In our continued efforts to showcase rare, unreleased recordings from the archive, we’ve created an audio presentation of a lecture given by Ravi Shankar in 1967 while a visiting professor at City College of New York. Learn how to answer the question, What is Raga? by listening to this 30 minute lecture. Learn about the origins of raga, Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande’s modernization of melas and thaats, the arohana (ascending) and the avarohana (descending) structures of ragi, terminology of notes like Vadi-Swar (the root, king, most important), Samavadi (fifths, consonants), Anuvadi (assonants), and Vivadi (dissonants, the who fights, or the note that is not there at all).
Digitized as part of Raga Dialogues, a collaborative project between East Meets West Music, The Ravi Shankar Foundation, The Grammy Foundation, City College of New York, and Shelter Island Sound.