Azure Miles Records ~ The Music of Michael Robinson
Michael Robinson
Rusabhapriya
1. Rusabhapriya (2009) 38.15
Meruvina ~ piano, Indian bells, rotating drum, rainstick, synthesizer, tanpura
| Rusabhpriya |
Rusabhapriya
is the sixty-second mela of Karnatic music. I find it characerized by a wondrous
sense of discovery. The mela is beautiful enough to warrant a multitude of varying
compositions, but this is a small start.
Many times I contemplate the swaras of a raga I would like to work with, and
afterwards I research to see what mela matches my musical wish. I cannot recall
if this was the case here, but it most likely was. I seem to recall imagining
the melodic shape of Charukeshi, a 2002 composition of mine, with tivra madhyama
instead of madhyama, and that is what we have here.
Rusabhapriya (also called Risabhapriay) is the second of nine alap compositions
completed in 2009 and 2010 that share the same musical setting for the through-composed
melodic voice sounded by a piano timbre. The setting consists of a dramatic
composite drone first used on Gangadhara (Bhupali) from 2002, combined with
a single tanpura, Indian bells, rotating drum and rainstick.
The
process of selecting which precise tone to use for shadja (tonic) for each particular
raga is fascinating for me. Indian musicians use one tonal center for their
entire life, but given the nature of the meruvina, I have used all twelve possibilities
in my work. It is an intuitive process that filters the melodic personality
of the raga together with my individual temperament, and I frequently am surprised
where shadja turns up. Rusabhapriya is based on E flat.
- Michael Robinson, September 2010, Los Angeles
© 2010 Michael Robinson All rights reserved