Monsoon Ragas ZEEJLF British Library 2019
Channel: Histories of the Ephemeral Katherine Schofield
Date: 21/09/2019

An illustrated version of my talk Monsoon Ragas on 15 June 2019 at ZEEJLF@BL: "An evocative session exploring rain-drenched worlds of poetry, songs, paintings, architecture, gardens, festivals and music, Katherine Butler Schofield’s Monsoon Ragas examines the musical history of monsoon feelings in South Asia. In this session, music historian, author and academic Butler Schofield discusses this season of pouring rain and intense emotions and Mughal emperor Shah Alam II’s love of monsoon ragas." 

With many quotations from the friends who populated our edited volume Monsoon Feelings: A History of Emotions in the Rain (Niyogi, 2018) with poetry, songs, paintings, gardens and pavilions.

Paintings:

Detail of Krishna and Radha sheltering from the rain, North India 1775–1800. Walters Art Museum.

Prince enjoying the monsoon, Mewar late 18C. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Krishna and Radha under an umbrella, Jaipur 1775. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The jharna (waterfall) at Mehrauli, Metcalfe Album, Delhi, 1845. British Library.

Gaund Ragini, Manley Ragamala, Rajput, 1610. British Museum.

Detail of Gaudi Ragini, Bundi 1780–1800. Sold by Sothebys New York, 16/09/10.

Detail of Prince Amar Singh walking in the rain, Mewar 1690. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M Sackler Gallery.

Recording sample: Rag Gaud Malhar by Shubhra Guha, recorded by Sanjannagar. https://soundcloud.com/sanjannagar/raga-gaud-malhar-shubhra-guha 

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) license.