5. __________________________________________________________
Comparative Aspects of Christian Music in India, China, and Russia:
Missionaries and Natives as Intermediary Actors in the Contact Zone
Takako Inoue
1.

Introduction: A New Methodological Approach

Carrying out a proper comparative study of diverse musical traditions of India, China, andRussia is methodologically difficult.1 It does not make any sense to say that India’s musicaltradition is like this, China’s is like that, and Russia’s is like the other. We should not apply themethod of comparative musicology developed in the early twentieth century when Westernmusicologists analyzed non-Western music by adapting the theory of European classical music,
which they regarded as something higher or something universal, to “Other” musical traditions.
While I have been in pursuit of the common musical experiences of these three countries, it isimportant to focus on the encounter with Western music, which might be a key factor for a propercomparison. It is certain that the music cultures of non-Western countries have been more or lessinfluenced by Western music in the process of the expansion of European Imperialism.
Bruno Nettl, an American ethnomusicologist, says that on the first encounter with Westernmusic, Christian missionaries, soldiers, and diplomats were important actors in introducing
Western music to non-Western countries.2 Christian hymns and military band music were learnt
by native converts to Christianity or those soldiers hired by European settlers or colonizers. The
Western impact on the music culture of these three countries can also be studied properly throughthis point of view, though it is quite natural that their experiences are diverse according to what
happened on the occasion of their first encounters, how they approached the new cultural
phenomena, what perception of Western music was constructed, how they differentiated their own
musical traditions from Western music, how they identified and reconstructed their own musicaltraditions, and what music culture has been produced since then.
The Western impact on the music of India, Russia, and China was prominently visible andsubstantially significant from the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. This period
is characterized by Europe’s expansion: the Age of Colonialism and Imperialism. In my previous
two papers “The Reception of Western Music in South India around 1800” and “Interactions
between Missionaries and Native Christians on Music in South India: Constructing
Hindu-Christian Identity,” I focused on the reception of Western music in south India and the role1

I have been thinking over this problem in the project “Comparative Research on Major Regional Powers inEurasia” since 2009.
2
Bruno Nettl, The Western Impact on World Music: Change, Adaptation, and Survival (Farmington Hills: Schirmer
Books, 1985), pp. 7-12.

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Takako INOUE

of native Christians in this process by considering a few examples of this period.3
I would like to propose a new methodological approach for a comparative study of diversemusic cultures. I will analyze missionaries and natives as “intermediary actors.” I define thisanalytical device, “intermediary actors,” as “those who transmit diverse cultures from one personor place to another through various media and modify them in various ways through media in thisprocess.” In my case study, religion can be regarded as a medium for transmitting music cultures
though music might be a medium for transmitting religious ideas in other studies. The concept of a“contact zone” is defined by Mary Louise Pratt as “social spaces where cultures meet, clash, andgrapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such ascolonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today.”4
In this paper, missionaries and natives in accepting Western music, constructing their perceptions,and modifying this new music culture according to their necessity and taste in the process of
spreading Christianity are described as “intermediary actors in the contact zone.” For this purpose,
I will briefly discuss two countries, Russia and China, before discussing Christian music in India,
and I present my analytical points for further comparison. I then proceed to a detailed descriptionof how the music culture of India has been transformed through contact with Christian
missionaries.
2. The Western Impact on the Music of Russia
Broadly speaking, Russia’s attitude to European classical music seems to be the mostambivalent among these three countries, since Russia has its own history of classical music
innovation. Until the nineteenth century, Russian art music had been dominated by foreign
musicians. Peter the Great (Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov, 1672-1725, reigned 1689-1725) began
this trend by inviting foreign musicians to modernize his kingdom. The Russian Imperial Court
attracted many prominent musicians from Europe, particularly from Italy where a number ofRussian composers received training and composed choral music, operas, chamber works, andsymphonic works. These Russian compositions existing in the European classical music tradition
had never attracted a European audience. Thus, Russia remained a periphery of the European
classical music tradition in its conventional historiography of music till the eighteenth century
despite the efforts towards “Westernization” carried by the Imperial Court as an official policy.
The first famous Russian composer who attracted a wide European audience was Mikhail
Glinka (1804-1857), who exploited the native Russian music traditions in the realm of European
classical music and composed the early Russian-language operas such as Ivan Susanin and Ruslan
3

Takako Inoue, “The Reception of Western Music in South India around 1800,” unpublished paper, Summer
International Symposium on “Orient on Orient: Images of Asia in Eurasian Countries,” July 7-9, 2010, Slavic
Research Center, Hokkaido University; Takako Inoue, “Interactions between Missionaries and Native Christians on
Music in South India: Constructing Hindu-Christian Identity,” unpublished paper, International Conference on“Religion and Media: Transcultural Perspective,” November 2-3, 2010, Friedrich-Alexander University,
Erlangen-Nurnberg.
4
Mary Louise Pratt, “Arts of the Contact Zone,” Profession 91 (New York: MLA, 1991), p. 33.

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Comparative Aspects of Christian Music in India, China, and Russia

and Lyudmila. They gained fame for relying on distinctively Russian tunes and themes. He is said
to have been the first Russian composer of musical nationalism, a musical phenomenon emerging
as a part of the Romantic era.5 It initially began as a reaction against the dominance of themainstream European classical tradition (German, Italian, and French music) and later developed
alongside the growing nationalist movements spreading over the non-European regions. Thereafter,
Russian folk music became the primary source for the younger generation of composers.
A group called the Mighty Five, headed by Balakirev (1837-1910) and including
Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908), Mussorgsky (1839-81), Borodin (1833-87), and César Cui(1835-1918), proclaimed its purpose to compose and popularize Russian national traditions in therealm of European classical music. Many of the works by Glinka and the Mighty Five were basedon Russian history, folk tales, and literature, and are regarded as masterpieces of romantic
nationalism in music even today. The reason that their compositions attracted European audiencesis that they sounded exotic and new to the European ear since they were composed in using
different elements such as Russian folk tune from mainstream classical music.
It is important to point out that the Russian Musical Society (RMS) was founded in 1859, led
by composer-pianists Anton (1829-94) and Nikolay Rubinstein (1835-81). It is usually described
as a period of the two rival groups: the Mighty Five embracing their Russian national identity andthe RMS being musically more conservative. The RMS founded Russia's first Conservatories in St
Petersburg and in Moscow, where Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-93) who remains Russia’s
best-known composer outside Russia and his successor Sergey Rakhmaninov (1873-1943)
received formal training. The relationship between the two rival groups in Russian musicalnationalism can apparently be analyzed as a period of cultural conflict between Westernization andnationalization; however, it would be a better interpretation to say that the European attention to
Russian composers is a result of Glinka’s entrance into the European mainstream scene. Both themusic of the RMS’s line and that of the Mighty Five were substantially composed on the basis ofromantic musical texture. Their composition technique that directly appropriates Russian national
elements might be inspired by the national spirit, or might be adopted as a means of expressing thecomposers’ originality. It is a typical phenomenon in parts of the romantic era at any rate.
The late nineteenth and early twentieth century is usually characterized by the third wave ofRussian classics led by Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915), Sergei
Prokofiev (1891-1953), and Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975). They were experimental in styleand musical language. Some of them emigrated after the Russian Revolution though Prokofiev
eventually returned and contributed to Soviet music as well. Romance songs also became very
popular. Singers of romance songs not only sang in operas but also composed music and wrote
lyrics. It can be interpreted that composers of the third wave transformed their positionality, which
5
Maes, however, said in chapter 2 on Glinka entitled “I’m Finished with Russian Music” of his book that Glinka
was an eclectic composer who drew on all the Western styles he knew and that the Russian element in his music has
been given far too much emphasis by nineteenth-century Russian historiographers. See Francis Maes, A History of
Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to BabiYar, originally published in 1996, translated by Arnold J. Pomerans andErica Pomerans (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002), pp. 28-29.

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had been constructed between Russia and the West, into a positionality constructed among Russia,
Soviet, and the West. In other words, the positionality of the third wave can be regarded as a
struggle between universality and originality.
What musical elements are more Russian and non-European? Whether music expressions of
Russian identity were constructed between Europe and Asia or between non-European and
non-Asian remains a question. Basically, folk music and the sacred chants of the Russian Orthodox
Church are regarded as pure Russian to the exclusion of the above-mentioned history of classicalmusic innovation. Nevertheless, composers belonging to the RMS also left not only secular music
but also choral music for the Russian Orthodox Choir (Plate 1).
The official acceptance of Christianity in Russia and the establishment of the Russian
Orthodox Church date back to 988, when Vladimir I of Kiev officially adopted the Byzantine Rite.
Russian Orthodox chants, however, seem to be more Westernized than Byzantine chants (moreprecisely, the medieval sacred chants of the Orthodox Church following the Constantinopolitan
Rite) though they share the characteristic of a cappella male choir. The former is characterized bypolyphonic choral music whose musical texture is in common with the other church music of both
the Catholic and Protestant Churches. The latter is characterized by monophonic chanting withdrone-singing (sustained tone) called ison in
Byzantine chanting. This typical characteristic isvery similar to the music of the Orient; forexample, Indian music is often called “drone
music.” Accordingly the characteristics ofRussian Orthodox chanting should be described
as being between the Occident and the Orient.
Thus, the history of Russian music cannot be
described without referring to the ambivalent
Plate 1. St. Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow
relationship with European classical music.
3. The Western Impact on the Music of China
The history of Western music in China is said to have begun with the encounter with Jesuit
missionaries in the sixteenth century.6 Until then, there had been no reliable information about any
Christian rites remaining to be practiced in China though there were several records referring toChristians. In the seventh century, the Nestorian Church (Church of the East) entered China andwas allowed to establish a place of worship in Xian, the capital city of the Tang Dynasty.7 As
Emperor Wuzong (reigned 840-846) suppressed all foreign religions, Christianity declined rapidly.
6
Richard Curt Kraus, Pianos and Politics in China: Middle-Class Ambitions and the Struggle over Western Music(New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 4; Sheila Melvin and Jindong Cai, Rhapsody in Red: How WesternClassical Music Became Chinese (New York: Algora Publishing, 2004), pp. 45-64.
7
But there is another view that the first religious contact between Christianity and China was in the first century
AD.

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Comparative Aspects of Christian Music in India, China, and Russia

In the thirteenth century, when the Yuan Dynasty of the Mongols started, Christianity was a major
influence under the rule of the Mongols. But the next dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, again rejected all
foreign influences and adopted Confucian ideology. Competition with Roman Catholicism andIslam were also factors in the Nestorian Church disappearing from China.
In the sixteenth century, Jesuit missionaries became active not only in their mission but also
in the field of music. I give some basic information on Jesuit missionaries in this section since thefirst Jesuit headquarters in Asia was founded in 1542 in Goa, the capital of Portuguese India, byFrancis Xavier (1506-1552) who also created the Society of Jesus along with Ignatius of Loyola(1491-1556). Xavier was invited to head St. Paul’s College in Goa, a pioneering seminary for theeducation of priests. In 1546, one of two Chinese boys who enrolled at St. Paul’s College, known
as Antonio, accompanied Xavier when he decided to start missionary work in China. Xavier was
unable to enter the Chinese mainland and died in 1552. Thus, China and India share the common
experience of an encounter with Jesuit missionaries.
The first European to reach China with a musicalinstrument was said to be Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) (Plate 2).
He applied to be a member of a mission to India in 1577 andarrived in Goa the next year. He then proceeded to China andarrived in Macau8 in 1582. After his long struggle to enter
Beijing, Ricci was finally invited by the Wanli Emperor(1563-1620) of the Ming Dynasty to become an advisor to theImperial Court in 1601. He met the Emperor to receive
permission to establish a Jesuit mission in the capital city. At
this meeting, he presented a clavichord (harpsichord)9 to theEmperor and trained four eunuchs attached to the Imperial
Court to play it. The Jesuit missionaries seem to have regarded
Plate 2. Matteo Ricci(1552-1610)
musical instruments and their music as a useful and perfect gift.
Keyboard instruments were particularly favorable because they were uncommon in Asian
countries and only one instrument was able to produce perfect music. He established a cathedral in
Beijing and converted a number of Chinese officials to Christianity. He died in Beijing in 1610 at
the age of fifty-eight.
Ricci is also famous as a pioneering Jesuit priest who adopted a new strategy of their missionof “indigenization” whereby he spoke and wrote Chinese and dressed like a Confucian literati. At
the time, Christian missionary work in China was almost exclusively limited to Macau, wherequite a few local Chinese Christians adapted themselves to Portuguese ways. It was the late 1570sthat a Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano insisted on the “indigenization” approach and Ricci
started learning the Chinese language and customs. A Portuguese-Chinese dictionary compiled by
Ricci is the first-ever European-Chinese dictionary. Melvin says that instead of “Portugalizing” the8

Portuguese traders first settled at Macau in the sixteenth century and subsequently administered the region until
the handover in 1999.
9
Kraus says it was a harpsichord (Kraus, p. 4) and Melvin says it was a clavichord (Melvin et al., pp. 46-47).

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Takako INOUE

Chinese by making converts assimilate Portuguese customs and language, the Jesuits should“Sinicize” themselves.10 I call this approach an “indigenization strategy,” which can be applied toother cases in the other regions, for example, “Indianization” in India and “Japanization” in Japan.
As Chinese culture was strongly intertwined with Confucian values, Ricci decided to use
Chinese concepts to explain Christianity. But the Dominican and Franciscan missionaries opposed
Ricci’s strategy of “indigenization” and convinced the Vatican to outlaw Ricci’s approach and to
adopt an approach of identifying European culture with Christianity. The opposition to“indigenization” was related to larger controversies between the Dominicans and Jesuits over the
adoption of local practices of other regions, for example, the ascetic brahman practices of India,
which I will take up later. Because of this controversy, the reception of Western music was limited
to the court and churches and it remained as mere entertainment for the princely classes. It also
caused the Chinese Rites Controversy, a dispute within the Roman Catholic Church, in the earlyeighteenth century. It was about whether Chinese folk religious rites and offerings to the Emperor
constituted idolatry, and was raised mainly by the Dominicans. Pope Clement XI decided in favorof the Dominicans, which greatly reduced Catholic missionary activity in China.11
After the Jesuit missionaries, it is an important fact that Protestant missionaries began
entering China in 1807. Robert Morrison of the London Missionary Society produced a Chinesetranslation of the Bible and also compiled a Chinese dictionary for Westerners. Protestantmissionary activities increased after China lost the First Opium War (1940-1842). Under theprotection of the Western powers, they went on to play a major role in the Westernization of China
in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The post Opium War era is said to mark the true start of the spread of Western music though
the secular channel.12 Shanghai became a flourishing city of Western culture in China with its
foreign settlements. In the nineteenth century, international attention on Shanghai grew due to its
economic and trade potential. According to treaties after the end of the First Opium War, treaty
ports including Shanghai were opened for international trade and foreign countries were allowed tovisit and trade. In 1854, the Shanghai Municipal Council was created to manage the foreign
settlements.
The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra is influential in China till today. It was founded in 1879
as the Shanghai Public Band, one of the earliest orchestras in East Asia. It was renamed theShanghai Municipal Council Symphony Orchestra (SMO) in 1922. An Italian pianist Mario Paci,
who served as conductor for twenty-three years from 1919, expanded the ensemble into afull-scale orchestra. At first, the members of the SMO were foreigners only, and Tan Shuzhen
became the first Chinese who served as a violinist for the SMO in 1927.13 After the establishmentof the People’s Republic of China, the SMO adopted its current name in 1956.
10

Melvin et al., p. 46.
Pope XII modified his predecessor’s decision in 1939.
12
Melvin et al., p. 84. For the Western music in Shanghai, see Yasuko Enomoto, Gakujin no Miyako, Shanghai:
Kindai Chugoku niokeru Seiyo Ongaku no Juyo (Kenbunshuppan, 1998), (榎本泰子『楽人の都・上海―近代中国における西洋音楽の受容―』研文出版).
13
Ibid., pp. 89-106.
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Comparative Aspects of Christian Music in India, China, and Russia

Another important institution is the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. It grew out of the
Shanghai National Conservatory of Music established by Cai Yuanpei in 1927. Xiao Youmei who
graduated from the Leipzig Conservatory of Music was a director of the new school andcurriculum. It was one of the first institutions for higher learning of Western music in China where
many teaching staff came from Russia and France. It was renamed several times: the National
Training School of Music (1929), Branch of the National Conservatory of Music (1943), Shanghai
National Training School of Music (1945), and Shanghai and Huadong Branches of the Chinese
Conservatory of Music (early 1950s). It adopted its current name in 1956.
The New Culture Movement of the 1910s and 1920s to lead a revolt against Confucian
culture evoked a lasting interest in Western music. The followers of this movement called for thecreation of a new Chinese culture based on Western standards, especially democracy and science.
A number of Chinese musicians returned from studying abroad to perform Western classical music
and to compose new works. Symphony orchestras were formed in major cities. It is worth
mentioning that Indian Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) delivered lectures in
China in 1924 and discussed the detrimental effects of China integrating much more Western
civilization into Chinese society. Despite Tagore’s lectures, Western ideals rapidly gained support
throughout China.
Following the Yan'an Talks on Literature and Art, a work by Mao Zedong (1893-1976) on therole of literature and art in the communist state in 1942, a large-scale campaign was launched toadopt folk music for the creation revolutionary songs for educating the illiterate rural populationon the goals of the Chinese Communist Party towards the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. One
such example is The East Is Red, a folksong from northern Shaanxi that was the de facto anthem of
the People's Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution.14 Xian Xinghai (1905-1945), who
was active during this period, composed the Yellow River Cantata, which became the most wellknown of all of his works.15
4.

Some Comparative Aspects: Russia, China, and India

The Chinese experiences with Western music seem to be similar to the Indian experiencesfrom the encounter with Jesuit missionaries to colonial rule. The first encounter with Westernmusic was brought by Jesuit missionaries and its substantial reception started under European rulein China and India. Nevertheless, several differences can be pointed out when we compare theirexperiences in the history of Christianity. Christian communities have continuously existed formore than a thousand years in India; on the other hand, there was a historical gap between ancient
Nestorianism and medieval Jesuitism in China. Moreover, the Jesuit mission was finally broken up
after the Chinese Rites Controversy that weakened Christianity in China.
14

The Chinese film East Is Red (1965) is directed by Wang Ping. It is a “song and dance epic” promoting
Communism, especially the Maoism prevalent in the Communist Party of China in the early 1960s.
15
In the late 1960s, it was adapted into a piano concerto entitled the Yellow River Piano Concerto by the pianist
Yin Chengzong.

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Based on the above descriptions on the reception of Christianity and Western music in Russia
and China, we can propose the following comparative aspects. First, Christianity has continuously
existed in India and Russia. China, however, does not share this experience of its long existence;
instead, Christianity has been weakened or even disappeared several times and there have been
historical gaps in between. Second, most emperors or kings were generous to heathens andforeigners in India and Russia. Chinese rulers, however, sometimes suppressed Christianity.
It is also worth using terms such as modernization, Westernization, and nationalism in order
to explain the differences. India’s case can be explained as the Indian nationalist movement
adopting modernization but avoiding Westernization since there was no trend in India such as the
New Culture Movement in China adopting Westernization. India was rather selective in accepting
the merits of modernization and was more critical of accepting Western ideology as we can know
from Tagore’s lectures delivered in China. Indian composers did not adopt eclectic methods ofintegrating Western music into Indian music. Indian classical music was regarded as a national
heritage in terms of preserving tradition though popular music has been continuously influenced
by Western pop music.16Accordingly, Chinese eclectic methods in music can be analyzed better by
a comparison with the case of Russian musical nationalism.
So, what is the cause of such different consequences despite the similarities in the process ofsocial transformation? I will explore this issue in the following sections by focusing on the Indian
experience.
5.

St. Thomas Christians in India

India has a long history of Christianity that started from the legendry apostle, Thomas.17
According to the Indian Christian tradition, the Apostle Thomas arrived in Kodungallur, Kerala in
52 AD to spread the gospel amongst Jewish settlements, and established seven churches inpresent-day Kerala and Tamil Nadu. According to legend, San Thome Basilica in Chennai wasbuilt on the site where St. Thomas is believed to have been buried (Plate 3). Followers of St.
Thomas are called St. Thomas Christians, Syrian Malabar Christians, or Nasranis.18

16

Few musicians were trained in Western music seriously before Independence.
References on the legend and story of St. Thomas in India are as follows: S. J. Anthonysamy, A Saga of Faith: St.
Thomas, the Apostle of India (Chennai: National Shrine of St. Thomas Basilica, 2004); Herman D’Souza, In the
Steps of St. Thomas, 1st edition in 1952, 5th edition (Madras: Disciples of St. Thomas, 2009).
18
References on the history and communities of St. Thomas Christians are as follows: Books LLC, ed., ChristianCommunities of India: Mangalorean Catholics, Goan Catholics, Syrian Malabar Nasrani, East Indians, Roman
Catholic Brahmin, Marathi Christians, List of Syro-Malabar Catholics, Karwari Catholics, Mangalorean
Protestants (Tennessee, 2010); Books LLC, ed., Christian Denominations in India: Mar Thoma Church,
Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, Syro-Malabar Cholic Church, Malankara Church, Timeline of the Syro-Malabar
Catholic Church, Church of South India, Malabar Independent Syrian Church, Jacobite Syrian Christian Church(Tennessee, 2010); Antony Kariyil, Church and Society in Kerala: A Sociological Study (New Delhi: Intercultural
Publications, 1995); Antoney George Pattaparambil, The Failed Rebellion of Syro-Malabar Christians: A
Historiographical Analysis of the Contributions of Paulinus of St. Bartholomew (Roma: Pattaparambil, 2007). The
following brief historical sketch was written by referring to these books and articles.
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Comparative Aspects of Christian Music in India, China, and Russia

According to historians, Bishop David of Basra
was sent as a missionary to India around 300 AD.
Thomas of Cana (Knai Thomman), a Mesopotamian
merchant and missionary, brought a mission to India
in 345 AD. He brought four hundred Christians from
Baghdad to Kodungallur and asked for refuge under
the Chera (today’s Kerala) King from persecution of
Christians by the Persian king, Shapur II. The colony
Plate 3. St. Thomas Basilika, Chennai
of Syrian Christians established at Kodungallur may
be the first Christian community in South India for which there is a continuous written record.
Accordingly, Thomas of Cana might have been confused with the Apostle Thomas by Syrian
Christians in India.
The Syrian Malabar Nasrani community was further strengthened by various Persian
immigrants who settled there. Local rulers in Kerala gave the St. Thomas Christians various rights
and privileges. The group living in Kerala peacefully for more than one thousand years started tosuffer persecution by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century.
The Portuguese refused to accept the legitimate authority of the Indian caste hierarchy and its
relation with the East Syrians. The Jesuit missionary, Francis Xavier, is responsible for his role ininitiating the Goa Inquisition and the persecution of heathens, as well as the destruction of nativeidols and temples. He noticed that the newly converted Christians were practicing their old
customs and traditions. He requested that the King of Portugal should establish an Inquisition in
Goa in 1545 and said that there were many who lived according to Jewish Law and according to
the Mohammedan Sect, without any fear of God or bearing any shame of the world.
The Portuguese succeeded in appointing a Latin bishop to govern the Thomas Christians, andthe local Christians’ customs were officially anathematized. The Archbishop of Goa imposed
Latinizations in 1599. As all the texts of the Syrian Liturgy and traditions were burnt, no record of
their early rites and customs following the East Syrian Rite has been available since then. The
oppressive rule of the Portuguese provoked a violent reaction on the part of the indigenous
Christian community.
The first protest took place in 1653, known as the Koonan Kurishu Satyam. As a result, the St.
Thomas Christians were divided in two: The majority of the St. Thomas Christians who accepted
the Latin Rite are known as Syro-Malabar Christians (Syro-Malabar Catholic Church) and theminority who refused to serve under the Jesuits established the Syro-Malankara Rite (West Syrian
Jacobite and Orthodox). Further divisions took place in the eighteenth century onwards, and thepresent Nasranis are roughly divided into the following groups (Plate 4):- 51 -

Takako INOUE

Plate 4. The divisions within the St. Thomas Christians of Kerala[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:St_Thomas_Christians_divisions.svg]

・Assyrian Church of the East
Chaldean Syrian Church (East Syrian Rite)
・Eastern Catholic Churches:
Syro-Malabar Catholic Church (East Syrian Rite)
Syro-Malankara Catholic Church (West Syrian Rite)
・Oriental Orthodox:
Indian (Malankara) Orthodox Church (West Syrian Rite)
Jacobite Syrian Christian Church (West Syrian Rite)
・Independent:
Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church (West Syrian Rite)
Malabar Independent Syrian Church (West Syrian Rite)
St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India
Though Syrian is used as their liturgical language, the Rite of the St. Thomas Christians is themost indigenized among those of the Indian Christians. They accommodated the way of worshipand the manner of priests practiced in local Hindu temples into their rite. The structure of churches
and their decorations resemble local Hindu temples.
Today, the music for their rites and worship includes diverse musical styles existing in India.
Prayers chanted by priests in the Syrian Rite are musically monophonous, keeping the way of the
Syrian Orthodox Church though there are prayers in Malayalam (or sometimes in Sanskrit) thatsound like Hindu chants. Congregational songs in Malayalam (Sanskrit) are often composed in thecall-and-response style of the Hindu bhajan or kirtana (religious song). Malayalam devotional
songs by solo singers and choirs are composed in the popular Indian music style accompanied by- 52 -

Comparative Aspects of Christian Music in India, China, and Russia

both Indian and Western musical instruments (violin, keyboard, tabla, sitar, and so on); some songs
are highly Westernized and others are not.19 Such musical and linguistic diversity observed in the
Liturgy of St. Thomas Christians can be more or less recognized in the Roman Catholic andProtestant churches that I consider in the following sections.
6.

Jesuit Missionaries and MusicGoa had been a Portuguese overseas territory in India that existed for about four hundred andfifty years until it was annexed by India in 1961. The Portuguese first reached the west coast ofIndia when Vasco da Gama landed at Calicut in 1498. Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Goa in
1510 and made it a headquarters in 1530. Catholic missionary activities soon followed. Under
Portuguese rule, the indigenous Goan population converted to Christianity on a large scale. The
locals were usually granted Portuguese citizenship after conversion. As a result, Goa became thecenter of Christian missionary activity in the East. Contemporary Goan Catholics are mainly
descendants of those who belonged to upper castes such as Brahmans and Kshatryas whoconverted from Hinduism and belong to an ethno-religious community of Roman Catholics who
speak the Konkani language.20
The Portuguese missionaries who accompanied the conquerors were the Franciscans, Jesuits,
Dominicans, and Augustinians. They first reached the Malabar Coast in the late fifteenth century.
They made contact with the St. Thomas Christians and sought to introduce Catholicism among

Plate 5. Basilica of Bom Jesus, Goa

Plate 6. The Body of Xavier, Basilica of Bom
Jesus, Goa

19

I carried out my field work on the Liturgy of the Syro-Malabar Church in 2010 in Bangalore. Father Mathew
Chandrankunnel of Dharmaram College, Bangalore helped me in my research and imparted a lot of knowledge on
their liturgy. The description of their music here relies on this field work and the music books and CDs acquired atthat time.
20
References on the history of Portuguese and Jesuit missionaries in India are as follows: Robert Erick Frykenberg,ed., Christians and Missionaries in India: Cross-Cultural Communication since 1500 (Grand Rapids andCambridge: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003); Frederick Charles Danvers, The Portuguese in India: Being aHistory of the Rise and Decline of Their Eastern Empire, Vol.I-II (New Delhi and Madras: Asian Educational
Services, 1992, first published in 1894; Joseph Thekkedath, History of Christianity in India Volume II: From theMiddle of the Sixteenth to the End of the Seventeenth Century (1542-1700) (Bangalore: The Church History
Association of India, 1982).

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Takako INOUE

them. Missionaries of the newly founded Societyof Jesus led by Francis Xavier were sent to Goa,
and the Portuguese colonial government supported
them (Plates 5, 6, and 7). 21 They offered rice
donations for the poor, good positions in thePortuguese colonies for the middle class, andmilitary support for local rulers. Many Indians
were converted to opportunistic “rice Christians”
who continued to practice their own religious
Plate 7. Novera and Feast of St. Francis Xavier,tradition. The Portuguese insisted that the convertsGoashould avoid anything Hindu and should adopt
foreign food habits and dress though the Konkani Christians wanted to preserve their language,
culture, and manners. The colonizers also imposed excessive taxes on the native Christians.22
Thus, imposing colonial policies in terms of Portugalization in customs and Latinization in
the Christian Rite and remaining as a colony of Portugal caused Goan culture to become highly
Westernized (Plates 8 and 9). It is possible to compare this with the case of Macau, which also
remained another colony of Portugal in Asia. These different experiences from the rest of India
made Goan music very unique. Latin hymns translated into Konkani and newly composed
Konkani hymns have been sung by Goan Catholics till today. Not only religious music but alsofolk and popular music were influenced by the Portuguese. Mando is a dance music that evolved
during the nineteenth and twentieth century among Goan Catholics, which represents both theIndian and Western musical traditions. Deknni is a semi-classical dance form that might haveoriginated in the Hindu musical tradition though it is popular among Goan Catholics. The ghumot,
a musical instrument made using an earthen pot, is used while performing the mando and othermusic especially for weddings along with Western musical instruments such as the guitar, the bass,

Plate 8. Seminario de Rachol built in 1606, Goa

Plate 9. A pipe organ kept in the Seminariode Rachol, Goa

21

For the life and activities of Xavier, see P. Rayanna, St. Francis Xavier and His Shrine (Goa: Imprimatur, 1989,
first edition in 1964).
22
For the Portuguese colonial policies, see K. M. Panikkar, Malabar and the Portuguese (New Delhi: Voice ofIndia, 1997, first published in 1929, pp.183-196).

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Comparative Aspects of Christian Music in India, China, and Russia

and the keyboard.23
On the other hand, Roberto de Nobili (1577-1656) (Plate 10),an Italian Jesuit missionary sent to Southern India, adopted
another strategy of accommodating local Hindu customs, that is,“indigenization,” to preach Christianity, which was in his viewnot contrary to Christianity. He arrived in Goa in 1605 and thensettled in Madurai in 1606. Studying Sanskrit and Tamil literature
through a Hindu scholar, he approached high-caste people andengaged in dialogue with Hindu scholars on the truths ofChristianity. He called himself a “Tattuva Bhodini (teacher of
wisdom)” and began to conduct himself like a Sannyāsin (anascetic). Adopting the Hindu custom of shaving his head andPlate 10. Roberto de Nobili(1577-1656)
keeping only a tiny tuft, he wore a white dhoti and wooden
sandals, and a three-stringed thread across the chest that heinterpreted as representing the Holy Trinity, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He
was certainly one of the early Europeans to gain a deeper understanding of Sanskrit and Tamil.
His strategy raised fierce controversy among his fellow Jesuits and with the Archbishop of
Goa. The dispute was settled by Pope Gregory XV in 1623. The customs of the three-stringed
thread, the tuft, the use of sandalwood paste on the forehead, and baths were allowed as far as they
did not imply any superstitious conduct. The Pope also invited the Indian neophytes to overcome
their caste sensitivity and their discrimination against the Pariahs.24
Contrary to Xavier who initiated “Latinization,” de Nobili’s approach was apparently similar
to that of Matteo Rich who adopted an “indigenization” strategy in China. In fact, there had been
indigenized St. Thomas Christians long before the arrival of the Portuguese in India. The
controversy over the strategy of “indigenization” was first raised as a question against the St.
Thomas Christians and then among Jesuit missionaries, that is to say, the controversy between
Xavier’s Latinization and de Nobili’s indigenization. On the other hand, the Chinese Rites
Controversy occurred mainly between the Dominicans and the Jesuits, that is, the Dominicans’
Latinization versus Matteo Rich’s indigenization.
As de Nobili was carrying on his mission not in Goa under Portuguese rule but in Madurai
under tolerant native rule, it might have been necessary for the Catholic Rite in Madurai to be
more indigenized than the Rite in Goa.

23
For the music of Goa, see José Pereira and Martins Micael, Song of Goa: Mandos of Yearning (New Delhi:
Aryan Books International, 2000).
24
References on the Jesuit missionaries in Madurai are as follows: R. Satyanatha Aiyar, History of the Nayaks of
Madura (Oxford University Press, 1924); J. H. Nelson, The Madura Country: A Manual in Five Parts (Asian
Educational Services, 1989, first published in 1868, Part 3).

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Takako INOUE

7. Christian Music under the British Raj
The interactions between Europeans and natives around music from the late eighteenth
century to the early twentieth century, Protestant missionaries, British residents and officials,
native Christians, and Hindu rulers and musicians have already been described in my previous two
papers as I said in Introduction. Therefore, I will summarize these papers.
In my first paper, “The Reception of Western Music in South India around 1800,” I focusedon the Western music appreciated by natives in South India around 1800. I particularly
concentrated on analyzing the contribution of Serfoji II (reigned 1798-1832), then Maratha Kingof Thanjavur (in present Tamil Nadu), who is said to have been the first Indian composer
appropriating Western music. He collected sheet music of popular works published in England. As
the informants on music around him were British officials, residents, missionaries, and musiciansbelonging to the Governor’s band, Serfoji II became more familiar with military band music. He
established the Tanjore (Thanjavur) Band attached to his palace and composed music for the band.
Serfoji II had a close friendship with the Christian missionaries who introduced him toWestern learning and culture, which nurtured his knowledge of Western music. Friedrich Schwartz(1726-1798), a German Protestant missionary, was the most important personality among them.
Having learnt Tamil to assist in a translation of the Bible, Schwartz decided to be a missionary to
India. He taught Prince Serfoji along with another pupil, Vedanayakam Sastiriyar (1774-1864), aTamil Christian. Vedanayakam was a proficient poet/lyricist who left over five hundred lyrics anda hundred and thirty-three books on Christianity.
I also refer to other examples of the Western impact on Indian music of the same period:Noṭṭusvara Sāhitya, a collection of Western-style songs with Sanskrit lyrics composed by
Muttusvami Diksitar (1775-1835), is an example of an Indian reconstruction of Western music. As
we can see through these songs, the Western major scale and simple beats (three or four beats) canbe regarded as a typical Indian understanding of Western music, which might strengthen the Indian
perception of the complexity of their own music. I also discuss the adoption of the violin as an
indispensable instrument for Carnatic music (South Indian classical music) today. The violin had
been totally indigenized by its tuning, playing techniques, and the way of holding it.
There are questions that should be answered: What is the implication of Serfoji II’s positive
approach to Western music? Why did he show a keen interest in Western culture and learning? And
how can we interpret his ambiguous attitude between the native Indians and the British? Serfoji II
lived in a transitional period from native rule to the British Raj. He lost his political power andseems to have acted as a good friend to the British. While he did not convert to Christianity but
remained a staunch Hindu, he was a generous patron of both native and Western culture as hisancestral rulers were.
Serfoji II’s ambiguous attitude can be interpreted as neither a simple reaction to the colonial
discourse nor a negotiation with the colonial policy of “divide and rule.” It is rather betterinterpreted that the native constructed the British as the exotic “Other” in the period of the firstcolonial encounter. Serfoji II tried to obtain Western knowledge similar to Orientalists’ pursuit of- 56 -

Comparative Aspects of Christian Music in India, China, and Russia

indigenous knowledge. Both the native and colonial ways of practice were empirical andexperimental in their collecting of original texts and depending on the knowledge of either native
or colonial informants as the “Other.”
In my second paper, “Interactions between Missionaries and Native Christians on Music in
South India: Constructing Hindu-Christian Identity,” I tried to reconstruct an alternative history of
Carnatic music in which non-Brahman, Tamil-speaking native Christians were active. The
conventional historiography of Carnatic music is usually constructed along with the Hindu
religious tradition in the nationalist line promoted by dominant Hindu leaders against British rule.
According to this kind of historiography, the period in which Carnatic music flourished under
Thanjavur Maratha rule is regarded as the golden era. Tyagaraja (1767-1847), Muttuswami
Dikshitar (1775-1835), and Syama Sastri (1762-1827), the so-called Trinity of Carnatic Music,
belong to this period. They were all Brahmans who composed either in Telugu, the official
language of the Nayakas (local rulers after the Vijayanagara Empire before the Marathas) or in
Sanskrit, a literary language used by the Brahmans. They hardly composed in Tamil, a local
language of this region, since then. The lack of a Tamil repertoire in Carnatic music prompted theTamil Isai (music) movement, propagating Tamil songs at the beginning of the 1940s.
For reconstructing an alternative historiography of Carnatic music, I describe four
distinguished native Christians: Vedanayagam (Pillai) Sastiriyar (1774-1864), Mayuram
Vedanayagam Pillai (1826-89), A. M. Chinnaswami Mudaliyar (1813-1901), and Abraham
Pandithar (1859-1919). It is important to point out that their activities were the result ofinteractions with Christian missionaries, British residents, and officials, while the musical Trinityof Carnatic Music was closely related with native rulers.
I interpret the differences in their approach to music as follows. Vedanayagam Sastiriyar’s
purpose was to promote evangelical thought through music. Vedanayagam Pillai intended to be
secular by not addressing any personal god. Chinnaswami Mudaliyar tried preserving andpromoting the music of his time. And Abraham Pandithar constructed a great history of the Tamils
and Tamil Isai (music). Though their approaches and intentions varied, their strategic use of
dichotomous categories, that is, Hindu/Christian, Indian/European, Brahman/Non-Brahman,
upper/lower caste etc., were common to all of them. Thus, they were expressing themselves
through music as a powerful cultural medium and constructing their identities between thecolonizer and the colonized in the transitional period from native rule to the British Raj.
In India under the British Raj, there has been no movement of Westernization that can befound in the New Culture Movement of China. As I said before, Rabindranath Tagore delivered
lectures in China warning of the detrimental effects of rapid Westernization. Colonization by the
British and the founding of the Indian Empire in the mid-nineteenth century and the rise soon afterof the nationalist movement against British rule might have prevented the spread of Westernization.
Consequently, Indian musicians and scholars hardly learned European classical music; instead,they adhered to the Indian musical tradition as being as spiritually and scientifically lofty as
European classical music.

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Takako INOUE

8.

Christian Music after Independence

In this paper, I have tried to interpret the Western impacts on music in Russia, China, andIndia by describing both European missionaries and native Christians as intermediary actors in thecontact zone. My final question is to ask what the most characteristic feature of the Christianmusic of India is in comparison with the Russian and Chinese experiences.
As we can see, while the Protestant missionaries had no restriction in using the native
language and adopting indigenous customs, the Catholic missionaries sometimes imposed Latin on
the natives. The Second Vatican Council was convoked by Pope John XXIII to “open up thewindows and let the fresh air in.” The document issued in 1963 says that the Church approves of
all art that can be best used for the Liturgy, allows the use of the vernacular in the Mass and the
Sacraments, and even encourages the use of the vernacular in the readings and common prayer.
Accordingly, the music of the native people is adapted for use in the Liturgy of Churches, andmissionaries have been encouraged to learn indigenous musical traditions. Thereafter, no
prohibition has been imposed upon the musical styles used in the Liturgy.25
In India, this decision brought a great change to Christian music in Catholic churches. The
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) was established as a permanent association of theCatholic bishops of India. It was formally constituted in September 1944 at the Conference ofMetropolitans held in Madras. In 1962, the CBCI headquarters were transferred from Bangalore toits present center in New Delhi. In October 1966, the CBCI decided to start a center to organize
and induce liturgical and catechetical renewal in India and instituted the Commissions for
Catechetics and Liturgy. The Liturgical Commission and the National Centre for Catechetics andLiturgy in Bangalore were established at the General Meeting held in October, 1966 at New Delhi.
In 1971, the center's area of service and research was broadened and became known as the
National Biblical, Catechetical and Liturgical Centre. It is an all-India institution set up in
Bangalore to promote and co-ordinate the renewal of Christian life in the Church according to theprinciples outlined by the Second Vatican Council.26
In 1968, a sub-commission for music discussed how vernacular language and indigenousmusic could be adapted to the liturgical process. It is worth pointing out that bishops did notenforce a particular style of music on any community, but rather allowed the use of indigenous

25

Stephen F. Duncan, A Genre in Hindusthani Music (Bhajans) as Used in the Catholic Church (Lewiston,
Queenston, Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 1999), pp. 5-7. The text of related provisions of the Second Vatican
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium Solemnly Promulgated by His Holiness Pope Paul VI
on December 4, 1963 is available on the following website: http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_
council/documents/vat-ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-concilium_en.html.
26
Basic information on the Catholic Bishops’ Council is on the following website: http://cbci.in/default.aspx. Thereis another reference on the liturgical renewal in the Indian Catholic Church as follows: Jon Douglas Anderson,“Theology and Inculturation in India” (with Dr. Michael Sirilla), in Sacrosanctum Concilium and Inculturation of
Liturgy in the Post-Conciliar Indian Catholic Church, THE 740 (Franciscan University, Steubenville, 2009)[http://cua.academia.edu/JonAnderson/Papers/237033/Sacrosanctum_Concilium_and_Inculturation_of_Liturgy_in_
the_Post-Conciliar_Indian_Catholic_Church].

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Comparative Aspects of Christian Music in India, China, and Russia

music and musical instruments to help the local community.27 After the Second Vatican Council, anumber of bishops started learning either Hindustani (North Indian classical) or Carnatic music
intensively and composing devotional songs where the popular styles of Hindu devotional song
called bhajan and kirtana are preferred. These songs were recorded and CDs and cassettes are soldwidely.
Today, the Christian music of India greatly varies both in musical form and language. When
we visit major churches in metropolitan cities such as Bangalore, Chennai, Panaji, and elsewhere,
the Mass is held in various languages particularly on festival days: English, Kannada, Malayalam,
Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi are used in Bangalore, while English, Portuguese, Konkani, Marathi,
Hindi, and Kannada are used in Panaji and so on. The music performed by the choir and bothprayers and hymns by the bishop and congregation vary in accordance with the language used,even from one church to another. The English devotional songs sung in the English Mass arefamous even in Japan for their Japanese translations. This extreme variety can be observed neither
in Russian Orthodoxy nor in China. I assume that this ultimate diversity of Christian music is themost characteristic feature of the Christian music of India.
I will briefly describe various examples based on my fieldwork.28 Dharmaram College
established in Bangalore is a major seminary for Syro-Malabar Christians.29 As I have explained,
they are very much indigenized not only in their rites but also their designs: the picture of Jesus on
the chapel building looks like a yogin, a Hindu saint in meditation sitting cross-legged with a
special hand gesture (Plate 11). Inside the chapel, we can find several pictures of similar Hindu
design. Maria in their Christmas decorations in the garden before the chapel building greatly
resembles an Indian woman (Plate 12). The devotional songs in Malayalam composed by Fr. Joy
Kakkanattu, one of the staff members of the college (Plate 13), are sung by college students to theaccompaniment of the tabla, the keyboard, the guitar, and the violin (Plate 14).

Plate 11. Jesus in meditation, a picture of the church
building, Dharmaram College, Bangalore

27

Plate 12. The birth of Jesus, a Christmas
decoration in the garden, Dharmaram College,
Bangalore

Duncan, pp. 9-11.
My field work was carried out in the following periods mainly from December 19th, 2010 to January 2nd, 2011 at
Bangalore and Chennai. I express my gratitude to Fr. Mathew Cahndrakunnel of Syro-Malabar Catholic Church for
his help of my research. I also visited Goa in 1984, 1986, 1996, and 2011.
29
For details of this college, see the following website: http://www.dharmaram.in/.
28- 59 -

Takako INOUE

Plate 13. CD jacket of Christian devotional songsin Malayalam “Jesus the Good Way” in thecall-and-response style, composed by Fr. Joy
Kakkanattu CMI, Dharmaram College, Bangalore

Plate 14. Christmas songs in Malayalam composedby Fr. Joy Kakkanattu, performed by college
students and staff, accompanied by the keyboard,
the tabla, guitar, and violin, Dharmaram College,
Bangalore

The Christmas Mass of the Syro-Malabar Christians is also held at other churches for the
Malayalam-speaking congregation in Bangalore. A staff member of Dharmaram College is sent
there. Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Bangalore (Plate 15) is a Catholic church where the Mass isheld. Maria in the Christmas decoration in the garden may not resemble an Indian women comparedto that of Syro-Malabar Church (Plate 16) but their devotional songs in Kannada composed by Fr.
Chasara of this church are completely indigenized using conventional expressions of Hindu

Plate 15. Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Bangalore

Plate 16. The birth of Jesus, a Christmas
decoration in the garden, Our Lady of Lourdes
Church, Bangalore

Plate 17. Lyric of a Christian devotional song in
Kannada “Preethiyaswamige,”composed by Fr.
Chasara, Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Bangalore- 60 -

Comparative Aspects of Christian Music in India, China, and Russia

mantras such as “Aum śanti śanti śanti” (Plate 17). Masses in several languages such as English,
Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi are held at this church. English songs sung on theoccasion of the English Mass are world-famous Christmas songs such as “Silent Night,” “Jingle
Bells,” “In Excelsis Gloria,” “Joy to the World,” and so on (Plate 18). The Malayalam repertoire
sung in the Malayalam Mass is the same as that at Dharmaram College (Plate 19).

Plate 18. Christmas songs in English sung by the
local choir group, accompanied by the guitar, Our
Lady of Lourdes Church, Bangalore

Plate 19. Christmas songs in Malayalam arecomposed by Fr. Joy Kakkanattu, sung by the local
Malayalam choir, accompanied by the keyboard,

The way of training in music is also interesting to know. Plate 20 is an example of a notation
book of learning Carnatic music for Tamil-speaking Christian students published by Christianmusicians (Plates 20 and 21). The music was originally composed by Purandara Dāsa (1484-1564),
one of the most prominent composers of Carnatic music, who is widely regarded as "the Father ofCarnatic Music." The original lyric of this song is in praise of Ganapati, an elephant-headed god.
The lyric is changed to that of praising Jesus while the melody remains the same. This is not the

Plate 21. CD Jacket of “Learning Carnatic Musicby Christians” with photos of I. K. Lakshmi Bai(vocals) and Renuka Suresh

Plate 20. “Gītam” Rāga: Malahari, Tala: Rūpaka,”
originally composed by PurandaraDasa, Tamil lyric on theChristian theme by Renuka Suresh- 61 -

Takako INOUE

first experiment of this kind but a fairly common method that Abraham Pandithar, mentioned in
the previous chapter, also used in his book entitled Karṇāmirtta Cākarat Tiraṭṭu: A Practical
Course in South Indian Music for Beginners.30
9.

Concluding Remarks

I first briefly described the musical activities of missionaries and natives in the process of
spreading Christianity in Russia and China, and I then proceeded to analyze the Indian case in
more detail in this paper. Applying the analytical concept of intermediary actors in the contact
zone, the reception and construction of Christian music in these three countries can be roughlysummarized as the following framework of comparison: Westernization as opposed toindigenization and between them, an ambivalent group. Westernization is characterized bymodernization, Latinization, Portugalization, universalism, and the emphasis on one’s originality.
The RMS in Russia, the Portuguese, the Dominicans, the anti-Confucian New Culture Movement,
the SMO, and the SCM in China, and the Portuguese, Xavier, the Dominicans, and the Tanjore
Band in India can be classified into this category. Indigenization is characterized by Sinicization,
Indianization, musical nationalism, and modernization without Westernization. Glinka and theMighty Five in Russia, Ricci, the Cultural Revolution, the East is Red, and Yellow River Cantata in
China, the St. Thomas Christians, de Nobili, Tagore, and native Christian composers in India can
be classified into this category. The ambivalent group is characterized by the in-betweenness ofEurope, the West, or the Occident and Asia, the East, or the Orient. The Russian Orthodox Choirand probably Byzantine music can be classified into this category.
The above categorization is no more than a tentative assumption that should be examined infurther detail. I have to point out a difficulty of the above categorization in its application. For
example, musical nationalism in Russia and the music of the Cultural Revolution in China could
not have existed without Westernization: the basic musical texture of Glinka and the Mighty Fivein Russia and the Yellow River Cantata in China is nothing other than the European classical musicof the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Therefore, they may likely be categorized into theambivalent group at a practical level. Nevertheless, the reason that I categorized them into theindigenization group is that I stressed the importance of the ideological level of nationalism. I
believe however that applying “intermediary actors in the contact zone” as an analytical concept
serves the comparative study of diverse culture to some extent.
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30

This book published in 1907 is a notation book including not only his compositions but also famous songs with
Christian lyrics. See Takako Inoue, Kindai Indo niokeru Ongakugaku to Geino no Henyo (Seikyusha, 2006), p. 192(井上貴子『近代インドにおける音楽学と芸能の変容』青弓社).

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