Film Screening: Colonial Interlude: The Nottuswara Sahityas of Dikshitar

Explore the story of this fascinating encounter between two diverse musical traditions in colonial India when the southern Indian composer Muthuswami Dikshitar (1775–1835) wrote lyrics in Sanskrit to colonial tunes that had arrived on Indian soil with the British East India Company. Written and directed by Cincinnati-based composer and scholar Kanniks Kannikeswaran, PhD, this film traces the musical journey of Dikshitar through various sacred sites and explores the contrast between traditional raga-based compositions and the nottuswara sahityas (songs with Sanskrit lyrics written to Western tunes). Featuring footage from temples, festivals, and interviews with folk music performers from the Cincinnati area, the film offers a breathtaking view of eighteenth-century European tunes that traveled across the world and took on varied forms in India and in the United States.

Free admission. Located in the Fath Auditorium on the Ground Floor. 

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