Sophia Plowden reworked short musical compositions, such as Punjabi tappas, ghazals and raginis, in the western idiom as instrumental or sung pieces in English.
BN Goswamy
Among the British Library’s extraordinary collection of materials relating to the history of Indian music in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries lie dozens of European accounts of the nautch intimate musical parties at which troupes of high-status North Indian courtesans would sing, dance, recite poetry, and match wits with the assembled company, often to mark special occasions. Note on a performance at the British Library (2018)
A nautch troupe. From the Skinner album in the British Library, London.
Having read, and sometimes written on, many accounts of Europeans, including Englishmen, who came and lived in India in the 18th century, I was often struck by how little interest, serious interest I mean, they took in Indian music. This, despite some visual evidence that has survived showing men like the British General, Sir David Ochterlony, and the Swiss engineer/adventurer, Antoine Polier, seated more or less Indian fashion on the floor, watching dancin