Finding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music

Description

'Supple, intricate and uncompromising, full of delicate observation andinsight, Amit Chaudhuri's Finding the Raga immerses us in the rigorousbeauty and cosmology of Indian classical music. It is also a loving memoirabout relationships and places, dedication and vocation.' - Geoff Dyer By turns essay, memoir and cultural study, Finding the Raga is AmitChaudhuri's singular account of his discovery of, and enduring passion for,North Indian music: an ancient, evolving tradition whose principles and practices will alter the reader's notion of what music might - and can - be. Tracing the music's development, Finding the Raga dwells on its most distinctive and mysterious characteristics: its extraordinary approach to time,language and silence; its embrace of confoundment, and its ethos of evocationover representation. The result is a strange gift of a book, for musicians andmusic lovers, and for any creative mind in search of diverse and transforminginspiration.

Amit Chaudhuri is the award-winning author of seven novels, including Friend of My Youth, as well as three books of essays, two of poems, and a collection of short stories. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is a recorded performer in the Indian classical vocal tradition, a composer of experimental works, and was once a guitarist and songwriter in the American folk music style. Chaudhuri has performed at the Vortex, the London Jazz Festival, and Queen Elizabeth Hall and has given lecture-performances on his music at Columbia and Duke University.