THE MUSIC OF THE SIKH GURUS' TRADITION IN A WESTERN CONTEXT: CROSS-CULTURAL PEDAGOGY AND RESEARCH

Teaching a religious musical tradition within a Western (secular) context, such as the University, involves important aspects of intercultural pedagogy and research in cross-cultural perspective. The Sikh Gurus' tradition is here analyzed through an anthropological and semiotic approach that locates Gurmat Sangit within the academic field of international musicology. Considered for a long time to be a devotional genre of music, the great contribution of the Sikh Gurus' tradition to Indian music is yet to be discovered. Academic discussion should involve old and new generations of musicians, as well as Indian and Western scholars trained in the tradition, to highlight historical and practical aspects of performance. This article suggests some issues that could be developed involving students from Western universities in academic research, and suitable dissertation topics. Among these, the vocal techniques in relation to the musical genres, and to the yoga of sound, is one of the most interesting aspects of research and analysis on Gurmat Sangit.