Matthew Rahaim

Hindustani Vocalist: Khyal, Gwalior Gayaki // shagird of Laxman Krishnarao Pandit

Improviser: Voice, analog synthesizers, gestural sound synthesis, improvised conduction

Composer: Newly devised instruments and tuning systems, event scores, electroacoustic environments, anthropocene sonic ecology, virtual spaces, experimental phenomenology, polymodal counterpoint

Scholar: Professor of Music at the University of Minnesota in the division of Global Creative Studies. History and ethnography of South Asian music; American experimentalism; speculative musical philosophy; voice studies, practices of listening, intonation theory, musical ethics, metaphysics, relationality.

courses & syllabuses →

on teaching →

Recordings

Resonant Transmutations
Resonant Transmutations (2025)
 Rag Komal Rishabh Asavari
Rag Komal Rishabh Asavari (2020)
 Rag Bhimpalasi
Rag Bhimpalasi (2021)
 Rag Puriya
Rag Puriya (2023)
 Misi-Ziibi Song
Misi-Ziibi Song #1 (2023)
 Ras
Ras (2025)
 Blessed Inconstant Moon
Blessed Inconstant Moon (2023)
 Microviolet Accident Party
Microviolet: Accident Party (2022)

Books & Articles

Ways of Voice: Vocal Striving and Moral Contestation in North India and Beyond (2021) Ways of Voice Companion Website Musicking Bodies: Gesture and Voice in Hindustani Music (2012) Not Just One, Not Just Now: Relational Voices in Time (2021) Authority, Critique, and Revision in the Sanskrit Music-Theoretic Tradition (2015) Object, Person, Machine, or What: Practical Ontologies of Voice (2019) Otherwise Than Participation: Unity and Alterity in Musical Encounters (2017) Theories of Participation (2019) That Ban(e) of Indian Music: Hearing Politics in the Harmonium (2011) Academic CV
teaching contact & office hours tanpura sound files

© 2025 Matthew Rahaim

MORE LINKS Teaching — Courses at the University of Minnesota University of Minnesota Faculty Page Experts@Minnesota IAS Faculty Fellow 2023–2024 Google Scholar Academia.edu LinkedIn YouTube Stanford Humanities Center — A Mahfil Drenched in Tears Stanford Humanities Center — Voice Cultures and Ethical Dispositions Williams College — Class of 1960 Music Lecture University of Toronto — Neville Austin Graduate Colloquium Society for Ethnomusicology — University of Minnesota DePauw University — Global Music Experience Georgia Tech Voice+ Research Lab Ways of Voice — Stanford University Library Matthew Rahaim — Wesleyan University Press Ways of Voice — Wesleyan University Press Musicking Bodies — Wesleyan University Press Ways of Voice — HFS Books Musicking Bodies — HFS Books Amazon Author Page Ways of Voice — Goodreads Ways of Voice — Google Books Musicking Bodies — Semantic Scholar ResearchGate Profile Object, Person, Machine, or What — Oxford Academic Imagery, Melody and Gesture — Durham University Repository Review of Musicking Bodies — UCLA Ethnomusicology Review Review of Musicking Bodies — UCLA ECHO Review of Musicking Bodies — Project MUSE Review of Musicking Bodies — Gesture Journal Review of Musicking Bodies — Yearbook for Traditional Music Website Review — Yearbook for Traditional Music, Cambridge Review of Musicking Bodies — Ethnomusicology Forum Article — American Anthropologist (Wiley) Review of Ways of Voice — Asian Music Review of Ways of Voice — Harmonia, University of North Texas Microviolet: Accident Party — Bandcamp Podcast Interview — Paul Metzger Interviews Resonant Transmutations — Create a Stir Resonant Transmutations — Pancouver Blackstone Parks Conservancy Listening to the Mississippi — Park Connection