The Raga Guide A Survey of 74 Hindustani Ragas by Joep Bor
1999 | Publisher: Nimbus | ISBN: 0954397606 | English | PDF| 230 pages | 150 MB
This text is an introduction to Hindustani ragas, the melodic basis for the classical music of northern India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. It is the modern reference work for listeners and connoisseurs, students and scholars.
The raga, a musical form of ancient Hindustani prayer and poetry, has been the cornerstone of Indian music for centuries, evolving into a complex set of expressions inviting improvisation and varying according to purpose, mood, story, and ritual. Stately in their sounds, ragas are most often created with sitar, sarod, tabla, tamboura (or drone), and voice with each note functioning as an evocation of the world's sanctity. The Raga Guide offers five hours and 15 minutes of stunningly beautiful music, played by masters of the instrument and accompanied by informative description, music transcriptions, and (where applicable) texts with English translations. Lovingly recorded, carefully authored, simply laid out, this wonderful package is the essence of perfection, topped off by exquisite color plates of ragamalas, or paintings depicting the stories of the ragas. A sublime tribute to Indian classical music. –Karen Karleski
Perfect for: musicians, music collectors, western classical fans, yoga types, meditative types, free jazz freaks, downtempo cats, chillout romancing types, not-so-tough toughies, the sultry, depressed, overjoyed, kids who travel too much, parents of over sugared kids, over sugared kids and those unsure of the profound musical heritage from which they come.