ragas

The song Chaiyya Chaiyya plays on the lawns of the Mehboob studios in Bandra, Mumbai. After the first few lines of the song, the music is switched off. I ask the kids in the audience if any of them want to sing the song. There is a show of hands and two girls sing together. There's a confident smile on one face while the other shows signs of nervousness. Yet both girls sing the song effortlessly. As I sing along with them and later a snippet of the classical raga behind the song, there's a look of dawning comprehension on…

Last week we looked at how music from Europe such as Gregorian chants and Hungarian music had traces of classical Carnatic ragas. This week let's look at music from African countries such as Algeria, Egypt and Mali. The music of Algeria today is the confluence of many threads including those of Bedouin origin, Andalusian music with its confluence of the Ottoman Empire and Europe, and the mysticism of poets such as Rumi. Bedouin music revolves around the theme of spirituality with strong influences of Rumi, the well known Muslim poet. Andalusian music, a form of Arabic music owes much of…

Bhairavi, Amirkalyani, Rasali - One common, one not so common, one rare. These were the ragas that veteran vocalist T.V.Shankaranarayanan presented at his concert last night at the Nadasurabhi annual festival in Koramangala. Rasali is a janya raga of the 4th melakartha raga Vanaspathi and the one composition that comes to mind for raga Rasali is Tyagaraja's Aparadhamulanorva. The concert was marked with an energetic flow of swaras, evocative rendition of songs which were mostly composed by Periasami Thooran, Tulasivanam, Tyagaraja and Purandaradasa. The Bhairavi raga alapana was followed by the highly emotive Tamil song on Lord Muruga "Pazham Nee".…

World music - as it's been termed has continued to gain popularity. The term today encompasses, practically anything that's not of Western European or North American origin. Whether Ravi Shankar in the sixties, Sting's flirtations with Moroccan music in the 70s through Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, Yanni in the 80s and 90s, an endless stream of regional or world music has gained a global audience. My own exposure to world music began with Gregorian Chants, in many ways reminiscent of my childhood experience of vedic chanting and grew thanks to my husband's interest in Qawwali. I have been exploring how…