Finding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music

Description

'Chaudhuri's languorous, elliptical, beautiful prose is impressively impossible to put in any category at all.' - Salman Rushdie By turns essay, memoir and cultural study, Finding the Raga is Amit Chaudhuri'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 evocation over representation. The result is a strange gift of a book, for musicians and music lovers, and for any creative mind in search of diverse and transforming inspiration.

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. He is regularly featured on the radio and his version of 'Summertime' was featured on the BBC 4 documentary, Gershwin's Summertime: the Song that Conquered the World.