Drawn to the Indian subcontinent on a Hindustani air

Historians often observe that a significant change took place in British-Indian relations in the 19th century. This was a process Ronald Hyam characterised as the erosion of respect and sympathy from the late 18th century onwards, leading to the growth of prejudice by the mid 19th. Certainly the social separation of the British and the Indians became increasingly pronounced, giving rise to the often-parodied image of the British sitting in full Victorian dress in the blazing heat of an Indian afternoon taking tea, creating a little England in India, oblivious to the surrounding climate or culture. Of course, reality is never as straightforward or simplistic, and cultural interaction between British and Indians remained complex and multi-levelled right up to Indian independence in 1947 and beyond.

No period of the British Raj is more intriguing than the late 18th century. Indeed, it may be wrong to term this era as part of the fully fledged Raj, as British ascendancy was still in dispute at the time. The British were on the threshold of becoming the dominant colonial force in the Indian subcontinent with a new cultural and social British elite being created in the process. This was an ascendancy celebrated in the paintings of Johann Zoffany and others where musical instruments often have a central visual role. During the earlier days of the East India Company in Bengal, inter-marriage between European men and Indian women had been common, but this was fast disappearing as British women came out to India in larger numbers. It was also the period when oriental scholars such as Sir William Jones set about "discovering" the greatness of India's past. It is within this fascinating context of social and intellectual change that Ian Woodfield's excellent study of music in the early British Raj is situated.

This is an important work that sheds new light on the processes of music-making in the British community in late 18th-century India. It is rich in detail, drawing primarily on private correspondence and diaries from the time, in particular the Fowke family correspondence from the British Library India Office. Most of this material has never been published, and although it has been referenced in previous works on this period, it has never been analysed with such detail. Woodfield draws a vivid and fascinating picture of these times, illuminating not only the learning and performance of music but also the day-to-day lives of the British living in Calcutta and Lucknow. In particular he shows how the status of women was linked to musical accomplishment, but also how women used music as a means of coming closer to Indian culture. On this latter point he brings forward a wealth of fascinating new insights into the genre known as the Hindustani Air - fashionable transcriptions of Indian music for keyboard and other western instruments - showing how the musical interaction of transcription and translation took place between the British and the Indians. Interest in Indian music went to the highest levels of British society, even reaching the attention of Warren Hastings, who received a book of Indian tunes from Margaret Fowke, a central figure in Woodfield's study.

Woodfield chronicles the social and economic development of the western music scene in India, primarily in Calcutta, but interestingly also follows the story of the main players in his story after their return to Europe from India. This shows how the Indian experience affected them, musically and culturally, and how they readjusted to life in Europe.

I am sure that this work will become a central source for all those interested in the social history of the British in India and wider issues to do with the nature of musical acculturation, music education, gender studies and the history of ethnomusicology.

Gerry Farrell is senior lecturer in music, City University, London.