Raga Malika for Drums and Orchestra

Programme note

After discovering the Hindustani classical music of North India, my life changed completely. Attracted by the beauty of raga, I suddenly found myself listening and practicing for hours, traveling to India for lessons, and making friends for life. Now, four years later, I felt the urge to share some of this beauty in orchestral colors, which I’ve known and loved all my life. With the blessings of my gurus, I present a Raga Malika for Drums and Orchestra. 

Raga is something fascinating: a mixture of emotions, scales, melodies and it literally means color. Usually a piece of music would be based on one raga, but since I want to show multiple colors in my first raga-based piece, I made it a Raga Malika: a garland of ragas, presenting five evening moods. The piece starts with Raga Yaman Kalyan, a raga for the early evening with many possibilities: joy, melancholy, and peace. Often the moods depicts a woman waiting for the return of her lover. After, the early evening Raga Saraswati takes over, the raga of the Indian goddess of music, Saraswati. The third movement shows Raga Charuskeshi, one of the most melancholic ragas of Indian music. Late evening Raga Hemant brings a lightness, before the fifth movement brings Raga Darbari Kanada, the king of all ragas. Darbari Kanada is mostly sung after midnight, slowly painting a picture larger than life. 

The soloist on drum set guides us through the garland of evening ragas, bringing the joy of rhythm and groove to the extensive orchestral colors. Inspiration for the rhythm comes from both well-known drum sounds and Indian rhythm and time cycles. Starting in the slowest time cycle, which takes an entire minute to complete, the drum set takes us to a lightning fast Jhalla movement. Life-changing melody and rhythm for drums and orchestra!