The Vijaya Parrikar Library has been integrated into this Music Archive and is located here. Set your new bookmarks.
A migration such as this is usually accompanied by its share of miscues – if you come across any broken links or typos, please report.
The entire site has now gone mp3. The conversion of all the audio clips from RealAudio to mp3 is complete and the articles have been updated to point to the new sound files. I have done a random verification of the links. Please report back if you come across any broken links or if there are still holdouts that point to the earlier RealAudio files.
The task of porting the Vijaya Parrikar Library on SAWF to this site still remains to be done. Hopefully it’ll get done by the end of this year. We’ll see.
The process of transitioning all the audio clips on this site from the RealAudio format to mp3 has begun. I expect to complete the conversion and the uploads within the next few days. If you notice any dead links, please let me know.
Recently a friend of mine inquired if the ghazal Rang pairahan ka by Mehdi Hassan is based on any Hindustani raga.
The melodic contours here ally with Raga Dhanakoni Kalyan, a recent raga conceived by the late C.R. Vyas. The swaras are drawn from the melakarta Vachaspati. The raga is developed by eliminating the dhaivat entirely and deploying elements of the Kalyan raganga. The rishab is either omitted or rendered alpa in arohi movements.
Click here for an excerpt of a classical rendition of Dhanakoni Kalyan by Jitendra Abhisheki.
Noodling around on YouTube I found another ghazal Ek khalish ko by Mehdi Hassan that co-opts the same theme. I am curious to know if Mehdi–sahab hit upon the melodic idea independently or if he absorbed it from someone else.
Also – Raga Krishna Kalyan composed by Ramashreya Jha “Ramrang” treads along similar lines (see Volume 4 of his Abhinav Geetanjali series), except that the rishab is freely deployed there in both arohi and avarohi directions.