One of Master Amjad Ali Khan 's explorations of Raga "Bhairav"

An extract from a recording of a morning recital by Ustad AMJAD ALI KHAN.
The nerve to upload this with basic Windows Media Player visualization, right?
OK, I think it works well enough.
So: Again: an extract, only the very beginning of the exposition of Raga Bhairav, as rendered by one soloist on the "Sarod" instrument.
Raga Bhairav is a morning Raga which is traditionally performed and listened to at morning time, with a poetic atmospheric intention in mind, which I personally associate with the idea of the world reawakening, as something that could sometimes be uncannily creepy - even - the world reawakening and is puzzled with it being puzzled with itself all over again. And yet, becoming comfortable with itself all over again at the same time.
This is an improvised, meditative exploration of the mood of this Raga as a melodic idea.
As usual with the exposition of a Raag, it starts-off with a tentative introduction of the predominant notes, in this case the more "uncanny" mood notes ( the lowered 6th as approached from above - from the eerie natural 7th, this with a relaxed, considering pause on the 5th - and the "painful" gut-wrenching approach to the " twisted" lowered 2nd from above - from the more soothing natural 4th through the major third ), while keeping the tonic note constantly in mind.
This gradually spreads out with a rhythm-free, floating phraseology, which is gaining intensity and coherence - incorporating - with growing confidante - the more soothing major 3ed and natural 4th , but always to return to the tensions of the 7th, lowered 6th and lowered 2nd notes.
The rendition gives this raga a somewhat harsh salty, sweet, SALTY! - Flavor, one might say.
So this is more of a reawakening to the harshness of life.
But the idea is that even this can be beautiful - a journey.
The rhythm-free (Alap - as it's called ) phraseology later but not within this video picks up a pulsating rhythm, an in-tempo melodic/motivic elaboration - but not in a measured tempo, free from being counted to, which gets ever faster and louder to culminate with a frantic explosion of sound.
Only then ( after a solo exposition of more than half an hour long ), is the Raga reintroduced within the context of a melodic composition to be improvised upon, with a rhythmic measure of 10 beats provided by a percussionist: Tabla player ( Master Sukhvinder Singh Namdhari), but that's another story...

( Oh, the constant harmonic atmosphere accompaniment is produced by a drone instrument called a Tanpura, which is being plucked upon here by Gurdev Singh).

Let the journey begin:

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Amjad
• ali
• Khan
• Sarod
• Raga
• Raag
• Bhairav
• recital
• improvisation
• meditation
• Indian
• Hindu
• classical
• music
• alap

[PerahDancer]

you are such a sophisticated boy !!!

fr-fr-fr

lovely ... touching

[devonmuse]

I like this alot. You have a very interesting channel.

It's quite funny that the Derren Brown video on your profile page has been blocked to viewers in my country (England), by Channel 4 (an English Channel !!) on copyright grounds !!! :-))