CANCELLED: Indrani Mukherjee »Morning Ragas«

The classical music of northern India offers an overwhelming variety of tone colour. An important role is played by the raga system – scales that are allocated to different times of day. As part of Anoushka Shankar’s »Reflektor« festival, the outstanding singer Indrani Mukherjee celebrates morning ragas.

Mukherjee specialises in the Khayal and Thumri, two styles full of melody and improvisation. The Khayal uses short song forms that are mostly sung in Urdu or Hindi. Its subjects are love – be it earthly or divine –, the praise of kings or gods, and the pictorial reflection of nature. The Thumri style is lighter and more romantic in vein: here, the emotions are expressed more directly, in glorious colours that are almost dance-like in places.

Indrani Mukherjee, who stems from a musical family and was taught by leading gurus, has made these two fairly young styles of Hindustani classical music known all over the world. In this recital she presents the different colours of the scales known as »morning ragas«, such as the raga Lalit, which is connected with dusk, or the the raga Todi that is played in the late morning.