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About Circular Dance
Product Description Circular Dance, produced by New Zealander David Parsons, is the long awaited follow up to Krishna Chakravarty's debut Ananda. It is an exquisite sound document of traditional Indian classical music, and combined with the accompanied annotation, offers a layman's introduction to the Indian notation system. When speaking of Indian music, one automatically thinks of the raga and the most widely known sitar string instrument. But do we really, as a music loving listening audience, understand or even comprehend what a raga is, or how complex the seemingly simple Indian music system is? The raga, for instance, is essentially a scale with a fixed ascending and descending order of notes. Within this framework are contained specific approaches to certain notes and musical expressions or phrases that differentiate one raga from another. It may seem like free form music, but it is not. It is subject to very strict disciplines which should not be deviated from. And most impressive about this ancient music form is a raga is not something that is composed, but rather something that is discovered. Did you know that Indian classical music is never written down? It isn't, and therefore can never be played from a musical score. In fact, there has never been any notation system developed that could record all of the subtle nuances which characterize this system of music. Today, as in centuries long past, the music is taught orally, and preferably one-to-one. There is, however, the need to at least write something down in order to remember various musical exercises and for those interested in music theory. From this we learn the fundamental note is always called Sa. There is no standard pitch reference in the Indian system so Sa can be any note. In other words, it is simply the musician's individual fundamental pitch that he or she will always use. Dr. Chakravarty features three different raga covering a whole range of rhythms and tempos which correspond to the easily understood annotation, which, seems as if it was written to the inquisitive heart of all music lovers. About the Artist Dr. Krishna Chakravarty studied sitar from a very young age under Professor Ram Chakravarty and later under Pt. Ravi Shankar. Today she is considered to be one of the best sitarists in India. She has a BA and Doctor of Music from Banaras Hindu University, a Master of Music (gold medallist) from Prayag Sangit Samiti, Allahabad and an MA in World Music from the Wesleyan University, Connecticut, United States. She is currently an associate professor of sitar at the Faculty of Performing Arts, Banaras Hindu University. As a visiting artist she has taught North Indian classical music to graduate and undergraduate students at Wesleyan University, and also conducted seminars and practical classes at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. She has given numerous performances in India, Australia, Holland, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, United States, Canada, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Brazil and Argentina. She is now A-Top grade performer for All India Radio and Indian Television. Circular Dance is her second release in the United States, following her debut album Ananda on Fortuna Records. She is also one of the premiere artists on Dancing to the Flute featuring Indian music. That recording was commissioned by The Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, for a 1997 exhibition, Dancing to the Flute, on music and dance in Indian art commemorating the 50th anniversary of Indian independence. Many of the top tabla players have accompanied her including such masters as Pt. Shamta Prasad, Pt. Kishan Maharaj, Ustad Zakir Hussain, and Shankar Ghosh. She was the 1989 recipient of Honorary Fellowship of the Alexander Humboldt Foundation.
