The Raga Guide: Survey of 74 Hindustani Ragas
These four CDs tucked into a meaty, comprehensive book portray and explain the different histories, tonalities, and rhythms of 74 of Hindu's most common ragas. The raga, a musical form of ancient Hindustani prayer and poetry, has been the cornerstone of Indian music for centuries, evolving into a complex set of expressions inviting improvisation and varying according to purpose, mood, story, and ritual. Stately in their sounds, ragas are most often created with sitar, sarod, tabla, tamboura (or drone), and voice with each note functioning as an evocation of the world's sanctity.The Raga Guideoffers five hours and 15 minutes of stunningly beautiful music, played by masters of the instrument and accompanied by informative description, music transcriptions, and (where applicable) texts with English translations. Lovingly recorded, carefully authored, simply laid out, this wonderful package is the essence of perfection, topped off by exquisite color plates ofragamalas, or paintings depicting the stories of the ragas. A sublime tribute to Indian classical music.--Karen Karleski