Matthew Rahaim

Matthew Rahaim is a musician and scholar working on the fertile borderlands of sonic ecology, raga music, and the American experimental tradition. His musical training is grounded in the Gwalior lineage of Hindustani music; he is a shagird of Laxman Krishnarao Pandit. His books and articles address Indian music, voice studies, practices of listening, intonation theory, musical ethics, relationality, and the metaphysics of participation. Matthew's recent compositions and installations have appeared at the Modulus Festival, the Wakpa Triennial, Drone Not Drones, and The Great Beyond. Matthew's recent project, Resonant Transmutations, features a suite of newly composed pieces for instruments crafted by Pedram Baldari out of decommissioned police rifles. He welcomes graduate student projects in ethnomusicology, composition, and the newly designed program in Global Creative Studies.

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Recordings

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

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
courses & 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