Tuesday 13 March 2012

Raga Yaman - Amjad Ali Khan

Another evening raga, another epic composition & rendition!

   

I'd once attended an Amjad Ali Khan concert, with the Scottish Philharmonic, the day after I'd done an Iron Maiden concert! Iron Maiden, in my book, are one of the greatest rock bands of all time, due to the harmonic influences in their music. But within 10 minutes of listening to the Ustad weave his magic, the only feeling I had was how shallow my tastes were! This performance isn't from that concert, but it summarizes my feelings from that day very aptly! From wiki: "Yaman is supposed to be one of the most fundamental ragas in Hindustani Classical Music. It is usually one of the first ragas taught to the serious classical music student." It is derived from the Carnatic classical raga Kalyani. It starts off very slowly - it's over 30 mins in length - building up momentum gradually. However, within a few short minutes, it pulls you in. You get lulled into a rhythm, before the climax takes you over completely, much like a crescendo in western classical. PS: This is another one of those pieces that mandates a smoky wine, like a Shiraz ;-)

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