ABSTRACT
It is an accepted fact today that the eruption of Indian music on the Western musical landscape modified radically our general perception of music. For about half a century the Hindustani musical traditions of northern India – and, on a smaller scale, the Karnatak tradition of southern India – have been revealed in the West in the full dimension of their genius. Indian music had the fortune to become one of the first genres made known to the West through the talent of great ambassadors, including Vilayat Khan, Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Bhimsen Joshi and Bismillah Khan, to mention masters from the older generation alone.
