Golden Horn Releases Rasarang
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
22 March 2004
GOLDEN HORN RELEASES "RASARANG"
BY RAJEEV TARANATH
Golden Horn Records is proud to announce its release of Rasarang, an album
of North Indian classical music performed by sarod master Rajeev Taranath.
Accompanying master Taranath are Abhiman Kaushal on tabla and Chad Hamill
on tanpura.
Taranath said, “I will just close my eyes, listen to the mood and
absorb what is going on around me and the music will come.” Rasarang
demonstrates how his inspiration for Raga, “the main building block
of any concert of Indian classical music…(and) that which gives
colour,” weaves technicality with a fire of emotion connecting player
to audience. A Raga is not just a scale or melodic mode, but a complex
system of exploring melody, following certain rules of ornamentation and
intonation, and expressing a unique emotional color. “Playing a
raga, to a musician, then means being aware of …(the) rules and
making music while playing the notes to open up different vistas, some
already traversed, some not yet, all the time abiding strictly to given
rules. The musician is not unlike a mathematician who sets up problems
with different levels of difficulty and sets about solving them with precision
and clarity.” Taranath’s description of musician as mathematician
betrays the depth of emotion revealed through his sarod. Bangladore’s
Phoenix praises him stating, “Rajeev’s music comes through
as a constant dialectic between deep classical rigor and an irrepressible
emotional intensity.” Taranath best describes his musicianship by
quoting T.S. Eliot, “You are the music while it lasts.”
Rasarang presents four Ragas: Vachaspati, Desh, Jogia Kalingra, and Piloo.
For listeners new to Indian music, Rasarang’s liner notes include
an interview with Taranath on Raga and bansuri player Deepak Ram’s
eloquent description of the Ragas played by master Taranath. Raga Vachaspati
is a challenging raga, which originates in the South Indian musical tradition
but is performed here in the North Indian style. It is one scale among
those known as ‘melas.’ On this CD, Taranath plays only the
first part of a North Indian performance, known as Alap. The second Raga,
Desh, is “derived from folk music” and “evokes romantic
and nostalgic feelings.” Taranath performs Desh starting with a
slow teental (a sixteen-beat rhythmic cycle) and moving to a “second
faster composition also in teental…gradually increasing in tempo,
ending with an exciting Jhala.” Raga Jogia Kalingra is the combination
of two morning Ragas (Jogia and Kalingra). Taranath plays an Aachor (“an
abridged form of Alap”), followed by a slow composition in rupak
(a seven-beat rhythmic cycle) and concluding with a second faster composition
in teental. Raga Piloo is a popular Raga that bends the rules “for
the sake of aesthetics.” However, as Ram states, “It takes
a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge of a raga before one can
find ‘loopholes’ in the laws governing the particular Raga,
whilst still maintaining its ‘aura’.”
Rajeev Taranath is one of the leading performers of the sarod today. As
a young man, he studied Hindustani vocal music student with his father,
Pandit Taranath. Considered a vocal prodigy, he was concert and radio
artist before he was 20. Rajeev changed his musical direction after hearing
Maestro Ali Akbar Khan (Khansahib) and Pandit Ravi Shankar in concert
in Bangladore. He has studied with Khansahib nearly a half-century, and
has also received guidance from Pandit Ravi Shankar and Shrimati Annapurna
Devi. Rajeev has toured extensively as a performer in India, Australia,
Europe, Yemen, and throughout the U.S. He was a film score composer for
several nationally and internationally honored films. In 1980, he was
the subject of a documentary made in Yemen, titled “Finnan Min-Al-Hind”
(Artist from India). He is the recipient of the Indian Government’s
highest award in the arts, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 1999-2000,
given in recognition of outstanding achievement in the field of Hindustani
instrumental music. In 1998, he received the prestigious award, “Chowdiah
Award for Music”, from the Government of Karnataka in India for
excellence in the field of instrumental music. He has also received awards
from the Indian State Government of Karnataka for his contribution to
music: the Sangeet Nritya Akademi Award in 1993, and the Karnataka Rajya
Prashati in 1996. Taranath was a Ford Foundation scholar from 1989 to
1992 and researched during this period on the Teaching Techniques of the
Maihar-Allaudin Gharana (or music lineage).
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