Ink Mathematics

A Pre-Dawn Raga

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An Evening Raga

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Hello-

Picked up two albums of ragas recently and decided to record one side from each of them for you. The first raga, by Ali Akbar Khan, is intended to be played in the early morning. The Second raga, by Ravi Shankar, is an evening raga. Collin

From the back cover of Pre-Dawn to Sunrise Ragas I reproduce here a portion of an essay by Nat Hentoff:

I often wonder about people who have no passion for music – who would feel no real sense of loss if months and even years went by without their listening to music. I’m sure there any number of reasons in each particular case for this indifference. But I do have an unproved theory that a major contributing cause is the way we in the west are taught to listen to music.

I was often forced to “pay attention” to the way the music was put together rather than to what it was doing to me. “Follow the theme; follow the subtheme; see how it returns to the tonic; this is variation.” and on and on into increased irrelevancy.

I am not saying that knowledge of music structure cannot be pleasurable in itself. But first, it seems to me, there has to be a yielding to and an immersion in the music before knowledge of its structure can bring more than the pleasure of recognizing  you have the ability to discern it architectonics.

…the main characteristic of the Raga is its power to evoke emotion. The mode must seize the listener’s mind and hold it enchanted. But the listener must be willing to be enchanted. He must be willing to enter into a quality of time that has nothing to do with keeping appointments or writing down the exact length of each variation, slow or fast. He must be willing to let his emotions go. For those who can do this, or at lease can make the first tentative beginnings, Indian music can be so instructive an experience – instructive emotionally – that it can affect the way on listens to all kinds of music.

Artist / Album / Song

Ali Akbar Khan / Pre-Dawn to Sunrise Ragas / Raga Bairagi

• Raga Bairagi is to be played very early in the morning from before dawn to the beginning of daybreak. It expresses total devotion to God by giving up all worldly possessions. As the ability to make such sacrifices require the greatest of personal strength and character the raga is intended to be and is here played in the heroic mood.

Ravi Shankar / A Morning Raga / An Evening Raga / Raga Mishra Piloo

• This is intended to be played in the evening.