The Raga Guide: A Survey of 74 Hindustani Ragas

by Joep Bor (Editor)

The Raga Guide is an introduction to Hindustani ragas, the melodic basis for the classical music of Northern India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Ragas are complex entities. Performers, who have spent many years acquiring their knowledge, often prefer to keep silent, and in any case few have been taught to approach ragas from an analytical point of view. Musicologists, on the other hand, often lack a thorough practical insight into raga music.
The authors of this guide are all well-versed in the theory and practice of raga music. Of the hundreds of ragas that exist, the guide surveys seventy-four of the most performed and well-established ones, with specially commissioned recordings by Hariprasad Chaurasia (flute), Buddhadev DasGupta (sarod), Shruti Sadolikar-Katkar (vocal) and Vidyadhar Vyas (vocal).
For each ragathe guide An analytical and historical description; transcription of the alap (melodic construction) for each raga as performed on the CDs; ascent-descent and melodic outline in both western and Indian notation; Song texts with English translation (for sung ragas).
The Raga Guide includes four CDs with over five hours of music. It will be essential reading for listeners and conoisseurs, students and scholars.
JOEP BOR is a professor at Leiden University. He was the founder of the Rotterdam World Music Department, and the artistic advisor for the Amsterdam India Festival. He has written extensively on Indian music.

Genres: Music, India

191 pages, Paperback

Published August 17, 1992

Reviews

[Itai · Rating 5 out of 5]

This 196-page guide is an introduction to Hindustani ragas, the melodic basis for the classical music of northern India, Pakistan, nepal and Bangladesh. For each of the 74 ragas presented, there is an analytical and historical description, ascent-descent and melodic outline in both western and Indian notation, transcriptions of the alap (melodic introduction) for each raga and, for the vocal tracks, song texts in Devanagari script and English translations. One of the many delights of this volume are the four CDs (5 hours, 15 minutes) featuring:

Hariprasad Chaurasia (bansuri), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haripras...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5w7To...

Buddhadev DasGupta (sarod), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhade...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0Eo9V...

Shruti Sadolikar-Katkar (vocal), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shruti_S...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P42DJ_...

Vidyadhar Vyas (vocal). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidyadha...
http://cdbaby.com/cd/vidyadharvyas

Mysteriously, the tabla player is not named. Suvarnalata Rao, Wim van der Meer, and Jane Harvey are the co-authors and Joep Bor fom the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music is the editor. There are 40 color plates painted in the Provincial Mughal style, the bulk of which come from the ragamala album, dated 1610. This book is on my Amazon wish list!

[Devi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing reference for anyone learning Indian classical music. Wish they would make an extended version with more ragas.

[Gregory Klug · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to Hindustani music for musicians who want to learn the craft, and for listeners who want to understand what they are listening to. The tradition of Hindustani classical music is passed on directly from teacher to student. For this reason, there are few books on the subject. This one is written by a Dutch musicologist who commissioned recordings from Indian musicians for the accompanying CDs. It will be especially useful, perhaps critical, to students who do not have regular access (e.g. weekly access for many years) to a master of Indian Classical music. Unfortunately, however, my binding was not very good and several pages are loose after minimal use. This is the only reason for 4 stars.

[Ravi Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book with CDs explaining each of the 74 ragas, or musical basis of tunes, with the original Devanagri explanation and the English explanation, very poetic and masterful compendium. Highly recommended.

[Warren Senders · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote a lengthy review of this when it first came out, which can be read here: http://www.rootsworld.com/reviews/rag...

It's a useful resource, and highly recommended for lovers of Indian classical music.

[Bharat Bhushan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok

[Bhupinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

How to open a book

[Claire S]

Sounds fabulous!

[Zeeshan Tahir]

i love music