Last Rites: Self-Representation and Counter-Canon Practices in Classical Music through Radhe Radhe

Abstract

Copyright © 2022 To commemorate the centennial ofthe 1913 Paris premiere of The Rite of Spring, the University of NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill organised The Rite of Spring at 100. As part ofthis, the Carolina Performing Arts (CPA) commissioned new pieces interpretingand responding to The Rite. Among these was Radhe Radhe: Ritesof Holi, created by the Indian-American composer-scholar and pianist VijayIyer, performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble, and accompanied by afilm about Holi—the annual Hindu harvest festival—assembled by filmmakerPrashant Bhargava. Radhe Radhe eventually took the form of a performancedocument mediated between live music and film, as well as culturally divergentnotions of ‘ritual’. This article will ask, consideringBhargava’s film and Iyer’s score, along with documentation of live chamberperformances of the piece: how does ‘western’ classical music represent itselfin the twenty-first century? In what ways is self-representation performed in anintercultural collaboration such as Radhe Radhe that destabilises thedominant whiteness of the classical music canon by reimagining its soundscapein reference to a canonical work such as The Rite? Radhe Radhe—andIyer’s score in particular—I propose, echoes as a sonic postcolonial ur-textthrough its engagement with Holi. As an instance of the Deleuzian simulacrum,it represents a radical departure from the cultural politics of ‘everyday colonialracism’ (Levitz 2017: 163) surrounding the 1913 Rite, by employing a collaborativevocabulary that resists the hegemonic performance traditions of westernclassical music.