Bor, Joep (editor)
The Raga Guide - A survey of 74 Hindustani Ragas - Book & 4 CDs
196 pages + 4 CDs with performances of Hariprasad Chaurasia - flute, Buddhadev Dasgupta - sarod, Shruti Sadolikar - female vocal, Vidyadhar Vyas - male vocal (total playing time: 5 hours 15 minutes). The Raga Guide is a great introduction to Hindustani ragas, the melodic basis classical North Indian music ? and also THE modern reference work for listeners and connoisseurs, students and scholars.
Each of the 74 chosen ragas is presented by a brief historical description and a notation of its ascending and descending movements and of its most important phrases in Western notation as well as in Indian sargam notation. Most importantly each raga is also performed for 3 - 5 minutes on the accompanying CDs. Each performance comprises a short melodic introduction (alap) and a medium fast composition (gat or cheez) with tabla accompaniment and with some variations (tanas). The alap section is also transcribed in the book. Beyond that the book gives a general introduction to raga performance, 40 coloured plates of painted ragas (ragamala), a glossary and a bibliography.