Evening Ragas
with Ramchandra Pandit, tabla
Ragas are an important component of the Indian classical tradition. They are performed with fixed patterns of ascending and descending notes, particular phrases, status of notes, embellishments, and octaves. Different ragas are performed at different times of day, and in different seasons, with each raga generating a mood, or rasa.
Evening ragas are performed mostly from 6 to 9 pm.
At the Yale concert, the following ragas will be performed
1. Rag Bhinna shadaj …. Notes used: Sa ga ma da ni si (all major notes)
2. Rag Desh.… Notes used: Sa re ma pa ni sa Sa ni dha pa ma ga re, ga sa (the seventh is minor in descending)
3. River Song.… A short folk melody From Bengal.
~Note by Rabindra Goswami
Sitarist Rabindra Goswami has been a professional musician for 40 years and is recognized as one of the senior-most artists in the musically rich city of Varanasi, India. Unlike many Indian classical musicians who have become well known in the West, Goswami plays pure, traditional raga music. Goswami is a disciple of the late Smt. Amiya Devi, and he studied the ancient Dhrupad style with Pandit Ramakant Mishra and the advanced intricacies of the music with the great Dr. Balchandra Patekar of Bombay and Varanasi. He has won a number of national awards in India, including first place in the Prayag Sangeet Samiti All-India Competition in 1967, and second place at Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Natak Academy in 1972. He is an “A level” Artist of All India Radio and Television, and has performed throughout India (Delhi, Bombay, Lucknow, Indore, Patna, Allahabad, and many others) and the world (Greece, Nepal, Switzerland, United States). Goswami is also one of Varanasi’s foremost sitar teachers.
Tablaist Ramu Pandit is a long-time professional performer of classical, semi-classical, folk, and popular music. A life-long disciple of Pandit Sharda Sahai, he is a colorful performer and experienced educator who specializes in demonstrating and explaining Indian music to Western audiences. A Master of Music, he has also performed for All India Radio, and played percussion on film soundtracks in Bombay for the legendary composer S.D. Burman. He currently directs the Sarangi Institute of Banaras, an organization that he founded to preserve the sarangi, an instrument with a long pedigree in Indian Classical music but which now has few masters. He is also the former coordinator of the University of Wisconsin College Year in India Program, a position that he held for nearly 30 years.