Opus5-2004

This one is about 7 minutes long, so please listen patiently. It begins with a theme in Raga Darbari Kanada ( A late-night Raga of heavy mood), and then transmutes to Raga Bahar ( a spring season raga).

Notice the transition which is done very carefully, since the two ragas have very little in common.

happy listening!;)

Opus5-2004.mid

well, this time i think you were less successful than with your other pieces. i have listened to this one at least 5 times and i think that it is a fine job, but the structure seems unbalanced, for just around the 5th min i could notice some relevant change in the mood, remaining just about 2 minutes for other atmospheres, which anyway for me didn't sound that different, working more as an extended coda than a different section. this piece seems to need some climaxes in one or two points to keep the interest. the good things are the very gradual transition from one to other Raga, the subtle textures of instrumentation and the feel of uncertain harmony which creates an unusual and intriguing sort of harmonic mist all along the piece. AND you should have offered a mp3, for midis are very deceptive for this kind of music.

by the way, have you ever tried to use 2 different ragas in a sonata-form way, being each one one of its 2 main themes? maybe this way the inter-relation between the ragas could allow for a more appealing dialogue between moods and also stronger contrasts.

The transition starts at around 5th minute as you noticed, which you rightly called an extended coda, is the transmuted section in Raga BAHAR - do you think it should be longer ?

You could not find much difference in mood ? But the atmosphere of the Coda is very different from the 1st theme in Raga Darbari Kanada to an Indian listener. Not only the Raga, but the key and tempo changes too. Darbari is a night raga (think of a long chilly winter night), while Bahar is the essential spring-season raga!

I'm confused since two of my Indian listener's reaction about this work is "It sent shivers down the spine - absolutely fantastic!", and they are my severest critics!

Here's the mp3 :

YouSendIt: The Leader in File Delivery.

Please listen and reply. This is very important for me.

The transition starts at around 5th minute as you noticed, which you rightly called an extended coda, is the transmuted section in Raga BAHAR - do you think it should be longer ?

You could not find much difference in mood ? But the atmosphere of the Coda is very different from the 1st theme in Raga Darbari Kanada to an Indian listener. Not only the Raga, but the key and tempo changes too. Darbari is a night raga (think of a long chilly winter night), while Bahar is the essential spring-season raga!

I'm confused since two of my Indian listener's reaction about this work is "It sent shivers down the spine - absolutely fantastic!", and they are my severest critics!

Here's the mp3 :

YouSendIt: The Leader in File Delivery.

Please listen and reply. This is very important for me.

ok my friend! i will listen to the mp3 and then will tell you my further impressions! anyway when listening i guessed that for Indians this piece should make a greater sense. let's see then :huh:

abstractly speaking, while i wait the downloading finish, i am thinking that the lenght of the 2nd section must be decided after the purpose you settled to this piece - i mean, which effect you intend it to impress on us? what's the meaning of the transition from one to another raga? what do you wish to depict? is it just abstract music or it has a definite meaning/message you wish to share? pondering on these questions you should be able to decide whether the 2nd section should or not be extended still further. there is nothing bad in itself, but if you wish to do such and the effect is else there is something wrong. there is nothing wrong about a simple extended coda, of course!!! in this way it works very nicely as a quick and effective relief from the former tension. but if you planned it to play an independent role in the piece so maybe you should reconsider the structure. anyway that's just me and the composer is you!

as the greater effect this music made on Indian listeners, you shouldn't wonder - it is natural that native people would understand better the subtleties of relations and meanings of these ragas - you shouldn't expect too much from western ears hahahahah! our culture is veeery different from yours and as your music is greatly based on your folk materials it would be impossible for us to capture every shadow of meaning. other thing is that Indians are very much used to listen to ragas every day and know them by heart and are very much more sensitive to their special vibrations - so the effect on your native public naturally is far greater than on us, who are sensitive to other aspects of music. besides, i think that there are pieces designed to affect a certain people, and others that impress more deeply other kind of people. i mean, water for fishes, air for birds, etc..... it would be difficult - if not impossible - to please equally all people every time.

ok, now i am listening........ well the file is better......... but i am afraid that my impressions do not change very importantly. the 2nd raga still sounds to me as a coda. well, that's all i can offer to you this time. hope the comments above may be useful to you. have a nice day!:huh:

I suspect the MIDI is the culprit as it so often is - MIDI is not very portable. I checked it and I found that the fermata at around 5.35 min. is lost in MIDI !

Please note that the piece doesn't end with the fermata. After a bar's pause, the 1st theme tries to return, but loses the battle to Bahar. The mp3 is 6.53 min .long.

.....sorry, I didn't see you already replied.

You and many other Westerners liked my other works even though they were based on Raga! Because the "structure" perhaps made more sense there. It is not the material, but the form that is important in any music more than 3 minutes long.

This time, I hope you've listened past the fermata.

You and many other Westerners liked my other works even though they were based on Raga! Because the "structure" perhaps made more sense there. It is not the material, but the form that is important in any music more than 3 minutes long.

This time, I hope you've listened past the fermata.

for me the material is always very important.:)