Today Indian Music has won a place of pride in the global musical heritage. Hindustani classical music and its vocal stream have been major influences in creating the larger Indian musical tradition. Music being a performing art, lives in performance. These performances are obviously realized through performing ideas and their exploration by artists concerned. The identification of performing ideas provide the prime clue to the qualitative forces in any artist's work. Dr. Ranade has attempted to identify and analyze 19 major performers' performing ideas as they became accessible to him in mehfil-s, recordings or teaching sessions. Four other musicians are also briefly discussed.
Musicians Covered are Pt. Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, Pt. Ramkrishnabuwa Vaze, Ustad Abdul Karim Khan, Pt. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, Pt. Anant Manohar Joshi, Ustad Faiyaz Hussain Khan, Balgandharva, Surashri Kesarbai Kerkar, Pt. Omkarnath Thakur, Master Krishnrao Fulambrikar, Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan, Prof. B.R. Deodher, Pt. Jagannath Buwa Purohit, Smt. Heerabai Badodekar, Pt. Mallikarjun Mansoor, Pt. Gajananrao Joshi, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Pt. Kumar Gandharva, Smt. Manik Verma, Pt. Sawai Gandharva, Roshan Ara Begum, Pt. Phiroze Dastoor, and Gangubai Chikkurao Hangal.