Tonight You Will Hear the Wedding of God: Heteroglossia and Polythematicism in the Performance of a Rājasthani Kathā

Abstract

This paper investigates a performance of the Mahādevjī kā byāvalā , a kathā or story, by Kishori Nāth, a Rājasthani musician. The story is familiar: performers engage audiences through several strategies. I outline two of these: tone and heteroglossia. Performers are never evaluated primarily for musical ability, and most present the kathā using only a few melodies. Kishori Nāth's performance was atypical, using 110 distinct melodies. Analysis of this performance from several perspectives—musical variety, affect, episodic structure, and the interaction of melody and heteroglossia—demonstrates that a complex meshing of these leads to a powerful event to which musical skill contributes greatly.