Nepali Folk Performance: The Works of Subi Shah

FAIN: RQ-279760-21

University of Hawaii (Honolulu, HI 96822-2216)
Anna Marie Stirr (Project Director: November 2020 to present)
Mason Brown (Co Project Director: February 2021 to present)

Preparation for publication of an open-access print and digital edition and translation, from Nepali to English, of the six books of Subi Shah (1922-2008), a Nepali performer and educator who documented Nepali folk music, drama and dance. (36 months)

This project will translate six volumes of Nepali performer Subi Shah's work into English and publish them digitally and in print, with accompanying scores, and audio and video recordings. Shah (1922-2008) was a Nepali performer and educator who made it his life’s work to develop, sustain, and promote Nepali folk performance. His writings on the varied genres that make up the Pangdure tradition of the central Nepali hills are the only existing scholarship that analyzes and provides concrete examples of all aspects of performance (song, instrumental music, dance, drama) with detailed information about their interrelationships. They thus provide an essential resource for scholars and performers, including information published nowhere else. This project contributes to these traditions' cultural sustainability by involving local performers, and to decolonizing performance studies by challenging and posing concrete alternatives to Eurocentric structures of knowledge.

Associated Products

Subi Shah’s Holistic Theory of Nepali Performing Arts: Implications for Research and Teaching (Article)
Title: Subi Shah’s Holistic Theory of Nepali Performing Arts: Implications for Research and Teaching
Author: Anna Stirr
Abstract: Subi Shah (1922-2008) was a Nepali performer and educator whose life’s work was to preserve and promote Nepali folk genres of music, song, dance, and drama, especially the wide variety of these that make up the tradition known as Pangdure. Raised in this tradition, he became one of its leading exponents. He did so outside of the academy and was thus free from disciplinary strictures. Although he was consulted and honored by state cultural policymakers in the 1980s and 1990s, many of his contributions remain unrecognized. This study analyzes five of his texts, building on my 20 years of engagement as a scholar and performer with the traditions described therein. The objectives of the study are to identify key aspects of Shah’s theories of performance. The study finds that Shah’s descriptions and analysis of integrated performance practice valorize a performance tradition with its own unique worldviews and theories. It concludes that teaching these worldviews and theories will help maintain the cultural sustainability of this and other Nepali performance traditions, by helping students make connections among the traditionally related aspects of performance: instrumental music, song, poetry, dance, and drama. Further, it demonstrates the broader applicability of Shah’s methods for holistic performance scholarship within and beyond Nepal, which contributes to decolonizing ethnomusicology by centering a non-Western theory and methodology from outside the academy.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://ejournal.upsi.edu.my/index.php/juraisembah/article/view/5006
Primary URL Description: Link to article in open access journal
Secondary URL: https://doi.org/10.37134/juraisembah.vol2.1.3.2021
Secondary URL Description: DOI for article
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Jurai Sembah
Publisher: Jurai Sembah

Embodied Theories of Melody in Nepali Music: A Case Study from Central Dhading (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Embodied Theories of Melody in Nepali Music: A Case Study from Central Dhading
Author: Anna Stirr
Author: Lochan Rijal
Author: Mason Brown
Abstract: A decorated scholar-practitioner with a lifetime of music and dance training in the traditions of his village and their national-level iterations in the Nepal Army, Subi Shah wrote this manuscript based on his own experience as a flute player. He did additional research with the sahanai players of the naumati baja of his home village, Jyamrung, in Dhading. Introduction to Nepali Tunes offers a theory of melodic modes based on the musical instruments bansuri, murali, and sahanai, and discusses the relation of vernacular traditions with those holding “classical” status, illustrating his music-theoretical and social-theoretical claims with two or three notated example songs for each mode, plus his own written commentary. We assert that these instruments take on the role of “epistemic things” (Rheinberger, 1997) not simply technical objects used to produce pre-conceived sounds, but the sensory, experiential basis for understanding melody. Our broader argument, building on those of multiple ethnomusicological studies on embodiment, is that theories are not only articulated verbally, and attention to the act of performance and its technical and sensory aspects are also a way to develop, determine, and transmit theories. Subi Shah’s manuscript begins to translate this embodied musical theory into words and music notation. Our scholarship aims to carry its insights forward, explaining their relevance outside the case study of Shah’s central Nepali musical traditions toward a more expansive concept of what constitutes theory, and a greater appreciation for the depth of knowledge found in the vernacular artistic traditions of Nepal. This in turn is important for these traditions’ cultural sustainability and continued vitality.
Date: 07/29/2022
Primary URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368685965_Embodied_Theories_of_Melody_in_Nepali_Music
Primary URL Description: Link to posted slides
Secondary URL: 10.13140/RG.2.2.12715.52003
Secondary URL Description: DOI for slides
Conference Name: Annual Conference on Nepal and the Himalaya

Collaboratively Documenting and Revitalizing Traditional Performance in Nepal (Article)
Title: Collaboratively Documenting and Revitalizing Traditional Performance in Nepal
Author: Anna Stirr
Abstract: This article provides some history behind our project and details the recording work we've been doing in Jyamrung and Sohraghar villages, filming the songs and dances that Subi Shah had documented in the 1960s.
Year: 2024
Primary URL: https://www.iias.asia/the-newsletter/article/collaboratively-documenting-and-revitalizing-traditional-performance-nepal
Primary URL Description: This URL links to the online version of the article, which contains links to the audio and video created by Subi Shah and by our team.
Access Model: Open access
Format: Other
Periodical Title: The Newsletter
Publisher: International Institute for Asian Studies

---