Playlist #6 - Rāgas 24/7
(Mostly) traditional Indian rāgas attuned to every part of your day
What are rāgas?
Rāgas are a classical Indian musical form that have no equivalent in the Euro-American musical traditions. A simple way of describing rāga might be as a set of specific notes plus micro-tonal musical themes and agile rules for combining them.
The musicians, being intimately familiar with the basic components and rules, are charged with improvising. Each traditional rāga can have infinite interpretations and permutations. Just like life.
Rāgas are meant to invoke moods and have nuanced effects on the mind. In the North Indian tradition, there are rāgas for every time of day and for the different seasons. The North Indian tradition is, in general, more instrumental and improvisational. The South Indian tradition produces more vocal music and requires stricter adherence to compositional rules.
Read more about rāgas here.
The playlists
The following are mostly North Indian rāga playlists from Spotify that have accompanied my days and nights. Enjoy!
Healing rāga playlist
Rāgas for the times of our days
These extensive playlists are a gift from Adriano Maluf Savelli, a lover of rāga who lives in Sao Paulo. We thank Adriano for permission to share these playlists!
Raag Megh
Our friends Deobrat and Prashant Mishra offer this unique version of the beloved Cloud Rāga from the Banaras tradition. It is often played during monsoon season. The guitarist and singer is Kumar Sambhav Thakur.