This CD opens with three compositions set in "Raga Bilaskhani Todi" rendered in the khyal form, a sung classical or art music form in which, unusually for Indian vocal music, the words regularly take a secondary place to an abstract vocal sound. As befits this earnest morning raga -- she sings of the torments of separation in Brijbhasha or Braja Bhasha, a dialect of Hindi which ousted Sanskrit as the language of song around the time of the Muslim invasion of Northern India -- its exposition is slow and controlled. In the ...
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This CD opens with three compositions set in "Raga Bilaskhani Todi" rendered in the khyal form, a sung classical or art music form in which, unusually for Indian vocal music, the words regularly take a secondary place to an abstract vocal sound. As befits this earnest morning raga -- she sings of the torments of separation in Brijbhasha or Braja Bhasha, a dialect of Hindi which ousted Sanskrit as the language of song around the time of the Muslim invasion of Northern India -- its exposition is slow and controlled. In the second piece, a tappa (a form closely associated with the Punjab) embedded in "Mishra Bhairavi, " she entreats her lover to discover the wonders of nature to be found in the garden. Sultan Khan accompanies particularly sensitively on sarangi and Anindo Chatterjee on tabla. ~ Ken Hunt, Rovi
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