Śabdagatitāra

How can music from different traditions be interwoven without appropriating them? Sandeep Bhagwati explores this question in essays, poems, and parables spanning three decades. As a composer bridging Indian and European soundscapes, he coined the term “Śabdagatitāra”—the interweaving of sound movements—thereby developing a way of thinking that transcends cultural appropriation and exoticism.

Bhagwati reveals how Western art music derives its claim to universality from colonial structures, and demonstrates that even the avant-garde denies its own traditional roots. He describes the experience of existing between cultures not as a loss, but as a sharpening of one’s perspective. His writings combine musicological analysis with autobiographical reflection, philosophical depth, and literary power.

This book is a toolkit for anyone who wants to understand music as a multifaceted practice—musicians, curators, cultural scholars, and attentive listeners who are ready to move beyond familiar hierarchies of listening.

The book will be released on May 3 and is now available for pre-order.