Samay Chakra (Raga Cycle) – New learning resource for Hindustani vocalists
The CETL World Music project is currently developing a new pedagogical resource for Hindustani vocal students. We are calling it Samay Chakra, or Rata Cycle. Students of Indian music are often encouraged to study performances by top gurus and ustads in order to develop their own performing skills.
Recordings already produced by the CETL – Twilight Raags from North India featuring Dr Vijay Rajput , and Solo Tabla Recital by Shahbaz Hussain – are good examples of this; and many more can be found on CD and on the internet. But what is less readily available are equally professional recordings that focus on the more basic aspects of raga rendition.
Our Samay Chakra project seeks to fill this gap. We have compiled a CD of 14 tracks in which Dr Vijay Rajput and accompanying musicians present compact performances of ragas appropriate to each phase of the day and night (hence ‘raga-cycle’).
The performances last between five and ten minutes, each presenting a short alaap and composition, together with a few taans and short extemporisations. The idea is to give students a model to follow between lessons, but one simpler than the usual extended performances found in recordings. At the same time, the Samay Chakra performances are not simplistic. They still present highly artistic renditions of the daily round of ragas, encouraging students to aim for subtlety and precision in their own practice.
Additionally, Dr Rajput and Prof. David Clarke, leader of the CETL Indian music project , are currently working on texts to accompany the recordings, containing key information about each raga. Watch this space as we post sample extracts in the near future. The completed project is intended as a longstanding resource to be delivered by the conclusion of the CETL.
Samples tracks from the CD can be listened to here.
Transcriptions of the compositions from the tracks can be downloaded from here:
