RAGA VARSA

March 31, 2024  by Stefano Palleni

CONTEMPORARY RAGA #8: VARSA

VARSA is the Sanskrit word for rain: this is the title I chose for this new composition which is divided into two parts.  Varsa is the result of a collaboration with another exquisite artist with a hermitic character, the roman guitarist Emanuele Cinelli Bhagadavaita, who's also incidentally a finest craftsman of handmade instruments of his own invention that he played on this occasion.  

After a longest three years gestation, what emerged is a mini-suite as an attempt of describing the sensations associated with the arrival of the monsoon, which repeats itself on the Asian continent since time immemorial, bringing along fertility and life.

This last raga presents in the first section a study around the Ionian mode, commonly known as the major scale, C D E F G A B, so to speak.  The approach to such obvious  material offered us the challenge of making our original statement. In fact, while other modes are characterized by unmistakable color, the major scale is connoted by an apparent simplicity which does not immediately stimulate creativity.

India comes to aid: with its windy melodies devoid of vertical harmony, typical of Western music and its obligatory paths. In such a context, similarly as for ancient European music, the Ionian mode has its own sentimental character.

I decided to start from a number of natural sounds, sampled and processed by me in order to emphasize the original flavor. At the opening, the sound of the monsoon, recorded from the home’s patio, immediately projects the listener into a spatial dimension that serves to introduce the tonal engram, a repeated sequence of tones that establish the harmonic context.  I use the concept of tonal engram to indicate a particularly pregnant melodic sequence that can be repeated indefinitely to create a clear and defined tonal environment and stimulate the listener's imagination.  

The use of environmental sounds, first the monsoon and then the gamelan frogs, are not intended just as an evoking effect to but rather complete the music itself, as they blend in a pictorial union of places and sounds, thus transmitting the sensations that the composer desires. These suggestions are partly present in the title, as was customary among the expressionists.

After the annunciation of the monsoon, its thunders and the pouring rain, the alapa (introduction) of the raga offers a broad inflected improvisation delivered by the soprano saxophone that leads to the main theme performed by alto sax.

The Indonesian frogs, metallic and percussive as the gamelan orchestra, announce the second part of the raga which sees a change in both harmony and atmosphere. The ostinato wisely weaved by Cinelli's guitar also bears the flavor of the Indonesian Gamelan genre, whose sound is characterized by a hypnotic and mysterious pace combined with harmonic ambiguity. The timbre of these traditional instruments at times recalls the rhythmic ticking of rain and the sounds of surrounding nature. It’s the suitable environment to prepare Emanuele's improvisation on the Vītār, the guitar-vīnā instrument of his own invention. His shadowy and reflective solo built around the Phrygian mode and the rhythmic croaking of the frogs tells us of the longing for the end of the rainy season which finally arrives announced by a mysterious Kentrung small orchestra. This is followed by a series of final showers represented by guitar strummed chords that overlap like waves, washing the memory before closing with the final theme.

During the realization of this music I became conscious that one of the aesthetic elements that spontaneously emerged in my music consists in a deliberate attempt to create a sense of amazement and disorientation by means of asymmetric repeated polyrhythmic figures. Just like in a dream, childhood wonder consists in suddenly becoming aware of the very same nature’s spectacle that was always there but that we have forgotten for some reason. The frogs and arpeggios in the finale of Nivata were a precursor in this sense.

This is certainly the raga that required the most work and dedication to keep the motivation alive and finally see it completed. My satisfaction is such that I can promise the listener expanses of peace and otherworldly beauty.