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Notes for The Listening Earth

The Listening Earth joins together seven of my shorter works from seven different CDs. My motivation in creating this compilation was to provide another option for those listeners who may be overwhelmed by a one hour piece, not to mention radio programmers! All of the included works are based on ragas.

Chinese Legend was developed from the opening melodic figure, which is repeated at various moments in the piece by contrasting instruments. Out of curiosity, I searched for a raga that contained the same swaras or tones of my melodic phrase, discovering Udaya Ravichandrika, a South Indian raga. There is some controversy over whether to use a natural or flat seventh. I decided to use both. The main melodic voice here is a sitar, the instrument of Ravi Shankar.

Rainbow Thunder slowly builds a deep and powerful percussion ostinato inspired by African rhythms. This prepares for a dramatic trumpet entrance based on Vasanta, a South Indian raga. The middle section switches the percussion voices to African harps, and the trumpet to a gender, as the melody becomes more active. The original voices reappear for the concluding music, with the trumpet articulating rapid, complex phrases.

October Sky is based upon Kedara, an evening raga which depicts a man who leaves his wife to follow a spiritual life alone in the forest. However, the pain of separation from his beloved becomes too great, and he decides to return home. The melody here is voiced by a kemanche, supported by a dancing bell-like ostinato, and male and female voices which gradually move upwards.

Scarlet Dawn (Simendra Madhyam) inhabits a ritualistic realm with ominous voices and animal cries. A sitar timbre weaves through the aural maze together with tabla and African udu. The opening melody is sounded by a wide variety of musical timbres from Korea, Syria, Punjab, Ecuador, Java and Gambia.

I later discovered that the swaras (tones) I used for Tibetan Tears are identical to an obscure South Indian raga, Nagamani, that translates to mean jeweled snake or cobra. My musical inspiration came from Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, the Hindustani bansri master, who has raised the art of flute playing to previously unimaginable levels. This excerpt is the opening six minutes of the one-hour composition.

Water Stones uses the swaras of the South Indian raga, Mayamalavagaula. It follows the North Indian raga form of alap (conversation), jor (momentum) and jhala (sparkling). The opening balafon melody is colored with shimmering Indian bells. Assisting the percussion entrance is an energetic berimbau ostinato, a Brazilian instrument introduced to me by Ray Manzarek. One listener compared the tabla rolls on this piece to the song of a hummingbird.

The Forest of Brinda (Durga) is the third and highest level of heaven where Krishna resides along with the Gopis. Shortly after the music begins, an electronic percussion ostinato enters, which was inspired by the electronic music of Joel Chadabe and David Behrman. This is followed by a melodic figure repeated throughout the piece by a wide range of instrumental colors, including finger cymbal and french horn. The swiftly moving tabla music was inspired by Alla Rakha's son, Zakir Hussain.
I hope you have an opportunity to hear the original CDs from which this compilation was drawn. The music is best heard in its original context.
Chinese Legend was composed in 1997, Rainbow Thunder and October Sky in 1996, Scarlet Dawn, Tibetan Tears and The Forest of Brinda in 1998, and Water Stones in 1995.

- Michael Robinson, December 1999, Lahaina