Morning raga at night?

April 18, 2009 5:31 PM

I know that ragas are associated with certain times of the day. I also know that at least some classical Indian musicians—Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, e.g.—have no compunctions about playing a morning raga at night. Why is that? Or, can someone expand on what it means for a raga to be a "morning" raga?
posted by bricoleur to religion & philosophy (1 comment total)

Here's a radio broadcast that explains it. Kartik Sheshadri, a disciple of Ravi Shankar, plays a morning raga and explains that each kind of raga has different tonal intervals in its scale.

As for playing them at the 'wrong' time, my understanding is that a morning raga is simply evocative of the morning and most powerful when heard at that time. Playing a morning raga after lunch isn't the kind of grave sin one ought to have 'compunctions' about.
posted by embrangled at 9:41 PM on April 18 [1 favorite]