The Harmonic Sphere

Group Workshops based on intuitive group orchestration through the ancient Indian Classical Music System and the Raga Sphere.

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What is Raga?

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Generally speaking the definition of Raga is colour. So imagine a broad spectrum of colours; layered in shades and contrasts.
But they are more than just colours because they involve mood, character, emotion and atmosphere. My teacher Debashish Battacharia explained to me that Raga is like an ocean and the musician is simply riding the waves momentarily; but even after the musician stops the Raga elsewhere continues....

Hence in my understanding and now experience; a Raga is like a living entity that has evolved and existed through the ages which we invoke through our experience and understanding of them; rather than creating them we are channeling the Ragas.

Each Raga is particular and unique. A scale of notes that has a maximum of 12 and a minimum of 5; varying in there ascending order and descending. However they are much more than just scales of notes and have particular features, favourite time of day/ night and rules of passage in which we must familiarise ourselves to before we can venture out into the realm of improvisational play with their colours.

That said there is claimed to be 1000’s of Ragas; some are fading out and some are being born, but of the mainstream understanding there is about a 100 well recognised Ragas. Often when new students come into study the teacher will drill only one raga into us for anywhere up to years at a time. This is quite studious and seldom happens in this present age; however this is a great way in order for us to understand the depth of just one raga and the seemingly limitless possibilities of delving into its realm.