Ritwik Sanyal is a retired professor of the Department of Vocal Music, Banaras Hindu University. He also a recipient of one of India's highest civilian honours, the Padma Shri. A disciple of the late Zia Mohiuddin and Zia Fariduddin Dagar, and a leading exponent of the Dagar dhrupad tradition, he performs and teaches dhrupad internationally, and is a composer of new dhrupad compositions, with many CD recordings to his credit. He holds a PhD in musicology and is the author of Philosophy of Music (1987) and Dhrupad Panchashika (2015). In 2013 he received the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi National Award (New Delhi) for Hindustani Classical Vocal Music.

Richard Widdess is Emeritus Professor of Musicology in the Department of Music, School of Arts, SOAS University of London, and a Fellow of the British Academy. He specialises in the musicology of South Asia, with reference to the history, theory and analysis of vocal music traditions in North India and Nepal. He is the author of The R¿gas of Early Indian Music (1995) and D¿ph¿: Sacred Singing in a South Asian City (2013).

Ch. 1 What is Dhrupad
Ch. 2 The Historical Emergence of Dhrupad Style
Ch. 3 Tradition and Style: Th Four Banis
Ch. 4 The Transmission of Tradition: The Dagar Heritage
Ch. 5 Alap and Tradition
Ch. 6 An Alap Performance in the Dagar Tradition
Ch. 7 Composition and Tradition
Ch. 8 Performing the Composition: Rhythmic Variation and Improvisation
Ch. 9 Dhrupad in the Modern World: Tradition, Performance and Revival

Appendix 1: PrincipalDhrupad Tals
Appendix 2: Dhrupad Lineages
Appendix 3: Alap and Dhrupad, Rag Multani (Transcription)