October 29, November 5 and 12, 2011 at 9 PM
MELA Foundation Dream House
275 Church Street, New York, NY
Three Evening Concerts of Raga Darbari in the contemporary Kirana gharana (style) of North Indian Classical Music will be performed by La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela with The Just Alap Raga Ensemble in a memorial tribute in honor of Pandit Pran Nath’s 93rd birthday, Saturday Evenings, October 29, November 5 and 12, 2011, at 9 pm in the MELA Foundation Dream House light environment, 275 Church Street, 3rd Floor.
La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela will be accompanied by Jung Hee Choi, voice; Naren Budhkar, tabla; and The Tamburas of Pandit Pran Nath from the Just Dreams CD. Young and Zazeela premiered The Just Alap Raga Ensemble on August 22, 2002 in a memorial tribute to Ustad Hafizullah Khan, the Khalifa of the Kirana Gharana and son of Pandit Pran Nath’s teacher, Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan Sahib. The Ensemble will perform Pandit Pran Nath’s special arrangement of a traditional composition, “Hazrat Turkaman” set in Raga Darbari.
Pandit Pran Nath has said, “Alap is the essence of Raga. When the drut [faster tempo] begins, the Raga is finished.” With The Just Alap Raga Ensemble, La Monte Young applies his own compositional approach to traditional raga performance, form and technique: a pranam (bow) of gratitude in reciprocation for the influence on his music, since the mid-fifties, of the unique, slow, unmetered timeless alap, and for one of the most ancient and evolved vocal traditions extant today. Similar to his previous concerts with The Just Alap Raga Ensemble that featured extended alap sections in just intonation over tamburas, La Monte introduces sustained drones in two- and three-part harmony, and even counterpoint in the pre-composition part of the alap.
With deep respect for Pandit Pran Nath’s arrangement of this great composition, “Hazrat Turkaman,” La Monte has composed two-part harmony for the ‘sthayi and for the antara. As in La Monte’s composition, “Raga Sundara,”a vilampit set in Raga Yaman Kalyan, this two-part harmony in Raga Darbari comprises the inception of a new element in Indian classical music. These harmony lines for the compositions are the introduction of two-part harmony into Indian classical khayal composition. The harmony for the ‘sthayi of “Hazrat Turkaman” was composed as a birthday present for Young and Zazeela’s disciple Jung Hee Choi on her birthday, November 1, 2009 and the harmony for the antara is dedicated to Pandit Pran Nath and was composed on his 91st Birthday, November 3, 2009.
The Just Alap Raga Ensemble
La Monte Young · voice
Marian Zazeela · voice
Jung Hee Choi · voice
Naren Budhkar · tabla
The Tamburas of Pandit Pran Nath from the Just Dreams CD