Finding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music

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'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.

Author Bio

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.