"Raga Miniature", by Ravi Shankar.
A transcendent musician who made the world both smaller and better, sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar has died at age 92. Writes the San Francisco Chronicle:
Labeled "the godfather of world music" by Beatle George Harrison, Shankar helped millions of Westerners -- classical, jazz and rock lovers — discover the centuries-old traditions of Indian music. From Harrison to John Coltrane, from Yehudi Menuhin to Andre Previn, he bridged, sometimes unsteadily, the musical gap between East and West, between what Shankar noted as the classical East's emphasis on melody and rhythm and the classical West's foundation of "harmony, counterpoint, chords, modulation and other basics."
As Mr. Shankar put it in 2009:
How does one put the spiritual significance of music on paper? Music transcends all languages and barriers and is the most beautiful communicative skill one can have. Music makes us all experience different emotions or the Navarasa as we call it. Different types of music, whether it is vocal or instrumental, Eastern or Western, Classical or Pop or folk from any part of the world can all be spiritual if it has the power to stir the soul of a person and transcend time for the moment. It makes one get goose-bumps in the body and mind and equates the highest mental orgasm and the release of grateful tears!
(Much more about Ravi Shankar, his music and his legacy here , here, here, here, here, and here. )
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I love the cut on "The Concert for Bangladesh", when he plays some notes for a few minutes and stops. The audience applauds, thinking that it is the end of a song. Ravi replies, "Thank you, if you enjoy the tuning up so much, I am sure you will enjoy the song." and continues with his set.
What a shame.. He at least lived a long and artful life! We lost another Rostropovich here..
Being a huge fan of film and television scoring... This news was very sad. Mr. Shankar was a superb talent. His talents were utilized by composer George Fenton for his Oscar-nominated music for GHANDI.
He may be gone, but his music will be with us forever.
The definitive account is a three record box set, "The Anthology of Indian Music", by Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Balachandar and half several other artists.
I lost my record collection years ago, and during that time always recalled this in depth excursion into each instrument and the way music came to the mortal plane etc., that music and it's art form is a reflection of the immutable sound within silence.
In practice Anhat, that unstruck sound is the second technique out of four in Raj Yoga. The others being Light, Breath and Nectar.
A couple of years ago, my bass player friend mentioned that I could never find the records online to an engineer who had been friends with Ravi for many years.
To my surprise, that person had a never played box set which he had manged to find to give to Ravi, because his (Ravi's) set also had gone missing over time but in that interim, the Shankars had come across another replacement.
I had always equated the set to Dark Horse (George's label at A & M Records where Olivia Arias was working when they met, they later married) in the same time span that "All Things Must Pass" was issued, three records etc. but the recording had actually been pressed some years before.
Of course through the fogged prism of youth and time, George's record was an Apple release, not Dark Horse so it's no wonder I couldn't locate a used version.
To quote the insert in the plastic covering the box: "This album contains a never before - released discussion by RAVI SHANKAR on the history and appreciation of Indian music with appropriate musical examples."
He is appreciated, in my sphere.
Thanks for the wonderful expression Ravi, as a fellow musician and student of Raj and the living master.
Be blessed.
Album: Liberty, World Pacific, WDS-26200, THE ANTHOLOGY OF INDIAN MUSIC VOLUME ONE
Some friends of my family were immigrants from Dehli and we often accompanied them to watch the husband's cricket matches in Vancouver. On the 4 hour drive from Seattle, Ravi Shankar was a favorite on the eight track player, so some of Shankar's songs have been imprinted in my brain along with (not so fortunately) the Tijuana Brass songs they also never tired of. I can hear shankar's songs and his voice always.
His kind and gentle virtuosity left an indelible impression on me. There was one piece where he was explaining some of the basics of sitar compositions. Well- for me there was a deep deep river of cultural and spiritual depth to India that was a subject of great wonder to me.
Shankar opened that door, and I shall always be grateful to his spirit.
The visible universe is about 13.7 billion years and it is not known if there were big bangs previously or occurring elsewhere beyond the limits of our instruments. Now, if either the passage of time is infinite or the expanse beyond our known universe is infinite, then the mathematics of our improbable existence are clear. Any probability, no matter how small when multiplied times infinity will occur an infinite number of times. If so, then Shankar's Vedic beliefs speak a clear truth. Ravi Shankar, You, and I were dead for a quadrillion years before this, and in another quadrillion years a consciousness very much like this one will compose a maddowblog note for someone very much like you to read again. And Ravi Shankar has and will always play his musionce again play their sitar, or
But I repeat myself.
oops- [grumble] editing timed out. Final lines:
And Ravi Shankar has and always will play his music throughout the universe and throughout eternity.
But I repeat myself.