A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. The study of South Asian music falls under the purview of ethnomusicology, whereas that of South Asian literature falls under South Asian studies. As a consequence of this academic separation, scholars rarely take notice of connections between South Asian song and poetry. Modernizing Composition overcomes this disciplinary fragmentation by examining the history of Sinhala-language song and poetry in twentieth-century Sri Lanka. Garrett Field describes how songwriters and poets modernized song and poetry in response to colonial and postcolonial formations. The story of this modernization is significant in that it shifts focus from India's relationship to the West to little-studied connections between Sri Lanka and North India.

"Modernizing Composition is a product of thorough research, fresh interpretation, and clear writing; it will be of great value to readers in postcolonial studies looking to broaden their regional outlook and readers in Sri Lanka studies seeking to expand their theoretical perspectives." * Asian Music *
 "This study contributes to an array of often interdisciplinary conversations concerning how cultural outlooks are constructed; the nature of intertextuality at the level of language, genre, and poetic form; entanglements of linguistic communities and religious orientations in South Asia; and how colonialism and postcolonial societies can be productively theorized." * Ethnomusicology *

Garrett Field is Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and the School of Music at Ohio University.