Raag Sehera
KEDAR S NAPHADE
Kedar
Amit Kelkar
>Ragas employing the pentatonic scales, S R m d n or S G m d n, as
>far as I know, are as yet unnamed. But combining the two yields a pattern
>that you are looking for and there IS a known Raga that employs that set.
>It goes by the name 'lAchArI toDI`. The thing is, there are 3 varieties
>of lAchArI toDI (that I know of), all of them having very little to do
>with toDI proper, and, from what I recall, there is major divergence among
>the two varieties at least. The name 'lAchArI` seems fitting enough!
Yes, Rajan, it sure does seem very fitting! :-)
There is a queer sense of sorrow/fear/helplessness in these swars, and
I would be very interested in obtaining a recording of this Raag Lachari
Todi or Sehera.. Any recommendations?
>Perhaps Mehdi Hassan got the name from a Persian maqAm.
In his words, "In swaroN meiN ek ajeeb qisam ki judaai hai; isey koi
gataa nahin hai; filmoN meiN background music mein kaam aate hain ye swar,
jab koi haadsaa, ya judaai ka _scene_ ho!"
-amit
>Rajan Parrikar
>==============
>email: parr...@mimicad.colorado.edi
--
Kuup neer bin, dhenu cheer bin, dharti meha binaa,
Jaise taruvar phal binhina, taise praNi harinam bina, Sumiran Karle Mere Mana!
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Amit Kelkar
Has anybody out there heard of a Raag Sehera?
Mehdi Hassan, in his album "Classical Ghazals" sings the following
ghazal in this raag:
Jab tere nain muskuraate hain,
Zeest ke ranj bhool jaate hain..
The chalan is somewhat like this:
d. n. R S R n. S R G G m d S" d n d m G m G R S
(m = teevra madhyam)
I have never come across any Raag that has shuddha gandhaar,
teevra madhyam, komal dhaivat and a komal nishaad without the support
of either a shuddha madhyam or a pancham!
If anybody knows of any renderings in this particular Raag, please let
me know..
Thanx in advance,
-amit
PS: Mehdi Hassan describes it as "Bohot bhyangam qisam ka raag hai
yeh, kaanon ko bura lagega ... pesh hai" :-)
--
Kuup neer bin, dhenu cheer bin, dharti meha binaa,
Jaise taruvar phal vihina, taise praNi harinam bina, Sumiran Karle Mere Mana!
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Rajan P. Parrikar
>The chalan is somewhat like this:
>d. n. R S R n. S R G G m d S" d n d m G m G R S
>(m = teevra madhyam)
>I have never come across any Raag that has shuddha gandhaar,
>teevra madhyam, komal dhaivat and a komal nishaad without the support
>of either a shuddha madhyam or a pancham!
Aho Amitrao, that's because you didn't ask the right people:-)
Ragas employing the pentatonic scales, S R m d n or S G m d n, as
far as I know, are as yet unnamed. But combining the two yields a pattern
that you are looking for and there IS a known Raga that employs that set.
It goes by the name 'lAchArI toDI`. The thing is, there are 3 varieties
of lAchArI toDI (that I know of), all of them having very little to do
with toDI proper, and, from what I recall, there is major divergence among
the two varieties at least. The name 'lAchArI` seems fitting enough!
Perhaps Mehdi Hassan got the name from a Persian maqAm.
Guri
writes:
>
>I have heard Raag Sehra at the Aundh Sangeet Sammelan sometime in 1992
played by Sultan Khan on Saarangi.
>Kedar
Great...do you know if this concert is available on CD/Cassette...?
guri
Srikanth Gopalan
: I have heard Raag Sehra at the Aundh Sangeet Sammelan sometime in 1992 played by Sultan Khan on Saarangi. He played it after a rather exceptional hour - long rendition of Raag Jog, and perhaps because of that, this Raag Sehra failed to make much of an impression on me. It just seemed to contrived... It is my opinion that all these rare raags may be intellectually appealing, but they fail to create the same impressions/atmosphere/emotions as the more commonly heard ones.. also typically these raags are
played or sung for short durations : 15-20 minutes ... they may sound good for short ghazals, bhaavgeets etc. but they just cannot match the grandeur of an hour or so of jog or darbari or yaman or marwa or .... ^^^
: Kedar
Kedar Bhai,
Just a few decades back Raga Jog was considered to be rare and obscure (ref: An Anthology of North Indian
Ragas, Walter Kaufmann. In fact he relegates it to rare and obsucure Ragas). Of course you may well question
Kaufmann's opinion just as we may question yours. I have never heard Raga Sehra, but the point is that the appeal of
any Raga is very much dependent of the performer.
-Srikanth
Rajan P. Parrikar
kel...@benji.Colorado.EDU (Amit Kelkar) writes:
>Yes, Rajan, it sure does seem very fitting! :-)
>There is a queer sense of sorrow/fear/helplessness in these swars, and
>I would be very interested in obtaining a recording of this Raag Lachari
>Todi or Sehera.. Any recommendations?
I got to hear these varieties of L-Todi at the feet of the late Vasantbua
Amonkar (not related to Kishori), a vidwan who, I am quite sure, was unknown
outside the borders of Goa. This particular prakaar stuck in my mind
precisely because of its relatively rare occurence.
Vasantbua was an interesting man and belonged to a geography and generation
of people who seemed to do music not for fame or glory but because they
were born into it, enjoyed doing it and were bloody good at it. His skills
on the harmonium were astounding and his penchant for and knowledge of
arcane, hybrid Ragas unusual. If there was any micro-detail you wished
to know about the celebrated Marathi musicals, Vasantbua was your man.
Inspite of all that erudition he was so un-selfconscious. He would often
land up at our place in his worn-out, patched-up coat and a dhoti and ask
my mother for food. And then pull out the harmonium and begin his, in
SpicMacay parlance, lec-dem: "Oh this is Kesarbai's Kabiri Bhairav, here's
Mogubai's SarNaT. Here, lemme play Dinanath's 'Shuraami vandile` in Badhans
Sarang and on and on and on." God knows there are many more vidwans like
him in Bharat who live in relative obscurity and die unsung (pardon the
atrocious pun). And when they die, the metaphor that flashes by the mind's
of those who knew and learnt from them is that of a massive library burnt
down in one sweep.
Regards,
Rajan Parrikar
==============
email: parr...@mimicad.colorado.edu
Sanjeev Ramabhadran
This rage Sehera is indeed a very WEIRD raga I think. Perhaps it too, as
someone pointed out, will rise from obscurity just as ragas like JOG did
(though IMHO JOG is not NEARLY as WEIRD...)
Sehera corresponds exactly to the Western WHOLE-TONE scale. That is, if
you count, the notes are EQUALLY spaced according to semitones. There
are two semi-tones between each, making for a very interesting, and once
again I will say WEIRD (and yes I did actually HEAR Mehdi Hassan sing
it) structure.
Sanjeev Ramabhadran
