whom still see it as an enriching complement to a good education and from whom the vast majority of consumers and audiences is drawn. Today this tradition is performed in a variety of contexts, ranging from large Western-style public concert halls with a capacity of several hundred people to much smaller (public or private) settings, where musicians and audiences sit on the floor in close proximity to each other, a model which is believed to resemble the older setting of the court.
