Raga Malkauns/Raga Bhairavi

India Archive Music
Netai Bose – Sitar

Dhrupad is a (Hindustani classical) style of presenting raga music prevalent during the 15th and 18th centuries. Dhrupad is characterized by (1) unhurried, deliberate style of presentation (2) sanctity of the literary component (mostly because most of the poetry is devotional in nature) and (3) a very structured method of developing a raga making it almost pre-composed (this is very unlike Hindustani classical music which is generally never pre-composed and offers the musician incredible freedom of improvisation)

Raga presentation for instrumental music in Dhrupad consists of first phase (linear) consisting of alap-jod-jhala. Alap = a free-flowing introduction to the raga (no rhythm is used). Jod = a faster version in a two-beat pulse.
Jhala = a stepped up version of the jod played to a 4/8 beat cycle.
The second phase for presenting a raga is rhythm-bound and accompanied by percussion. This phase stresses the cyclical development of the raga.

Raga Malkauns: Every Hindustani raga has a set time for its performance. Malkauns is to be played between 9PM and midnight. Track 1 has the artist developing the raga as described above unaccompanied by the tabla (percussion). Tracks 2 and 3 are accompanied by the tabla. Do not play track 2 only as it kind of segues into track 3 and will sound incomplete if played by itself.

Raga Bhairavi: This raga is best played after sunrise in the early morning hours. However, it is often played as the last raga in a concert, independent of the time that the concert actually ends. A good idea therefore to have this as the last piece of music you play. Track 4 is actually 19:55 minutes long (misprint on CD cover). Track 5 can be played independently as a piece in Raga Bhairavi (accompanied by percussion) if you want to skip the whole development of the raga.