Скачать или смотреть Carsten Wicke - Raga Bhinna Shadja - Rudra Veena - Rudra Vina - Dhrupad, Kolkata 26th March 2014

Dear Friends, Music Lovers & Musicians,

time for another Veena recording from the Kolkata hermitage. Being busy with making of new instruments and playing around the clock, there has been no time to travel anywhere. So at least on this channel a musical sign of life ;-)

I choose this time a rare and very interesting old nighttime Raga, which is already mentioned in music scriptures like the famous Sangita Ratnakara from the 13th century. These old texts conform that it has kept its original setup; opposite to many other elder Ragas which kept the name but change their Swarup (melodic outline) over the time.

The Raga is known under several names like Bhinna Shadja, Kaushik Dhwani or Bhavkauns. Another (nick)name which makes quite sense is Audav Bilawal since it used five (audav) Shudda Swara (plain notes) out of the primary seven note Bilawal scale; S, G, M,D, N. It is those also mirroring the notes of Raga Malkauns which used the same Swaras in there komal (altered) versions.
Hindoli is another possible name, reflecting the similarity of notes with Raga Hindol, only exchanging its Tivra Madhyam (raised fourth) for the Shuddha version.
And to finish the game of name(s) it's sometimes also called Pancham. Since it drop's the Pancham Swara (Fifth) this can refer only to the total number of five notes. And it is not to be mistaken for raga Pancham which existed in the last century in at least 5 different versions.
So much about the crystal clear system of Raga definition in Hindustani music. 8-)

The Raga itself is really a pleasure to play. It's sweet, mainly calm and peaceful mood generates from a balanced set of consonant notes. With Madhyam (fourth) as musical centre each one of them can be used as Nyasa Swara (resting point) and those it allows many possibilities of melodic exploration.
One reason why it has become so rare today might be the popularity of Raga Hemant, a favorite of Baba Allauddin Khan, spread by his pupils of the Maihar Gharana. Its uses the same note set and adds the two missing notes (R, P) in the descending movement.

The recording of this Raga from my Guruji Ustad Asad Ali Khan (accompanied by brilliant Pandit Gopal Das) for a Music Today release is one of my all time favorites of his rather few commercial recordings. To play the same Chautal composition as those two Maestros did at their time was a great inspiration for Selim and me. We round it off with a sweet Sooltal Bandish.

Hope you can all enjoy!